Mom’s parody of wellness advice on social media is a must-watch
A hilarious take on the conflicting wellness advice women receive has gone viral, drawing attention from stars including Pink, Debra Messing and Molly Sims.
Caitlin Murray, the mom-of-three behind the Instagram account @BigTimeAdulting, shared a video last month of herself doling out just a sampling of the health advice women are bombarded with, mainly on social media.
"Hey ladies. Have you been struggling to lose belly fat?" Murray starts the video. "Guess what? You've ruined your metabolism by not eating enough. You're not getting enough protein. Okay, you're going to need to take grams of protein and multiply it by the number of stars in the sky, and that's how much protein you're going to need in a day in order to lose weight, but you're also going to need to stay in a caloric deficit in order to lose weight. Idiot."
She continues, "But you also have to live your life, okay. Memories not macros."
Murray goes on to offer more "advice," reminding women they need to start lifting heavy weights and stop doing cardio, while also still getting in 10,000 steps per day, which she says, "Sounds like cardio but we don't call it that anymore."
"Get with the times," Murray says. "So get your 10,000 steps every day, but don't exercise every day. You need to rest, otherwise your cortisol levels are going to be through the roof."
After also diving into conflicting advice on perimenopause, sleep and more, Murray ends the video by saying, "Comment 'science' for my six-week plan to get totally snatched. Follow for more tips."
Murray's video has received more than 600,000 likes and thousands of comments.
"Omg this is the funniest thing ever," the singer Pink commented on the video.
"You're PHENOMENAL," wrote model and entrepreneur Molly Sims.
"You are ... hilarious! And yes, it does feel EXaCTLY like that! Thanks for reminding me that I’m not alone," wrote another commenter.
Murray, 42, said she was inspired to create the video after she found herself "falling victim" to the wellness content she saw on her own social media feed.
"I've been consuming this content like it's my other job. Like, 'Oh my God. What do I? What do I need to be doing? I need to be healthy. I need to be strong and maintain my muscle mass," Murray told "Good Morning America." "I tend to make fun of myself on the regular, so usually the things that come out in my content are things that I'm personally going through that I finally hit a moment where I'm like, why am I taking this so seriously?"
Murray said she made sure to highlight in her video some of the catchphrases she sees frequently targeted to women, phrases like "snatched" and "belly fat," and, more recently, the focus on eating protein.
She noted that while she figured what she was seeing was in other women's social media feeds too, she was surprised by how quickly the video took off and how relatable it was for so many women.
Mostly, Murray said she hopes that along with a good laugh, women learn from the video to take all the incoming advice they receive, especially on social media, with a "grain of salt."
"The algorithm knows. It's very smart. It's going to target you and figure out what you're kind of getting hooked on, and it will keep feeding you that," Murray said. "So I think in a lot of ways it's a reminder to take everything with a bit of a grain of salt, because there is no six-week plan to change anything in your life. Really, it's consistency over time and long-term good habits that create healthy living."
