Changing How I Body Talk

It was actually Printfresh Founder, Amy Voloshin who first introduced me to Katie Sturino. I started following her on Instagram and was instantly hooked. It’s so easy for me to fall into a rabbit hole of Katie’s content – she’s engaging, totally relatable and truly makes me laugh out loud (just ask my husband). So many of the issues Katie posts about are deeply resonating to me – so when I heard she was publishing a book, I knew I had to check it out. 

I was a teenager in the early aughts – a time of extreme low-rise jeans, crop tops and Britney Spears’ abs. At every turn I was inundated with messages about how my body should look (spoiler alert: my body didn’t fit this model), what I should wear, and how the way I looked should make me feel about myself. 

Now, as a woman in my mid-30’s, I’m trying to break that mold. It was about 3 years ago that I really started paying attention to all of the negative messages I had internalized. When I began adding up all of the time I spent thinking about my body, my fitness and my diet – I knew I needed to make a change.

Body Talk is an engaging, easy to devour book, but it wasn’t until page 40 that I really felt like Katie got me. Here she was, asking the same question I had asked myself hundreds of times –  what could I have accomplished if I hadn’t wasted so much time thinking about my body?

Part memoir, part self-help, Body Talk shows how Katie not only identifies with the reader’s struggles, but also offers concrete steps to actually change the way we think about our bodies. Peppered throughout the book are thought-provoking prompts and homework assignments accompanied by Katie’s personal account of how these steps helped to change her own self-image. If you are familiar with Katie’s blog or Instagram, it won’t be surprising that she delivered all of this useful information with her signature humor that I finished in about two hours.

Full disclosure – I read the book without completing most of the assignments (she said I didn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to!), but I do plan to complete them on my own time. And that was possibly the most refreshing part of Katie’s words. I felt no shame, no guilt, and no expectations to follow her exact path or timeline. I know I still have a long way to go on my journey to acceptance, but after reading Body Talk I feel more empowered, confident and excited to do that work. For me, that’s where the real magic lies.

Feeling inspired and want to read more on the PF Mag? Check out these posts:

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2. Make Space: Our Favorite Body Positive Bloggers on The Changing Industry Standards
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4. Inspired By: Mare Leon
5. Ten Nice Things You Can Do For Yourself - Now