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Body Image: Debunking Myths About How We Perceive Ourselves with Teri Hofford (Episode #195)

Whether you want to like the way you look in photos, or just want to feel better in your own skin, body image expert and best-selling author Teri Hofford has the tools to lift you up. With her warm, refreshingly honest personality and insightful tips, she’s helps us celebrate ALL our unique shapes and sizes (and expose those pesky beauty standards!)

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About Our Guest:

With a refreshing approach to self-love and body positivity, Teri Hofford is on a mission to change how we view ourselves and each other—because after being a photographer for a decade, photographing over 1500 people, she found they all have one thing in common: 

They all think they look terrible in photos.

After seeing and hearing her subjects be self-conscious and limit their own joy out of fear of capturing an “unflattering angle,” Teri decided to do something about it—actually, a few things. She has now written two books—2200 Characters or Less and The Geode Theory: Chipping Away at Body Image—and she also hosts a podcast called Beyond the Body with Teri Hofford.

Teri is more than just a body image expert; she’s a beacon of light to anyone who doesn’t like their body, especially those who can’t stand to see themselves in photos. Her work focuses on helping us see our vibrant value as humans—beyond the ever-changing trends that tell us we are too fat, too short, too thin…or too anything! She is here to help us celebrate the machine that is our body—one we are very lucky to inhabit, whatever its shape or size. 

There’s No Such Thing As a ‘Problem Area’

One of Teri’s standout quotes is that “your body is not a problem to be solved.” 

Too often, we are taught to look at our bodies in terms of issues we’d like to fix—a flatter tummy, tighter glutes, less chin fat—we’re all familiar with the workout-culture fuled term “problem area.” This mantra, however, reminds us to let go of all of that, and encourages us to shift our focus from changing our bodies to changing our mindset.

Some bodies can’t do certain things, and we can’t help that. Some people are born with freckles and cannot tan; some people are born with straight hair that cannot curl; and some people are born with bodies that are not meant to be “thin.” 

Our bodies adapt to our priorities—what we’re best suited to. Because of that, healthy and fit can look a lot of different ways—just look at the differences in the bodies of this summer’s female Olympic athletes, and that much is clear as day. No two of these bodies look the same, and some even defy society’s standards of what “fitness” should look like, but nobody could possibly argue that any of these women are anything but the picture of health.

These variations are our strength. Humans are a social species, and we evolved so that we could lean on each other and fill in the gaps. People who can store fat were just as historically important as those who stayed lean and could run fast—fat retains heat in the cold, can keep you healthier during hardier times with limited resources, and it also allows you to accomplish feats of strength much more easily than those without. Every body has its advantages.

There Are Spies in the Body Positivity Movement

The Body Positivity movement originally did an excellent job of teaching people this information and removing the unfounded stigma around fat and bigger-bodied people. Unfortunately, advertisers have caught on, and now we’re made to feel bad even mentioning that we’re not happy with our bodies, (“I’m supposed to love myself! It’s bad if I don’t!”) That’s giving them their advantage back—and making us feel worse.

She also explains that this is not our fault at all. Advertising for things like clothing, beauty, and weight loss brands have spent years telling not just us, but our parents and even our grandparents that something is “wrong” with their bodies. Because children imitate their parents (particularly how much little girls love to imitate their mothers) they will also earn to imitate how the people in their lives how they talk and think about their own bodies.

While it’s true that “every thought is created,” the caveat to that statement is that they are not all necessarily created by you. Our brains love to make meaning out of everything, and sometimes it gets in our way—especially when those meanings are so deeply ingrained.

You Can Change Your Thoughts—Just Get Curious!

Now, your first instinct when you realize this might be to be upset with yourself—but you don’t need to be. We all have biases; we can’t help it. The problem isn’t having them, it’s believing them.

So how do you disengage with those pesky little self-admonitions? It’s way easier than you think: Just be kinder to yourself. Don’t judge your involuntary thoughts—just pay attention to them (Or, in Teri’s own words, “Get curious about it!”)

Sometimes these thoughts can be helpful—for example, the involuntary thought that sugary things will make you gain weight might be entirely true if you know you are the type of sweet tooth who can’t stop once they start—but they can also be unnecessary, and potentially damaging.

Ask yourself, “What is this negative thought protecting me from? How is it helping me?”

After you figure that out, you can decide whether those precepts—about your body, your clothes, or anything else—are working for you; and if they’re not, you can begin to let them go.

Teri Hofford Is Making Waves

Teri Hofford has all kinds of tips and exercises that help us challenge those sorts of negative thoughts—and she’s not afraid to get real and share her own journey and struggles along the way. 

It’s this authenticity that resonates with the people who discover and love her work. In just four weeks, Teri’s recent TEDx talk from Winnipeg has skyrocketed to over 160,000 views—numbers that I have seen many great talks take at least a year to crack. 

Titled “5 reasons you look bad in photos,” Teri’s talk emphasizes that we don’t have to wait for the “perfect” body to start loving ourselves and living unashamedly at our current size and shape.

So, why the sudden surge in views and interest? It’s simple: people are hungry for real, relatable conversations about body image. In a world filled with filtered Instagram photos and unrealistic expectations, her message of radical self-love challenges the status quo and encourages us to redefine beauty on our own terms. 

Join us for this conversation as we break free from the chains of comparison and embrace our unique beauty, and as Teri Hofford reminds us that every body is worthy of celebration.

References Mentioned:

Chapters:

  • 00:00 – Intro & Welcome
  • 03:39 – Meaning Behind Body Image
  • 10:35 – Curiosity: The Antidote to Judgement
  • 15:29 – Break
  • 17:45 – The Purpose of the Body
  • 21:30 – The Selfie Exercise
  • 27:57 – Quick Judgement
  • 30:50 – Look at Yourself in the Mirror
  • 37:50 – The Gap Between Expectation and Reality
  • 42:15 – Your Body Is Not a Trend
  • 44:57 – Issues With the Body Positivity Movement
  • 51:37 – Biases Towards Others
  • 55:34 – Be Aware of Your Limiting Beliefs
  • 1:00:03 – Closing

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