Not Skinny But Not Fat - BONUS: A Body Image Convo

Episode Date: August 27, 2021

We all have such a personal, complex, and ever-changing relationship with our bodies. In this episode, Arielle joins me for a body image conversation- from fighting it, to loving it, and everything in between.  I also talk about my personal journey with my own body image, body image on The Bachelor, and how small changes in our shared experiences can make a huge difference! BODEQUALITY means that now, in every Old Navy store, you’ll see new mannequins in multiple sizes, and online you can see the styles you love on models in sizes 4, 12, and 18. It took years of work, tons of revisions, thousands of people (including customers!) to create this fully integrated shopping experience. That’s BODEQUALITY – a revolutionized shopping experience for women everywhere. See Oldnavy.com/bodequality for additional details. Styles subject to availability. Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The following podcast is a dear media production. This is Amanda Hirsch from the Not Skinny but Not Fat podcast. You might know me from Not Skinny Bonatha on Instagram where I spend my time talking about reality TV, celebrities, everything happening and pop culture. I also talk to some of our favorite celebs and reality TV stars. We talk about what's going on. Tune in every Tuesday and just feel like you're talking about your best friends in your living room. Wow, this is an exciting moment in time.

I want to take a moment, aside from the fact that Arielle, poured herself a glass of spin drift, decided to not pour me a glass, and welcome to my fucking podcast studio. Amanda's in a phase in life where everything gives her a headache. Coffee now gives her a headache. Specific coffees, like an espresso or a Starbucks. Spendrifts gives her a headache. So I really can't keep up. So you can pour yourself a drink.

And I'll be here. Okay. We're going to ignore the fact that you're annoying the fuck out of me right now because we have something really important to discuss today that I am just so excited, happy, honored, and feel like I meant to actually be the new face of Old Navy. I mean, you really are. No, I'm not the face. I'm not the face. I'm not the face, you guys, but I am here today to announce and share with everyone that Old Navy is at the forefront of a freaking shopping revolution. Okay, because let me tell you, this should have been something, everyone's going to be like, oh my God, that's amazing, which it is. But we're also going to be like, wait, why isn't this like everywhere already? Why are we living in a world where this isn't what's happening? So I'm going to be like, wait, why are we living in a world where this isn't what's happening? So I'm not.

to tell you old freaking navy which by the way I don't know you can't say we're both wearing old navy we're so cute I'm obsessed in you me too and by the way they have such cute stuff such cute like lounge wear such cute and you guys know that's like what I basically live in and really like quality materials and feel so good like I'm obsessed wait I was like loving my life last weekend when we went to old Navy come with me to old Navy I'm like I'm like I'm partnering with them. Like, I want to go shopping. She literally spent more money than me.

I bought the whole store. And she bought, like, overalls. And she bought, like, all this shit that, like, like, I buy, like, necessities. Like, I know I'm going to wear a sweatpants every day. I know I'm going to wear a white t-shirt every day. Like, when she's going to wear overalls, I don't know. Anyway, so this is really important, you guys. Like I said, Old Navy is revolutionizing the shopping experience.

And that revolution has a name. It's called Baud E. Quality. And you know what that means? That means that on the website, whether you shop online or you shop in store, you will find all sizes from double zero to 2830 from extra small to 4x. You're going to find all those sizes in one place. Okay. No more looking in a special section for your size.

No more paying a different price for a bigger size because there's more fabric or whatever the frick. No, no, no. you're going to pay the same exact price, whether you're zero, a two, a four, a 17, 18, 20, six, eight. Doesn't matter what size you are. We all deserve, this is the key word. We all deserve to have a bod-e quality shopping experience and livelihood. But if we're talking about shopping, because, I mean, let's be honest, us women fucking we love shopping.

We want to know that if we go into a store, we can go to the G&S. section find our size pay the same price as any other girl as your friend walking in with you will pay so old navy is here to make that change and be really the the front runner and hopefully just the pioneer of this and everyone will follow suit of this body quality because it's freaking time my god like i'm i'm in all of this like i'm nodding my head here i'm i'm amen hallelujah Hallelujah. You're ready to be the next president of the United States. But this is actually so important. And it's so crazy to think that this isn't a norm. And this is, you know, such an amazing initiative that Old Navy is doing. Let me tell you something. No matter what size you are. And it's all relative, right? I can feel a certain way someone can say, no, you know, you're so skinny or I'll feel, you know, it's just it's just such a relative thing for each and every one of us. But we all have. a specific relationship with our own body and we deserve that when we go shopping we shopping can be a really fun experience but it can also be an uncomfortable experience i know that i've you know when i was

younger i would go with like you know all my friends growing up we're like super skinny and i always had curves you know and they would all be the same size and share clothes and that way wasn't me i wasn't the same size as them yeah and i remember so well i went to this like really um expensive jeans store in the mall. And we also didn't have money like the rest of my friends. But that's another thing. And I remember, I was like, no, like, I don't remember what size it was. But let's say I was like, no, also four. I don't remember what it was. And this was when low cut vibes were in, low rise jeans. And I was like, no, it's fine. And she was like trying to zip it on me, like the sales lady. I was like, it's what it is. Like I wasn't breathing. And she's like,

it looks so good. You guys, these were low rise bell bottoms with like scratches. as if a hyena, like, scratched your whole body. That was the style of the time. And it was, like, also, like, 200 checkles, which, like, I don't know how my mom, like, bought me this one fricking pair. Usually we'd shop at, like, literally the market. Yeah.

And I bought it. And, like, it, like, it, literally, like I said, like, the shopping experience, the mirrors sometimes make you feel like shit. Like, you go in feeling like fucking hot shit. And then you're in that fluorescent lighting. And you try on that. Oh, my God.

And you feel like a piece of. of freaking crap. So shopping experience can go one of two ways, but old Navy's body quality is making it so you can go into an old Navy knowing you can go in with anybody, any friend, any other person, and you're going to find your size, like I said, in one section, no women's, you know, a plus size section or you're in the back where like the extra is like or no sizes. Or no sizes. How does it feel like, how does it feel like your size doesn't exist or your size, you know, like do a special order online?

Like it's not in store. It is, it's so different and it's so nice to know that everything is just going to be there in one place. Everything. Every single. So Old Navy literally heard people, like they really wanted to listen to what people were feeling about their shopping experience and how it has to do with like different body types and stuff.

And they really wanted to listen also to the point that like, Like, you know, they don't want it to have a situation where there are certain clothes that only look good if you're a certain size. So they literally made sure that every single article of clothing will look good on you, like will fit you well whether you're a size four or a size 14. And I have to be honest with you guys, my body type is like I have a smaller waist and a bigger butt like a la Kim Kardashian, except I don't have like a tailor that lives in my freaking museum of a house. house. So I literally got these high cut jeans, right, that are, like, does it have that thing where at my waist it's bigger? Yeah. It does it. Totally loose. So what I'm saying is I usually have jeans that don't fit my body well because I have a smaller waist and a bigger butt. A lot of the times the fit in the back will be like big on me here and tight on me here. And Old Navy

literally made sure that every size fits every body. perfectly as much as it can obviously yeah but it just is such an important initiative and i'm so happy to be to be part of it and even when i went to shop online because let me tell you guys it wasn't enough for me to literally go to old navy shop up the whole store i then kept on shopping online and what i loved is like oh like let's say i'll go into a listing of a of a sports bra in that in that listing that product detail page i'm going to see a woman who is a size 14 and then I'm going to go into you know the joggers you know I love those um but every color uh every color of the joggers and then I'll see a woman who's a size 10 or a size 8 so they actually

make sure to show you three different images yeah I think one a size 4 8 and 12 if I'm not mistaken and again that even if you're not like imagine just going on any you know store that you want to buy clothes at and see like different sizes. So you know like what it may look like on you. Yeah. And like models that look like you. And yeah. Because like people that look like you. I don't even know how

it's not like I literally, I remember posting once on Instagram. They're like, when we think of the word model, it's like we think of like Kate Moss and like all these really, really thin. But G.G. Yeah. Right. But like if you at the end of the day, they're modeling clothes. Right. That's their job. They're modeling the clothes.

for us to see how they look like, so then we would want to buy them. So then wouldn't you wonder, like, wait, so why would I want to see them just on, you know, 5'17 women that are 100, you know, pounds lighter than me? Like, wouldn't I want to see it on someone that looks like me?

And also half the time you don't even know if it's going to look good on you. You, like, think that it won't because you're seeing like, you know, a stick-thin model who's 5-11, but seeing then seeing a model that's a size four or a size eight and a size 12 makes such a big difference listen at the end of the day we wanted clothes to fit unreal women's bodies and old navy heard you they literally spent years listening studying modeling testing refining and perfecting

so that you and women everywhere can have amazing fashion that celebrates each of us as we are are you tired of ordering multiple sizes online to try and at home because your store didn't carry your size old navy heard you now every single size from double zero to 28 an extra small to four x is carried in every single store and ready to hit the fitting rooms with you so you guys listen at the end of the day i know do you have like do we do do you know any woman or do you have any friend that doesn't experience some sort of like shopping anxiety shopping anxiety or issues with your body you know one day I wake up and I'm like I love my body and I should accept it as it is and I should stop trying to fight it or stop trying to think that I don't

work out enough or think that I don't eat healthy enough and and if I only did then maybe you know I would be a size smaller or maybe if I did I would be more fit or maybe if I did I would lose the pregnancy weight quicker but and then I'll wake up on a day and feel this really overwhelming sense of body positivity, which I wish I had more of, right? I wish that I could have that feeling. And I think it's a work in progress. I think we all, body positivity, we should all be body positive, but it's also easier said than done to say, okay, I'm just going to be body positive about oneself. Like I think it's a work in progress to work on yourself and say everything that I was taught basically up till now and saw in the media and saw that was like claimed to be

beautiful isn't true because everybody is beautiful. Everybody is beautiful. And I think us as women really criticize are very critical of our body. And so now we live in this world that's really progressing in an amazing way to be inclusive, to be body positive. And I think us women like really need that and need to see that because it hasn't always been this way. No, it really doesn't. Never. Yeah. And so me and Amanda will always also try to to like hype ourselves up or hype each other up about being positive and remembering to do that always now so yeah i love this movement and i love this campaign i love this campaign too and i think that like i said every woman has gone through you know ups and downs of their body and as much as i can sometimes

be like oh she's you know skinny she's never dealt with anything you never know people suffer from body dysmorphia where they see themselves completely differently than what we see. And like I said, everything is relative. So if I'm feeling a certain way, somebody else can look at me and say, how the hell are you feeling that way? Or I could say that about somebody else. So it's also really tough, but we have to not judge each other and accept each woman's experience with her own body because that is her own body. And the thing that I wish women knew is like, no one cares. No one cares. Like, I wish I could have told that to myself when I was like struggling so hard comparing myself to all my friends. You know, I also hit puberty first. I got my period like first. So I had boobs and I had a button. I had something to grab as they say. And like, was I confident? Yes. I was. Thank God. My mom saying me like, was a little pretty girl in the me every morning. So I like, I'm a very confident person. But at the same time, like it did always pinch me. Like I did always feel like, like, like,

I said, everyone's sharing clothes. I can't fit in their clothes. And it goes like unspoken. Like, of course, I'm not going to say it. It was just like obvious that Amanda isn't going to borrow clothes from Rotem and Noga and all my friends that were the same size and would borrow clothes from each other. But I wish that somebody told me like or like how to whisper in my ear or understood how much it doesn't matter and how much like nobody is better than another person because of the shape of their body or the jeans. And at the end of the day, it's all fucking jeans too. It's jeans with a G, okay? Not with a J. Like it's all jeans. It's like even the color of our eyes are our jeans. Like everything. It's like, oh, you have beautiful eyes. Thanks.

Like got them in the chromosomes. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like we put such importance on like the shape of our bodies and our weights and like yeah. You know, I wanted to send you something that Lily Reinhardt put up over something that we may also not be able to control. Yeah. You know what? Because Lily Reinhart put this up. She said, oh, well, she put up this thing. you're not meant to fit into clothes. It says if a shoe doesn't fit you, you don't blame your feet. You just go find one that does.

So when a dress doesn't fit, why blame your body? You are not meant to fit into clothes. Clothes are meant to fit onto you. And if they don't, go ahead and find one that does. You define your wardrobe, not the other way around.

I love that. I love that. She also put this up. If you gain weight by eating enough, this is important for us are ill that if you gain weight by eating enough meaning not overeating and not you know binging which can be unhealthy that is the body that you are intended to have your natural body shape and size is the one where you are eating and living to align with your values and your values go beyond what you look like.

I love that. So you are enough. You are valued. You are valued. You are beautiful. You are beautiful. No, this is really important because I think that. But this just like, that just made me think of, you know, through Corona, like personal

story. I've gained weight. I've went up two sizes and my jeans. Amanda hears about it all the time. Every day. every day. And it's just like now I would, in the past, I wouldn't buy clothes that are my new size. I'd just like wait until I fit my old size. And now I am literally going out there, buying my new size, getting on clothes, making them look good on me. And it's just like really

learning, you know, how to accept that. That's called body positivity, babe. Good job. No, she really has. You really have. You haven't done. Arielle used to be, first of all, she grew up, right? Arielle is a little young. than me. She's five years younger than me. And so she was always, um, her weight was lower than mine always. Like it was a very known thing. Again, we're very open with each other obviously. And, and again, I feel like, you know how I posted my weight on Instagram a bunch? And like, it was so freeing to just realize, like, that your weight is a number. Like the way you wouldn't be embarrassed to say your height because five four, five five, whatever the frick. Like, why are, why is

weight such a touchy? It shouldn't be. It's just like a freaking number. Like, so so it is really freeing to just accept it and like accept the size you're at and and and and riel used to be like oh like I'm supposed to be like this way and I've never went above and I remember be like baby you're growing up you're not 17 anymore like metabolism changes bodies change and you really did accept it you haven't been crying about it she looks fucking amazing right like let's not freaking mistake it but again like we were saying this whole episode is that your relationship with your body is unique and it's a work in progress so don't judge I get a lot of questions about postpartum and how to, you know, deal with the weight gain and how to

deal with the aftermath. And listen, at the end of the day, it's your decision, what to do with your body. And you can embrace that weight that you gained and take your time to have it naturally come off. You can say, okay, you know what? I want to step it up a notch. And I want to watch what I'm eating in terms of like how healthy I'm eating and watch my physical activity and make sure that I'm exercising and my thing I feel like has been when I was pregnant first of all I was like this is not my time to like eat whatever the freak I want. I've done that my whole life like I've ate whatever the freak I want a lot like and I can still do that but I knew that I also didn't want to get to the point where you know I'm like I'm housing these babies I'm nourishing them

but this isn't like a free for all so I just really wanted to keep being me and eat the way I ate before I got pregnant. So I did that. And then when I gave birthless in the first few like weeks, you're like just in a twilight zone. So I literally was like shoving bagels down my throat at like midnight and like just to sustain myself. But then I was like, wait, you know, I want to eat healthy.

I want to feel awake. I want to feel, you know, revitalized. So I didn't go on a diet, but I wanted to make sure that I'm feeling healthy, that I'm eating healthy and it does feel better, you know, to do that. But will that make me skinny tomorrow? Hell no. Hell no. I'm still and like what Lily Reinhart posted, like it's not about being skinny or being fat or being not skinny but not fat. It's about being whatever size that you are when you're eating, you know, healthy or healthy enough because we all have, you know, our days. But like we all do at the end of the day, you know, you know how Lizzo,

Lizzo's like, I freaking work out every day. Like what is this perception that because my body is this way that I don't work out? Like it doesn't mean that tomorrow you're going to look like freaking Kim Kardashian's body by Mel or whatever the prick. Like that doesn't happen. And again, I really want to go back to the point that like nobody cares. Nobody, I went through so much of my freaking teenagehood, whatever, walking around with my stick thin friends, feeling like, I'm you know bigger than them and that's why even though guys really liked me so I wasn't insecure about that

but I was just insecure in general and if I could just say to myself literally no one cares no one is saying oh she probably weighs this and she probably weighs this and her butt is bigger and her arm looks bigger from that angle or smaller her ass isn't fat enough or her cats are large

it nobody cares nobody cares so stop caring stop caring. And this is just, I really just really want, you know, and I really just hope that not only clothing companies follow suit with old navies, body quality, but also I want to see people of all shapes and sizes on reality TV shows. Yeah. On The Bachelor. On The Bachelor. On Bachelor. On Bachelor. What did we hear once about The Bachelor that they don't cast anybody that's like above a size four? I think we saw that. But like, yeah, we'd love to see more.

imagine just seeing a girl that's like me or like just a normal body like not like because I guarantee you there's not a girl that went on the bachelor that it's above a size probably let's say six I don't think there's a size eight even but I don't even want it to be talked about I just wanted to be like normal variety of shapes sizes and colors and just diversity in every which way you know what I mean amen preach freaking men. So you guys, body quality means that now in every store, you'll see new mannequins in multiple sizes. And online, you can see the styles you love on models in sizes 4, 12, and 18. It means a consistent and comfortable fit for every size, double zero through 30, extra small through 4X. It took years of work, tons of revisions, thousands of people, including customers, to create the fully integrated shopping experience. That's BOD Equality, a revolutionized shopping experience for women everywhere. See Old Navy.com slash bod equality for additional details, style subject to availability.

Ariel, this is such an important conversation and I'm so happy that you were here to talk with me about it. And you guys, feel free to any, like just any time, reach out to me to. talk to me about, you know, how you're feeling. And I will continue as well, Ariel and as well, I'm sure every one of us to work on ourselves to accept us as we are, to stop fighting the body that we were given and realize that this body, like these boots were made for walking, this body was made for eating and breathing and living and drinking and loving and doing whatever the freaking housing a baby freaking making you breathe and pee and poop like our bodies were meant to do so much more than just look like I don't know something you saw in a magazine that

shit doesn't exist anymore moving forward like this is about really just inclusivity yeah of all shape sizes and and bodies you guys so don't reduce me to a body no you can use the microphone you can reduce me honestly you can reduce me anytime you want you can just call me hot and friggin reduce me you're all hot you're all beautiful you guys but honestly go to old navy.com i'm loving all the fits i got from old navy and i just love the shopping experience love seeing women of different shape sizes colors just like on the app without even thinking about it wasn't a plus size section it wasn't a special it's just like literally oh this woman looks like me or this woman looks like my friend or this woman. It's just so fun. It's such an

inclusive, amazing shopping experience and also in store all the freaking sizes, every piece of clothing, no special sections, no nothing. So old navy.com slash body quality. And let's give the conversation going. You know, nobody's perfect. I'm sure we're going to mess up along the way. I'm sure we're going to be hard on ourselves along the way. I'm sure we're going to judge ourselves and each other along the way. But you know what? We came a freaking long way since like, Perez Hilton was freaking, you know, mocking women for the different weights that they are, like, I don't know, 15 years ago. We came such a long way.

And there's only, like, more of a way to go. And there's only more of a way to go, you guys. So love you. Love yourselves. Love your body. And let's think about what we're eating later tonight. Amen, Amanda. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Not Skinny but Not Fat.

Follow me on Instagram at Not Skinny but Not. not fat. Subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any episodes. Rate the podcast that you love so much on Apple Podcasts and write a little review. If you tell me you did, I'll give you a big virtual smoocheroo. Thank you guys so much for listening and I'll see you next Tuesday.