3 Reminders About Changing Your Body
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I talk a lot of about loving your body just how it is right now, no matter. But I also talk a lot about counting macros, moving your body, and building the body you want. And I know that may sound a little counter-intuitive, right? But the truth is, changing your body and loving your body go hand-in-hand. And in today’s episode, I’m going to explain why by sharing three important reminders about changing your body.
If you loved this episode, be sure to check out Episode 23: 5 Steps to Building Unshakeable Confidence.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get in. Let's get go.
Hello, and welcome back to another Embrace Your Real podcast. I'm so grateful that you are here spending some time with me today. As you saw the title of this episode, three reminders about changing your body. Now I know I talk a lot about loving your body, how it is right now, no matter what, but I also talk about counting macros and working out and building the body that you want. And I know that sometimes it may sound a little counter intuitive, but the truth is changing your body and loving your body I believe can go hand in hand. And so in today's episode, I'm going to dive deep into sharing three important reminders about changing your body.
But first I have to share the super sweet review comes from Chelsea 821. She says, "Julie has been a godsend for me. I found the Embrace Your Real podcast in March 2020. And I think it was like her fifth episode. I quickly went back and listened to her first four, and continued to look forward to every new episode as they came out. Julie's talks and knowledge have completely transformed my life. I've struggled with my weight and being healthy for the last nine years and joining her movement with Julie girls, listening to her podcast and following her on social has taught me so much and has changed me for the absolute better. I thank God every day for Julie's gift of teaching us how truly to embrace your real." Oh my gosh. Thank you so much, Chelsea, for this review. I love it. I love you. I'm so grateful for you, so grateful for all of our movement with Julie ladies. So grateful for this entire embrace your real community. If you haven't already rated, and reviewed the podcast, all you got to do is scooch over to Apple podcasts, click that rate and review.
It takes less than 30 seconds and it helps us out so incredibly much. Okay. Back to the episode. Reminder number one, you can love your body and change your body at the exact same time. I am a firm believer that you can both simultaneously love your body while striving to change it. And I don't believe that it needs to be one or the other. With the whole body positivity movement, it can oftentimes make you feel like you can't love your body and change your body at the same time. And it can often times make you feel like you're wrong with wanting to change your body. It almost can make you feel like you don't love your body if you want to change it. And I completely disagree with this narrative of body positivity. Now I'm not saying that you have to change your body, but if you have goals and you want to become stronger in those things, I don't think that, that's bad.
And I don't think that you should feel like you're not loving your body. I don't believe that there's anything inherently wrong with wanting to change your body, because ultimately changing your body could be the very result of loving your body. If you love your body, you will nourish it with what it needs. If you love your body will honor your body with movement. It just so happens that nourishing and moving your body are two key components in building the body that you want. Hence, why loving your body oftentimes lead to changing your body. Not always, but it sometimes will. And I think it aspect that is lost in the body positivity movement is that loving and respecting your body. Isn't just about loving and accepting it no matter what. It's about treating it the way that it needs to be treated, which includes healthy habits like nourishing it and moving it regularly.
But with that being said, your intentions for changing your body must come from a deep love and appreciation for your body. So a mindset shift that I found to be extremely helpful related to this is try switching your thoughts from I'm striving for X, Y, and Z, because I hate my body to, I'm choosing to love my body and because of that I want to achieve X, Y, and Z. When you are able to change your mindset like this, it can really change everything. And it allows you to truly appreciate each moment because you're doing it now out of celebration instead of obligation. And you'll see that the results will come because you're not so fixated on it. And I know that sounds like an oxymoron. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but the more that you stop actually focusing on the end result and just start focusing about what can you do right now and how are you feeling and how can you love the journey.
You'll be amazed looking back at what you can accomplish because you are not so fixated on it. And I also think because when we become so fixated on something, that's when we can oftentimes lead ourselves down this pit of feeling guilty or feeling like we're not doing enough, which can actually hold us back. So stop fixating so, so much on the end goal and really just learn to celebrate the moment, celebrate the journey and focus on your mindset shifts and your perspective as to why you want to do it in the first place. And remembering that day by day. Reminder number two, changing your body won't bring you more confidence. So, yes, I think it's more than okay, if you want to change your body. But one thing important to know about this is that changing your body in and of itself is not going to solve the low levels of self-confidence that you may be having. To be honest, there's no amount of weight that you can lose that will bring you the confidence that you're searching for. Speaking from experience, I used to be a girl that was 12% body fat.
The more weight or the leaner that you get does not mean that it will make you more confident. When I was at my lowest and leanest, I was also at my lowest point with my self-confidence. I felt like the leaner I got, and this was when I was prepping for shows. I felt like the leaner I got, the more critical I got of like, Oh my gosh, I see a six pack abs I can't see eight packs. Like you guys, it was so ridiculous. Then also on the flip side, I was so lean and so defined and I was getting so much praise for that. And yet my workouts were struggling so much because I didn't have strength. Like I was aesthetic to what someone may think is like, Oh, this is ideal to be your lean and fit and shredded. And yet my strength in the gym was horrible.
I was so fatigued and it was not a place that I wanted to live in. And so I was feeling so insecure. I was feeling insecure in the gym because I was only able to lift like three to five pounds on bicep curls without getting like super, super tired, very fast. And I was also very insecure of my body. I was nitpicking every little thing. Why is that? And it's oftentimes because, so why is it that the lower or the leaner that I got the lower self-confidence I had. I believe that it attributes to the fact that your weight and your confidence are not related. Your body and your confidence are two separate things. So if you want to lose weight or change your body, absolutely go for it. I will be the first to cheer you on, but just know that if you want to feel confident, you're going to have to work on that separately.
And you want those two things to be separate, because you don't want your confidence to be dependent on anything that fluctuates, because if your competence relies on your weight or your body, it will fluctuate when your weight and your body fluctuates. The goal for our confidence should be to be unshakeable. No matter the weight that we lose or the weight that we gain, or however, we change our body, the seasons that we go through, we want our confidence to be rooted in who we are as a person. And I love also to add whose we are, I believe in God. And I believe that we're directly came from God and God created us. And that's where my confidence is rooted. Not in how our body looks. If you're like Julie, I want more confidence talk. I want to learn to become more confident this year.
I have a simple five step process that I share in episode 23. I'll go ahead and link that in the show notes. So be sure to easily go listen to that next, after this podcast, I really think that, that's going to help you in your confidence journey. Reminder number three, change your body out of love for your body, not out of hatred. I want you to change your body because you love your body so much that you desire for it to be at its strongest. Mentally, physically, you want your body to be the strongest it can be because you love it. And you want it to be the healthiest because you love it. Honestly, there is no amount of hatred that will cause you to change your body. Hate does absolutely nothing. So why do we hate your body? There's really no point. We have to stop beating ourselves up for what we ate yesterday or did yesterday or last month or last year. Stop eating less during the week because of what you ate on the weekend.
Stop working out more because of what you ate today or what you're going to eat tonight. You have to stop punishing your body and you have to stop destroying your body. We don't need to punish ourselves. We don't need to overcompensate. We don't need to make up for the damage that we did. We simply need to love our body. And with that, we need to eat like we love our body. We need to move like we love our body. We need to speak like we love our body and we need to act like we love our body. There is no amount of hate that will bring us the relationship that we want with our body. But the more that you choose to love your body and love yourself and invest in confidence, the better and better your relationship with your body will become. So just remember, as you're working to change your body, the most important things are to nourish it with what it needs and honor your body with movement it deserves because you love it.
Let me recap those three reminders. Reminder number one, you can love your body and change your body at the same time. Reminder number two, changing your body won't bring you more confidence. And reminder number three, change your body out of love for your body, not hate. I know that this is my perspective. You may have a different perspective. I just truly believe that you can absolutely love yourself and strive to become a better and stronger version of yourself. Not saying that you're not strong right now. We always though have room to grow. We always have room to improve and make healthier choices in our life, not just with our food choices or our movement choices, but in the way that we speak in the way that we think and the way that we act. So remember that today.
I hope that this encourages you. If you have a girlfriend or a few girlfriends in your life that you feel like would really benefit from this episode, I just ask that you share it out with them. You can copy the link. You can send it to them in a text message, post it up on your story. Tag me, Julie Ledbetter and Embrace Your Real account. I love putting faces to names and I sincerely appreciate you spreading the message of embracing your real, because I believe that in this year in 2021, it is possible to love ourselves so much that it forces us to be on this journey of constantly becoming the best version of ourselves. And as a result, we inspire other women to do the same, not out of hatred, not out of obligation, but out of celebration for every single thing that our body is capable. Thank you so much for tuning in.
And I'll talk to you guys in the next episode. All right sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, JulieaLedbetter, yes it's with an a in the middle, for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.