The Liz Moody Podcast - How I Learned To Love My Body With Victoria Browne: A Raw Conversation About Intuitive Eating, Feeling Sexy, and Social Media

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

TED Talk speaker, former D1 athlete, podcast host, creator, & entrepreneur Victoria Browne shares her own self-love journey + tips for healing your relationship with food.  Victoria’s personal journey, from her eating disorder to being a D1 athlete to sharing her body on social media the subtle ways our childhood can impact our relationship with our body the impact of being an athlete on the way you view your body  the best way to communicate with your partner about body image issues how to feel sexier in your body  how to walk into every room with more confidence  tips for starting an intuitive eating journey  a first step for starting to heal your relationship with food TODAY  and so much more!  For more from Victoria, follow her @victoriabrowne on Instagram and TikTok and check out RealPod wherever you listen to podcasts.   Check our previous How I Learned To Love My Body episodes: with Raeann Langas, Katie Sturino, Achieng Agutu, Britney Vest, and Hunter McGrady.  To join the Healthier Together Podcast Club Facebook group, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/healthiertogetherpodcast. This episode is sponsored by:  AG1 by Athletic Greens: visit athleticgreens.com/healthiertogether and get your FREE year supply of Vitamin D and 5 free travel packs today.  Pique: go to piquelife.com/LIZMOODY and use code LIZMOODY for 15% off plus free shipping FOR LIFE on Pique’s Radiant Skin Duo. Paleovalley: head over to paleovalley.com and use the code LIZM for 15% off. Cymbiotika: get 15% off using code LIZ at cymbiotika.com.  Healthier Together cover art by Zack. Healthier Together music by Alex Ruimy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Healthier Together podcast. I'm your host, Liz Moody, and I'm a best-selling author and long-time journalist. This podcast is all about helping you live your healthiest, happiest life, whether we're learning how to balance our hormones, getting the most effective tips for improving our sleep, or finding out exactly how to get the careers of our dreams. And yes, those are all real episodes, so if any of those topics sound good to you, scroll on back in the archives. I am so excited to welcome Victoria Brown to the podcast for the newest edition of our How I Learn to Love My Body series, where I interview some of the world's most inspiring

women on their ongoing and evolving relationships with their bodies. I very intentionally chose the word love for this series because I think that love is a complex relationship with harder days and easier days and everything in between. And this series reflects those complexities. If you want to listen to other episodes in the series, I'll put some links in the show notes. We have one with Megabave founder, Katie Sterino. We have one with Sports Illustrated model, Hunter McGrady, and many, many more. Victoria is the founder and CEO of Mental Health Nonprofit, the Hidden Opponent, and host of the popular podcast, RealPod.

She has amassed a following of over 1.5 million across social media platforms, and she's been featured in publications like The New York Times, People, e-news, and more. She is incredibly open and honest and raw, and I absolutely loved our conversation today. We get into Victoria's personal journey from her eating disorder to being a D1 athlete to sharing her body on social media, the subtle ways that our childhood can impact our relationship with our bodies, how being an athlete changed Victoria's relationship with her body. The best way to communicate with your partner about body image issues, how to feel sexier in your body, how to walk into every single room with more confidence, tips for starting an intuitive eating journey,

a first step for starting to heal your relationship with food today, and so much more. I would love to hear your thoughts and your biggest takeaways as you're listening to the episode, so definitely screenshot and tag me. I am at Liz Moody and tag Victoria. She is at Victoria Brown with an E on the end on Instagram. Victoria also interviewed me on her podcast, which is called RealPod. It's out today. So if you want to go listen to that, you can search RealPod wherever you listen to podcasts. I went really deep on my personal journey, on my relationship with my own body.

And I shared some of the wellness advice that's changed my life. So I cannot wait to hear what you think of that episode. Again, you can find that by searching RealPod wherever you listen to podcasts. If something resonates with you from this episode, please share it with somebody that you think would benefit as well. This is a super chatty episode that I hope will feel just like you're having a drink with friends, but it is also so inspiring to hear Victoria's journey, which again, she's just so raw and open and honest about. Thank you so much for continuing to share the podcast with friends and family members and coworkers. All of the growth that we've seen with this podcast is all because of you sharing the podcast.

episodes, and I appreciate you so, so much for it. I do want to add a quick warning, given that we will be discussing topics that relate to body image and eating disorders. If this is not a conversation that's going to feel good for you to listen to at this time, I totally get it. This might be an episode for you to skip right now. Okay, let's get right into it with Victoria Brown. I walked into this late. You walked into this interview late. I said I'm trying to work on not being late anymore and you said you had thoughts on that so tell me your thoughts. Okay, I have so many thoughts because you said it's rude to be late. It's like respecting people's time, which I totally vibe with that. And I felt that way for a really long time. If my friends were a minute late,

I'd be like visibly angry. Like how could you be late for me? Respect my time. And then when I was a college athlete, I always had to be on time. And if you were a minute late, there was a running penalty at 6 a.m. And the next morning. A running penalty by that. You mean you literally had to run. I literally mean if you showed up at 301 and practice was at 3.3. three, no excuse is good enough. Everyone was running at 6 a.m. the next morning. There's a lot of reasons I could not be a college athlete, but that is we will add that to list.

You know the list on TikTok of like the reasons not to have children and it's added to the list and it's all these things. That's like my running list of reasons. Oh my God. That's funny. I could not have been a college athlete. Okay. So lots of anxiety from that, right?

I'm always checking my watch, always concerned. So graduating college, I did come out with even an extra heightened. I always used to be on time. And then as I got more into my philosophical, meditative, flowy state of life, I've had to check myself on what's the urgency? What is my sense of urgency in every situation that I feel like, we have to be on time. It's like I have life in this chokehold. If someone's late, I get 10 minutes to be with myself or reflect or do something I maybe didn't have time for. And then I read this book by Eckhart Tolle, he doesn't believe in waiting. He thinks waiting doesn't align with

the pursuit of the present moment because if you're waiting, you're not being present because you're believing that someone needs to come and arrive or something needs to happen for you to have permission to keep going in your life. Ever since I read that, I just think about when I'm waiting for someone, I have time there to breathe to think about my thoughts. I have permission to keep going in my life and not act like it has to stop until they arrive. And the last little part of it is grace. Like I left on time this morning. You left on time this morning. There was traffic. We didn't know about. There are some people who, yeah, they're not respectful people. And I think you can sniff that out. But for the most part, I so appreciate when someone gives me grace.

It's okay. Don't stress about it that I want to give that grace to other people. I think there's something greater there, too, about just assuming positive intentions generally in life. if somebody's late, it's probably not because they don't respect you, although again, we do know those people. For me, when I'm late, it's because I'm terrible at time management. I think I can fit in 45 things into an hour, and I never can't. I can fit like three things into an hour. I have an abundance myself with time that doesn't align with clock time. And there are moments that you need to show up on time for people and you need to be there when I'm late. My energy can be affected if I'm scattered or I'm frantic.

So of course, we all want to aim to be on time. I guess when I said I had a lot to say about it, it's how I've grown so much from letting time and the schedule control me. To just being like, at this point, I'm going to get there when I get there. I didn't know about the construction versus sitting in the car like, oh my God, I'm a horrible person. I feel like that in general with car stuff, when people get so built up in the car or they have road rage or things like that, my husband doesn't have road rage, but he's definitely the more angry driver. than I am. And I'm just like, it's not going to change anything. I'm not normally good at letting go of things. But in the car, I'm just like, this isn't going to change any outcome. So why are we wasting our energy in this way? I completely agree. I feel bad or compassion for people who have that

because today I was in a lane that was standstill and there was a lane to my right. And I was like, oh, I'll go in the lane to my right. Someone probably trying to take a left. I get in the lane to my right. I realize it's a right turn only. I need to go straight. So I get back into my lane. Car behind me honks. Okay. So we're going to get into a lot of your life. We're going to get into a lot of your journey and your relationship with your body. But I want to start first with the all-important question. What is your favorite Taylor Swift song and why? Liz, thank you for giving me this gift of this question. It is so hard for me to pick my favorite, but I did have one come to mind immediately. You belong with me from Fearless, a classic.

I just remember the first time I heard that song in the summer. And I'm also a hopeless romantic and I love love. And just this idea of this girl who loves her neighbor and their friends and he's got this mean girlfriend and she just wants to be seen. The whole thing was done so well. The bridge of that song, I remember you. It is so emotional. That song, it just reminds me my childhood.

It reminds me why I fell in the Taylor Swift. So that is one of my all times. favorite. What do you think it is about Taylor Swift? I have theories on why she's transcended normal pop star status, I think, at this point. What do you think it is about her that resonate so deeply? I can only speak for myself, but somehow every single album, I resonate with it in my life. I love her music. I feel so connected to it. I think it's genius. I think she's so wildly talented. I think she's such an artist. She's more than just someone who gets a hit song written for her and does it the way that everyone's done it before.

For me, growing up, she just really symbolized this idea of romance and dreaming and love and just really hit with me. And then as I grew up, I was going through a time in life where I didn't feel liked by people and I didn't feel accepted. and she released reputation that hit for me. And I was like, yes, I feel the same way as you. And then she released Lover and literally Lover is like three summers now. I want them all. I'd been with Max for three summers. Anti-hero, it's as if she pulled it from my brain.

And I know there's so many people that feel that way, too. I've just always connected with her. I don't fan girl over a lot of people. I think a lot of people are badass. I respect a lot of people. I don't feel the way I feel about a person I've never met or a celebrity, the way that I do towards Taylor Swift. She's one of the only ones I think I wouldn't.

be okay if I met them. I mean, I'd be cool because I'd be like, okay, here's the things we have in common. Here's my case for why we should be best friends. And I've prepared all of that. But I would have a harder time with her than many celebrities who I've managed to be like, I've met enough of them. We're normal people. Like they all poop and do all of the stuff that the rest of us do. I know she poops, but it's, I don't know. I'm always like, what does she do every day? I want to know that. I do too. And she's so private about it. I'm so curious. I want a day in her life that doesn't include songwriting or working on music. What do you do in the morning? What time do you like to wake up? What's your morning routine? We don't know anything. And that's why also she's transcended is she's so unreachable. But then she's so relatable when you do hear from her. That's my theory. One of my theories. She's a lot of things she does so well is she expresses our deepest insecurities and these things that you feel shame when you talk about. Like all I do is try, try, try. All of these things that you're just like, I'm not supposed to try. I'm supposed to be effortless. And she's that.

who acknowledges all these thoughts we're all thinking, but she's also immensely successful and immensely talented. So if she has these icky, shameful parts of herself and can achieve what she's achieved, maybe I can love the icky, shameful parts of myself, too. That's my theory. I completely agree. Let's talk about your body. This is a series I like to do, which is called How I Learn to Love My Body. And I love the word love for this series because I think that love is a really complicated relationship. Love has ups and downs and complexities. And so I really like to use the word how I learned to love my body. I would love to hear your sort of first feelings of negativity you ever had towards your body. I'm excited to dive into this today with you because I feel like

my body and my relationship with my body was a big part of my content in 2020, 2021. And then I really feel like in 2022, I've geared away from it and we can get into that. I remember becoming aware of my body and what it was supposed to look like at a young age, 11, 12. But the first time I ever remember crying over my body was when I really wanted to order these shorts from American apparel. I don't think it's in business. And I have my mom measure me. You get the measuring tape and you get measured. We don't know what we're doing. And she measured around my butt for the part that was supposed to be around my waist. So we had a size incrementally larger that I typed in as opposed to what the measurement was actually for. So when I went to order the shorts, I was going to like

the most big size that they had. I just remember feeling not good enough. You had all these messages about supposed to be a size small. Supposed to be a size medium. I grew up playing sports. It's time to get your shirt for practice. What size are you? I'm a small. I'm a small. Raise your kind of your medium. I never wanted to be a large because you have all these messages from society telling you, you want to be smaller. So when I ordered these shorts in an XL, I just remember crying to my mom, like, I have to order these shorts. Of course, she's so sweet. It's okay. It's okay. Then the shorts come. They don't even stay up because they're so big. And so now it's this joke between me and my mom. Like, oh my God, remember when I traumatized you when you were like a little girl?

But that's the first time I remember feeling not good about my body. It's so interesting with the athlete dynamic because a huge refrain of mine for my body and something that I love to talk about with my community is that your body is for living, not looking. Your body is for the experiences that you have in it. It's one of my life mottos. And it's really helped me in those moments where I'm like, should I wear the swimsuit on the beach? And it's like, I'm wearing the swimsuit on the beach so I can go play in the ocean, not

so that I can be on display for other people. And I would think as an athlete, again, I'm not an athlete, that you would really internalize what your body can do for you rather than how your body looks. Did you not have that experience or what was that like for you? You would think, but growing up, athlete or not athlete, we're all receiving the same messages. The brainwashing or the conditioning that you experienced and other women did of what they were supposed to look like. We saw those same commercials. We flipped through those same magazines.

Yes, we are playing sports, but no, there wasn't messaging that said, oh, but if you're an athlete and your body is being used in a certain way, that wasn't the message. That's a message we're seeing now, which is great. But no, we had the same messaging, which I thought made it slightly more difficult personally because I'm in an environment where my body is literally being moved every day to increase in size and increase in strength. And I'm expected to look like I could walk the Victoria's Secret fashion show. But they don't have quads like me. They don't have calves like me. That's why I didn't feel like I had this understanding of my body being an instrument as opposed to. do an ornament. Did that extend beyond your body? How important was the notion of being beautiful

generally to you? It was everything. I always wanted to be regarded as really pretty. I always wanted to be someone at school that the boys liked. This idea that the most important thing about a woman is how she looks, I felt that. And I don't know if it was ever explicitly said to me, but it was communicated in reading the Twilight books. And there's a full page spread. on Rosalie. She was regarded as the most beautiful. Like, you know, there's always in every movie, there's Megan Fox and Transformers, there's that it girl who everyone wants to be and all the guys like, then, yeah, in your life, you're thinking, I want to be the it girl, I want to be that person. I cared a lot about being attractive to men. I cared a lot about how I looked in comparison to

the girls that I knew. And I'm coming from a place of pretty. I'm coming from a place of thin privilege. I'm coming from a place of pretty privilege. I look closer to this beauty standard. The whole thing is just insane because if I struggled to the extent that I did with that privilege, let's think about all the other people who can't even be put in the outside of that box that society's written. What is your approach to beauty now? What place does beauty have in your life? I'm trying to figure it out. I like to feel pretty and confident. It's shifted from doing that for other people. I'm starting to fall in love with makeup. I love making my hair done. I love all that stuff. But I also love when I have no makeup on. And I love when my hair's messed and I love being in sweats.

I can show up for myself with or without the accessories, with or without those touches. As long as I have that at my core, then I'm at a good place because when I was younger, I couldn't feel beautiful or pretty unless there was a certain number on the scale or unless my hair and makeup was done a certain way. And now I have the confidence in myself and an understanding of self-worth that I genuinely would go anywhere without makeup on. What place does makeup have then to you? What is the time you would wear makeup? Why are you putting it on? I think it is so fun. I love arts and crafts. And I loved painting and I loved drawing and coloring. It's just self-care. I used to love and paint my nails when I was young. I used to love and sit in the

mirror and pop my pimples and tweez my eyebrows and do my face. Now, I love having all these different blushes and these different eyeshadows and getting to paint and put a lot on. And it's just therapeutic. For me, it's like arts and crafts time. Has been married changed that at all for you? I feel like I'd be lying if I said that had no impact. Of course, having this unconditional love from my husband, Max, no matter how I show up, how my body looks, that he loves me, that's huge. And I I don't know where I would be at in this journey had I not had that support. I want to call that for what it is. I will say, I would never say Max was in there with every up and down of my eating disorder

or every this and that with body image. No, he wasn't telling me, you're beautiful the way you are. I did a lot of this work myself or with counselors or friends. But yes, I know in my mind that I have this man who loves me and he's never. pressured me to look a certain way or be done up. Of course, I think that has an impact. I have that in my brain, maybe it's subconsciously that stability. But he hasn't been this mega force pulling me to do the work I've done on myself. Does that make sense? What was his place? You were primarily engaged in your eating disorder in college, right? Yes. You guys were in a

relationship at that point. Were you open with him about what you were going through? In the beginning, I wasn't. I was a binge eater. And I, like, vividly remember this time Max had me over for a move. and we went to the gas station to get food and we got like a little pint of Ben and Jerry's. And I just remember sitting there the whole movie thinking, oh my God, I just want to devour this whole pint of Ben and Jerry's. It's like this compulsion to eat and feeling like I can't. Max is here or I feel like not eating a lot in front of him and then I'd go home and I'd eat a lot in secrecy. So I remember when I first told him about everything and it was late at night in his bedroom and I just tried to explain what my problem was. I don't think he really understood it. I think

it's hard to understand that unless you've experienced it. But he's always just so chill and so non-judgmental. He then became aware, but like I said, wasn't in the weeds with me. Do you have any advice for somebody who is kind of struggling to open up to their partner? I think there's the eating side of it, but then there's also, I'm nervous about going to the beach because I'm uncomfortable and how my body looks right now. There's the insecurity part and then there's the eating disorder part and all of this kind of stuff to combine. Do you have any advice for somebody who's struggling to talk to their partner about that? Communication in a relationship, whether it is about this or it's not is so important.

Max and I never expect each other to be mind readers. And I think that can go down a slippery path as if you want them to read your mind. I hate to stereotype by gender, but I'm about to do it. Guys can be just so stupid. And they're not going to see that you have 30 outfits, spread over the room and it's taken you 20 minutes to get ready and just assume it's a bad body imagination. They don't freaking get it. They're just like ready to go, babe. They have no idea. Some nights, I need to be honest with Max about how I feel. For me, that looks like I don't feel good about myself

today. I'm just letting you know and I need your support or I need your love or I need you to just distract me or make jokes. It's important to communicate to your partner how you're feeling and then what you need from them because they don't know. And it's a big step to just say, hey, I'm struggling with food or I'm struggling with my body. But then is the how. How can they support you? Because that's what they're thinking. And Max knows that the way he can support me most of the time is by saying and doing nothing

and having no judgment because that's so important for me. I want to show up authentically in the space. An example is over New Year's and the holiday, I felt like I was eating more than I was hungry for and I wasn't listening for my body. and I think there was some emotional component in there. I have the scarcity minds that around food. When I go out of town, especially when I'm staying at his family's house or something, I'm always like, am I going to have enough to eat?

And I was overeating as a result anytime there was food. Then I felt that in my body and my jeans after week one of the trip. And I shared with him, that's how I'm feeling, just so that it wasn't alone in my head. When we keep these things to ourselves and we're like, oh, my God, I think my jeans are tight and I'm overeating and I'm this. and then we don't say anything, that shame, it just builds and builds, and then you feel like you go down the spiral. So I knew I had to let him in, let someone in. And so I just said, I'm feeling not super confident in my body. I'm feeling like I haven't been listening to myself and I'm not confident.

And I don't really want you to do anything about it. I just want you to know that that's how I feel. And he's like, okay, I felt better him knowing that. But he's not now at the next meal being like, babe, are you sure you want to get dessert because you told me you weren't feeling good? No, he's not saying that. And he might not do that naturally, but that could also be something to communicate to a partner. It's like, here's the place I want you to have. Here's the things I actually specifically don't want you to say. Correct. And I've told him explicitly, I want you to say nothing. I said, I never want you to make a comment on anything I'm eating at any time. Not even, oh, you're grabbing another snack. Even if it has no malicious intent, I don't want to comment. And I've had to express that to him as that is what I need to feel safe in this. relationship. I know my relationship with food. I know when I'm eating, why I'm eating. I have self-awareness. I don't want or welcome someone else's judgment or opinions. And it's important to say that because I could

understand how someone would say, wait, you just cried to me and told me, you feel like you're not listening to your body. And then we just had ice cream and now you want more ice cream. I thought I was helping you. Genuinely, they could feel that way. So you have to tell them, no, I don't want any of that commentary. I'm just letting you in on my feeling. So I feel less alone. That's all that I needed from that conversation. I'm super open with him about that. And actually recently, he had made this random joke about food, which was so weird to me because he hasn't done that in a long time. It's never funny to me. It always hits for me. I was like, okay, that was weird, but it's been like once in five years. I'm not going to say anything about it. And then another joke happened in like the next month.

Then I said to him, I was like, babe, you've made two random, super casual comments about food. I know you're not thinking twice. It just can't happen. It makes me feel unsafe. It makes me question what I'm meeting. It makes me question what I'm meeting in front of you. Those thoughts are going to send signals to the other bad thoughts and open the portal. I can't have that.

And he's like, oh my God, I had no idea. Like it's not that serious. I'm like, no, it is serious. You literally cannot make another comment like this. I think even that line unto itself, acknowledging that something that's not that serious for you can be incredibly serious for other people is such a huge thing in relationships. And we're like, I can't matter that much. Why are you being like this or whatever? But we live in different realities and different things matter to us of different importance. And just because it doesn't

matter to me with that importance, I can respect the importance with which it matters to you. And one of these instances was when we had just had in and out for dinner and then I really wanted crispy creams. I was craving crispy creams. And first of all, I recognized a privilege of wanting a food and then being able to get the food. That's not everyone's situation. I really wanted them. And I'm not going to ask my husband permission for what I can and cannot eat. So I go ahead and I order them. After I order them and they're on their way with postmates and he's sitting on the couch, I'm thinking, oh my God, these donuts are going to arrive and he's going to be like,

did you order crispy creams after we had in and out? And I'm starting to spiral with judgment and, okay, I should hide the crispy creams or I should pretend. And that's my binge eating voice sneaking back in of shame around food, shame around food. I'm allowed to have in and out and crispy creams for dessert. I'm allowed to do that. So I literally had to like pause the show and I was like, babe. And he was like what?

And I was like, I ordered donuts. And he was like, that's okay. It's okay. And I was like, I don't know why my heart's pounding. And I'm just feeling like you're going to judge me that I want these donuts for dessert. And for him, he's like, that's not that serious. Like you just want a donut. For me, that's everything because that situation could spiral a binge.

Just to your point of some things that don't seem that serious to someone else are serious to the person, considering the history or trauma they have in a situation. Yeah. I think communicating the thing you're communicating. And then almost like communicating on a scale, how serious it is is the second part of the communication that a lot of us miss, which to that point, you're communicating to him what you need in all of these situations. But to be able to do that, you need to know what you need. So how did you start to learn what was helpful to you in healing this relationship with your body and with food? I reflected on my disordered eating patterns and what was triggering for me. And I realized that. that the judgment of other people about what I'm eating is really big for me. Growing up, our kitchen was an open floor plan. And if I went to get a snack, it's like my mom would see,

my dad would see, everyone would see. And I would worry about that comment if we just ate, you're hungry again. Those little things really are hard for me to swallow. I recognized, okay, if I want to have a healthy relationship with food, my home needs to be judgment-free. I need to know I can grab any snack at any portion from our pantry and know that you're not going to give me an eye and you're not going to make a comment. For me to feel safe, that's what I had to do. Boundaries are amazing. When we think about boundaries, we think about a wall. You're building a wall. And no one wants to build a wall between themselves and their partner. You feel like that should be the most all-consuming relationship. You're fluid. But a boundary is

a wall, it's communicating what you need to feel safe. It's this circle of trust, you and your partner, you're communicating, hey, I'm going to put a boundary here because in order for me to feel safe and like I can show up as myself 100% of the time in this relationship, I'm going to need you never to make a comment about what I'm eating. And that's how I'm going to feel safe here. When we talk about boundaries, I don't want people to tense up that they're going to build a wall between them and the person that they love. Really a boundary is communicating what you need to feel safe. When you think about strength and resilience, like your ability to feel energized, to recover well, to stay strong as you get older, what do you think that actually comes from? Most people

say working out or good nutrition, and yes, of course that matters. But there is a biological foundation underneath all of that that most people are completely overlooking. I have been diving deep into this lately with the team at timeline and what I've learned has genuinely shifted how I think about my own health. Every single movement that your body makes, every step, every workout, every muscle contraction depends on energy produced at the cellular level. And at the center of that is your mitochondria. Here is the thing that nobody tells you, certainly nobody told me, starting around age 30, our mitochondria naturally become less efficient. More get damaged, more become sluggish, and over time that impacts your energy, your strength, your recovery,

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so it's easier than ever to make the switch. And if you want to grab their premium starter kit, you can use code Liz Moody for 15% off at branchbasics.com. That's code Liz Moody for 15% off the premium starter kit at branchbasics.com. And when they ask you where you heard about us, please make sure to mention the show. That is branchbasics.com and use code Liz Moody. Were there other tools both in your relationship but also just with yourself that have helped you get to where you are now with your body? And where are you now with your body, would you say? To answer your first question, and then I'll get into the second one. Body neutrality was a huge pivot for me coming from a place of always feeling like I had to be pretty, always feeling like my body had to look good or whatnot to really spend years in a place where I was shifting to just acceptance. This is my body today. I'm tired of being negative about it. I'm no longer going to praise it or prioritize it.

It's the most important thing about me. This is just where we are. And I'm not going to stare in the mirror about what needs to be better or what could be fixed or what I like. That's hard. If you go into the what I like, you're welcoming the what I don't like. You can't have a positive without a negative. That's like the ying and the yang of life. If you really want to practice body neutrality, I was super disciplined about.

I'm not going to hype myself up and say, I love this. I love that. because then I'm welcoming that negative. So I'm just going to really be neutral. This is my body. I accept it for what it is. I'm grateful for what it does for me. And similar to your language, it is through what I experience my life with. It is an instrument. It is my greatest asset. It allows me to have a beating heart, to hug other people to live on this earth. It's a beautiful thing. Period. That's what I'm going to accept. Just hammering that. And I didn't take Instagram baddy picks where I would be conscious of my body. I didn't post bikini photos.

I really was just trying to, like, disconnect head from body. And I did that for a while. And it was so helpful. I think that's what I needed. Now I'm trying to reconnect with my body. I'm trying to feel sexy in my own skin. I'm trying to love my body and my boobs and my butt and my stomach and my legs. And I'm trying because I think in a perfect.

world, we do want to feel like we can be confident and one with our body. So now I'm at that place where I'm trying to navigate that. It's hard. It's interesting because I've started to welcome that back in. But every single day, I think about how my boobs don't look good enough. I feel like they need to be more volumptuous. I feel like they need to be higher. I feel like they need to be this, that. Every day I have a criticism about my boobs. And I hadn't had that before, but I think it's because I'm trying to look at myself naked and in lingerie and feel sexy. It's tough to welcome in this, I'm going to compliment myself, but then that means the negative's going to come. And then as far as social media, back to having privilege, I don't want to lead a movement or be the sole voice of a

movement that really I already have so much privilege in. So I really pivoted away from that so that, so that other voices and people in bodies who are far more oppressed than mine and have experiences that are different than mine can be the center of attention and they can get what they deserve there. I do want to create more body image content and I love sharing about intuitive eating. I'm just figuring it out. Do you ever have the urge to not press forward with loving your body because of what it brings up with the yin and the yang and the boobs and all of that stuff

and just go back to like, well, I'll just stop with body neutrality? What's the advantage of trying to press towards this thing if it's making you feel worse in the interim? What are you trying to get to? Yeah, that's a good question. It's tough because I have confidence when it comes to talking in front of a stadium of people. I have confidence when it comes to work. I have confidence in leading a group of people. I have confidence in so many arenas.

I don't have confidence in the bedroom. I don't have confidence naked. I don't have confidence in sexual energy. And I do think that is hilarious. I mean, that's such a good question, Liz. I guess because I felt disconnected from myself when I didn't have a connection to my body. And I think there are women out there who I see that in and their bodies are not. The standard body we've seen shoved down our throats our whole life and they seem so confident and they have all this amazing energy and it flows through their

entire body and I feel like I'm stopping mine at my neck. And I think it's limiting. me in the sense of wanting to be one with nature and one with the universe, I don't want to fight against my being. Did the boudoir shoot that you did help? It definitely helped a ton. But once again, when I'm then looking at those photos or I'm liking my body, it's so hard to not go back into the conditioning of, well, what's a body that we can like? What do you think about this? I'm so curious. Are you in a body neutrality space? Like, if you were being my therapist, what do you think the answer is here. I think that it's just a journey and it's the kind of thing like so many things in life where we think we arrive at a place and then we're done. And I feel like our relationships

with our body are just going to be this ongoing lifelong relationship. And I think sometimes we're going to need to lean more into, oh my God, my boobs are fabulous and I want to shake them in everybody's face. And I love my boobs and I go through those phases quite often. But other times I really want to focus on hiking or the things that my body feels like. And other times I just am like, I want to talk about my brain. I want to talk about my thoughts. I actually don't really want to talk about how I look whatsoever. So I almost think maybe part of what you're experiencing is you've been in one phase of the journey and then you're going to be in another phase of the journey and then maybe you're going to be in another phase of the journey. And I think the phase you're in right now

makes a lot of sense. You just got married. You're this blossoming like woman in your life right now. I think it completely makes sense to be wanting to lead into the sexual side of yourself. Yeah. And as I think about it more right now, I feel like the eyes of other people in social media is also really hard for me because everything I do is basically online for the most part. I love it. I love wearing my heart on my sleeve. It's also I want to start to lean into my body more and accept it more.

And then that would need to come through on social. I say need because that's how I am. And then I'm opening it up to the opinions and comments of others. Or for me feeling really good, possibly affecting another girl who's like, well, I want to look like that. I don't want to ever cause that for someone. It's weird. It's not like I live in a faraway state somewhere working a job in my small town and

no one knows I exist and I can like wear whatever the hell that I want. I'm trying to get on this journey. And also I have everyone watching. And if I wear a promiscuous top and I try to get my boobs out to feel sexy, there's dads who follow me because they want their daughters to be inspired. And I'm like, oh, my God, or there's a male coach following me because I spoke at their school and he's following me. It sounds like also you're kind of trapped in this place of what you need for yourself and being perceived so, so largely and having that be a huge part of your life. You know more than anybody that you can't please everybody that is perceiving you at any moment in time. that's something else. I really have been blessed with this amazing community. And I always remind

myself when I see other people who have like millions and millions and millions of followers, I'm like, Victoria, you do not want that. Even though it's easy to want that, I'm like, you do not want that because you have this amazing community who always uplifts you. And it would just be so hard to always have people shitting on me. I do have a lot of positivity. And I've gotten better at handling the negativity. It's still external validation. And I think it's always, hard to go on the journey from external validation to internal validation, and it's infinitely harder when external validation is literally part of your everyday life and your job. Yeah, I've really been battling in my mind with giving myself permission to grow change and be who I am.

And is that what the people want for me? Why am I thinking about altering my life and what I want to do and how to show up in the world because of what other people want for me? It's such a powerful, beautiful statement, but it's so intractably tied to your job at this point, too. It's a beautiful statement to say, oh, I shouldn't care about what other people want for me at all. I am my own person. I need to be allowed to grow and evolve. And that is 100% true. But it is also true that you are living a job where other people are going to tell you their opinions on you.

So, of course, it's going to be hard for you to disentangle those things. It's crazy to put pressure on yourself to not feel that way. Yeah. And especially coming from this athletic background, that's where I started in this space. I was the volleyball player from USC. Now, I don't know how far you'd have to scroll to find a piece of content that is sports-related. And I thought about that this morning. I'm like, oh, my God, should I make an effort to post some more sports content to keep that content pillar hot, to keep that part of my schick?

And it's like, I don't play volleyball anymore. I struggle with wanting to give myself permission to step into my power and to put on an alpha that makes me feel hot as fuck and post it. But then is that out of my niche? And is that not what they're here for? I'm just really struggling with that. I'm trying not to get emotional about it. It's one of the scariest parts of social media is that social media wants people to be the same and people are immutable. By definition, by being humans on this planet, we are trying to grow and evolve and change.

And social media doesn't like for that both algorithmically. And for people, the familiar feels good. There's so many ways in our life where it just feels good. to open a page and expect to see what you're going to see. It's why we watch the same sitcoms. It's why we're all rewatching the office and new girl. Change is scary and changes hard. And if you think about how scary and hard changes on that individual level, it's like

everybody else is reflecting that feeling on you as well. And you're carrying their fear of your change and growth and evolution as well. And I think saying it's hard enough just for me, I'm going to deal with it just for me, is part of the challenge. And I also have people immediately responding. to my change. Every time I post a photo, I lose followers. I gain followers every day and I lose followers every day. And that's everyone in this space. I don't look anymore. I mean, I don't look anymore because I don't want to see it. But I know it happens. And sometimes you'll see your numbers,

50 followers. And then the next day, it's at 49. And you're like, okay, I know I lost people. Everything I do is being rated because I know what good engagement is in a number. I know what good comments are in a number. It's hard. And sometimes when I post really vulnerable things nowadays, I'll turn the likes off because I don't want to see what the engagement's going to be. Whenever my likes are off, that's because it hit for me. Whatever I posted, I've actually realized that I feel like I've gotten less shamelessly vulnerable. I used to just be so freaking like diary, everything on my mind. And I just realized I've kind of gone away from that because there are now more eyes and more comments and more opinions. And it's hard for me to like open up my heart and then

have it be judged. And then I'm like, what the hell? That's getting me away from everything that I wanted to do in the first place. I completely agree. What has helped you the most to feel sexy? Like what's a few things that have helped you on that journey? I have thought a lot about how the people that I think in life are sexy and confident are the people who exude. just that authentic belief in themselves. I used to think it was literally how this person looked. And now it couldn't be farther from the truth. I see beautiful people who have the worst energy or seem like they have no confidence in themselves. And I see other people who might not be the one that 10 to 10 people are attracted to at a bar, but they have this thing. When you're in a

Starbucks or you're in a grocery store and you can see someone who just walks through life like they're the moment. And they are the moment. When you believe you're the moment, you are the moment. I've just watched other people have confidence and I've seen strangers have confidence. It is just how you feel about yourself. It is literally up to me and how I walk into a room and how I feel about myself. If I'm confident and I have permission to feel sexy. On a very pragmatic level, how do you get that energy? How do you feel like you're the moment?

It's believing like you're hot shit and telling yourself, I'm hot shit. I'm a bad bitch, which also I'm trying to be careful. I've gotten away from the language of I'm the hottest girl in the room. And it doesn't have to be specific to a body part. I'm also trying to figure out how to hype myself up without it being because I'm looking in a mirror right now or because I like this photo of me. It's just how I feel putting on an outfit that makes me feel hot, closing my eyes and listening to a song and channeling.

I'm sexy. But Liz, I don't like literally have the answer to that. I'm right here in the thick of it with the people listening who are like, I also don't know what to do. I think even acknowledging that is probably powerful for people because you do come off as very confident. And I think that knowing that people who come off in that confident way are still having their own struggles is really empowering unto itself. Yeah, that's why I was kind of separating confidence before because I'm confident enough to have this conversation for the world to hear. That's confidence.

I'm confident in what I'm not confident about. I'm confident in sharing my insecurities. So I do have this base level of what I view as wearing my heart on my sleeve, but then I do struggle. But I also have to be proud of myself for being able to be so honest. It makes so much sense to me. And I also think it's a really beautiful sentiment that we're almost limited on a societal level in the ways that we define confidence. Like we define it in this one almost like this extrovert who walks into the room, who owns almost as very massive. energy we have come to accept is confidence. And I actually think that there's so much confidence

in vulnerability in wearing your heart on your sleeve and saying, I don't know, and saying I'm trying, that takes such an incredible level of confidence. And I just think we need to catch up a society to acknowledge that that is confidence too. I completely agree with that. You mentioned intuitive eating. You're obviously very famous for your intuitive eating videos. I've eaten many a meal with you on social media. I love that. Can you tell me how you, you found and discovered intuitive eating in your life? I discovered intuitive eating in college when my mom got me a book called Breaking Free from Emotional Eating by Janine Roth. And it was when I was working through having a binge eating disorder and how to overcome it. And my mom was Googling

emotionally eating and she found the book. That's very sweet that she was doing that. So sweet. And she also tried to lie to me and tell me she'd read it years ago. And she just found it on her desk. and I was like, that's a lie. It's literally called Breaking Reef from Emotional Eating, which is so embarrassing that I duct tape the cover of the book so that my teammates and no one could see what I was reading. And I just remember starting that book and feeling like it was literally about me. I think I read it in like two days.

It was the first time I'd ever thought, it's not about how many calories are in an egg white. Do you want an egg white? I think that's literally a sentence from the book. And I just had always been told, eat six meals a day. No, eat three meals a day. Eat this, eat that. Stop eating after seven. No, stop eating after six. We read the magazines. We see the diets. It's all about being told what to eat. I'd literally never been instructed to close my eyes, take a deep breath and think, am I hungry right now?

I know it's lunchtime, but am I hungry? And then if I'm hungry, what sounds good? How do I want to feel when I eat the food? How do I want to feel after I'm done? I'd never had a mindful experience with food. It was always this thing that was literally used to help me achieve a look of my body. It was never fuel. That was the book that introduced me to the philosophy of intuitive eating. That book really changed my life. And then from there, I, of course, learned more through finding other resources. And the book, Intuitive Eating by Elise Rush and Evelyn Tribale, is phenomenal.

And I think that's a great place to start. If anyone's wondering where to start, I would start with that book. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'm a very black and white person. I'm very decisive in the things that I do and the things that I want. And because of that, I read this book and it rang such a bell for me that I was one of the rare cases of people who were able to dive in and flip that light bulb. Of course, I struggled in the few months doing it and figuring it out. But for the most part, I had a miraculous transition into this better relationship with food.

A core part of intuitive eating is getting in touch with that inner voice inside of you that says, I'm hungry, this is what I want, this is what I crave. And like you've said, there are so many messages externally. We see billboards all the time. We're seeing commercials. We're hearing ads. We're flipping through magazines. We're looking on social media.

There are so many messages about what we should and should it be eating at any moment that I feel like sometimes that little voice inside of us is so tiny. and so hard to hear, and we don't even realize how much we're being manipulated by those external messages. How do we listen to that little voice? How do we find it? You are exactly correct that we have ignored our voice. We've locked it up. We've never fed it. It's like literally scared of us. It's hiding in the back of our brain. Like, she's always been so mean to me. Right. And that's okay. We have to have compassion for ourselves. It makes perfect sense why we're struggling with this. And then we have to give ourselves a chance to find it again. And we have to do that with lots of patience and lots of compassion.

And it's not always going to be perfect. We might think, okay, yeah, I listen to my body and I really want to eat this apple. And then you eat it and you're like, wait, I just finished the whole apple and it wasn't even good and it wasn't what I wanted. You're going to have a learning hump to go through where you're going to have many successes and many failures. you're going to be up and down. If you zoom, zoom, zoom out all the way, it's going to trend upwards. But if you zoom all the way in, it's going to be up and down and up and down. And you have to have compassion and patience and love for yourself on those ups and downs. However many years I am into intuitive eating, genuinely feeling like an expert at it personally in my relationship

with food, I still have times where I eat things and I'm done and I'm like, ugh, why did I eat that? I was just so frantic. I didn't pause. I knew it wasn't even good. Now I feel sick to my stomach. I knew better. But you have to follow that with, okay, this has always been hard for me. I understand. I'm human. Humans are imperfect. What did I learn from this? Well, I learned that when I have a really busy day, I need to slow down and take a deep breath before I make my decision, that if I take my first two bites and it's not feeling good to stop and think about it a little bit longer. And then three, make peace with this because I've learned from it. And now next time I'll try to make a more mindful decision. We really just have to be kind with ourselves. And the other

thing I'd say about helping this voice come up is it's developing that awareness with yourself. And it is slowing down and listening to your thoughts. And you're going to have those automatic thoughts of you can't have that as too many calories. Or, oh my God, I can't believe you ate that. Or we need to go on a diet tomorrow. I still have that over New Year's when I felt like I wasn't being very mindful. I was like, oh my God, okay, the minute I get home, we're going to be strict. And then I was like, oh, hey, hey, shaming voice. There you are. And that was my devil coming back because it wants to find any moment to come back. And I'm like, okay, I know where that voice is coming from, but I'm not going to listen to it because I know what path that leads me down. Instead,

I'm going to have compassion. I'm going to know what I learned from this. And tomorrow, I'm just going to be a bit more mindful. That's it. I'm not making these drastic changes. Like I said, I'm very black and white. So my go-tie. to is, okay, no carbs. We're going on a workout. We're going to do this extreme thing. And I have to literally simmer myself down and be like, we're not going to be black and white. We're just going to have a more mindful slow day tomorrow. I love that. If somebody listening wanted to kind of experiment with eating more intuitively or tap into that voice a little bit more, obviously check out the books that you mentioned. But is there a tip you could give them if they wanted to

play around with something in their head today? The next time that you eat today, I want to, you to romanticize this experience. It's going to be you in the food in love. The best thing to do is to eat with no distraction, no phone, no TV, just you sitting. That's the second guideline is let's sit, sit with no distractions, and very slowly eat this food and think about how it feels when you eat it. Think about the taste, the texture, how it feels when you swallow, how it feels in your stomach. After you take the first three bites, set the food down, put your hands on your lap, take a deep breath, slow the experience down, be mindful, then continue to eat. Really try to have this mindful experience with the food. And the reason why I say put the food

down and slow down comes from I was a compulsive eater. So I would just scarf it down, no thinking. So I always need to slow myself down and check in with my body because I was used to where reading, start time, and then I don't wake up to reality until my plate is clear. So you're slowing down and allowing your body, okay, I'm going to let you tell me how we're feeling. Are we liking the food? Are we not? Are we full? Are we not? Do we want more? Are we feeling full? You have to give yourself that time and that space for that voice to have an opportunity to talk to you. I also think it's such a good argument for making our food tastes really delicious, which obviously I've spent a huge chunk of my career doing. I love being like, you shouldn't eat vegetables because because you're trying to eat vegetables or you're supposed to eat vegetables. You should eat vegetables because they taste phenomenal and let's not prepare them in a way where you are chugging through them and you're just like, oh my God, I have to eat another carrot. You're like, oh, I have these like horissa-covered carrots and they're so delicious and I just want to eat all of them. And I think that having any sort of impetus to have food be this really beautiful experience in

your life is such a nice thing. We are allowed to love food. Someone told us that we're not allowed to enjoy eating. We're supposed to eat half the serving of a man next to us. We're supposed to like birds and we're not supposed to enjoy it. I love food. I literally live for food. I love to know what we're eating for dinner. I love food and I used to feel insecure about that or like it was gross or it wasn't feminine. You're allowed to love food. And I think that's also part of recovery and healing your relationship with food is allowing yourself permission to enjoy eating. you're allowed to enjoy eating regardless of what your body looks like or what you ate prior. I completely agree.

Okay, I want to touch on the filter thing for a second because you're famously anti-filter, which I love. If somebody listening was like, I would love to stop using filters, I can recognize it's distorted my image of myself, but I feel ugly when I don't put them on at this point. What would you tell them? If they're literally like, I feel ugly without a filter, that's serious, right? We want to look at that because you want to feel like you can show up in the world as yourself. So if you don't feel great without a filter, I think a healthy next step might be, okay, maybe I need some time away from posting photos of myself. I'm not going to make you go post a no selfie photo if you're not ready to do that.

I don't want you to then have that out in the world and be feeling not good about yourself. But maybe we need to step away from this for a little bit to give ourselves time to look up into the world, enjoy our lives, reconnect, and then hopefully kind of come back with some more of that confidence to post something without as heavy as a filter. Maybe you just decrease it a little bit. Hopefully we can get all the way to no filter. When I was working through my body image issues, just being in photos was hard for me because I'd compare myself to the other girls in the photo. I'd look at my body immediately. So I didn't get in photos for a few months because that's a situation that's not going to help me as I heal my relationship with my body. I waited until I was at a point where I was

like, I can get in the photo and I'm not going to run to the phone to see how it looks. And whoever post it and tags me, that's what they do. You need to give yourself. the time. If you genuinely do not feel like you can show up online without a filter, I would just encourage you to take some time away from the phone. And can you make an argument to us as to the benefits of not using filters? Each time we use a filter because we feel like we need it, we further empower that belief inside of us, that we are not good enough without it and that we need this to show up in the world. I talk about that on my page every time. I want to swipe to Paris. It is so easy. It is a millisecond with your thumb and you have this filter and you look a little bit more flawless. And I will have times I'm like, oh, I just want to swipe right. It looks so much better. I have to take a stance for myself, for other people that I am not going to swipe right because that is my fight back against why I can show up in the world as I am. Each time you use a filter, you're furthering that belief that you're not good enough without it. And

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Again, that's 15% off at OneSkin.co with code Liz. How does using a filter sit alongside other things that kind of say I need to tweak myself to appear in society? I'm thinking like dyeing your hair, using Botox, using makeup, all of these types of things. It's fun to say makeup is arts and crafts, but we do do so many things that change our appearance publicly. I could walk into a room without makeup and with makeup. I feel confident 100% with or without it. In this example, you said this as someone who feels, ugly without the filter. So if someone is able to post photos without a filter and then they love

to do a filter, all power to you. Live your life, girl. But if we're talking about in this context, someone who cannot show up online without filters, that's where if I could not show up anywhere without makeup, I would want to reevaluate how I feel about makeup. That's a really nice distinction. I heard on a podcast, I forget what podcast it was, that plastic surgeons are getting more requests for people to look like their filters. It used to be like, oh, I want Angelina Jolie's lips. And now people literally show up with a filtered version of themselves and they're like, I want to be made to look like this. So scary and it's so sad to think about that that is taking away from our ability to love what we actually look like. It's this false perception that's not even the gussied up,

glammed up celebrity. It's like a different version of you, which is sadder and scarier to me, I think. For sure. And everyone's on their own journey. And I have friends and I follow people who always have a filter on. They always have Paris on. And that's fine. I don't think they should be in prison. I don't think they're bad people. There are people I follow who filter everything, but I love their content. I love who they are. Nowadays in society, people are like, you believe in diet culture and we can't be friends, and you're a horrible person. Everyone is figuring it out. I don't have judgment or hate for people who are at a different place in their journey than me, because that would have been unfair if when I was struggling and I was using filters and face-tuning my body, people just wrote me off. I think those are the

people that need the most love, they need the most compassion. I get it. I get it. I face tuned to everything before I posted it. So I don't hate Chloe Kardashian. I wish she could see how beautiful that she is and that she didn't need to do that. I also just want to clarify and emphasize. My heart goes out and I feel for the people who are in this position. I don't think they're bad people. We are in a society that has literally told women you have to look a certain way. So no shit. You're feeling like you're not good enough if you are not X, Y, Z things. It's trying to rewrite the script so that they can feel empowered to know that who they are is good enough. I used to use filters and I would say it's either like I'm going to put this filter on my face

and feel good showing up to share the message or I'm not going to share my message at all because I'm not going to feel good enough about myself to share my message. Why should I have to come to terms with myself as a beautiful person in the society that's giving me all these messages just to feel like I can show up and share these things I would like to share with people and I think that's a really tricky thing to balance. Everyone has their thing. I might have a day in my life where I want to emotionally eat. I want to have ice cream and I want to have popcorn because it was a long week. And no, I'm not hungry, but this is what I need. And if someone else, what they need is they want to throw on their filter, do it. We all have our thing that harbor no judgment towards people who do that. And I think the reason why I'm so anti it on social media is because I am at a place in my life where that is something that I can do. And I want other people to know that my page is a place where there's never going to be filter. or Photoshop, but I will sometimes emotionally eat. Everyone has their thing. And if people use filters, I don't condemn them or think they're promoting bad things. But I like the idea that if internally,

you feel like you need that always to step back and be like, why do I need it? And not even for you showing up for other people or what you're representing. Literally, just for you internally, I think it's important that we don't feel like we need to alter ourselves to be worthy of existing on this planet. So last, I want to talk about the Golden Globes, because you into the gold gloves. And I think it's so interesting as somebody who's always lifting the veil on this glamour and beauty culture, what was it like to see all these celebrities in real life? I don't need you to name names and be like these people don't look like how you think they look, but you did get to see how people really look. Everyone looks insane. I think what I would add is that

there is a literal team of people around them. One is there for hair. One is there for makeup. One is there with water, hairpins, band-aid, anything that they might have. need. One is they're telling them exactly what to do. So when you see these photos, not only are sometimes they filtered, but there are three people off to the side who placed every hair and eyelash in place right before the photo was taken. To me, I was like, whoa, just seeing them walk around with hair and makeup, like, literally right there. I've even had to remind myself that when I look at Haley Beaver's street style and I'm like, oh my God, she always looks freaking amazing. It's styled by blink. They get styled to go to the grocery store. Because they know their picture's going to be taken. Yeah. And they

wake up and there's this cute outfit hung up for them and they get to put it on. Right? I mean, that's dreams. It's just remembering all the effort that goes into it. There's that whole team of hair and makeup right by. Maybe there's plastic surgery that's happened. There's the spray tan. There's the glam. When I was posting all about everything that I did, I got a spray tan. I got... You looked so good. Oh, thank you. You look. You're like hair and makeup was on point. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I had my hair done. I got it. I had extensions and I got my makeup done. And I have my dress on. I will say, though, one of my goals, speaking of the makeup thing. I literally will probably never get into the golden gloves again. So one time I wanted to go

all out. But if I'm ever at a place in life where I'm going to a lot of carpets, I want to go to a carpet with no makeup on. Alicia Keys does that. I think she made a whole stance where she's like, I'm not going to wear makeup. Why should I have to wear makeup? I love that. I want to do that. I don't think I'm in a place in life where that would have the impact I wanted to have. So I'm waiting time in a place where I can do it and it would have impact. I think it's a really cool idea. It's so fun, though, also like you said, to get glammed. I think that is really fun too. Did anything else to you about the experience of going to the globes? You just kind of see everyone and you're like everyone poops like you said. Everyone sleeps. These are people. We live on this planet of millions

of planets where there's definitely life out there. And we've all created professions and there's one profession where people read scripts and they act out a story. And we've decided that that's going to be something that we love and it's glamorous than what they wear and what they say and what they do, we're obsessed with. And because we're obsessed with it, they get paid more. And you're just kind of like, wait, you're literally a person. You're a person with a chosen career, and we have as a society, elevated that career above, like, being a teacher, and that's what we've chosen to elevate at this moment in society. And it's also interesting that through different moments in society, we have completely elevated

different careers. Right. Just being there reminded me again, wait, humble yourself, everyone. Did you, like, go to the bathroom and, like, hear Megan Fox Fart or anything? Oh, my God. I don't think she was not there. But I didn't have any juicy tea. Like that. Do you watch Ozark? No. Okay. Well, I saw Julia Garner. I love her. And I think I saw her

giving her credential or something to someone to get into the ballroom. And I was just like, a human. You just think they float in and appear at their seats. It's just funny to watch them walk around and get a water and be human. But no tea, sadly. I really want to know the bathroom at the Metball. You know, it's like such a scene. And I just feel like the bathroom part's really fun. We didn't get to actually be in the ballroom. We were in a watching area. We were in a different bathroom. But I didn't over hear anything juicy. Okay, do you want to leave us with two tips? One, what is one tip you have for learning to have a better relationship with your body?

Something really actionable that somebody could do starting today. One tip I have for developing a better relationship with your body starting today would be taking a moment to be grateful for your body. Taking a moment to unconditionally be like, I have gratitude for this body. think about all the things your body has done to bring you to where you are. All of the things that has assisted aided you in to be where you are. If you have legs that allow you to walk, if you have arms that allow you to hug, if you just have a beating heart that allows you to breathe the air on this earth, you can find gratitude for something that your body does for you. Take that moment and be genuine about it and even maybe put your hand on your heart and breathe deep.

And that can have an immediate shift in how you feel by yourself. I love that. And then you have your amazing podcast, RealPod, which we're about to record for right now. Is there a tip or trick or something that's really stuck out to you and changed your life since learning it on your podcast? Such a good question. I've learned so many amazing things from guests. I guess a quote that I'll share was from Dr. Varun-Sone. He's the dean of religious life at USC and a sort of a mentor to me. And he said, happiness is not a place you arrive to. It is a state you cultivate. And I think about that all the time. But happiness is not somewhere we get when we get a promotion or where we get to be when we do X, Y, Z. It's a state that you cultivate. What's one thing you do to cultivate it every day?

I try to slow down. I try to be still and be silent and take a moment to realize that this is the moment and this could be the best it ever gets for me. And I want to be cautious and mindful and aware of that. When I slow down, I get to breathe deep and soak in what I'm doing. I love that. And I soak appreciate you taking the time to join me here today. Thank you, Liz. I hope you loved this episode with Victoria. If there's anyone that you know who you think would benefit from, her tips about intuitive eating, her advice on navigating food and body image and relationships, or I don't know, somebody

who just needs permission to be late more often, please share a link with them. And if you're new here, make sure that you're following the podcast on whatever platform you like to listen on. Just go to the main healthier together podcast page. It's the one that lists all of the healthier together episodes, and you will see the word follow under the logo on Spotify. And then there's a little follow with a plus sign button on the top right of that same page on Apple Podcasts. That way, every single new episode will show up right in your feed so you will never miss out on one, which is key because we have some incredible episodes coming up, including an episode all about the secrets to entrepreneurial success, our February advice episode, which is going to be very candid, very raw, very honest and open. and one of my favorite episodes that I have ever recorded all about how to become more confident.

There are science-backed secrets to this. I didn't realize that there were technical, actionable things that we could do to increase our confidence. And I absolutely loved this interview. And I cannot wait to share it with you. So make sure that you're following so you do not miss out. And don't forget to go listen to Victoria interview me on today's episode of RealPod. If I am being completely honest, I have a little bit of a vulnerability. hangover, but I feel like that always makes for the best episodes. So go listen. I can't wait to

hear what you think. Okay, I love you and I will see you next week on the next episode of the Healthier Together podcast. I'm genuinely confused how Masterclass gets literally the absolute top people in every single field to teach every single one of their classes. I use it when I want to learn things directly, like the cooking class from Thomas Keller has all of the wisdom that you would normally have to go to culinary school for. But also, I'm being a honest, this is like a use case I don't hear a lot of people talking about. I'll just watch it for entertainment when I want to do something that's far more interesting than scrolling. Christina Aguilera taught me to sing. Shand Boudrum's Art of Mastering, Art of Master's, Art of Master's,

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