Things we dive into in this episode:
What does love mean when we talk about loving our bodies?
Parallels between loving someone else and loving your body
Loving your body through action
📘Resources
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📌Episode Highlights
What does it mean to love your body?
Loving your body is similar to loving a romantic partner.
Even though you love someone, you probably get annoyed or frustrated with them sometimes. But that doesn't diminish the love you have for them!
There is a baseline of care and respect and love in the relationship even if you're not pleased with them 24/7.
You're not going to stop caring for your partner when you're upset or frustrated with them, just like you shouldn't deny your body care when you feel sticky about it.
Love has ruptures.
Love isn't infatuation or obsession. It has ruptures, but there's underlying respect there.
No matter what, you don't deprive your body of care just because you're not particularly happy with it in a given moment.
Love is calm.
Love between you and your body should feel like a regulating experience.
Love isn't going to be sexy and sparkly all the time.
Sometimes it's more about just being with your body in the quiet moments.
How do you love your body?
Get clear on what love means to you or work with someone who can help you define what that means.
Like anything, receiving support can be helpful for tapping into the body love you crave.
Celebrate your body when it feels natural and fun.
You won't be able to tap into this all the time, and that's okay!
Celebrating specific physical features on the days or in the moments that you feel really good is a great way to show yourself love, as long as it's not contingent on weighing a certain amount or fitting into a certain size, or meeting arbitrary beauty standards.
Love is a verb. It's about action!
We actively love something. We actively show someone love.
It's possible to love your body by actively loving it!
Every person loves differently, so work with a counselor if you need support in stepping into the action of loving your body.
Invite your body to express itself in every way.
When you love someone, you invite them to bring all of themselves to the table.
If you're going to love your body, you need to invite your body to express itself.
Honor your body's hunger and fullness cues, need for rest, desire for movement, etc.
Don't try to "fix" your body.
Sit with your body and say, I'm right here, I got you, I'm not going to try to fix or tell you that you're wrong?
Practice being with yourself, honoring yourself, and attuning to what you need.
Give yourself affirming words without having to justify them.
You're not an incredible human because your hair looks nice or because you're not bloated. You're an incredible human because you just are!!
Honor your body without trying to fix it and celebrate yourself for what you are.
Trust that your body is incredibly attuned to look for homeostasis.
Your body is built to find homeostasis on it's own. There's nothing you need to do to make your body healthy, as long as you eat enough, rest enough, take deep breaths, hydrate, and move your body.
You can trust that if you do these things, your body will do the rest.
Thanks for listening! 💖 Stay tuned to Caitie’s website for more episode updates and other exciting programs and resources.
Transcript
Caitie: Body love is knowing that even in the moments where you're feeling sticky about your cellulite because of what the world has taught you about what it means to have cellulite, or you're feeling sticky because you've got these bags under your eyes cause you haven't gotten enough sleep that day. Or you're feeling like you're having skin problems, you're having acne. It's okay to acknowledge that those stickier moments are going to happen and those lovely fun, let me just celebrate how good I look right now, moments are going to come too. That's accessible for you.
Welcome to Whole, Full & Alive, a podcast helping you feed yourself, feel yourself and be yourself. I'm Caitie Corradino. I'm a Registered-Dietician Nutritionist, a body image coach, and the founder of Full Soul Nutrition, a method that combines nutrition counseling with a powerful toolkit of somatic healing modalities. I have guided hundreds of clients to freedom with food, their bodies, and every aspect of their lives. I've also been through this healing myself. So on this podcast, I want to help you eat with confidence, embrace your body, form aligned relationships, and create a life that you're in love with. I'll share actionable tools, no bullshit stories and interviews that will remind you why you have everything you need within you to feel whole, full and alive. Are you ready? Let's get into it.
Hey, welcome back to another episode of Whole, Full, & Alive, the podcast, helping you feed yourself, feel yourself, and be yourself. I am so excited to be coming at you with a little espresso shot episode today. What I mean by that is that it's gonna be short. I don't have that much time this week to record an episode, but I wanted to do your monthly Q&A today. And because I don't wanna miss the monthly Q&A, I am coming at you with a shorter version of it. I'm gonna be answering one question that I get a lot about whether or not it's possible to love your body and if so, how? How do you love your body? That is the question I will be answering in this espresso shot of an episode. Wanted to make sure I still came to you this week despite it being a week full of a lot, a lot of things that I look forward to sharing with you soon.
So anyway, before we dive into today's episode, as always, even though it's a short one, we're gonna take a moment to do a grounding practice together. So wherever you're tuning in from, whether you are multitasking or just tuning into this show, I invite you to take the deepest breath you have taken all day. Take a nice deep inhale through your nose, feel your back expand as your lungs fill up and then take a complete exhale out your mouth. And as you exhale, feel a sense of grounding. Imagine that you're anchoring into the floor you're standing on or the seat you're sitting in. Feel yourself ground, feel yourself here on the earth, on the ground right now. I think when we listen to podcasts sometimes it's really easy get caught up in our head and get caught up in the intellectualizing of the thing that we're listening to, which is natural. You're using your brain to listen to this. But I encourage you to also stay in your body and notice how your body feels when you hear the things I'm saying today. And notice that your body can help you make decisions and help you decide how you feel about things and help you most of all stay connected to yourself and what works for you. We can intellectualize anything to death, but the body is usually a lot simpler in its communication.
And simplicity is the theme of this espresso shot episode. I don't know if you listened to my episode earlier this year about what I call the espresso shot of truth, but I came up with this concept earlier this year called the espresso shot of truth because I feel like when we hit the truth about something, it's usually simple. We know we've hit the truth because it's usually pretty simple. There's nothing overly complicated about it. The things that aren't true are usually the things that we have over intellectualized, rationalized our way around. But often when we hear an idea or a thought that changes our lives or causes a shift for us, it's usually just a little simple espresso shot of truth. There's usually not something overly complicated about it. And I hope that my answer to this question about body love is going to have some espresso shots of truth for you. I'm hoping that some of the things I say are simple little espresso shots of truth that you can take away and that will cause a shift for you. That there's nothing too overly complicated about this, that this episode doesn't send you spinning into another thing you have to over intellectualize, but that you can just feel a sense of peace with the perspective I wanna share today.
So as I said, the question I'm answering today is this question I get a lot, which is, is it possible to love my body because it feels impossible that I'd ever love my body. And if it is possible, like how, how do I do that? And of course, as a nutrition, body image, and self-confidence counselor, I know that it is possible for you to love your body. It is possible and I believe it needs to be shared that it's possible to love your body. It's possible to be more than neutral about your body. It's possible to step out of body hatred and constantly criticizing your body and feeling really uncomfortable in your body and resenting your body or avoiding your body and not wanting to think about it or look about or look at it or feel it at all. From there, it is possible to love your body.
I think is really important is that we define what love means. So love does not mean that you think your body is looking perfect and sensational and awesome and you just wanna like look at it in the mirror and love every photo of yourself all of the time. Just like when you love another person, you don't think that they're an awesome and unstoppable and sensational rock star all the time. Sometimes you get annoyed at the person you love. Sometimes you're like, ugh, why can't you just, whatever. You get in a place of frustration with the people you love sometimes. You also, you just have generally sticky moments with the people you love. You have moments where you have to compromise with them. You have moments where you feel a little frustrated with them. But at the end of the day, this base of respect and care and love is there, right? That's one way I want you to think about it.
I have a few things on a list that I'm gonna offer as like, we try to redefine love. One of the things is yes, think about the way when you love another person, you're not always pleased with them 24 hours a day, but you always love them no matter what. Even if in the moment you like are really fiery towards them or feeling frustrated with them, at the end of the day, you would never withhold your care. Even if you're temporarily frustrated, you would never say like, oh, I hate you. I don't love you anymore. The foundation of love is that even in the rockier moments, you might not go soft and mushy and be like, I still love you, but that foundation of love is in there. That's the first thing I wanna offer. So it's possible to get there with your body for sure.
It's possible that you might in some moments really love to celebrate your body, you might be like, wow, my body just took me up this flight of stairs. My body just took me on this awesome trip. My body just crushed that workout class that I really enjoyed. My body just danced the night away at a wedding. My body just got me through that yoga class that helped me feel really good and really grounded. My body just sent me signals that I need more food and I feel like now I get to be nourished. Like you can be thankful for all these little things of your body and you also like it's fun to celebrate our bodies.
And also you might really have fun celebrating your physical body and the way it looks. You can say like in times like, I look awesome in this dress and my butt looks good in the mirror right now. It's fucking fun to celebrate our bodies. I do think that sometimes because we have to remember that we're not going to feel that way all the time, we get scared to acknowledge that it is fun to celebrate our physical features. Sometimes it's fun to be like, wow, I have really, I've banging eyebrows today. I have really beautiful eyes. I really appreciate the way, yeah, I think the butt comes up a lot, cause it's just fun, but it's like, yeah, like you can let that be fun. And body love is knowing that that's not always accessible. Body love is knowing that even in the moments where you're feeling sticky about your cellulite because of what the world has taught you about what it means to have cellulite, or you're feeling sticky because you've got these bags under your eyes cause you haven't gotten enough sleep that day. Or you're feeling like you're having skin problems, you're having acne. It's okay to acknowledge that those stickier moments are going to happen and those lovely fun, let me just celebrate how good I look right now, moments are going to come too. That's accessible for you.
As long as those moments where you are celebrating your physical body aren't contingent on weighing a certain amount or being able to fit into a certain pair of shorts or being able to meet these like arbitrary metrics of beauty, right? Like you need to make sure that you're not just celebrating yourself when you meet this arbitrary standard of beauty, but you also can find ways to celebrate yourself and more than accept yourself in those moments. That is possible, but it's because we're talking about love in its true definition, we know that love isn't about feeling like you're obsessed with your body all the time, just like you're not gonna be obsessed with the person that you love all the time. You're gonna be frustrated with them. You might be frustrated with their shortcomings, but at the end of the day, you still accept them and you're not gonna deprive them of care the way you're not gonna deprive your body of food and water and rest and joyful movement just because you might not be happy with the way it's looking on a certain day.
And in those moments when you're not happy with the way it's looking, in those moments when love becomes a little frustrating, you wanna look under the hood and be like, okay, well, why do I feel this way? The same way when you're in a relationship with someone, if you're mad at them, you're gonna look under the hood and be like, okay, why do I feel so frustrated with this? Is this anger actually justified? How can I deal with this? How can I resolve this? So that you don't just stay in that place forever. Right? Because ultimately the relationship is going to end if you stay mad at them forever. Just like staying mad and angry and disgruntled at your body for the rest of your life is not going to be sustainable either. So that's the long, winded way of saying the first thing I want to say is that remember love has ruptures. Love isn't infatuation or obsession. It has ruptures, but there's underlying respect there. No matter what you don't deprive your body of care just because you're not particularly happy with it in a given moment.
The second thing I want us to remember about love is that love is a verb. It's about action. It's about doing. We can actively, we actively love something. We actively love someone. We show love to someone. It's an action. And so if we're saying, it possible for me to love my body? Yeah, it is because it's possible for you to show your body love, to give your body love. It's important to work on defining what that means. And if you're having a hard time showing your body love, stepping into the verb of body love, it's important to work with a counselor or someone who can support you in stepping into the verb of love. Remembering that it's not just this obsession again like infatuation like I love my body it's like no I show my body love because love is a verb it's more than just something we say it's something we show it's something we do.
The third thing I want you to remember about love is that love invites us to express ourselves fully, right? When you love someone, when you love a friend, a family member or a partner, you invite them to bring all of themselves, all of themselves to the table. And so if you're gonna love your body, you need to invite your body to express itself. You cannot suppress your appetite and be hey, like know you're hungry right now, body, but like you shouldn't be hungry right now. We just had lunch three hours ago. Like you don't need more food, right? Like you need to honor the way your body is expressing your needs. I think that appetite suppression is self-expression suppression. Like why are you denying this way that your body is expressing itself? Embrace your body's appetite, embrace your body's hunger, embrace your body's cues for rest, embrace your body's cues for, like that, embrace your body's cues for, I don't like that. Love is inviting your body to express itself in every way.
The fourth thing I want you to remember about love is that love doesn't try to fix us. Love sits with us and celebrates us with like no real justification. Liz Gilbert, one of my favorite people in the world, she's an amazing author and speaker, she says love is the thing that just like, yes, sits with us and holds us and comforts us in a wave of despair and doesn't try to fix the problem, but basically just says, I'm right here, I got you. So if you're going to apply that definition of love to body love, can you sit with your body and say, I'm right here, I got you, I'm not going to try to fix or tell you that you're wrong. I'm gonna practice, yeah, sitting with you, being with you, honoring you, attuning to what you need. And yeah, like just being like, I'm right here, I got you, thank you, you're lovely. Affirmations, right? In that moment when you're down and out, someone who loves you sits with you and is like, it's gonna be okay, I got you and also gives you affirming words without like justifying it, without being like, you're awesome because you have a great job and nice hair. It's like, no, you're awesome because like you are you and I love you. And so can you give your body that same sort of, edit, can you give your body that same sort of love where you're like, okay, I'm gonna sit with you, I'm gonna honor you, I'm not gonna try to fix you and I'm going to celebrate you for what you are. That second part might be a little bit more difficult, the affirmation part, but think more about that, like being able to sit and not fix.
And then the final thing I want you to remember about love, the fifth thing, is that a big part of love is trust. Trust that the person you love knows what's best for them. When you love someone, you really do trust them to choose what's in your best interest and to choose what's in their best interest. When you really love someone, you ultimately don't try to control them, right? There is some level of like, okay, I'm just gonna trust you. I'm just gonna lean in. And so I consider part of body love to be body trust. To trust that your body is incredibly attuned to look for homeostasis. Your body is incredibly attuned to try to do whatever it is that's going to bring you health and like homeostasis and harmony in your body. So can you trust that if you're doing everything you need to do to take care of your body, you're eating enough, you're resting enough, taking deep breaths, you're hydrating, you are moving your body in healthy ways. Can you trust that if your body's gaining weight, it's for a good reason. It's your body trying to maintain homeostasis. Can you trust that your body's attuned for health and harmony? Your body's attuned to do what it needs to do for you to be in homeostasis. As long as you're giving your body what it needs, you've got to trust your body from there. Can you trust that if your body's asking for a little bit more food, it's because you need a little bit more food. If your body's asking for a little bit more sleep, it's because it needs a little bit more sleep for some reason. Trust is another really important part of love.
And so when I say it's possible to love your body, I mean, yes, it is possible to feel really good and gooey and celebratory and comfortable and happy about your body sometimes while in other times feeling a little bit like, I'm not really feeling how my body's looking today or I'm a little bit frustrated with my body today, but the love remains. I mean, it's possible to have moments of rupture and moments of repair with your body the way you would have moments of rupture and repair in a relationship. And in those moments of frustration or rupture, you get to learn a little bit more about your body every time and you, when you're feeling frustrated with your body, you can ultimately look a little bit deeper about like, why am I feeling frustrated with the body the same way you would with a person that you love.
And when I say it's possible to love your body, I mean, it's possible to experience the verb of love. What does it mean to love my body? It means I nurture it, I nourish it, I respect it, I engage in the verb of love. And when I say it's possible to love your body, I mean, it's possible to have that moment where you with your body in nurturing acceptance and say, I'm right here, I got you, without trying to like put your agenda on it about what you think needs to be resolved or fixed right now. And it's possible to give your body affirmation. And when I say it's possible to love your body, I mean that it's possible to let your body express itself fully to not suppress the different cues and expressions that your body is making or giving off or whatever. And when I say it's possible to love your body, I mean it's possible to trust your body.
And I think that when it comes to like, how do I love my body? I feel like the first and most important thing is to define love for yourself, I hope that some of these ideas about love give you a good working definition for it. You know what? I'm feeling inspired to say one more thing actually. A couple of weeks ago, I talked about how love is calm on my podcast. I was talking about how we tend to see like over romanticized ideas of love and romance and what we think love should look like. And love actually isn't supposed to be this like whooshy roller coaster of an experience that keeps us on riding these highs and lows. Love is actually calm. Love is a calm thing that can build from a stable curiosity. And it can be a lot less sparky, fireworky than most fairy tales and rom-coms tell us it needs to be. And I want to say that about body love too. I think as we're thinking about all these different pieces of love, can we remember that maybe when I love my body, it's not going to be like, bada boom, I'm Lizzo on Instagram showing you my body and it can look like that in times, right? Just like romantic love can look like that in times. It can be like, you know, fun and romantic at times. But for the most part, it is going to be this like calm experience and we're not going to have the up and the down. It's going to be calm and grounded. And if we do have those moments of like, I'm feeling myself, I want to take selfies. I want to take a video of myself, like that's cool and that's awesome, but make sure that that's coming from a grounded place and it's not then followed by this low, low. It's not then followed by this roller coaster because love is supposed to be calm.
Love between two people is calm. Love between you and your body is gonna feel like a regulating experience, not like beware of the sparkly goddess content on Instagram, you know, that makes you think body love is supposed to be all about the like sexy, sexy selfies because it's also just about a calm love and respect and care. And I'm right here kind of moments with your body. That's the last thing I want to say.
So yeah, in terms of like, how do I love my body? Start by defining love, getting really serious about what love means. Serious is a weird way to say it, but what I mean is get clear on what love means to you so that you can then work with someone or work with yourself to create a toolbox that will help you practice loving your body until it becomes more natural and not just something that you practice, but something that you live. You can live in body love. can live in embodiment. You can experience the world through your body, not just through your head.
And that's what I have to say to you in this short episode, this 20-minuter today. I hope that this resonates with you. If it does, please let me know. Send me a message. I'm here to chat. I love the community that is forming around this podcast. And if this resonated with you, maybe you also share it with someone else who might need to hear it. And maybe you have a five star rating on Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And I will be back here next week with a longer episode. I edit. I'll be back here next week with a longer episode and I can't wait to talk to you again soon.
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