Welcome to the Peaceful Power Podcast today I’m chatting all about why it’s okay to love yourself but still want to make a change.
If you want to change yourself like lose 20 pounds it is totally acceptable to do. We have a huge body positivity movement going on which I love. But that doesn’t mean everyone has to love their bodies at all times. After I had my son I still had 40 pounds I wanted to lose. I didn’t like the way I looked or felt. I was a shell of my former self. I still loved myself but wanted to make a few changes. I believe this is a perfectly acceptable expectation. We get into trouble when we assume because we want to make a change that we don’t gasp love ourselves. But really we just want to feel better.
I want to share a few stories about how our bodies play various roles in our lives and ways we can work around judging not only our bodies but what everyone else’s body looks like along our journey as well.
Story 1
Don’t let somebody else’s body define your own. During my workout a gal at our small gym “gasp” took her shirt off and worked out in her sports bra. At first to be honest I noticed I wanted to judge her myself then questioned why? My conclusion I truly didn’t care, she was in great shape had a long sleeve shirt on go hot, and took it off, no biggie I wish I had the confidence to do that (working on that).
Now I was not the only female working out near her and could feel the judgement and whispers directed towards her. Again my question is why? Where does this stem from? Her body has nothing to do with your own. Ultimately it’s our own insecurities that are coming up, so we gossip and talk poorly about someone you don’t even know??♀️
Let’s stop the whispering and judging of others peoples bodies. Their body has nothing to do with yours, don’t let it define you and how you feel about yourself. Instead take this as a time to do some internal work if you notice those feelings coming up. Journal, meditate, talk with a friend or your mom to see where these feelings first came from and start to work on reprogramming your thoughts when you notice yourself feeling triggered. Don’t let judgement be your default instead choose compassion for others and yourself.
Story 2
Body image and our relationship with ourselves can be such a tricky roller coaster ride. I challenged my Hustle, Muscle & Flow gals to share their relationship with their abs aka the core or mid-section. Our theme this March is core-dio. I can’t ask them to do that unless I go first. Let me tell you it’s a loaded topic for myself as well as many of the woman I work with.
It started when I was 16 I used to do around 1000 crunches of some sort every evening. ??♀️??♀️I remember when an article came out saying Brittany Spears does 1000 a day and my friends commented wow that’s a ton! Meanwhile I was thinking that’s what you have to do to get the 6 pack, again ??♀️. I did that for years and yes, had a killer 6 pack. Than college came I indulged in the typical college night outs. But for the most part have had a flatter stomach even through the late nights of beer and pizza.
Than I became a mom. Not saying that I don’t have a great stomach as I don’t hate it but it’s just different. I also don’t care about having a 6 pack anymore just different priorities in my life at this time. But one area I do want to work on is accepting a softer mid-section.
One thing I realized at the Bliss Project was that I hated putting my hand on my stomach. We were asked to do that at the retreat and a yoga class I attended last week. That to me is hard. In the past I enjoyed the feeling of a hard as rock stomach with no fluffy feeling. Now I can feel a slight roll, I can feel insecurity and feelings of I’m not good enough bubbling up. All of that stems from what I think I “should” look like or I should still have that 16 year old body ??♀️ I think so many of us do this to ourselves. I don’t know why possibly lots of past programming thinking this is how it “should” be. I think we can accept and still work on ourselves, I think we can love and still want to change. The change might be physical or the change might be mental but learning to embrace yourself where your at is a great starting point no matter what work you want to do on yourself.
Story 3
I stepped on the scale for the first time since November last week and I had gained 6 pounds. My initial reaction wasn’t shock as I knew my habits were not solid the past few months. I stayed up too late a few nights and had a glass of wine most of those nights which also means a late night snack. My workouts were a solid one lifting workout a week and 2 yoga classes a week and maybe a walk. I also had 2 bags of Cadbury mini eggs in 2 days??♀️so again wasn’t shocked about the weight gain.
I share this to show you trainers and wellness coaches are real people who also fall out of habit. How do I turn it around? I eat foods that fuel me, more veggies, less snacking, sticking to an early lighter dinner, prioritize my workouts again, and watch my wine intake. It’s those basic steps that turn the ship around. It’s not a crash diet, cutting out anything, spending hours at the gym. I’m actually going back to my 30 minute Hustle, Muscle & Flow workouts as HIIT training works for me at this stage in my life. I will continue to go to yoga and work on the mental side of things, and my headstands?
Now I’m also not a fan of losing weight for the sake of weight loss but I’ve also gained 40 pounds a few years ago by not paying attention to my habits. We all have our happy weight range and I’m near the top of mine. Where I know my lack of energy, no motivation, unhappy thoughts, are just on the other side of that which motivates me to turn around my habits. Go back to your why and that will be your guiding factor when trying to get motivated to make changes happen again with your body.
Weekly Challenge:
Write down 1 thing you love about your body and share with us on Instagram either in a story or on your feed what 1 thing you do love.
Where to connect with Andrea
- Instagram- instagram.com/andreaclaassen21
- Facebook- facebook.com/andreaclaassen21
- Website- andreaclaassen.com
- Facebook Group- facebook.com/groups/peacefulpower
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