How to feel liberated in your body_Episode 1

This is a podcast called Beauty Talks With The Fit, where women discuss their personal journeys to self-love and self-acceptance. They aim to free themselves from constant dieting and body shame. The host talks about the issue of body image, particularly for young women, and how it can lead to insecurities that last into adulthood. She shares her own experience of negative comments about her legs and the impact it had on her. She emphasizes the importance of embracing diverse body types and not judging people based on their appearances. The host encourages listeners to love and accept themselves fully and focus on what truly matters to them. The goal is to help women fully accept their unique beauty and live a confident and fulfilling life. This is Beauty Talks With The Fit, where we get together with like-minded women to discuss our personal journeys to self-love and self-acceptance. We are a movement of women who want to free ourselves from constant dieting, body shame, and social conditioning and behaviors that hold us back from living our biggest, boldest, and most beautiful lives. On this corner of the internet, we believe all bodies are the perfect fit. As we journey together to self-acceptance, we remind our fit baddies there is nothing wrong with your body and the only thing that needs adjusting is how you view your curves and, of course, your favorite undergarments from The Fit. Welcome to the Body Acceptance Podcast. Welcome to Beauty Talks With The Fit. Hey, baddies. Welcome to the first episode of Beauty Talks With The Fit. I'm your host, Nelinde Mande, and today we're talking about how to feel liberated in your body. I'm so excited to finally put out this first episode of Beauty Talks With The Fit. It's been a long time coming, but, you know, sometimes you get nervous. You're not sure if the information you're putting out there is useful, will it resonate with you all, and most importantly, will it help you in your personal journey? We want to make a meaningful contribution to your story, baddies. When you put on an undergarment from The Fit, firstly, you're going to look amazing. But more than that, it should be a moment of triumph, an outer reflection of the sexy, confident baddie you are on the inside. So, let's get started. The issue of body image is a complex one, particularly for young women. From about the age of adolescence, sometimes pre-teen, we start to become aware of our physical appearance. We start to see the ideal body type, usually the thinner, more slender body in the media, and then we compare that body type to our own, and after that, make that our personal beauty standard. Sometimes, however well-meaning, the people around us also start to make comments about our body types, the best and worst things about them, from, you have such a great body, to, oh my gosh, you need to lose weight. Whether or not we realize this, this sets in motion the chain of insecurities that can have lasting effects well into our adulthood. I read something very interesting the other day. In a study of 160 African-American adult women, 47% were dissatisfied with their body image, 11% felt like they were unattractive, and as many as 75% were unsatisfied with their weight. Hold on. In the same article of more than 50,000 adults, 60% of women thought they were too heavy and were too self-conscious about their weight, and 30% reported being too uncomfortable in the swimsuit, 20% thought they were outright unattractive. These findings are equal parts heartbreaking and unfortunately also relatable. So many women are struggling with their body image and it's important for us as women to really start having these conversations and debunking all the negative body image talk that we have come to accept as normal. The thing is, almost every woman has a story about their own negative body image experience. Some of us can even pinpoint to the exact moment we became aware and self-conscious about certain parts of our bodies. I remember the first time someone made a negative comment about my legs and how that stuck with me well into my late 20s. It was, I must have been about 10 years old when this happened, and it was just me and a group of friends just hanging out, doing normal things, and out of the blue, at least this is how I remember it, just out of the blue, this one person draws the shape of my legs, and she's like, Oh my God, Nelly, your legs are shaped like this. It was such an unattractive drawing that I immediately started realizing that, Hey, is that what my legs look like, really and truly? And before this experience, I had never, not once, known that my legs were different from other people's, but afterwards, I couldn't unsee that image, and that has forever been the picture that's in my head about my own legs from that very moment. In fact, it was the beginning of my love-hate relationship with my legs. I suddenly became very fixated on them. I wouldn't wear anything that showed them off. Can you imagine growing up in sunny KZN and not being able to wear shorts or short skirts? You see, I know that I have curvy legs. I do have curvy legs. They're thick. They're full. It's very typical of my Zulu heritage. Over the years, I've heard different references to them from friends and family alike. They would say things like, Oh, you've got butter legs. Oh, you've got Betty Boop legs, Coke bottles, etc., whatever other ridiculous thing they would compare my legs to. Some of them thought they were giving me compliments, but what they were actually doing is further ingraining and exacerbating my insecurities. You see, Bettys, I really think we need to get to a point where we don't even comment about people's appearances anymore. We need to get to a point where our diverse body types are so normal, they cease to become a topic of discussion. That is what true body liberation is. Over the last few years, we've seen a shift towards more inclusive representation of diverse body types, and I love to see it. This shift is exactly what we need to start embracing as society so that today's teens and future generations don't have to be subjected to what many of us millennials went through growing up. I'll just start with a little disclaimer here, and I'm so sorry that I keep making references to overseas campaigns. I know that we have many brilliant South African campaigns, but for the purpose of getting a point across, just hear me out. In 2016, the Dress Barn, an online clothing retailer, launched the More Than a Name campaign to challenge the superficial label society places on women. The campaign features images of women of different demographics, like size, age, race, etc., along with phrases like more than age or more than size. I'll leave the link to the campaign in the show notes so you can also check it out. I just love this campaign because it speaks to this idea of liberating women from being judged based on their exterior characteristics. Women, in fact everyone, is more than what you see on the surface. We can be so many things at the same time. We are sisters, mothers, friends, and well accomplished at school, in the workplace, and in many other fields. We should celebrate that. And when we start to see the bigger picture of who we are, we give power to what really matters and look beyond the superficial. I dare you to love every bit of yourself, your big booty, full bust, yes, even those thick legs, and most importantly, your brilliant mind. This, baddies, is true liberation. Baddies, we have to embrace our diverse body types. It's what makes us beautiful. While it's absolutely okay to take pride in what you look like, but that should not be at the expense of all the other parts of you that make you uniquely yourself. Let go of the negative self-talk and negative references you heard others make about you in the past or even now. The journey to self-love is an individual exercise. Enjoy this time and put your focus on what matters to you, your accomplishments, your goals, or whatever that may be for you. Continue being your bad self. Thank you so much for tuning in to Beauty Talks with the Feds. I hope that this episode and every episode after this brings you closer to fully accepting your unique beauty. If you want to be part of our body acceptance movement, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss an episode, and make sure to leave a review to help us reach more baddies just like you. Remember, you are more than your physical appearance, and you deserve to live a big, bold, and beautiful life free of insecurity. Bye, baddies. See you in the next one. Bye.