What happens when a body confidence coach admits to struggling with their own body image? In this heartfelt episode, I open up about my personal journey with body confidence, sharing the highs and lows that come with maintaining a positive self-image. We'll unpack why those nagging negative thoughts persist despite our best efforts and explore the vital role that honesty and vulnerability play in our collective path to self-love.
Feelings of discomfort in our bodies are all too familiar for many of us. I'll take you through an eye-opening moment I experienced in a fitness class that underscored the difference between how our bodies feel and how they look. By shifting our perspective from appearance to functionality and well-being, together we can adopt healthier, more sustainable approaches to our self-care routines. Let's talk about the proactive steps we can take to feel more comfortable in our skin, from adding weightlifting to our exercise regimen to simply drinking more water.
Creating safe spaces is crucial when it comes to sharing our vulnerabilities. This episode highlights the importance of being open and honest with those around us, whether it's friends, family, or support groups. I'll share the tools and daily choices I make to appreciate my body, encouraging you to do the same. Plus, stay tuned for an exciting announcement about the Pretty Powerful Podcast's upcoming rebrand, designed to inspire joy, freedom, and confidence in our bodies. Let's collectively reduce the time we spend worrying about our bodies and focus on living our lives to the fullest!
What happens when a body confidence coach admits to struggling with their own body image? In this heartfelt episode, I open up about my personal journey with body confidence, sharing the highs and lows that come with maintaining a positive self-image. We'll unpack why those nagging negative thoughts persist despite our best efforts and explore the vital role that honesty and vulnerability play in our collective path to self-love.
Feelings of discomfort in our bodies are all too familiar for many of us. I'll take you through an eye-opening moment I experienced in a fitness class that underscored the difference between how our bodies feel and how they look. By shifting our perspective from appearance to functionality and well-being, together we can adopt healthier, more sustainable approaches to our self-care routines. Let's talk about the proactive steps we can take to feel more comfortable in our skin, from adding weightlifting to our exercise regimen to simply drinking more water.
Creating safe spaces is crucial when it comes to sharing our vulnerabilities. This episode highlights the importance of being open and honest with those around us, whether it's friends, family, or support groups. I'll share the tools and daily choices I make to appreciate my body, encouraging you to do the same. Plus, stay tuned for an exciting announcement about the Pretty Powerful Podcast's upcoming rebrand, designed to inspire joy, freedom, and confidence in our bodies. Let's collectively reduce the time we spend worrying about our bodies and focus on living our lives to the fullest!
She said it's powerful to hear you speak your truth about how you have been feeling. So many times. I think, oh, everybody else is just so confident, so satisfied with their body or their health level. Thank you for keeping it real and that's a message that I received from one of my girls in my Powerhouse Collective program. You know who you are Shout out, who you are shout out. But that's a message that I received when I got really real, raw, vulnerable, about how I was feeling in my own body.
Danielle La Rose:
See, this is what they don't prepare you for when you decide to go on this journey of liking, loving your body, figuring out. Why are women and girls, why do we struggle so much with our body image? Why do we struggle so much with appreciating our bodies and not hating on it and not having these negative thoughts? And I've made it my mission the past 15, 20 years to really dig into this. I'm a nerd. I read, I read research in college textbooks for fun about body image in our society and how everything functions, and so for me, my whole, this is my life, this is what I'm obsessed with, and I have gone on my own journey where I once, you know, was spending tons of money to get rid of my cellulite and taking every diet pill I could think of and trying every diet under the moon to just do whatever I possibly could to lose weight, to feel better to quote unquote be healthy. And so, since this is like my big life mission and I spent so many years doing it and I do have tips and tricks and tools that work for me, every single day when I get into a zone where I start feeling uncomfortable in my body, a zone where I start feeling uncomfortable in my body, it's really uncomfortable to share that with other humans. Because, like so many of us, when we are viewed as a person who is an expert, who has it all together when it comes to this certain area, it's really hard to hard to just be honest and be real, that this is something that we all struggle with, because the reality is is that so many of us have spent most of our lives tearing our bodies apart, so to think that just after 15, 20 years, you're going to be able to be like I'm cured forever, I'm never going to have a negative thought about my body ever again, is so unrealistic and so crazy, and I tell my clients that all the time, but sometimes it's easier to give advice to other humans than it is to take advice of your own. Can I get an amen, okay?
Danielle La Rose:
So, with that being said, I found myself in this place and I shared my story with my girls in my Powerhouse Collective program, and when I received this message from her, I was like, oh my gosh, we have to start talking about this more. We have to start sharing this more, especially those of us that are in this field of trying to help people have freedom with food and how to make fitness fun and how to just simplify it and love and appreciate our bodies. We have to talk about the reality of our own thoughts, our own struggles when it comes to being in our bodies. So I want to share that with you my story of this aha moment, of when this happened to me, of really being uncomfortable in my body, and then four things that I did that you can do if you ever find yourself in a place where you feel uncomfortable. Now, when I say that, though, I started thinking about it.
Danielle La Rose:
I'm like what do most people do when they start feeling uncomfortable in their body, especially women? What do we do when we start feeling uncomfortable in our body, and I do that. I'm doing air quotes because most people would say, when they feel the way that I have felt, they would instantly jump to I need to lose weight, I need to change, I need to get smaller jeans, I need to. I need to do all these things. I need to go on a diet. I need to do this. I need to do that. I need to cut back. I need, like, all the things that the diet industry has sold us is what our first thing goes to Right, and so I started thinking about this.
Danielle La Rose:
So what do most women do when they and I'd love to hear from you what do you do when you start feeling uncomfortable in your body? Maybe things are rubbing the wrong way, or maybe your knees start hurting, or maybe your stomach you start you're like having stomach issues, or you start you realize that you're not as strong as you used to be. I don't know what it is for you, but when you start having these thoughts and feelings, I'd love to hear from you what those are. First of all, but second of all, I want you to really think about what do you do, like what are the steps If someone were to say what do I do when I start feeling uncomfortable in my body? What would you tell them that you do? And then we got to get real with ourselves. Is that a really great solution? Is that a good step plan to share with someone else? And so for me, after all these years of doing research and working with tons of women and going on my own journey and figuring this out for myself, I realized what I did.
Danielle La Rose:
That might be a little bit different from what most women would do in this situation when they feel uncomfortable in their body. And I really want to share this with you because I believe that these little things, when we make these simple little switches in our lives, when these things start coming up, when these feelings start coming up, when these thoughts start coming up, when we make these small changes and adjustments to how we approach our actions, when we approach food, when we approach change, when we do a little shift, in that it makes a big impact long-term. It makes a big impact on our mindset, it makes a big impact on how other people view us and how we make an impact on people in our lives. What do we do when we feel uncomfortable in our bodies? So first I want to share that. We have to recognize it. Here's what happened. Okay, what had happened was the night before I shared this message with my clients is I was in a fitness class Now I teach like group fitness classes, so I work out pretty consistently.
Danielle La Rose:
And so I was teaching a class and this had been building up for a long time. But in that class we were doing lots of down dogs and I wanted to keep going. But and if you're listening to this and you're in my class now, you understand why I stopped. I wanted to keep going, but, but I had to stop because I was in my down dog position and I realized that I was shaking so much and I had lost so much strength, because it was just not long ago when I could hold my down dog for a very long time and I could do all the things. But I was in that position and it instantly hit me that I have lost so much strength in my body, in my arms, in my core, in my legs, and so I was like, oh my gosh, like this is that moment. But if I really think about it, it had been a long time before that of things happening. Right, I hadn't been lifting as heavy as weights in certain classes I stopped doing as many down dogs things happening right. I hadn't been lifting as heavy as weights. In certain classes I stopped doing as many down dogs.
Danielle La Rose:
I remember and I feel these things that had been building up and happening for several weeks, but I didn't want to admit it. I didn't want to admit it to myself that I'm not as strong as I used to be. I didn't want to admit it to myself that my knees have been hurting very, very badly. Again, I didn't want to admit that. I didn't want to admit and pay attention to, like my arms, like rubbing ways that they've never rubbed before Right, because they're a little bit larger, and that there's nothing wrong with that.
Danielle La Rose:
But I have felt uncomfortable. It just doesn't feel like me, like I haven't been able to move my body the way that I typically, the way that I used to, and I was ignoring all of it because I didn't want to admit that my body had been changing. I didn't want to, you know, recognize that. I just wanted to ignore it, because isn't that easier to just ignore our problems and just like run away from them? That sounds so much easier. But again. It was in that moment during that class where I was like no, this is a problem. I am not as strong as I used to be, and if I want to live a long, healthy life, I need to make sure that I am getting stronger, not weaker. And so in that moment, I made that decision that I wasn't. I am uncomfortable in my body and how my body is functioning, and I get to make a change. And so the first step to all of this is just recognizing what is actually happening and not running away from the problem, but instead admitting to ourselves yes, I'm uncomfortable, yes, I'm uncomfortable in my body. But then the next step is the most important step, and that is to separate how your body feels from how it looks.
Danielle La Rose:
And see what most of us do in this situation. When we start realizing that different parts of our body are moving like they're rubbing wrong, our genes don't fit anymore, yadda, yadda, yadda. When we start realizing these things are happening and our bodies are growing and the culture that we've grown up in of just thinking that larger is bad, we instantly go to the mindset of my body is wrong. We instantly go to I don't look good, I don't fit into this anymore. My body is too large, my body is wrong, my body is bad. What I'm bad? I've made bad choices that have gotten me here, and we go down this rabbit hole of, instead of like separating them, which is what we need to do we put them together of how my body feels and how my body looks, and they are two different things. How our body feels and how our body looks does not need to go into the same situation. So I think it's really interesting, as you'll notice here. So I want to just like call this out.
Danielle La Rose:
When I am talking about being uncomfortable in my body, what I didn't say was that I've gained weight, which might be factual. I haven't stepped on a scale in a very long time because that doesn't determine my health, but there's a very good chance that that number could be higher than the last time I saw it. But I didn't say that I need to lose weight. What I said was that I'm uncomfortable in my body because there's a difference. There's a difference between how I feel and how I look, and if we want to create real body confidence, we want to create real confidence in our bodies. We want to feel safe, we want to feel peaceful. We want to feel joy in our bodies. We want to feel safe. We want to feel peaceful. We want to feel joy in our bodies. We get to separate the two of how I feel and how I look.
Danielle La Rose:
So I didn't say that I need to lose weight. I didn't say I need to go get on the scale. I didn't say that I need to go on a diet, right. I didn't say any of that. I didn't talk about losing weight. I also didn't go weigh myself. I didn't go buy a new meal plan. I didn't go buy a new workout program. I didn't go do any. I did nothing. Well, I did something. I'm going to share that here in a second. But I didn't do any of that because what I used to do was I used to go into. That mindset of my body is wrong. My body is bad. I got to change my body.
Danielle La Rose:
What I'm now saying because of all the years of focusing on my body image, which is separate from my health, separate from my body, when I've focused on all the body image for all the years, I have shifted away from how do I change my body to how do I make my body feel more comfortable? How do. I make my body feel like a happy, safe place to be, and so I want to encourage you if you find yourself in a spot where you feel uncomfortable in your body, where maybe it's okay listen, it's okay if you are currently saying I want to lose weight, I want to lose weight, I need to lose weight, I need to change my body, I need to get small, like. If you have those thoughts, there's no judgment here. Okay, absolutely no judgment.
Danielle La Rose:
So if that's you and that's where you're at, I want to encourage you to first, you're recognizing that you don't feel comfortable in your body and, secondly, we're going to say, okay, I'm not going to make this mean anything about the way that I look, but I'm going to make it mean something about how my body feels. So do me a favor when you feel uncomfortable in your body, let's separate the two. We're not going to go to the mirror and say, oh my gosh, I need to change this. We're not going to pick up, we're not going to pick our bodies apart, we're not going to squeeze things. We're not going to complain about things. We're literally just going to say I feel uncomfortable in my body, that's it. I feel uncomfortable and it's okay. It's okay if you feel uncomfortable in your body, just like the message I got from my client who said thank you for sharing this.
Danielle La Rose:
I thought everyone just felt healthy and good, right, and I realized that the reason why she might have taken that from me is because I do my best to not talk negatively about my body. I do my best to not talk about how my body looks, because that is the least interesting thing about me and it's the least interesting thing about you. So I want again I hope I've driven this home the next step, the most important thing you can do, is separate how you feel about your body from how your body actually looks. So, instead of saying that we need to change our body when we feel uncomfortable, what we need to do is we need to say how can I be more comfortable in my body? What is going to make me feel more comfortable? What's going to make me feel more confident? What's going to make my body feel like it's functioning and moving the way that feels good to me?
Danielle La Rose:
And so the number three is we ask ourselves the question what can I do about it? This is the most important question I think anyone can ask when it comes to absolutely anything, whether it's your finances, it's your relationships, it's your health, it doesn't matter. The most important thing that we can ask ourselves is what are you going to do about it? Because we can sit and complain about not being comfortable in our bodies which for several weeks I just sat in that so we can sit and complain and think and stress and overwhelm about how our body feels. Or we can say what am I going to do about it? Because the past is the past. I can't change what I did yesterday. I can't change what I did last week. I can't change any of that and that's irrelevant. What I can do is today I can say what am I going to do about it? And then, what am I going to do about it tomorrow? And what am I going to do about it the next day and the next day and the next day? I can control the controllable.
Danielle La Rose:
And so what I shared in this message with my clients was I said you know, here's the reality. The reality is, as I was in class, I felt I've lost my strength, my knees are hurting, my body is moving funny, that doesn't feel right to me. I feel uncomfortable. Here's what I'm going to do. I told him. I said you know what this morning? What I did, because what am I going to do about it? I control the control. I said if I've lost strength and I'm getting frustrated at my body because I don't feel as strong, what should I do? Rocket science, I should lift some weights. Right, if I want to get stronger, I have to take action to get stronger. So instead of stressing about yesterday that I wasn't strong and that my body hurts and my body's weak, instead I said today, what I can do is I can take the action to get stronger.
Danielle La Rose:
So that morning I went and I lifted weights. I did a. Was it 25 minutes? Yes, I did a 25 minute workout where I was literally just lifting weights and it felt so good. Was it hard? Yes, and I couldn't walk for two days. But that's irrelevant. What mattered was that I made myself proud and I became more confident in my body because of the fact that I decided that I was going to take action to be more comfortable in my body. So, regardless of how my body looked, my body is going to look the same for the next several weeks, even if it decides to change. It's going to look the same for a long time. So it's not about how my body looks, but it's about the strength that I'm gaining right. It's about the confidence that I'm building. It's about being more comfortable in my body and being proud of myself for making the choices to change my body and being proud of myself for making the choices to change, to change habits that I haven't been having, which is why I lost my strength. So I did that and so I share with them.
Danielle La Rose:
So the next important thing that you can do is say what am I going to do about it? What am I going to do about it? How can we become more comfortable in our body today, right now? Is it drinking more water? Is it doing a strength workout? Is it? What is it? We get to take action and say what am I going to do about it? And forget, be like Elsa, let it go. You know, you know the song. I don't sing, but you know the song. Let it go. It's the past and we move on. And then finally, number four just like I did, I would encourage you if you're in this position where you're like I am uncomfortable in my body or anything in life, let's be honest. This applies to anything. But if you're uncomfortable in your body and we're making these changes, we're recognizing, we're becoming aware of it, we're separating how our body looks from how our body feels. We're saying what am I going to do about it? And the last thing is saying let's share it, let's be vulnerable when we get to a place that we feel comfortable doing that. Now, like I said, I spent several weeks not even wanting to admit it to myself.
Danielle La Rose:
So the first step might be going to the mirror, looking at yourself in the mirror and just being like do I feel good in my body? Am I confident in my body? Am I comfortable in my body? Do I feel peace around food and fitness? Is that like my reality? Or am I a little uncomfy? And it's okay if you're a little uncomfy. So the first place to get vulnerable is with yourself, because you might want to run and hide, like I did for a couple weeks, and that's okay too. There's no right or wrong here. Okay, my friend, for a couple weeks, and that's okay too. There's no right or wrong here. Okay, my friend. But at some point, if you're feeling like you're starting to get frustrated with your body, you start having those negative thoughts about your body. You start going down that rabbit hole of finding diets and trying to be perfect and doing all the things to try to change your body. Then it's a good time to go take a look in the mirror and ask yourself am I comfortable in my body or am I not comfortable in my body? And if I'm not comfortable again, what am I going to do about it? So number four is sharing and being vulnerable. But the first person that you need to share with and be vulnerable with is yourself. Okay.
Danielle La Rose:
After that, then, when you are in a space to where you have people that feel safe and comfortable to share with maybe it's a friend, family, it's a group, whatever. I feel safe in my, in my programs, with my clients, because we're all on the same journey of learning to make healthy habits. At the same time, we're learning to love and appreciate our bodies. So that's my safe space. Those are my people who are on the same journey. We're all in it together. So that's my space where I can go and share this vulnerable truth with them of here's how I've been feeling and here's what I'm going to do about it Even me as the coach, as the mentor, and so they hopefully know and feel that that's their safe space as well, to share and to open up.
Danielle La Rose:
So find that space for you, whether it's a group, it's friends, it's family but get vulnerable with people, other humans when the time is right for you, because when you're vulnerable just like I found when my client responded to me and said thank you so much I thought everyone else always felt healthy and felt confident in their bodies. Thank you for being real, because now it gives her the opportunity to be more vulnerable and also the opportunity to know that she's not alone, especially with someone like me, right, who people see as like the self-love guru love your body all the time, kind of thing Like that's not the reality. Reality is that I work on this and I make choices every single day to love and appreciate my body, just like everyone else Do. I have the tools and the systems and the framework to do that, that. I'm confident every single day, even when I wake up and I'm like I'm struggling with being comfortable. Yes, I have those and that's what I work with my clients on.
Danielle La Rose:
So those are the four things that I would encourage you to do if you start feeling uncomfy in your body, because it's normal. Our bodies are going to change. We're going every day we get a little bit older which is awesome, and I'm never going to blame anything on me getting older and so I'm going to say what can I do about it? So, again, we're going to recognize it, we're going to admit it to ourselves, we're going to separate how our body looks from how it feels. We're going to ask what can I do about it? And then we're going to be vulnerable and share with ourselves or with other humans. So that is my message for the day.
Danielle La Rose:
I hope that this serves you. If nothing else, I hope that if you start hearing another woman go down this rabbit hole of not where she's saying things and you're like she just doesn't feel comfortable in her body, then share this with them. Tell them what you would do, or share these things that you've heard from this crazy woman on the internet who talks all about how to love and appreciate your body and be confident in your body. Right, like that's the goal. That's why I say that I'm a body confidence coach, because I want you to be confident in your body and confident in the choices that you choose to make along your journey of making fitness, fun, simplifying food and all of the things. So, with that being said, I hope that today and every day, you will find freedom in the food that you're eating, you'll find peace in your body and you will find the confidence to be your authentic self and think about your body less so you can live more. That's the goal, my friend.
Danielle La Rose:
So if this supports you, or if you're like homegirl, I have more questions. I need more help. I don't have this safe space community. I need someone to talk to because't have this safe space community. I need someone to talk to because I'm feeling all these feelings. Hello, my name is Danielle and I'm obsessed with this, and I'm here to support you and give you all the things that I possibly can to support you on your journey.
Danielle La Rose:
So reach out, let's chat, and with that, I also want to share here, exclusively to my podcast listeners, that we are going to take a short break of the Pretty Powerful Podcast to regroup because, as you heard in this episode, I too have been thinking more about bodies, about being comfortable or uncomfortable in our bodies and some of the experiences that I've had as an adult of learning how my body actually works and functions, whether it's with food, or my menstrual cycle or my brain or all of the things that just make up our bodies that we don't learn in an education system. We just don't. And it's really important if we're going to actually be confident in our bodies, we need to know more about how they operate, how they function, how they work and learning how to use them in the right way to create more joy, to create more freedom, to create more peace and to just be confident in who we are. And so, with that being said, I am so excited to share that the podcast is getting a rebrand and we are really going to zone in on that whole idea of understanding our bodies. So I am lining up some exciting guests to talk about all the things, and some really exciting episodes are coming your way to help you and the people and the humans around you get real confident in their bodies. Because if we know anything from this podcast, my friend, I hope that you know that the average woman spends about 12 hours a week thinking about her body and I am sick and tired of that being a reality and also that 70 to 85% of women choose to not do life activities because they are so self-conscious of their bodies. We are going to freaking change that. Can I get an amen? Can we get a high five, like we are coming together to change that please? So that's what this podcast this podcast has mainly been about that, anyways.
Danielle La Rose:
But just now, moving forward, I'm really excited for the little rebrand that you will see. You'll get a little name change, some exciting, fun guests, and so I hope that you'll stick around and it will just take a quick break for a few weeks and be right back with all of the fun, exciting, good stuff. It's going to be freaking incredible. So, dear everybody, please stick around. I will see you in the future. Remember that you are pretty powerful. I am still here cheering you on. You just won't see a podcast, but I'm still all over the social medias. Come hang out with me on TikTok and Facebook and wherever you want to find me. I will be there doing some fun dances with my motivational messages. Medias come hang out with me on TikTok and Facebook and wherever you want to find me. I will be there doing some fun dances with my motivational messages, talking, doing the things like let's freaking go. I'm so excited for what's to come in the future. All right, sister, until next time. Goodbye, my friend.
