All tagged Bold Body Initiative

Is This You? [[Last Call!]]

Is This You? [[Last Call!]]

Stephanie Ondrusek
body image, Bold Body Initiative, coaching, offers, mindset

So, you’re sitting there, half-drunk smoothie at the corner of your desk, zoned out on a Thursday with the trillion things you have to do before you bring work home for the weekend running through your mind. You’re wondering why this smoothie doesn’t just taste better and why exercising feels like such a chore and why you never follow through on anything, and this ever-growing to-do list gumming up the works like the smoothie that won’t come through the straw is proof.

When you think about the person you want to be—that you swear you could be, if you just got it “right”—instead of feeling inspired, you mostly want to take a nap. Having enough time to do that, though, is laughable, so you grit your teeth and think, “just one more day/week/month.” You know you’re juggling too much, but you’re not sure how to stop. It all feels so urgent, so important, so much like no one else will do it if you don’t (and it needs to get done, so guess what!). What you really want is someone to take a good look at it all and help you see what you can put down so you feel like you again.

→ Hi, hello, this is what I do. ←

If You're Tired of Feeling Confused, Beaten Down, Powerless, and Stressed About Fitness...

If You're Tired of Feeling Confused, Beaten Down, Powerless, and Stressed About Fitness...

Stephanie Ondrusek
body image, Bold Body Initiative, coaching, FAQs + hacks, offers

Body image work is life-changing, truly transformative work.

But why is a positive body image so important, though?

Staying preoccupied with thoughts about your body is a distraction. 

It keeps you from showing up in the world, constantly telling you you’re not enough, at least not until you lose that weight or fit back into that old pair of jeans.

It’s keeping you from sharing YOUR unique magic with the world, and that’s something we’d all be lucky to see.

It's also creating a world that further marginalizes those in larger bodies, or disabled bodies, or bodies that don't conform to an ever-shrinking standard. It's confining to all of us, keeping all of us from being fully ourselves without apology (and without the room to even exhale fully, letting our hair down and our bodies loose).

Having a positive body image is about SO much more than thinking your body looks good.

It's Early on a Tuesday Morning in January: Are You Telling Yourself You "Should" Be at the Gym?

It's Early on a Tuesday Morning in January: Are You Telling Yourself You "Should" Be at the Gym?

Stephanie Ondrusek
body image, Bold Body Initiative, coaching, FAQs + hacks, offers, mindset

It's early on a Tuesday morning in January: are you telling yourself you "should" be at the gym?

Time, even if we have an excess, can feel squished and squeezed like every minute is promised to someone/thing. It's common for the womxn with whom I work to schedule themselves last, if at all.

Like many others, time is not only a static thing, but also a thing with which we are in relationship. What I mean:

When you think about how much time you have, do you consider how you'd like to fill it before you do so? Do you consider if some things will take a disproportionate amount of time up front, knowing they will take less time as you gain experience and efficacy? Does that prospect make you feel daunted, or do you feel excited by the idea? Do you feel like everything will be okay if you're "off schedule," or does that make your palms sweat thinking about "making up" "lost" time? Is time ever really lost at all?

Put another way:

Is discipline, a hallmark of #dietculture/#hustle culture, holding you back?
-
[possibly. probably.]

Tired of Not Following Through on Your Goals? Make 2020 the Year You Trust Yourself Again.

Tired of Not Following Through on Your Goals? Make 2020 the Year You Trust Yourself Again.

Stephanie Ondrusek
Bold Body Initiative, coaching, FAQs + hacks, mindset, offers

“I don’t ever follow through.”

A phrase I hear a lot, most often from womxn I coach, and here is (some of) what’s often beneath it:

“I’m struggling with this goal I’ve had (and not yet met) 1573x. I am smart, I care a lot, and I’ve done a lot. Like, A LOT. I’m crushing my career, my kids are alive, and I make time to get coffee with another adult regularly. But when it comes to [fitness/food/self-care/rest], I don’t do it regularly. It seems really simple [go on a walk/eat a vegetable/read a book for fun/take a nap], but I just can’t do it. How have I figured out so many challenging and complicated things, but I can’t remember to go on a walk?

:insert self-deprecating laughter here:

I guess when it comes to myself, I don’t ever follow through.”

Rough, for sure, and not exactly a feel-good start to the new year (or a new week, or any day).

One of the things most illuminating in coaching is these stories, for so many reasons, not the least of which is most of our, “issues,” aren’t really about what we say they’re about at all, but the body story (in which it is your body that needs, “fixing”) is easier to tell (+ have a solution for) than the story underneath.

So, if in this brand-new year you’re, “already,” (👀) struggling with a, “lack of follow through,” that’s starting your day and year off with the same old story about how you’re not good enough and you can’t trust yourself to make the changes you want, let’s practice together how to unpack that so you can make changes you ACTUALLY want to make (+ feel good doing it).

Why You're Hung Up on Your, "Summer Body"

Why You're Hung Up on Your, "Summer Body"

Stephanie Ondrusek
body image, feminism, mindset

During warmer weather in particular, we hear all about, "summer bodies," and, "getting ready," and all sorts of things implying that our bodies aren't enough as is, and, when we inevitably buy into it, we're often left with less money and more frustration than when we started, plus a heaping helping of shame.

Body image issues are logical: they don't come from nowhere, and nothing is wrong with you if you struggle to love your body.

(In fact, I'd argue that, "loving your body," isn't really the point, here; it's to think if your body less, so that you can be more of who you are, other than your body.)

And, the first step, for so so so many womxn I coach, is to recognize, while your body is certainly all yours and you can do whatever you choose with it (or you should be able to, anyway), perhaps (juuuust maybe), your thoughts on your body are not entirely your own.

I Ripped My Pants: 3 Tips to Deal with Clothes that Don't Fit

I Ripped My Pants: 3 Tips to Deal with Clothes that Don't Fit

Stephanie Ondrusek
body image, Bold Body Initiative, FAQs + hacks, feminism, mindset

Earlier this month, I met with a CPA.

As though taxes weren’t enough bossy boss lady fun, I made the executive decision to put on pants. If you work from home or from a gym, you know how rare an event this is.

I went to put on my favorite pair of jeans,—soft, well-worn-rarely-washed denim, the kind that fit just Goldilocks-level right—and as I realized they’d been folded in a drawer for 6 months, I squatted down, and, riiiiip.

How to, "Release That Which No Longer Serves You," or, "Rewrite Your Stories." (Let's Cut Through the Noise, Shall We?)

How to, "Release That Which No Longer Serves You," or, "Rewrite Your Stories." (Let's Cut Through the Noise, Shall We?)

Stephanie Ondrusek
Bold Body Initiative, coaching, FAQs + hacks, body image, mindset

If you spend much time on the internet, particularly in the personal development and/or fitness mindset space, it's likely you've heard quite a bit of talk about, "rewriting your stories," and, "releasing that which no longer serves you." 

Rather than the freedom these phrases were likely intended to impart, I was left with a slow-burning rage:

OKAY, YOU SUPER-EVOLVED BEING IN THIS TINY INSTAGRAM SQUARE, BUT HOW? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?

*insert failure and shame*

How to Know You're Making Progress (A Letter From (and to) My 16-Year-Old Self)

How to Know You're Making Progress (A Letter From (and to) My 16-Year-Old Self)

Stephanie Ondrusek
body image, Bold Body Initiative, coaching, mindset, offers

This is a note from my journal one week into my senior year of high school.

This is one of the times that journaling really tugs at your heartstrings. If you don’t have a regular journaling practice, I’d encourage you to start, even if it’s just one line in your planner or on your phone about how you felt that day, and this is why: you gift yourself the opportunity to witness your growth in real time.

How's THAT Working For You?

How's THAT Working For You?

Stephanie Ondrusek
Bold Body Initiative, body image, coaching, offers

We tell ourselves we'll be happy when we're small enough, we'll eat the cheesecake on Friday when we've earned it, we'll love ourselves when we hit our goals.

We believe the freedom to wear a bathing suit, the deliverance that allows one to choose the curly fries as well as the salad, and the liberation to appear in candid photos are things for other people.

(Who are those people? We don't know, but they're certainly not us.)

We keep aiming to shrink ourselves, and, as a result, we stay hidden.

How's that working for you?

Fighting with Your Scale? 7 Better Ways to Measure Progress

Fighting with Your Scale? 7 Better Ways to Measure Progress

Stephanie Ondrusek
body image, coaching, FAQs + hacks, mindset

Monday morning did roll around, carrying an unwieldy dose of guilt and shame every time.

I’d wake up, feel badly for not, “sticking to the plan,” wondering why I couldn’t just have one, “cheat meal,” why I had to do this every time, why anyone ever saw anything in me other than a fraud, and I’d step on the scale.

I lived and died by that number.

If it wasn’t too far off my Friday weight, then I somehow, “got away with,’ eating foods that didn’t work for me, because my feelings didn’t matter if they weren’t reflected on the scale.

If I WAS far off my Friday weight (which I often was), I was a failure, and the only solution was to buckle down even harder the next week, promising myself that this week, a “cheat meal,” would be just one meal.

Been there? How’s it working for you?

How I Start My Morning

How I Start My Morning

Stephanie Ondrusek
coaching, body image, offers

Your alarm goes off, and you blearily rub your eyes as the mechanical beep (or, you know, the sounds of The Rock Clock) ring in your ears.

It's still dark outside. You're dreading putting your feet on the cold floor, but the bills don't pay themselves, so you swing around, hunt for your slippers (you missed one, so now you're awake), and head to the bathroom.

As you brush your teeth, you look in the mirror and take in your presence for the first time today.

What do you say to yourself?

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