Weight Loss, Body Image, and Loving Yourself Bright

Tanya Gill: 00:00:00

Hello, my podcast friends, welcome to the trifecta of joy. And I have to tell you, I am about to talk to you about something that has been very near and dear to me for well 40, probably five, maybe 40 For sure years of my life. You know what I often have found myself judging myself for my body. And it's, we're in a really interesting place right now. Many people may or may not have noticed that I have lost significant weight, but I don't talk about the numbers that I've lost. And, and, you know, like, two years ago, I was turning 25 pounds, I don't talk about what I weigh now, because it actually doesn't matter. Because at the end of the day, what matters is are you living your fucking life. And you know, I, I decided I was going to figure this out one last time. But I literally and okay, if you can relate to this, like I'm telling you, like if they gave out gold banners or or sashes for the number of times joined Weight Watchers, I would be walking around with like, I am I've joined over 100 times, I'm really I've been one of those people. And I've been one of those people who's believed that I always needed to be on a diet, planning for a diet, or struggling through a diet in order to be, I don't know, be, I thought that was like my life. That's that was my life. And what I realized on that path, and I wish I had learned so much sooner is that it has absolutely nothing to do with weight. And it has nothing to do with size. It has to do with how you feel about yourself. And that is really something that we don't talk about enough. And I gotta tell you, like, there are so many amazing influencers out there right now, or people on the internet, like the birds, papaya, and saggy Sarah, there are these amazing people who talk about just being okay in your body. And you know, like that is the most important thing. Because when you're okay in your body, when you're actually okay in your body. If you choose to make change, you're doing it from a loving place. And if you're not doing it from a loving place, you're doing it from a place of resistance. And you and that right there, makes it harder. And it makes it a struggle. And it creates that self loathing. And it brings awareness to all the things you're not doing. And it really, really impacts the relationship you have with yourself inside your head. How many times have you avoided events because of your body? Or because of your weight? How many times have you avoided activities because of your body or because of your weight. And these may or may not have been things that you are capable of doing, but you didn't feel comfortable doing because of how you feel about yourself. And that's what shine is. So I've been running groups kind of in the background, I haven't been talking about it very openly, because I really didn't know how to label it. The truth is how do you say to someone, I've created this amazing program, this beautiful sisterhood and it has changed lives so significantly. And it starts with building a relationship with yourself and has the tools to bring awareness around your mind, body and spirit including intuitive eating and paying attention to food triggers and moving through those kinds of things. Without it being a diet. There are people in the program who are like I just want to make peace with my body where it is right now and love myself where it is right now. And then if and as I move forward, I introduced those 1% changes that add up. It just keeps getting better and better. That is what happens in shine and then there are others who are like, I'm going to use these tools differently. Because I don't feel as comfortable in my body as I do as I have in the past, or as I know, I will feel when I have a different body. But that different body doesn't have to be 100 pounds different. It's building that relationship with your body and strengthening yourself moving yourself, doing the things that you love and feeling good about, as you make those 1% changes in intentional choice. I understand so deeply the struggle of waking up and just panicking about what you're going to eat and how you're going to move and all the things that I just tie to that diet mentality. And the diet mentality around restriction and deprivation, and the white knuckling and all the while beating yourself up. And it for me, I was like, I'm fucking done with that, that has to end there has to be no more of that. It needs to be me enjoying loving my life. And it needs to be enjoying loving my life where it is right now. As I move with intention in my life, and it was such a game changer. And it wasn't just a game changer because the scale started to move. It was a game changer because the scale became so unimportant. And what became most important was, how much further I could walk in the Cooley's with the dogs, or how much easier it was to get up off the floor when playing with a kiddo or how much easier it was to clean the bathtub. It's those little things in life that we often don't pay attention to or notice, and then have an opportunity to bring awareness to and make a conscious decision around what we want to do. I recently saw I love live though, everybody, if you follow me on Instagram, or Tiktok, or Facebook or wherever, you probably know that I love Lizzo. In fact, I quote Lizzo several times, in the trifecta of joy, my book available on Amazon. In the trifecta of joy, I quote Lizzo because she is a person who says, This is my body. This is how I choose to move it. And this is how I choose to share it as a part of my artistic being. Recently, she posted a reel and was like, it was so powerful, because she said, you know, the discord over bodies has got to end. It's like there's so much judgment, you know, and it's why are you losing weight? Or have you lost too much weight? Or are you buying into societal expectations and, and, you know, judgments around people who choose to modify their bodies to feel more comfortable in their bodies for whatever decision for whatever reason, that is it might be, you know, a Brazilian Butt Lift, or it might be breast implants, or it might be Botox, or whatever it is, at the end of the day, it really comes down to loving your self. And shine is exactly that. That's why I created shine. It was like, I wanted to bring together people who have either weird relationships with their bodies or have been so stuck in diet mentality. And they don't even they don't even know what life is like without worrying about what they're putting in their mouths. And they're missing out on parts of their life because this has become a focus. So I wanted to create a program where it was like, let's look at your whole life. Let's look at how you want to feel. And let's use some simple tools to move you in whatever direction you intentionally choose. Because you are the most important person in your life. You know, I