Are your photos among the 72, 539 Instagram posts (at the time of writing) published using #ThisGirlCan? I know I have a few in the mix. And after attending a recent conference hosted by FCB Inferno – the creative agency behind the campaign – and the CEO of Sport England Jennie Price, I now have even deeper respect for the ubiquitous adverts.

You see, Sport England had a lot depending on this ad campaign – £10 million to be precise. And they were determined to see a significant improvement to the eye-opening 1.75 million wide gender gap that exists between the number of men and women who enjoy frequent sport or exercise.

As a regular at several of London’s newest and more established boutique fitness studios, and a sweat devotee at my local Virgin Active, at first I was shocked to hear that was the case. But then I remembered the hushed voices of many girlfriends who have asked, baffled, “how do you deal with all the guys in the weights room?”.

You may remember my Fit Friend Basma. She was weary of the weights room for this reason, too. The testosterone-filled space can feel a little intimidating to an outnumbered woman, but the balance will only shift when we fill that space with more capable and confident females. I knew Basma had made serious progress in both fitness and confidence when she told me she no longer thinks twice before going to the weights room and loading up a barbell. That mindset shift is exactly what This Girl Can has helped to achieve on a must greater scale.

So what one thing united girls from around the globe? 

When Sport England briefed FCB Inferno, they gave them over 600 pages of market research and surveys and instructed them to find the single most powerful explanation preventing women from taking up exercise. FCB Inferno’s answer is at the heart of the resulting This Girl Can campaign:

Fear of Judgement 

Fear of judgement is a universal barrier that takes the form of many different questions. How am I going to look? What if I can’t do it? Will people think I’m less dedicated to my career/family/friends if I spend more evenings doing exercise? All of those questions are extrinsic to the individual. So the challenge was set – Sport England had to find a way to internalise the dialogue about fitness. It had to be challenging. It had to be disruptive. It had to be empowering.

… And as the ad clocked up 3 million YouTube views, became the #2 trend on Twitter and secured 10 days of national media coverage, it was clear that This Girl Can was also extremely RELEVANT. People from all backgrounds and from all over the world were connecting in an unprecedented way with this campaign and its message. They understood it, and felt it understood them.

Although fitness for me is an area I do feel confident and empowered, I remember a time in school basketball try-outs when I shrivelled because a coach called me ‘shrimp’, thinking I was too short to get any kind of ball into any kind of net. Just last weekend I threw my husband into a fit of mild rage on the Brighton Pier as I smashed his score on the LA Lakers arcade game – apologies to the hubby for sharing ;-). I’m still not particularly tall, but I haven’t let that coach’s words convince me I can’t do something. Even if he did make me feel small (inside and out) at the time.

And now as I begin to enter another stage of my career (I sit my final Personal Training exams in just over a week, wish me luck!), I too face inklings of self-doubt every day. Am I too old to start out as a PT? Is my personality ‘big’ enough to join one of the amazing teams at London’s top fitness studios? Can I really set an example that others will aspire to?

And it’s OK to have similar self-doubts, whether it’s just before you enter the meeting room or the weights room. What matters is that you squash them well before they enter the sphere of self-judgement. Acknowledge them, then squash their very essence. Then hold onto that feeling when you come out the other side feeling braver and stronger. And remember – THIS GIRL CAN.

If you’ve traveled on the London Underground or picked up a UK paper in the last four weeks, you’ll surely recognise this advertisement. It is the controversial campaign by Protein World that has provoked not one but two armies clashing over contrasting values about feminism and female body image. Verbal spears fly from one side believing companies like Protein World are irresponsibly promoting unrealistic physical ideals and alienating the vast majority of ‘normal’ women in the process. Defending against their blows is another group that complains we’ve grown too sensitive and ought to do more to discourage obesity in Britain.

But throughout the whole debate, I believe both parties have missed the most important point: self-satisfaction.

To me, the biggest thing missing from this Protein World poster is a smiling face. Behind the scenes, the now infamous model-in-the-yellow-bikini Renee Somerfield has stepped up to say she trains hard and eats well (and amply) to achieve her impressive physique. Admittedly, I would question if she’s ever touched the supplements from Protein World. Powders and pills will never deliver the benefits that real food can, and Renee comes across as too smart to trade proper meals for liquid substitutes. Shortcuts don’t work, people! But the merits of the product and the definition of false advertising are a whole different debate. Still, I credit Protein World at least for sparking a much-needed debate about body image.

Let me be quick to say there are plenty of beautiful bodies out there, and not all of them look like Renee’s. Among my own body icons are Jessica Alba, Cameron Diaz, Jessica Ennis and Anya Lahiri (the face of Barry’s Bootcamp UK). Each of these inspiring women looks different from the next, but what unites them in my mind is their hard work and commitment to health. Jessica Alba’s Instagram feed is full of evidence of tough daily workouts. Jess Ennis’s achievements need no explanation. Cameron Diaz authored The Body Book because she believed in promoting the benefits of a healthier lifestyle. And Anya is the very motivational devil on my shoulder when it comes to squeezing out an extra few seconds on my treadmill sprints. It is that dedication I try to channel in my own training – and every time I think about reaching for a sugary biscuit over a nutrient-rich snack.

It’s less about emulating their appearances than their capabilities. I don’t want to look like anyone else, simply the healthiest and fittest version of myself. And that comes down to the same principles that any fitness icon has employed: discipline, maximum effort, a balanced diet and a positive attitude. And anyone worthy of the increasingly prevalent hashtag ‘fitspo’ should also be seen sporting a giant smile – because it is only when by knowing you’ve done your very best that you can reap the rewards of self-satisfaction.

So which team do I support in the Protein World debate? Honestly, I can empathise with both sides. With well over half the UK population weighing in as ‘obese’ (67% of men and 58% of women) and putting themselves at risk of diabetes, heart disease and other weight-related illnesses, I can’t just sit still and say everything is fine the way it is. Just as we criticise too-skinny role models, choosing overweight heroes is every bit as dangerous. We can’t do right by balancing the scales with the opposite extreme of unhealthy. Likewise, I believe that if we all looked the same we’d have a pretty robotic and uninspiring society, and there’s no ‘one size fits all’.

But I do believe we can do better. And I believe the best measure of success comes from deep down inside. Could you exercise more? Could you eat healthier? Could you treat your body with more respect? Let that be what determines your self-satisfaction. And by all means, be happy when you’ve achieved your best. Because that’s a success story worth smiling about.