5 Unexpected Things Body Confident Women Do
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When was the last time you put on an outfit you loved without second-guessing how your body looked in it? What would your life be like if you stopped letting your body image dominate your thoughts?
In today’s episode of Embrace Your Real, I’m peeling back the layers of what real body confidence looks like. It’s not about having a “perfect” body or always loving what you see in the mirror. It’s about how you carry yourself, the choices you make daily, and how you think about your body beyond its appearance. I’m sharing five unexpected habits of body-confident women that might surprise you and challenge your current mindset. From confidently wearing what they love without hesitation to prioritizing their own opinions over others’, these women embody true confidence. Join me as we explore how you can adopt these empowering habits and embrace your real self with genuine acceptance and confidence.
What I discuss:
They wear their clothes without hesitation.
They don’t let their body take up space in their mind.
They care more about what they think of their body rather than what others think.
They realize body confidence isn’t hitting a certain weight or pant size.
They realize they don’t always have to love their body in order to feel confident.
If you loved this episode, be sure to tune in to…
Episode 212: My Thoughts on Body Acceptance
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey, hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip 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 it. Let's go. [00:00:32]
[00:00:32] Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embrace Your Real podcast. When you think of body confidence, you might imagine someone who is like, constantly flaunting their hot bod. But in my opinion, real body confidence goes way, way deeper than that. It's not always about, you know, loving what you see in the mirror, but how you carry yourself, how you think, the choices that you make every single day. Because I feel like there is a big misconception around what body confidence actually looks like in your day to day life. And so I kind of want to break down five unexpected things body confident women do that might surprise you. Before we do, I want to share this review. It comes from ex and I land. She gave a five star review and said, my favorite part of the embrace a podcast is the variety and consistency of every episode. There's a great variety of very practical tips and information that can be used to grow in physical and mental health, but also many episodes focus on mindset and inspiration. This podcast is a great place to come for both physical and mental tips and easily implemented hacks, as well as more long term work. Julie melts all aspects of health and happiness beautifully, regardless of each episode's topic. [00:01:44][72.0]
[00:01:45] I always finish listening with a sense of peace, as well as a little fire under my booty to progress and grow. I also find her voice very soothing. This podcast is definitely worth a try. Whether you're just starting on your health and fitness journey or you've been at it for a while. Oh, I love this so much. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to send in this review, and also the fact that this podcast is helping you so much, and you got very specific that just that helps us know how the podcast is helping you or what episodes are helping you. And so thank you for taking time out of your day to do that. I know that it has blessed me and our team greatly, and I know that it will bless other people to read that review as well. The reviews just really help because when people come upon the podcast, whether a friend recommended it or they found it on, you know, the explore page or whatever it is, they're able to then kind of look through their reviews and see if it's, show that is helpful for them or is something that they're looking for. So thank you in advance for doing that. All right. Let's dive into the five unexpected things body confident women do. Number one, body confident women wear their clothes without hesitation. So body confident women don't waste their time second guessing their outfits. If they put on an outfit that they think is cute, they keep it on right. They don't obsess over whether or not they look fat, or they should change because they look fat. They just wear the outfit because it is cute, plain and simple. They aren't looking in the mirror to see if they're fat. [00:03:06][81.2]
[00:03:06] They're, you know, they're looking in the mirror to see if the outfit looks cute. And on the days that they do feel bloated or heavier than normal, they still wear the outfit. They don't try to hide anything. They just feel confident in their body. And again, this is goes back to just that awareness, right. And recognizing that, you know, on the days that you might put on an outfit that was cute at one point or you thought it was cute, now it's not, you take it off and say, okay, I'm going to find a different outfit that is cute and you don't think twice about it. You don't give, give that thought so much weight that it really impacts you long term, right? It doesn't impact you further than that moment. And you know, to sum this up, people who are confident in their body, they don't deprive themselves of cute outfits just because of what their body looks like. They show up in the outfit, they rock it anyways. And they know that, you know, real bodies have real cellulite and real jiggle and real all the things, right? And they recognize that and they show up because they also recognize that they're so much more than their body, which we'll get into in a little bit. Number two, body confident women don't let their body take up space in their mind. How often does your body image control your thoughts? Like I bet for many listening and this was you know, it's me still. It was me for a decade, way more often than we'd like to admit. But body confident women understand that their bodies are just part of who they are. It's not all of who they are, and it's definitely not the most important part of who they are. [00:04:33][87.2]
[00:04:34] They don't obsess over every little flaw or imperfection. They don't let those things take up the precious space in their mind, because they recognize that the space in their mind is so precious and important, right? They have bigger and better things to focus their energy on, and instead they focus on living their lives, pursuing their passions, enjoying the moment their body doesn't dominate their thoughts. Their mind then thus is able to be free to think about the things that truly matter. So the next time you find yourself obsessively thinking about your body, give yourself a little mental reminder that what your body looks like shouldn't take up so much space in your mind. You have more important things to focus on in your life. Number three body confident women care more about what they think of their body than what others think, right? The key aspect of body confidence is valuing your own opinion about. Above all others body. Confident women cultivate this strong sense of self-worth that is not dependent on external validation, right? They develop this inner strength to tune out the constant chatter of the societal expectations and societal beauty standards. This doesn't mean, of course, that they're oblivious to the outside opinions, but it means that they've learned to filter them through the lens of self-acceptance. Basically, what matters most is how they see themselves, not fleeting compliments or criticism from others. And that's really important. And also, I will tack on to that how important it is to recognize and know what God says about you. Because as a Christian, we are to look at ourselves the way that God sees us, right? And so we are able to have this kind of internal validation through the spiritual lens that we have this healthy foundation of this healthy relationship with ourselves, allowing us to celebrate our strengths and to celebrate our imperfections with love, grace and acceptance. [00:06:23][109.4]
[00:06:24] So I want to challenge you to focus more on how you feel in your body and how you feel about yourself, and don't let what other people might think of you dictate how you see yourself. I want you to work on silencing the noise of other people's opinions and listen to your own inner voice. And if you're a Christian, listen to what God says about you, what you think of your body and what he says about your body, about your design, about his design of you, that's what should matter most. Number four body confident women realize body confidence isn't about a specific weight or pant size. This is so, so important. Body confident women understand that confidence isn't a reward unlocked at a specific weight or pant size, the scale becomes less and less important character of their story, and these body confident women have shifted their focus from achieving this fleeting number to cultivating this deep appreciation for their bodies unique beauty and capabilities. This appreciation goes far beyond esthetics and appearances, and instead it focuses on the strength, the resilience and the power that their body holds. They celebrate how their body allows them to move throughout the world and experience life adventures and accomplish their goals. So instead of chasing some idealized image of what society makes them believe they should chase, they instead embrace their body for exactly what it is. After nourishing their body with what it needs and moving their body with what it deserves. So here's the most important thing that you need to know is that inner self-acceptance radiates outward as genuine confidence. Let me say that again inner self-acceptance radiates outward as genuine confidence. It is a daily choice to accept and appreciate your body, regardless of the shape or size. [00:08:09][105.5]
[00:08:10] The best way to go about that is by focusing on how you feel and what you know to be true about yourself, not how you measure up to these arbitrary standards. And last but not least, body confident women know they don't always have to love their body to feel confident. So this is the surprising truth. Even the most body confident women don't always love every inch of their bodies. And that is okay. We are human. We are going to have days and weeks and months where we are struggling with that. But true confidence isn't about forcing yourself into a state of constant adoration of your body. It's about having a deeper understanding and acceptance body. Confident women have learned to embrace their selves, flaws and all. They understand that their worth is not defined by a single dimple, wrinkle, roll, or perceived imperfection. So I need us to move past the idea of body confidence that requires this constant state of love. It's about self-acceptance. It's about showing up confidently no matter what way, and choosing to feel good about yourself despite the occasional critical thought. Because remember this body confident women don't let the size of their body hold space in their mind. So you're going to have days where you feel fat, okay? You have a day where you feel bloated, you feel fat, you move on with your life. You don't obsess about it. They just choose to move forward with confidence anyways. So all in all, body confidence is really boiled down to self-acceptance, not perfection. Instead of focusing on body love, focus on feeling confident in your body anyway. So instead of focusing on body love, I need you to focus on feeling confident in your body anywhere, anytime. And remember that that ultimately is what is going to lead you to have this genuine confidence. [00:10:03][112.9]
[00:10:03] Because when you have just like what I said, inner self-acceptance radiates outward as genuine confidence. When you can have that inner self-acceptance and say, you know what, today I don't feel like X, Y, and Z, but I know this to be true, so I'm going to show up anyways. That is ultimately what's going to radiate as the most genuine confidence. So let me quickly recap what I talked about. The five things a body confident women do. Number one, they wear their clothes without hesitation. They don't change just because they think they look fat, right? They don't hold so much weight according to what they're thinking in that moment. Number two, they don't let their body take up space in their mind. Number three, they care more about what they think of their body rather than what other people think of their body because they know it to be true. Number four, they realize body confidence isn't hitting a certain weight or pant size. It's a choice that they have made and continue to make daily. And lastly, number five, they realize they don't always have to love their body in order to feel confident in their body. If you love this episode, I know you'll also love episode 212. My Thoughts on Body Acceptance. I will go ahead and link that in the show notes below, but I hope that you found this episode helpful. I hope that this was an encouragement for you. Maybe this allowed you to shift your perspective a little bit more on body confidence and just what it truly is, and recognizing that you shouldn't hold so much weight to the opinion of even what you think. On certain days. Because we are human, we have thoughts, and our thoughts should not always hold so much weight because oftentimes it is a negative thought. [00:11:40][97.0]
[00:11:41] And if you allow that to sit in your brain and you allow yourself to just simmer on that, it is going to bring you down in so many ways versus just saying, yep, I acknowledge a thought that I just had. I'm going to choose to not believe it and I'm going to move on. That is where you can continue to build up your stamina and build up this body confidence. But that is all that I have for today's episode. I love you so dang much. I mean it, and I'll talk to you in the next one. [00:12:06][25.0]
[00:12:07] 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 are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter. 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 it real because you're worth it. [00:13:07][0.0]