“So often our body image issues stop us from being present.”

What is your body image keeping you from? Swimming freely? Smiling at strangers? (Once these masks are off.) Wearing a tank top when it’s flipping hot out? Being present in the moment with your friends and family and not obsessing about the cellulite dimples on your thigh? I loved this conversation with Shanel. It was encouraging and convicting. I now weight what I did at my heaviest while pregnant. And it’s…weird? I’m just wrestling with it. I harbor negative thoughts about my own body, which ultimately spills onto how I think about and treat others.

Body positivity is perhaps a trendy term thrown around but it’s more than skin deep. It’s soul deep. How to embrace and celebrate the body you’re in SO you can be your healthiest self, not waiting until you’re a certain size or weight or whatever.

It’s something I’m working on. And I’m grateful to Shanel for sharing her wisdom. Shanel’s unsolicited lift is model Lexi Eleni Placourakis, who unknowingly served as a role model for Shanel in her body positivity journey. Her photos are fierce! Check her out: https://www.instagram.com/lexieleni/

And check Shanel out here! https://www.instagram.com/shanelwhitley/