Image: iStock.

You’re scrolling through Instagram, maybe mindlessly, maybe desperately trying to avoid awkward conversation with the strangers in the lift or next to you on the train.

Quickly you run your fingers past the #blessed couple selfie from your friend and her new boyfriend, your colleague’s smashed avocado brunch, a sunset holiday snap from someone you met just once (even so, you’ll give it a like) and then, you falter.

In your feed is a series of snaps from those #fitspo accounts you followed in preparation for your New Years resolution of getting fit/ back into that dress/gain that six pack that seems to have slightly, erm, fallen by the wayside.

You know the kind – an impossibly fit women in matching fluoro crop top and shorts fresh from working out, despite the absence of a single bead of sweat on her face. Or perhaps it’s another “candid” bikini snap from an account that boasts tens of thousands of followers.

Logically, you know these are carefully constructed posts (cheers, Essena O’Neill) or more likely that a lot of work, sweat and training goes on to get the poster to this point of athleticism, but still you begin to doubt yourself.

Watch: Christine Anu talks about the worries of body image. (Post continues after video.)

In less than a minute, your self-esteem has taken a small, but significant hit. “Maybe I shouldn’t have had that extra slice of cake at lunch,” you think. “Why don’t my legs/bum/stomach look like hers?” “Why am I not working out right now?”

It’s an internal battle that had become a daily ritual for me. Despite generally considering myself happy with my body, I was comparing myself to the endless #fitspo pictures and always coming up short.

I’d log in, scroll through a social media site that used to serve as inspirational and entertaining, and instead close the app feeling dejected and a little bit shit about myself. When it started happening multiple times a day, I knew I needed to do something about it. (Post continues after gallery.)

We love these celebrity body image quotes

Rebel Wilson

The actress said on Twitter; "I'm not trying to be hot. I'm just trying to be a good actress and entertain people." Image via @rebelwilson

Adele"The first thing to do is be happy with yourself and appreciate your body - only then should you try to change things about yourself." Image via Getty

Lady Gaga

After the media focused on her alleged weight gain in September 2012, Gaga hit back at critics by baring her body in photographs, sharing her struggles with an eating disorder, and inviting her fans to join her in a "body revolution"/ Image via @ladygaga

Ashley Judd

After the March 2012 frenzy around Judd's "puffy face" the actress fought back in 'The Daily Beast', calling the media out for making women's bodies "a source of speculation, ridicule, and invalidation, as if they belong to others". Image via @ashley_judd

Christina Aguilera

"I am always in support of someone who is willing and comfortable in their own skin enough to embrace it," the singer said in a recent interview. Image via @xtina

Lena Dunham

At the 2012 New Yorker Festival, the magazine's TV critic, Emily Nussbaum, asked Lena Dunham, producer, creator and star of the hit HBO show 'Girls' why Dunham is naked in so many scenes. Dunham responded; "I realised that what was missing in movies for me was the presence of bodies I understood." She said she plans to live until she is 105 and show her thighs every day. Image via @lenadunham

Alexa Chung

Chung responded to critics who suggested that her slight frame made her a bad role model for young women, saying: "Just because I exist in this shape doesn't mean that I'm, like, advocating it." Image via Twitter @alexa_chung

Stella BoonshoftThe NYU student started the amazing Body Love Blog, where she posted this picture of herself and wrote an open letter to those who feel entitled to shame others for the size or look of their bodies. Image via http://thebodyloveblog.tumblr.com"> Body Love Blog

Beth Ditto

This five-foot-tall, 200-pound singer spoke openly about her weight to 'The Advocate' saying, "I feel sorry ... for people who've had skinny privilege and then have it taken away from them. I have had a lifetime to adjust to seeing how people treat women who aren't their idea of beautiful and therefore aren't their idea of useful, and I had to find ways to become useful to myself." Image via @marybethditto

So I took back control. I simply unfollowed any account which shared a picture that made me feel that way. Before the doubt and comparisons could creep in, my finger was on that blue button and two seconds later, it was gone. A simple act that was unbelievably liberating.

It sounds like an obvious and trivial move (duh), but believe me, it’s made such a difference. My procrastinating scrolls through social media are a much more pleasant experience, filled with only accounts that make me laugh, inspire or salivate.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not about simply shutting out anything fitness or health related to live under a rock of Netflix and pizza (although that does sound excellent).

Bet you wouldn't see this kind of weird sweaty mess on a #Fitspo account. Image: Supplied.

Being healthy is important to me and like anyone else, I require a kick up the butt of motivation to drag myself out of bed to exercise or say no to that third slice of cake (that I probably don't really need).

But I want that fitspo on my own terms, with people, methods or quotes that are realistic and relatable to my lifestyle. I'm never going to be that person who spends every evening or the gym or cuts out delicious things like carbs and cake.

After all, why would you purposefully subject yourself to something that doesn't make you happy or feel good? So cut out the negativity with a simple touch of a button... and bring on the #foodporn and unnecessary selfies. I promise you won't regret it.

Have you ever felt this way about social media? What's your positive body image trick?