Steph Gaudreau is a fierce, strong (#teamthickthighs and #quadzilla) chick who believes in empowering women by showing us we have the right to be strong and how to embrace taking up space – AND that we do not provide more value to the world by trying to shrink ourselves and taking up less space. She is one of my personal inspirations for getting involved in this space and making that transition in my own personal journey from doing everything that I possibly could to lose weight, eat less, and take up LESS space, to transitioning to the confident, empowered, strong woman that I am today (which, let’s set the record straight – it’s taken me a WHILE to get here, and I don’t always feel super confident and empowered every moment of every day, but we’ve come a looong way from the frail, tiny little poor self esteem shell of a person that I used to be.) Steph is talking about her own personal health journey from wanting to shrink herself to wanting to take up more space and how she got there.
Steph also has an AMAZING book coming out this month – it’s called the Core Four: Embrace Your Body, Own Your Power, and it’s probably WAY different from any book about food and nutrition that you’ve ever read. It’s part meal plan, part learning how to listen to your body and eat in tuned with what your body is telling you, part “here’s how to get strong by doing some basic exercises at home” – but with none of the diet culture or exercise dogma of “my way or the highway!” or “if you don’t do this you’re a failure and you’re going to be unhealthy and sick and overweight forever!” There are also a bunch of pre-order bonuses if you order the book before it comes out on July 30th!
In today’s episode, we discuss:
- Steph’s personal health journey from trying to shrink herself to wanting to take up MORE space and teaching women how to do so.
- What sparked the switch from believing we’re supposed to shrink ourselves, endlessly pursuing weight loss, to realizing she could live a much happier and more fulfilled life by getting strong and taking up MORE space?
- At some point in our journeys, we all think the “I’ll be happy when I’m X pounds less, I can fit in those jeans, I’m smaller.” But even if and when we get there, it’s never enough and we never feel like enough. WHY IS THAT?!
- How can we push back against this feeling that we’re never enough? Never thin enough, never rich enough, never living up to the expectations of our parents, friends, colleagues, society, social media, etc. HOW DO WE START TO GET OUT OF IT?
- Digging into the “five why’s” behind our motivations to achieve in business, change our body aesthetics, lift more weight, etc. – and how they are either driven by love or fear.
- All about swearing – the biases we have against people who swear, how men and women are treated differently about swearing, why some people choose to use it, and why you should keep your opinions to yourself.
Resources mentioned:
Hang out with Steph!
You’ll love these episodes too:
64 | Weight stigma, BMI, and digging into emotional eating with Cara Cifelli
52 | Orthorexia, Perfectionism, and the Fear of not being loved with Haley Hannah Erickson
49| The Shame Spiral and why you don’t have to love your body with Noelle Tarr
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