The before-and-after photo is two seconds long. The two years between them are the actual story.

Two pictures side by side remove everything that made the change possible: the ordinary days, the weeks of no visible difference, the times it got abandoned and restarted. What is left is a jump cut, which is why it makes your own progress look like failure by comparison. The two seconds summarise something that was mostly boring to live through.

Keep your own middle instead of only the endpoints. A note each week, a quick photo, a number in a list. When you feel like nothing is happening, read backwards through it. You will be looking at the part that other people’s transformations never show you.