Adriana Blanc Coaching

I cannot tell you how daaaamn long I went thinking I was doing something ‘wrong’ with my exercise and food habits because, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t *always* look like my “tense” non-breathing self.

(Note: I want to recognise I’m sharing my personal experience in a small, lean, non-discriminated body, this is not ‘body positivity’ btw 😊)

I didn’t find any ‘don’t compare yourself’ advice helpful at all to be honest.

So at one point, it became helpful to get into the habit of pausing, removing socially-constructing associations I’d learned and the stories in my head for just that one moment,

and stating truths:

The still-image, posed, non-breathing, leggings-neck-high me is a 2-second existence.

As we move, breathe, relax, exercise, learn, dance, talk, teach, interact, adjust clothing and thrive, our bodies will accompany us in that movement, however it may look.

That’s the ‘me’ and makes me.. me.

And that’s as deep as this truth goes. 😊

✨Wearing all (“Adriana” & link in bio gets you a discount, ambassador)

Often I have clients hold onto the jeans they wore when they were 16 (or a younger self in general) as ‘inspiration’ for their fitness and health goals.

To one day ‘fit into them again’.

Maybe you feel your past self could ‘eat whatever she wanted’ and nothing changed.

Maybe you feel your past self ‘didn’t even try’ and remained a certain way.

So I get this craving for a past self.

In a culture that glorifies maintaining smallness (sometimes at the expense of health), it can feel unfair.

Yet a truthful reminder when making your childlike self (or any younger version of yourself) your ‘benchmark’ for success is:

She is now irrelevant.

She had completely different priorities,
responsibilities,
Literal hormone levels
Body functions

And by keeping her on this pedestal of ‘hope’ to be her again,

We dismiss the insane amount of growth our adult selves have gone through (mental and physical).

We dismiss your current health & fitness efforts.

As a young teen, I grew up with many complimentary comments on my ‘thigh gap’ (this was at the peak of Tumblr, remember that? lol)

At one point, I gave up strength training (which I absolutely loved) and did solely ballerina type YouTube workouts (which I hugely disliked) in my room for a few months because I read somewhere that “it can help your thigh gap” (which, btw, is TOTAL bs. Genetic bone structure & body fat % determines how your thighs sit next to each other — not 1000s of leg raise pulses).

Can you imagine? I gave up the same behaviours that had helped my confidence & sense of independence immensely… to resist the inevitable and natural changes my body was going through.

When I accepted that our bodies change as we grow through life,
and focused on health-promoting behaviours i could see myself maintaining for years..

I appreciated my adult body for everything we have lived through together, let go of comparisons to past selves, & genuinely feel proud of my efforts 😊

Wearing HOLD in medium (ambassador, “adriana” gets you 10% off)

Reminders that lead to progress we can maintain for life 👉

I went through really, really bad heartbreak last year & this is the first time I properly talk about it

if you’ve been through heartbreak before, you’ll know it's quite literally… debilitating.

it makes you doubt every inch of who you are & what you’re doing

it feels like your entire world is crumbling down, and you feel every area of your health, self-esteem, & desire to get out of bed in the mornings wither away.

I took a 3-4 month break from ‘life’. Did almost no coaching, content, work, exercise. I was just kind of.. surviving, if I’m honest. I smiled around others though. I showed up. At work, on here. But the knot of hurt in my throat and stomach was always there.

and words like ‘time heals everything’ ‘just focus on you’ ‘everything happens for a reason’ frustrated me. because I didn’t want to believe it at the time.

but my GOD, if me now could hug and comfort past me…

I would say, ‘it’s all true. I promise you, it’s all so f*cking true. hang in there.’

So now, fulllly on the other side & grateful for the lessons, here are my 9 most honest pieces of advice for the heartbroken, in no particular order.

Send this to anyone who may need it ❤️

I feel WAY more 'confident', authentically myself, and happier in a fuller body than I ever did at my leanest, despite a lifetime of believing the opposite would happen. In this post, let's explore the possible psychology of why this is so common, and why 'are you sure you're hungry? drink some water first to double check' advice did not actually help my 'confidence' at all.

I’d love to hear your thoughts 👇🏼

For further help:
Sign up to my free email fam at adrianablanc.com (I'm writing an email next week on this!)

Further reading and references:
Book: Befriending Your Body: A Self-Compassionate Approach to Freeing Yourself from Disordered Eating by Ann Saffi Biasetti
Book: Brain over Binge by Kathryn Hansen
Paper: Price CJ, Hooven C. Interoceptive Awareness Skills for Emotion Regulation.

(I acknowledge I’m sharing my experience in a small, non-discriminated body 😊)

Images are an interesting one… these are all me taken a few hours apart. (Swipe!)

I mindlessly shared this on stories the other day, which started a ton of insightful conversations. Swipe to learn how important images can be in helping (not hindering!) our relationship with ourselves.

I’d love to hear from you: how do you feel when you see an image you dislike of yourself? How much power do you give them?

[Make sure to join my free email list at adrianablanc.com for this week’s chat on this topic 😊 ]

I no longer compliment weight loss or a clear shift in leanness without context👇🏼

What I mean by that is:

If someone openly and happily tells me about the implementation of lasting behaviours that make them feel great, and that happened to result in weight loss or anything their desire — awesome!
Let’s chat through it,
let’s celebrate you,
I’m happy af for you.

But the reason I won’t congratulate the ‘achievement’ of it, without this context, and without the person themselves bringing it up,

is because we have no idea how they got there.

For me, external validation was a huge, huge driver of habits that were supposedly ‘healthy’ on paper, but definitely not mentally (& eventually physically)

Compliments like
‘You’re so disciplined’
‘Body goals!’
‘I wish I had your willpower’
‘Those abs!’
‘Can you show me too how you plan every meal?’
‘It’s amazing how you stay so motivated’

…Felt great in the moment.

It made me think that what I was doing was definitely “right”.

And I hung onto the high they gave me so much that when I realised the extent to which I’d taken these behaviours was degrading my quality of life (rather than increasing it), I feared letting them go.

I feared losing this sense of identity I’d created (the overly lean, “fit”, very disciplined friend) in a time when I didn’t have a strong sense of who I was or what I cared about.

It can be really hard to let go of a “weight loss at all costs” mindset in a culture that so heavily celebrates it…

So here are some starting points I did, to help:

😌 found areas of life fulfilment outside of these compliments (friendships, hobby discovery, learning) which created a strong sense of self
😌 made a deliberate effort to not compliment weight loss without context / their initiation (& have encouraged others to consider the same!)
😌 broadened my understanding of “health” (which is way, way more than body fat %)
😌 when it came to my exercise & food mentality, I consistently reminded myself: “the reason you’re doing this is to make your life better”. When I realised it wasn’t — it was my sign to change things up.

For my mindset based fitness program: 😊

Often I have clients hold onto the jeans they wore when they were 16 (or a younger self in general) as ‘inspiration’ for their fitness and health goals.

To one day ‘fit into them again’.

Maybe you feel your past self could ‘eat whatever she wanted’ and nothing changed.
Maybe you feel your past self ‘didn’t even try’ and remained a certain way.

So I get this craving for a past self.
In a culture that glorifies maintaining smallness (sometimes at the expense of health), it can feel unfair.

Yet a truthful reminder when making your childlike self (or any younger version of yourself) your ‘benchmark’ for success is:

She is now irrelevant.

She had completely different priorities,
responsibilities,
Literal hormone levels
Body functions

And by keeping her on this pedestal of ‘hope’ to be her again,
We dismiss the insane amount of growth our adult selves have gone through (mental and physical).

As a young teen, I grew up with many complimentary comments on my ‘thigh gap’ (this was at the peak of Tumblr, remember that? lol)
At one point, I gave up strength training (which I absolutely loved) and did solely ballerina type YouTube workouts (which I hugely disliked) in my room for a few months because I feared feeling my ‘thigh gap’ leaving.

Can you imagine? I gave up the same behaviours that had helped my confidence immensely… to resist the inevitable and natural changes my body was going through.

When I accepted that our bodies change as we grow through life,
and focused on health-promoting behaviours i could see myself maintaining for years..

I appreciated my adult body for everything we have lived through together, & let go of comparisons to past selves 😊❤️

I cannot tell you how daaaamn long I went thinking I was doing something ‘wrong’ with my exercise and food habits because, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t *always* look like my “tense” non-breathing self.

(Note: I want to recognise I’m sharing my personal experience in a small, non-discriminated body, this is not ‘body positivity’ btw 😊)

I didn’t find any ‘don’t compare yourself’ advice helpful at all to be honest.

So at one point, it became helpful to get into the habit of pausing, removing socially-constructing associations I’d learned and the stories in my head for just that one moment,

and stating truths:

The still-image, posed, non-breathing, leggings-neck-high me is a 2-second existence.

As we move, breathe, relax, exercise, learn, dance, talk, teach, interact, adjust clothing and thrive, our bodies will accompany us in that movement, however it may look.

That’s the ‘me’ and makes me.. me.

And that’s as deep as this truth goes. 😊

✨Wearing all (adriana20, ambassador)

Do posed vs unposed posts (which have gained huge momentum) help your body image?

Like some fitness creators, I used to really dislike these posts, and I continue seeing them being criticised or bashed. But now, I appreciate that every message has its place and 95% of you replied you love them. Read below first, and swipe to learn why I think they are helpful for some.

That said, I completely understand and value the arguments disagreeing with these posed vs unposed posts:

⭐️It can muddle the literal definition of the body positivity movement (made for and spearheaded by discriminated people and bodies) when a small, white, able-bodied woman (like me) does not fit this category. (I for example am a body confidence / body image creator, not a body positive one). The distinction is important because ‘body positivity’ is a literal social movement.

⭐️They risk the possibility of further perpetuating one image as ‘good’ and the other as ‘bad’

⭐️Some are so exaggerated that they feel inauthentic (and potentially condescending)

⭐️This kind of content only resonates with small and midsize bodies, because large bodies cannot have a ‘posed’ vs ‘unposed’ comparison (they always remain large), so can feel insulting to people in large bodies.

In light of this though, I think we can simultaneously acknowledge these truths, and respect that there is a corner of the internet for everyone to share their message. And it can be helpful to different people. Not everyone on the internet will resonate with everyone’s approach, nor should they. We can feel free to follow/unfollow accordingly, and I encourage you to!

I’d love to hear your thoughts👇🏼❤️

This is one of the first beach trips I have felt zero pressure to look a certain way or to “shred” or particularly increase the intensity of my habits in any way beforehand. I tell you why in this post 👆

So lesson 2: Getting into the habit of asking yourself “why” (why does this goal matter to me? How does it add to my life?) can help you make informed decisions that prioritise your health instead of giving into internal or external pressure because you think you “should”❤️

Did this help?👇🏼 chat in the comments!

⭐️Over the next 14 days in the lead-up to our Kickstart (starts Jan. 17th), I’ll be sharing insights & lessons that have truly transformed my and my clients relationship with fitness, food, and ourselves (& that’ll serve as a sneak peak into our weekly Kickstart workshops).

[Getting into the habit of uncovering your “why” will be chatted about in Workshop 2 of our January Kickstart: “Can you balance fat loss/aesthetic ambitions with body appreciation & improving your relationship with food/fitness/your body”?] 13 days to go!

mild bloating is absolutely to be expected after consuming many things: after all, it’s a very normal part of the digestion process.

👉Bubbles form when your food breaks down: often *nutrient dense* foods high in fibre (beans, sprouts, cabbage, broccoli..) can lead to the release of bloating gases methane & hydrogen. sugar substitutes or dairy or salt content or fizzy drinks or alcohol or stress can all contribute to the formation of more bubbles. The food itself, well, exists in your body for some time to give you the energy that makes you you.

But often we attach stories to what’s happening: we think that natural, human experiences occur to you and only you. “Does this mean I’m doing something wrong?” “Does this mean all my workout effort isn’t going anywhere?” “I wish this didn’t happen to me because..”

& while the body’s expansion is so engrained in us to fear (aka weight stigma)...remember that most cool things require expansion:

When you add more of your money in a wallet, it will expand
When you add reps to your workout, your strength will expand
When you add experience to your work, your portfolio will expand

And when you have a nice meal with people you love (I am including meals alone in this), you will expand. It’s cool. Ok? Ok! ❤️

Ps: for compassionate & body appreciative fitness coaching: our 25% off your membership for forever Black Friday sale has started!

Pps. I acknowledge that I am a small person & have thin privilege. I’m sharing my personal experience anecdotally:)

Ppps: if you feel persistent pain lasting for days or nausea accompanied with post-meal bloats, that’s a whole other ballgame!! look into it professionally💫