June 3, 2025 • 29 mins
On this episode of Hasta Abajo, the ladies explore a topic that is all too familar in women's sports - how the world views women's bodies. This topic hits close to home for Meli and Cami who get personal by sharing experiences of their own, especially coming from their Latina perspective, where sometimes Tios or Tias can get toxic by crossing the line with comments about our bodies.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hello, and welcome to us Hoole podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm Melissa Ortis.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
And I'm Gamilla Ramon And if you're joining us for
the first time, let me tell you a little bit
about this podcast. Now, my girly Melli here, she's an Olympian,
former professional soccer player and now a sports broadcaster. I'm
a fitness enthusiast peloton instructor at Pereo Conisiur, like I
like to say, actually, I was the first cycling and
tread instructor to teach classes in English and Spanish on Peloton.
(00:41):
But most of all, we're two Amias and in chief
meth trying our best and keeping it like all while
empowering you to know your worth, feel your best and
remember it's not that deep.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
That's right coming in today, we're going to talk about
something that we both have dealt for for as long
as we really can't remember, and that is about body
And before we dive deep, like we say, were getting
deep into conversation about body image, I love to talk
about why this topic really hits so close to home, Kami,
especially because you work around this and this was part
(01:14):
of why you do what you do right.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, today it's one of my main goals professionally. I'm
here to shift the narrative, particularly in the Latino community,
that removes all the aesthetic pressures, especially as it pertains
to fitness. You know, I didn't see any images of
like athletes and girlies in fitness that weren't you know,
models growing up. We were talking about this in the
(01:37):
car literally on the way here. How when when we
were smaller. We now, things are changing a little bit slowly,
but there's still a lot of work to do. And
I'm here, you know, to tell all of y'all on
the other side that it is okay to accept yourself.
It is okay to love yourself. It is okay to
be happy where you're at, and you do not always
(01:57):
need to be moving just to yourself, just to make
yourself smaller, to be my Flacca. Like being Flaca or
Flacco does not equate to health, and your mental health
plays a huge part in your overall happiness enjoy So
that's what we're here to talk about. And Mellie, I
know that you you know, have had personal experiences as
(02:18):
a professional athlete as well for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Uh, it's it's crazy to say this and think this
because as as athletes, you know, you always have to.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
You you have a you have coaches, okay, and you
have a staff.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And you have to go buy you know their nutrition plans,
and you have to weigh in in the mornings and
weigh out at nights. And when I was younger, I
was always super skinny, incredibly skinny, to the.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Point where like at nights can we bashrack a moment?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
They make you weigh in when in the morning every
morning as an athlete, as a soccer.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Player, yeah, just to know how you are. You know
what your water weight is, like, how is the track
of your weight going?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
How much?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Because you lose a lot of water weight from sweating,
right right, and so they want to make sure that
they're tracking how much we are going up and down throughout.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
That's not bad, but I think naturally as women, doesn't
that like make you hyper fixate on your sure and
compare with other girls on the team.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
That's my point. That's exactly what would happen.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So and the thing for me when I was younger,
since I was super skinny, is that they would give
me like these shakes to help bulk me up, Okay,
And that's okay, Like that's as an athlete and you're
dealing with like this body image and your fluctuation of weights.
Now when I retired, and now I'm like quote unquote
in like the real world, and you know in my
day to day, you know, I have to exercise, I
(03:40):
have to eat right and all these things I had
to remind myself at some point in the last whatever
eight years since I haven't been playing professionally. It's like,
I'm doing this for me, for my own health, for
my own nutrition, for my own positive mentality, for me,
not for anybody else. So when people ask me because
(04:01):
look like I am fit, I like to stay fit,
but don't like commy. I mean there are days where
I'm like, you look at yourself in the mirror and
you're talking to yourself of the mirror, like you shouldn't
be talking yourself in the mayror. You know, you're saying
you shouldn't be saying yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And you can't be talking to my friend like that, no, exactly.
And I can't be talking to my best friend aka
me like.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
That either exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Isn't that so rude? I would tell you all the
things that I say to myself.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Sometimes I don't be such a bitch to yourself.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Literally literally, I could be the biggest asshole to myself.
And honestly, a lot of people think that, because you know,
I'm in a place where I've healed myself, that those
conversations never pop up again. Uh uh, It's so common.
The thing is that you train yourself too. I don't
know if this has happened to you, Like you can
recognize when you're talking shit to yourself to the point
(04:46):
that you're like, I literally cannot fucking stand you right now, Gamilad,
like you are being such a bitch to you. Yeah,
And when that happens to me, I start to reevaluate,
like other aspects of my life that maybe I'm too stressed,
I'm not sleeping enough, I'm not properly, I'm not fueling
myself for my workouts, or I'm consuming things that i
shouldn't be consuming and I'm getting lost in the sauce.
(05:09):
I feel like it's so common and more people need
to know that, even if you have healed a relationship
with yourself, it's an ongoing, you know, battle, just like
you know, we journal every day to make sure that
we are staying consistent in our art. Journal journal, I
love journaling more than meditating.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I gotta do that.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, I journal way more than I meditate. I love
I scribble scribble scribs.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I love that. I love like right before you go
to bed.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
See what could you eat?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And you know, I gotta get access to this journal.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You won't over my divody. I'm gonna put it in
a safe now.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You better, now that I know.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You, come over. Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So this is a this is something I wanted to
share with you, which when I think back to young
Midley when she was fifteen years old with dreams of
becoming a you know, a soccer player, and my mom
and my dad, you know, they hustle their immigrants Colombia.
They hustled to make dreams possible, right, And they sent
me to the soccer camp in the summer at a
(06:06):
big university. And you if you go to this like
soccer camps to these universities, it's a it's a big
deal because it's costs a fuck ton of money, right,
and also because you're given an opportunity to be seen
in front of other coaches so that you could be
recruited to play in college. So I did really well
and I get back home and what's so shitty to
(06:27):
think about and to say is like, yeah, I talked
about my play. I played really well blah blah blah.
But a certain percent of my my take backs or
my takeaways, sorry, of my takeaways was about body image.
I saw, you know, some of the coaches were current
and former players, you know, in their twenties, and at
(06:47):
the time, I'm fifteen sixteen, and I saw that these
female players were like so strong, you know, they had
you know, their their their their shoulders were strong. Yeah,
literally right, they're they're their legs were fully developed, because
again I was like like a stick, Okay, their legs
were fully developed. I also had like strong quada quadri steps,
(07:08):
and at the time I saw that as like not
a positive thing. I was like, and it kind of
like detorred me in.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
My Isn't that crazy? Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And it's because when I think back about it and
I reflect, I think it's because I was raised in YouTube,
probably in this like Latino culture where you know, women
were raised to be petite or concurbas or you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
We saw the.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Right places like you cannot have one guraba out of place.
If not, you're wrong exactly and well, it's like what
I brought up earlier, Like the images that we saw
on TV, they weren't necessarily athletes leading fitness workouts or
fitness classes. They were models that were hired to sell
this image that also sold us products to make us skinny.
(07:58):
So you have that image of what an athlete looks
like and you went in real life and you were like,
this is It's a shock, right, You're like, oh, this
is not what I was sold my whole life. Is
this the reality of what it is? Do I actually
want this for myself? And it's as a girl that
shapes you.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
It does, And I think backro I'm like, like, how
dumb was I to think about that? But at the
same time, it's because of the way that you know,
not I was raised because of my parents, but because
of societal reasons, because of the TV shows and Noel
Last Kid. I don't know that we would used to
see at night or these goals. Do you remember the
cover albums of like the old CDs. My dad had
(08:38):
the collection of CDs and there was like a bunch
of like skin Yeah exactly, yeah, exactly, she looks good.
She did look she did look great. Don't get me right,
But we only saw one type of woman exactly, and
there are many types of women, and it's all about
loving yourself. And it's even to this day. I know
we're talking about when I was, you know, fifteen sixteen,
but currently I got to I gotta share this story
with you, because this one actually, like h like I
(08:59):
wanted to like rip.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
My hair out. Let me take a deep breath.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Okay, I want to hear all about this story, but first, okay,
we have to take a break.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
All right, let's do that. Listen.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I know that it's so crazy that this is something
that we deal with on a daily basis, and I'm
so glad that we get this platform to talk about it.
I actually had an interesting situation much like yours, on
a music video performing for somebody pretty big, and I
have a lot of instances. I actually haven't even gotten
into the nitty gritty of talking to you guys about
my personal story, but we'll talk about that when we
get back from the break. All right, Melly, we are
(09:37):
at the edge of our seats. Please continue with this
story that you were gonna tell.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Us that I was about to rip my hair out. Oh,
go for it.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
It's just recent, y'all, that's recent. So we had a
friend over, Guy Latino, and you know, we were just
talking about one of my friends doing triathlons and how
incredible that is, because girl, I won't even do triathlons.
I do marathons, full marathons, hamathons.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
But that is it. The swimming is what do you mean?
Is it all of it? It's a swim. I mean
the run I could do. The swimming does scary a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's scary, but like water, water makes me nervous.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
There's too many things in there, okay.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Side, And so he's the Guy Latino. Friends started sharing
that you know, his sister started swimming, and he said,
he said, you know, yeah, yeah, my sister was really
into swimming at some point when we were younger. But
I had to tell her, uh, hey, you know, you
should really back off because your your shoulders are becoming
a bit masculine.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yeah I know.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And I literally wanted to like just jump across the table.
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
But because I was just like, what, friend, Like, what
if your sister was like, I don't know, one of
the gold medal in swimming for your country.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Like makes me so sad, right, like I literally want
to pick up that little girl and give her a
hug because that's little me.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And saydally, like keep swimming, keep.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Going, keep swimming, swimming, be happy, just keep swimming swimming.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Honestly, Yeah, how to share that with you? Because it's current,
it's current. It just happened a few weeks ago, and
I was appalled, and I wanted to use this as
an example in this body image conversation because we cannot
treat our younger selves like that. We cannot treat our
future generations like that. And if you're listening, and you
are listening, because you're already glued into the fact that
I almost jumped across the table and gave a katah,
(11:21):
but yes, we have to make sure that we use
our voices and we keep on helping to change this
narrative so that we can inspire girls and people in
general to do whatever the hell they want and not
care about what it's gonna what the effects of like
broad shoulders or and talking.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
About our younger selves like my experience with body image.
Like I told you guys, I was born in not Hindina,
my family. I'm still very tied to my family and
not Hindina and not Hintina. It's like very European standards
like model like they you know, value zero muscles, just
like all flaka. Like at least that's how it was
in the past. It's getting better, it's still kind of there.
But for example, for me, I also grew up dancing professionally,
(12:01):
so I remember I would stand in the mirror and
look at myself in the mirror and say, like, why
are my hips so wide? Why can't my hips look
like theirs? Right? I remember I I really wanted to
dance and to like do I love performing? I've always
loved it. I was auditioning for like a beauty contest
(12:24):
on a I was like, yeah, I think I was
like fifteen or something or sixt No, I was like
sixteen seventeen. I think the cuff was like sixteen seventeen,
might have been seventeen. Anyway, I was auditioning for one
of these things and I showed up to this place
and I was recently telling the story to somebody else
and I was like, I remember that because I was
bigger than these girls, like they would kind of like
brush me off to the side. And somebody asked me
(12:46):
somebody said, do you think that it's because that that
was actually a reality or do you think that that's
what you felt inside? And at the moment I answered
probably fifty to fifty, But then thinking back on it,
I was like, no, like it was a reality, Like
I did feel that way for a reason because I
was brushed off. Like, mind you, the other girls were
(13:06):
extremely talented, so I'm not saying it was just that.
But there's those kinds of situations where you go up
to a family member and then you've been working out,
you've been training, you feel good, you feel strong, and
then they're like some camon that they didn't mean as
something negative, but like, I don't want to be compared
to a mac truck. No, unless you're talking about my
ass specifically. In that case, yeah, I gotta ask like
(13:27):
a mac trug, that's cool, a mac truck, but in general,
like I don't want that comparison, especially not when I've
been raised to be like dainty little flower, Like I
don't want to hear that right, nor should anybody be
commenting about other people's bodies. I remember one time I
was recording a music video for an artist and I
felt really good. I worked really hard to look a
certain way. I had my SPRAYTN, which makes me feel snatched.
(13:51):
I had eaten food in fucking two months, which is
not rible. So I went up to this music video
and everybody's like, oh my god, your legs look amazing.
You look so great, you look so good. And everybody
was like complimenting all my body. They didn't know that
I was taking fat burners, that I was in a
very very terrible mental state. I was the most unhappiest
(14:12):
that I ever was in my entire life. I was unhealthy.
I didn't feel good. I felt like I was about
to pass out every single time that we performed, yet
everybody was praising me and the way that I looked.
Very similarly, around that time, I was on a dance
team and I was talking to one of my teammates
and she looks at me and she goes, wow, you're
(14:34):
so skinny, Like it's just sometimes you like your hips
are wide, and she like comments on my hips, and
she's like, she's like, your hips are wide, but you're
so lean right now. That's that's crazy because it doesn't
like people will forget yeah, And I was like, what
the fuck is that supposed to mean, how dare you
like the fact that people feel they have they have
(14:57):
the audacity, or they have they feel like the right
to comment on other people's bodies is actually insane To me,
it's it's actually so insane, which is why today one
of my missions is to help change that narrative. I
tell the story all the time, but one of the
moments that I realized that I wanted to I wanted
this to be my profession and that I wanted for
this to be like one of my main areas of
focus was when I had just finished I graduated from college,
(15:20):
right I got a big girl job. I was working
at a PR firm representing international businesses throughout Latino America
and the Caribbean. So I was working a lot and
I had events at night. So I stopped going to
the gym. For like three years, I stopped working out,
which is crazy for me because I was always an athlete.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I ran, I danced, I.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Jumped in everything. And one day I decided I want
to start working out again. And I was motivating myself
from a negative standpoint because I hated the way that
I looked because my body had changed because I wasn't
training and taking care of myself. D da da. One day,
I was running like six miles in the keep as
Caye Bridge and I finally was coming back around to
hit the bridge again. And I was so frustrated with
(15:56):
myself because I felt terrible. I felt like I wasn't
in my body. I was talking so much shit to
myself medi that I got to the top of the
bridge and I broke down. I was crying in tears.
Oh my god, and I had just finished running six miles,
Like how ungrateful? So I looked up and I was
like bawling, and I was like, get bing a, geta,
like I don't want nobody's seen me crying right now,
but also like it was such a beautiful day it
(16:16):
might as well have been like like uh, dolphins fly
flying out of the ocean and and you know, people
like you know, on a boat having a party. Meanwhile,
I look up and I'm like, how ungrateful are you
right now? It's like, your legs just allowed you to
run six miles, your lungs, You're healthy, You're doing an
amazing girl. Cheer cheer up.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
You know it's crazy that you say that. It's like
so many of us will do a freaking hard workout.
We'll run whatever it is, even it's it's it's a
new goal. It's to run a mile, it's a run
two miles, it's to run whatever, or even if it's
you know, getting your ass out of bed, to just
wait like anything like be proud of yourself. But there's
so many times when we finished the workout, we look
at each other, we look at yourself, ourselves in the mirror,
and we're like, oh, I'm not there.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yet or one hundred.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
But you want to know, don't tell me yet. Let's
let's let's let's hear that. Let's hear that after this,
after this point. Okay, all right, commy, you're gonna tell us.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
For to help you change that mind my relationship with
my body?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Exactly? What is it?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
So you were talking about looking at yourself in the
mirror and be like, I'm not there yet. So I decided, well,
first off, here's here's my process of how to start
to become more in tune and at least start to
accept yourself a little bit more in your body. Number one,
move for fun, not for punishment. Absolutely necessary. We're we
have to move for the rest of our lives. Our
(17:49):
bodies were designed, but we have to do it. But
because we were designed for it, because we have the
opportunity to, we are doing it with gratitude, right. I
started that by calling out my friend after work and
I was like, Mama's like and and then it'll be like, no,
was look at need that OI? And then what happened
(18:12):
in this meeting that entices you to walk? So we
started walking like that. And then little by little I
started to incorporate, you know, like I started going to
dance classes, which are a little bit more you know,
up be a little bit more intense. Then I started
to you know, lift weights again. Then I started to
incorporate a little bit more running, running, always for fun
and or for distance, but never with like a specific
(18:33):
number in mind. And so I started to feel better
about myself. And I realized that I was able to
tolerate that then and or throughout that process after a workout,
instead of looking at myself and looking at my body
and being like, you're not there yet. I hate this
about you. You are so ugly. Because I would legit
talk to myself like that, Can you believe me?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
How sad? That is? How sad is I feel? Bad
form inside and.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
When I talk to people, and when I have these conversations,
I'm talking to a little me yeah, and and current
me too, because you know, we always have to put
ourselves back.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
So I look at myself in the mirror and I
say thank you.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I would start with the easy parts.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Thank you lungs for allowing me to do what I
did today. Thank you heart for beating. Thank you legs
for letting me run two miles, three miles for about
six miles. Thank you you know, arms for holding my
back up right. And then I would go to the parts.
Thank you hips, you know, for being a part of
my body and taking me through. Thank you Pancita, I
love you bita like that was so hard for me
(19:32):
to say at first, like I love you, but I
love this and little by little, even though you don't
believe it at first, you start to believe it a
little bit more as you move forward. So that was
you know, my my, my tips and tricks. But Malli,
I want to know from you, like how do you
handle because I know like how I handle it, But
how do you handle it when like somebody makes a
(19:52):
comment about your body somebody else's body, Like how what
did you say when you know this guy said that
comment about the show.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
To be I wish and I backtracked a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I wish, I wish I would have said something, you know,
in front of every everyone. Yeah, you know, Bena, you know,
like you know, out of a comment in front of
a bunch of people.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Which happens to a lot of us. And let's be realistic,
Like I could sit here and say, like, you have
to call them out in the moment, but that's not real,
that's not lie with.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
A bunch of people. So I didn't want to like
get into it, right, but I should have or I
should have you know, talked about it maybe later, but
at the same time, like it's just it's if someone
were if we're in a smaller setting, I think I
would have, but we were in a larger setting with
a bunch of people, and I didn't want to call
them out on it.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
If it makes sense, yeah, I think you know what
what helps a lot is like taking it kind of
like lightly as like a little bit more like if
you're in a big group of people and you just
talk to the person, like to the girl, and you
could look at her and be like, you know what,
I have really strong shoulders because I'm an athlete and
that makes me beautiful.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yes, right for me.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Also, sometimes I'll like to bring it up right away,
so I'll just like pull them over later and be like, yeah,
agua sayas that. I have struggled a lot with my
body image, so when you make comments like that about
my body, it takes me back to a place mentally
that I don't want to go. So I would appreciate it,
And ninety nine point nine percent of the time people
are like, oh my god, I didn't even notice. I'm
(21:21):
so sorry, and then they start to learn little by little.
But also we have to be at first. I think
when I first started, you know this like campaign, I
was a little bit more less flexible with people. And
I think that that's also unrealistic because we have to
be fair with the Latinas of our generation too, that
we have been programmed year after year after year, our
(21:43):
entire lives conditioned to think that there's something wrong with us,
so we project that outwardly. It doesn't always come from
a place of malice. It just comes from a place
of conditioning exactly, and the only place, the only way
to end that is to like kind of like call
them out on it in a way that isn't necessarily
likeful emotionally for everybody involved. Obviously, if they're being a bitch,
(22:03):
then you could be like, hey, the douxiga, shut the
hold up. Okay, I don't want to hear from you anymore.
We're not gonna have this conversation. I'm gonna eat the sandwich. Okay,
leave me alone. You know nothing, You know nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I will have my banana by the one, yeah, one, two,
three and all.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
That's too.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
So I do want to try to take a positive
out of that, Like say, for instance, in that moment,
because of the group's setting, I didn't say anything. But
this is where your mind shifts. Okay, if this exact
thing at the table would have happened, I don't know, five, ten,
ten years ago, I'd probably have been like not even
realized how like sideways that comment was about his sister
(22:43):
being a swimmer in her shoulders becoming broad Okay, talk
about fucking badass.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Like get my shoulders a broad.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
So, but the fact that my mind made that mind
shift to acknowledge the fact that that was in the
red like, that's the point and that's the point of
also about talking about this right now, because listeners are
going to also maybe now start to acknowledge, and that's
where you starts.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
And that doesn't only happen with other people's conversations, because
think about how hard it is for you to realize, oh,
coming like you're being a bitch to yourself, Like, don't
be talking to yourself like that. Right, It's already so
hard for you to recognize when it's your own thoughts.
So imagine how hard it is for you to be
like in the moment be like, oh that's a negative thought. Oh,
this person's going to be affected. Let me intervene right now.
It's also not fair to put that much pressure on yourself,
(23:28):
right So I think, just like, it starts by registering
it always I always say it starts by registering it
and making sure that you know you register it, and
so the next time you'll be a little bit more
aware and you'll be like, okay, like I know how
to handle this, but also I know how to handle
this tactfully in a way that's actually going to be
received by the other person instead of them getting defensive.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Absolutely, so at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Listen with the things that we do for a movement,
the life that we're leading, we are leading that life
for ourselves. We have one body, we have one life.
We do not have to wait any longer to be
happy in the body that we have and with the
life that we are given. We are not doing this
for other people. We are not doing it for other
people's acknowledgment of our bodies. We're doing it for ourselves,
(24:10):
especially when it comes to movement. Movement is something so
extremely personal. Okay, So like we are qualified, we are enough,
we are going to move forward, and we're going to
continue to empower. If you're in a position and you're
listening to this right now where you're in a position
where you can help other people have that conversation and
empower other people, I love that for us. But if
(24:30):
you're in a position where you're just receiving this and
you're like, Okay, maybe tomorrow's the day that I that
I start, you know, talking to myself a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, that's a huge My gosh, you know what I love.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Well, First off, I love what you say, and I
also want to add to that, it's about you have
to love yourself first before you can love others right right,
And one of these who has Mel Robbins, has this
one thing and it's the high five. So what she
does in the morning and if you guys, have ever
listened to you in the mirror her but yeah, she
(25:00):
gets she looks at herself in the mirror and she
gives her herself a high five in the mirror. And
it helps you gain confidence yourselves. It helps you start
when you first see yourself in the mirror. It gives
yourself like its own positive reinforcement.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
From you to you.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
And I absolutely love love that because you wake up
in the morning and like, look like we all wake
up the same way. We all wake up with our
hair all over the place, with stinky ass breath, you know,
and then your first imagey, you're just like, oh shit, like.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
I look crazy right now? Yo, my hair do be
looking crazy sometimes I'm But like, you have to love yourself.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Because you know what, be grateful you woke up in
the morning.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Also, like we all wake up like that, we all do.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
We all wake up like that.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Just because influencers put on makeup before they do their
seen and get out of bed, I bitch have done
that before the real.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Oh like I won't I don't do like makeup.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Like right, no, no, no, A little bit a little bit
real bun yeah, I mean yeah yeah yeah. But on
that note, love yourself before you look. Before you can
love others, you have to love yourself. And also, like
Ami said, it's about being grateful for everything that you have.
That whether it's the legs that move you, whether it's
the arms that drive you forward, and it all starts
(26:17):
in your brain and the way that you could mind
shift yourself to first think gratefulness and then think confidence,
because being grateful for yourself and what you have is
only going to fuel your confidence within you.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
And my challenge to you guys is to start practicing
this during and after your workouts. While you're working out,
while you're training, start to practice gratitude afterwards if you're
feeling good, not if you're feeling good, especially if you're
feeling bad, look at yourself in the mirror. Try what
I said and make sure that you incorporated in little
aspects of your life. If journaling works better, positive affirmations,
put posts if you want to high five yourself in
(26:48):
the morning, if you want to look at yourself and
towerk in the mirror to some benito and then say
I am that bitch not really loud in the mirror,
and then you move forward. But I'm just so happy
that we had this conversation today, MELI absolutely, I think
it's very important. And before we go, at the end
of each episode, we want to leave you with some
(27:10):
of the two things.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
That we love, and that is musica and el football.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
El football baby, And I have to say, I made
you a pumped up playlist for those days that you're
feeling low, so that you can use it while you're
getting ready, while you're on your way to work, if
you have a meeting, if you have anything important, or honestly,
if you just need a little oomph to get off
the couch. I promise you there's some fire pereo in
there and you're gonna be feeling el ma after you're
(27:40):
listening to this playlist. Because la muslifasa tell me something
about sport.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
All right, there's this one player, up and coming badass.
Her name is Ella Martinez. We have so much in common.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Actually.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
She is born and raised in the United States, played
for the US Youth Now national team, made the jump
to the Columbian youth national team because her dad is Colombian,
her mom is Puerto Rique. She committed to Duke University already.
She's only sixteen years old. Sixteen years old.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Okay, keep your eyes open.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Everybody's played in a Youth World Cup already, and she's
going She's about to play in a few other Youth
World Cups until she's you know, makes the full team.
But keep an eye out. You could look her up
on her social media handles Ella Martinez, Badass.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Ella Martinez, remember the name.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Okay, Well, I have to say, this was a very
interesting conversation Kami and I hope that our listeners got
a lot out of it, but we also want to
hear from our listeners as well, because this is all
about building community and being open with each other. So
if you all have any of similar stories of dealing
with body image and also how you got through it,
(28:48):
what changed that for you? Was it setting a goal?
Was it changing the way that you talk to yourself?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
We want to know, We want to know and remember
you guys, like we're doing this on our side. But
the more that we talk about the topic and the
more changes that we make together and that we continue
to have this conversation We need your help. The more
people that we have, men, women, literally, any person out
there who feels passionately about this topic, talk about it,
be about it, help people so that we can all
(29:14):
learn to love ourselves and lead the life of happiness, joy,
and self acceptance that we deserve.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I'm in, I'm in, baby, and baby this. That's right.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
That's it for this episode of Make sure to subscribe
to our podcast and thank you so much for being this.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Is an iHeart women's sports production and partnership with Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hello, and welcome to us Hoole podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm Melissa Ortis.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
And I'm Gamilla Ramon And if you're joining us for
the first time, let me tell you a little bit
about this podcast. Now, my girly Melli here, she's an Olympian,
former professional soccer player and now a sports broadcaster. I'm
a fitness enthusiast peloton instructor at Pereo Conisiur, like I
like to say, actually, I was the first cycling and
tread instructor to teach classes in English and Spanish on Peloton.
(00:41):
But most of all, we're two Amias and in chief
meth trying our best and keeping it like all while
empowering you to know your worth, feel your best and
remember it's not that deep.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
That's right coming in today, we're going to talk about
something that we both have dealt for for as long
as we really can't remember, and that is about body
And before we dive deep, like we say, were getting
deep into conversation about body image, I love to talk
about why this topic really hits so close to home, Kami,
especially because you work around this and this was part
(01:14):
of why you do what you do right.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, today it's one of my main goals professionally. I'm
here to shift the narrative, particularly in the Latino community,
that removes all the aesthetic pressures, especially as it pertains
to fitness. You know, I didn't see any images of
like athletes and girlies in fitness that weren't you know,
models growing up. We were talking about this in the
(01:37):
car literally on the way here. How when when we
were smaller. We now, things are changing a little bit slowly,
but there's still a lot of work to do. And
I'm here, you know, to tell all of y'all on
the other side that it is okay to accept yourself.
It is okay to love yourself. It is okay to
be happy where you're at, and you do not always
(01:57):
need to be moving just to yourself, just to make
yourself smaller, to be my Flacca. Like being Flaca or
Flacco does not equate to health, and your mental health
plays a huge part in your overall happiness enjoy So
that's what we're here to talk about. And Mellie, I
know that you you know, have had personal experiences as
(02:18):
a professional athlete as well for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Uh, it's it's crazy to say this and think this
because as as athletes, you know, you always have to.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
You you have a you have coaches, okay, and you
have a staff.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And you have to go buy you know their nutrition plans,
and you have to weigh in in the mornings and
weigh out at nights. And when I was younger, I
was always super skinny, incredibly skinny, to the.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Point where like at nights can we bashrack a moment?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
They make you weigh in when in the morning every
morning as an athlete, as a soccer.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Player, yeah, just to know how you are. You know
what your water weight is, like, how is the track
of your weight going?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
How much?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Because you lose a lot of water weight from sweating,
right right, and so they want to make sure that
they're tracking how much we are going up and down throughout.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
That's not bad, but I think naturally as women, doesn't
that like make you hyper fixate on your sure and
compare with other girls on the team.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
That's my point. That's exactly what would happen.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So and the thing for me when I was younger,
since I was super skinny, is that they would give
me like these shakes to help bulk me up, Okay,
And that's okay, Like that's as an athlete and you're
dealing with like this body image and your fluctuation of weights.
Now when I retired, and now I'm like quote unquote
in like the real world, and you know in my
day to day, you know, I have to exercise, I
(03:40):
have to eat right and all these things I had
to remind myself at some point in the last whatever
eight years since I haven't been playing professionally. It's like,
I'm doing this for me, for my own health, for
my own nutrition, for my own positive mentality, for me,
not for anybody else. So when people ask me because
(04:01):
look like I am fit, I like to stay fit,
but don't like commy. I mean there are days where
I'm like, you look at yourself in the mirror and
you're talking to yourself of the mirror, like you shouldn't
be talking yourself in the mayror. You know, you're saying
you shouldn't be saying yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And you can't be talking to my friend like that, no, exactly.
And I can't be talking to my best friend aka
me like.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
That either exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Isn't that so rude? I would tell you all the
things that I say to myself.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Sometimes I don't be such a bitch to yourself.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Literally literally, I could be the biggest asshole to myself.
And honestly, a lot of people think that, because you know,
I'm in a place where I've healed myself, that those
conversations never pop up again. Uh uh, It's so common.
The thing is that you train yourself too. I don't
know if this has happened to you, Like you can
recognize when you're talking shit to yourself to the point
(04:46):
that you're like, I literally cannot fucking stand you right now, Gamilad,
like you are being such a bitch to you. Yeah,
And when that happens to me, I start to reevaluate,
like other aspects of my life that maybe I'm too stressed,
I'm not sleeping enough, I'm not properly, I'm not fueling
myself for my workouts, or I'm consuming things that i
shouldn't be consuming and I'm getting lost in the sauce.
(05:09):
I feel like it's so common and more people need
to know that, even if you have healed a relationship
with yourself, it's an ongoing, you know, battle, just like
you know, we journal every day to make sure that
we are staying consistent in our art. Journal journal, I
love journaling more than meditating.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I gotta do that.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, I journal way more than I meditate. I love
I scribble scribble scribs.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I love that. I love like right before you go
to bed.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
See what could you eat?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And you know, I gotta get access to this journal.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You won't over my divody. I'm gonna put it in
a safe now.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You better, now that I know.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You, come over. Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So this is a this is something I wanted to
share with you, which when I think back to young
Midley when she was fifteen years old with dreams of
becoming a you know, a soccer player, and my mom
and my dad, you know, they hustle their immigrants Colombia.
They hustled to make dreams possible, right, And they sent
me to the soccer camp in the summer at a
(06:06):
big university. And you if you go to this like
soccer camps to these universities, it's a it's a big
deal because it's costs a fuck ton of money, right,
and also because you're given an opportunity to be seen
in front of other coaches so that you could be
recruited to play in college. So I did really well
and I get back home and what's so shitty to
(06:27):
think about and to say is like, yeah, I talked
about my play. I played really well blah blah blah.
But a certain percent of my my take backs or
my takeaways, sorry, of my takeaways was about body image.
I saw, you know, some of the coaches were current
and former players, you know, in their twenties, and at
(06:47):
the time, I'm fifteen sixteen, and I saw that these
female players were like so strong, you know, they had
you know, their their their their shoulders were strong. Yeah,
literally right, they're they're their legs were fully developed, because
again I was like like a stick, Okay, their legs
were fully developed. I also had like strong quada quadri steps,
(07:08):
and at the time I saw that as like not
a positive thing. I was like, and it kind of
like detorred me in.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
My Isn't that crazy? Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And it's because when I think back about it and
I reflect, I think it's because I was raised in YouTube,
probably in this like Latino culture where you know, women
were raised to be petite or concurbas or you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
We saw the.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Right places like you cannot have one guraba out of place.
If not, you're wrong exactly and well, it's like what
I brought up earlier, Like the images that we saw
on TV, they weren't necessarily athletes leading fitness workouts or
fitness classes. They were models that were hired to sell
this image that also sold us products to make us skinny.
(07:58):
So you have that image of what an athlete looks
like and you went in real life and you were like,
this is It's a shock, right, You're like, oh, this
is not what I was sold my whole life. Is
this the reality of what it is? Do I actually
want this for myself? And it's as a girl that
shapes you.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
It does, And I think backro I'm like, like, how
dumb was I to think about that? But at the
same time, it's because of the way that you know,
not I was raised because of my parents, but because
of societal reasons, because of the TV shows and Noel
Last Kid. I don't know that we would used to
see at night or these goals. Do you remember the
cover albums of like the old CDs. My dad had
(08:38):
the collection of CDs and there was like a bunch
of like skin Yeah exactly, yeah, exactly, she looks good.
She did look she did look great. Don't get me right,
But we only saw one type of woman exactly, and
there are many types of women, and it's all about
loving yourself. And it's even to this day. I know
we're talking about when I was, you know, fifteen sixteen,
but currently I got to I gotta share this story
with you, because this one actually, like h like I
(08:59):
wanted to like rip.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
My hair out. Let me take a deep breath.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Okay, I want to hear all about this story, but first, okay,
we have to take a break.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
All right, let's do that. Listen.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I know that it's so crazy that this is something
that we deal with on a daily basis, and I'm
so glad that we get this platform to talk about it.
I actually had an interesting situation much like yours, on
a music video performing for somebody pretty big, and I
have a lot of instances. I actually haven't even gotten
into the nitty gritty of talking to you guys about
my personal story, but we'll talk about that when we
get back from the break. All right, Melly, we are
(09:37):
at the edge of our seats. Please continue with this
story that you were gonna tell.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Us that I was about to rip my hair out. Oh,
go for it.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
It's just recent, y'all, that's recent. So we had a
friend over, Guy Latino, and you know, we were just
talking about one of my friends doing triathlons and how
incredible that is, because girl, I won't even do triathlons.
I do marathons, full marathons, hamathons.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
But that is it. The swimming is what do you mean?
Is it all of it? It's a swim. I mean
the run I could do. The swimming does scary a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's scary, but like water, water makes me nervous.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
There's too many things in there, okay.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Side, And so he's the Guy Latino. Friends started sharing
that you know, his sister started swimming, and he said,
he said, you know, yeah, yeah, my sister was really
into swimming at some point when we were younger. But
I had to tell her, uh, hey, you know, you
should really back off because your your shoulders are becoming
a bit masculine.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yeah I know.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And I literally wanted to like just jump across the table.
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
But because I was just like, what, friend, Like, what
if your sister was like, I don't know, one of
the gold medal in swimming for your country.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Like makes me so sad, right, like I literally want
to pick up that little girl and give her a
hug because that's little me.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And saydally, like keep swimming, keep.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Going, keep swimming, swimming, be happy, just keep swimming swimming.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Honestly, Yeah, how to share that with you? Because it's current,
it's current. It just happened a few weeks ago, and
I was appalled, and I wanted to use this as
an example in this body image conversation because we cannot
treat our younger selves like that. We cannot treat our
future generations like that. And if you're listening, and you
are listening, because you're already glued into the fact that
I almost jumped across the table and gave a katah,
(11:21):
but yes, we have to make sure that we use
our voices and we keep on helping to change this
narrative so that we can inspire girls and people in
general to do whatever the hell they want and not
care about what it's gonna what the effects of like
broad shoulders or and talking.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
About our younger selves like my experience with body image.
Like I told you guys, I was born in not Hindina,
my family. I'm still very tied to my family and
not Hindina and not Hintina. It's like very European standards
like model like they you know, value zero muscles, just
like all flaka. Like at least that's how it was
in the past. It's getting better, it's still kind of there.
But for example, for me, I also grew up dancing professionally,
(12:01):
so I remember I would stand in the mirror and
look at myself in the mirror and say, like, why
are my hips so wide? Why can't my hips look
like theirs? Right? I remember I I really wanted to
dance and to like do I love performing? I've always
loved it. I was auditioning for like a beauty contest
(12:24):
on a I was like, yeah, I think I was
like fifteen or something or sixt No, I was like
sixteen seventeen. I think the cuff was like sixteen seventeen,
might have been seventeen. Anyway, I was auditioning for one
of these things and I showed up to this place
and I was recently telling the story to somebody else
and I was like, I remember that because I was
bigger than these girls, like they would kind of like
brush me off to the side. And somebody asked me
(12:46):
somebody said, do you think that it's because that that
was actually a reality or do you think that that's
what you felt inside? And at the moment I answered
probably fifty to fifty, But then thinking back on it,
I was like, no, like it was a reality, Like
I did feel that way for a reason because I
was brushed off. Like, mind you, the other girls were
(13:06):
extremely talented, so I'm not saying it was just that.
But there's those kinds of situations where you go up
to a family member and then you've been working out,
you've been training, you feel good, you feel strong, and
then they're like some camon that they didn't mean as
something negative, but like, I don't want to be compared
to a mac truck. No, unless you're talking about my
ass specifically. In that case, yeah, I gotta ask like
(13:27):
a mac trug, that's cool, a mac truck, but in general,
like I don't want that comparison, especially not when I've
been raised to be like dainty little flower, Like I
don't want to hear that right, nor should anybody be
commenting about other people's bodies. I remember one time I
was recording a music video for an artist and I
felt really good. I worked really hard to look a
certain way. I had my SPRAYTN, which makes me feel snatched.
(13:51):
I had eaten food in fucking two months, which is
not rible. So I went up to this music video
and everybody's like, oh my god, your legs look amazing.
You look so great, you look so good. And everybody
was like complimenting all my body. They didn't know that
I was taking fat burners, that I was in a
very very terrible mental state. I was the most unhappiest
(14:12):
that I ever was in my entire life. I was unhealthy.
I didn't feel good. I felt like I was about
to pass out every single time that we performed, yet
everybody was praising me and the way that I looked.
Very similarly, around that time, I was on a dance
team and I was talking to one of my teammates
and she looks at me and she goes, wow, you're
(14:34):
so skinny, Like it's just sometimes you like your hips
are wide, and she like comments on my hips, and
she's like, she's like, your hips are wide, but you're
so lean right now. That's that's crazy because it doesn't
like people will forget yeah, And I was like, what
the fuck is that supposed to mean, how dare you
like the fact that people feel they have they have
(14:57):
the audacity, or they have they feel like the right
to comment on other people's bodies is actually insane To me,
it's it's actually so insane, which is why today one
of my missions is to help change that narrative. I
tell the story all the time, but one of the
moments that I realized that I wanted to I wanted
this to be my profession and that I wanted for
this to be like one of my main areas of
focus was when I had just finished I graduated from college,
(15:20):
right I got a big girl job. I was working
at a PR firm representing international businesses throughout Latino America
and the Caribbean. So I was working a lot and
I had events at night. So I stopped going to
the gym. For like three years, I stopped working out,
which is crazy for me because I was always an athlete.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I ran, I danced, I.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Jumped in everything. And one day I decided I want
to start working out again. And I was motivating myself
from a negative standpoint because I hated the way that
I looked because my body had changed because I wasn't
training and taking care of myself. D da da. One day,
I was running like six miles in the keep as
Caye Bridge and I finally was coming back around to
hit the bridge again. And I was so frustrated with
(15:56):
myself because I felt terrible. I felt like I wasn't
in my body. I was talking so much shit to
myself medi that I got to the top of the
bridge and I broke down. I was crying in tears.
Oh my god, and I had just finished running six miles,
Like how ungrateful? So I looked up and I was
like bawling, and I was like, get bing a, geta,
like I don't want nobody's seen me crying right now,
but also like it was such a beautiful day it
(16:16):
might as well have been like like uh, dolphins fly
flying out of the ocean and and you know, people
like you know, on a boat having a party. Meanwhile,
I look up and I'm like, how ungrateful are you
right now? It's like, your legs just allowed you to
run six miles, your lungs, You're healthy, You're doing an
amazing girl. Cheer cheer up.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
You know it's crazy that you say that. It's like
so many of us will do a freaking hard workout.
We'll run whatever it is, even it's it's it's a
new goal. It's to run a mile, it's a run
two miles, it's to run whatever, or even if it's
you know, getting your ass out of bed, to just
wait like anything like be proud of yourself. But there's
so many times when we finished the workout, we look
at each other, we look at yourself, ourselves in the mirror,
and we're like, oh, I'm not there.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yet or one hundred.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
But you want to know, don't tell me yet. Let's
let's let's let's hear that. Let's hear that after this,
after this point. Okay, all right, commy, you're gonna tell us.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
For to help you change that mind my relationship with
my body?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Exactly? What is it?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
So you were talking about looking at yourself in the
mirror and be like, I'm not there yet. So I decided, well,
first off, here's here's my process of how to start
to become more in tune and at least start to
accept yourself a little bit more in your body. Number one,
move for fun, not for punishment. Absolutely necessary. We're we
have to move for the rest of our lives. Our
(17:49):
bodies were designed, but we have to do it. But
because we were designed for it, because we have the
opportunity to, we are doing it with gratitude, right. I
started that by calling out my friend after work and
I was like, Mama's like and and then it'll be like, no,
was look at need that OI? And then what happened
(18:12):
in this meeting that entices you to walk? So we
started walking like that. And then little by little I
started to incorporate, you know, like I started going to
dance classes, which are a little bit more you know,
up be a little bit more intense. Then I started
to you know, lift weights again. Then I started to
incorporate a little bit more running, running, always for fun
and or for distance, but never with like a specific
(18:33):
number in mind. And so I started to feel better
about myself. And I realized that I was able to
tolerate that then and or throughout that process after a workout,
instead of looking at myself and looking at my body
and being like, you're not there yet. I hate this
about you. You are so ugly. Because I would legit
talk to myself like that, Can you believe me?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
How sad? That is? How sad is I feel? Bad
form inside and.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
When I talk to people, and when I have these conversations,
I'm talking to a little me yeah, and and current
me too, because you know, we always have to put
ourselves back.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
So I look at myself in the mirror and I
say thank you.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I would start with the easy parts.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Thank you lungs for allowing me to do what I
did today. Thank you heart for beating. Thank you legs
for letting me run two miles, three miles for about
six miles. Thank you you know, arms for holding my
back up right. And then I would go to the parts.
Thank you hips, you know, for being a part of
my body and taking me through. Thank you Pancita, I
love you bita like that was so hard for me
(19:32):
to say at first, like I love you, but I
love this and little by little, even though you don't
believe it at first, you start to believe it a
little bit more as you move forward. So that was
you know, my my, my tips and tricks. But Malli,
I want to know from you, like how do you
handle because I know like how I handle it, But
how do you handle it when like somebody makes a
(19:52):
comment about your body somebody else's body, Like how what
did you say when you know this guy said that
comment about the show.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
To be I wish and I backtracked a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I wish, I wish I would have said something, you know,
in front of every everyone. Yeah, you know, Bena, you know,
like you know, out of a comment in front of
a bunch of people.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Which happens to a lot of us. And let's be realistic,
Like I could sit here and say, like, you have
to call them out in the moment, but that's not real,
that's not lie with.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
A bunch of people. So I didn't want to like
get into it, right, but I should have or I
should have you know, talked about it maybe later, but
at the same time, like it's just it's if someone
were if we're in a smaller setting, I think I
would have, but we were in a larger setting with
a bunch of people, and I didn't want to call
them out on it.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
If it makes sense, yeah, I think you know what
what helps a lot is like taking it kind of
like lightly as like a little bit more like if
you're in a big group of people and you just
talk to the person, like to the girl, and you
could look at her and be like, you know what,
I have really strong shoulders because I'm an athlete and
that makes me beautiful.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yes, right for me.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Also, sometimes I'll like to bring it up right away,
so I'll just like pull them over later and be like, yeah,
agua sayas that. I have struggled a lot with my
body image, so when you make comments like that about
my body, it takes me back to a place mentally
that I don't want to go. So I would appreciate it,
And ninety nine point nine percent of the time people
are like, oh my god, I didn't even notice. I'm
(21:21):
so sorry, and then they start to learn little by little.
But also we have to be at first. I think
when I first started, you know this like campaign, I
was a little bit more less flexible with people. And
I think that that's also unrealistic because we have to
be fair with the Latinas of our generation too, that
we have been programmed year after year after year, our
(21:43):
entire lives conditioned to think that there's something wrong with us,
so we project that outwardly. It doesn't always come from
a place of malice. It just comes from a place
of conditioning exactly, and the only place, the only way
to end that is to like kind of like call
them out on it in a way that isn't necessarily
likeful emotionally for everybody involved. Obviously, if they're being a bitch,
(22:03):
then you could be like, hey, the douxiga, shut the
hold up. Okay, I don't want to hear from you anymore.
We're not gonna have this conversation. I'm gonna eat the sandwich. Okay,
leave me alone. You know nothing, You know nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I will have my banana by the one, yeah, one, two,
three and all.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
That's too.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
So I do want to try to take a positive
out of that, Like say, for instance, in that moment,
because of the group's setting, I didn't say anything. But
this is where your mind shifts. Okay, if this exact
thing at the table would have happened, I don't know, five, ten,
ten years ago, I'd probably have been like not even
realized how like sideways that comment was about his sister
(22:43):
being a swimmer in her shoulders becoming broad Okay, talk
about fucking badass.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Like get my shoulders a broad.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
So, but the fact that my mind made that mind
shift to acknowledge the fact that that was in the
red like, that's the point and that's the point of
also about talking about this right now, because listeners are
going to also maybe now start to acknowledge, and that's
where you starts.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
And that doesn't only happen with other people's conversations, because
think about how hard it is for you to realize, oh,
coming like you're being a bitch to yourself, Like, don't
be talking to yourself like that. Right, It's already so
hard for you to recognize when it's your own thoughts.
So imagine how hard it is for you to be
like in the moment be like, oh that's a negative thought. Oh,
this person's going to be affected. Let me intervene right now.
It's also not fair to put that much pressure on yourself,
(23:28):
right So I think, just like, it starts by registering
it always I always say it starts by registering it
and making sure that you know you register it, and
so the next time you'll be a little bit more
aware and you'll be like, okay, like I know how
to handle this, but also I know how to handle
this tactfully in a way that's actually going to be
received by the other person instead of them getting defensive.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Absolutely, so at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Listen with the things that we do for a movement,
the life that we're leading, we are leading that life
for ourselves. We have one body, we have one life.
We do not have to wait any longer to be
happy in the body that we have and with the
life that we are given. We are not doing this
for other people. We are not doing it for other
people's acknowledgment of our bodies. We're doing it for ourselves,
(24:10):
especially when it comes to movement. Movement is something so
extremely personal. Okay, So like we are qualified, we are enough,
we are going to move forward, and we're going to
continue to empower. If you're in a position and you're
listening to this right now where you're in a position
where you can help other people have that conversation and
empower other people, I love that for us. But if
(24:30):
you're in a position where you're just receiving this and
you're like, Okay, maybe tomorrow's the day that I that
I start, you know, talking to myself a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, that's a huge My gosh, you know what I love.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Well, First off, I love what you say, and I
also want to add to that, it's about you have
to love yourself first before you can love others right right,
And one of these who has Mel Robbins, has this
one thing and it's the high five. So what she
does in the morning and if you guys, have ever
listened to you in the mirror her but yeah, she
(25:00):
gets she looks at herself in the mirror and she
gives her herself a high five in the mirror. And
it helps you gain confidence yourselves. It helps you start
when you first see yourself in the mirror. It gives
yourself like its own positive reinforcement.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
From you to you.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
And I absolutely love love that because you wake up
in the morning and like, look like we all wake
up the same way. We all wake up with our
hair all over the place, with stinky ass breath, you know,
and then your first imagey, you're just like, oh shit, like.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
I look crazy right now? Yo, my hair do be
looking crazy sometimes I'm But like, you have to love yourself.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Because you know what, be grateful you woke up in
the morning.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Also, like we all wake up like that, we all do.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
We all wake up like that.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Just because influencers put on makeup before they do their
seen and get out of bed, I bitch have done
that before the real.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Oh like I won't I don't do like makeup.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Like right, no, no, no, A little bit a little bit
real bun yeah, I mean yeah yeah yeah. But on
that note, love yourself before you look. Before you can
love others, you have to love yourself. And also, like
Ami said, it's about being grateful for everything that you have.
That whether it's the legs that move you, whether it's
the arms that drive you forward, and it all starts
(26:17):
in your brain and the way that you could mind
shift yourself to first think gratefulness and then think confidence,
because being grateful for yourself and what you have is
only going to fuel your confidence within you.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
And my challenge to you guys is to start practicing
this during and after your workouts. While you're working out,
while you're training, start to practice gratitude afterwards if you're
feeling good, not if you're feeling good, especially if you're
feeling bad, look at yourself in the mirror. Try what
I said and make sure that you incorporated in little
aspects of your life. If journaling works better, positive affirmations,
put posts if you want to high five yourself in
(26:48):
the morning, if you want to look at yourself and
towerk in the mirror to some benito and then say
I am that bitch not really loud in the mirror,
and then you move forward. But I'm just so happy
that we had this conversation today, MELI absolutely, I think
it's very important. And before we go, at the end
of each episode, we want to leave you with some
(27:10):
of the two things.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
That we love, and that is musica and el football.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
El football baby, And I have to say, I made
you a pumped up playlist for those days that you're
feeling low, so that you can use it while you're
getting ready, while you're on your way to work, if
you have a meeting, if you have anything important, or honestly,
if you just need a little oomph to get off
the couch. I promise you there's some fire pereo in
there and you're gonna be feeling el ma after you're
(27:40):
listening to this playlist. Because la muslifasa tell me something
about sport.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
All right, there's this one player, up and coming badass.
Her name is Ella Martinez. We have so much in common.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Actually.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
She is born and raised in the United States, played
for the US Youth Now national team, made the jump
to the Columbian youth national team because her dad is Colombian,
her mom is Puerto Rique. She committed to Duke University already.
She's only sixteen years old. Sixteen years old.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Okay, keep your eyes open.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Everybody's played in a Youth World Cup already, and she's
going She's about to play in a few other Youth
World Cups until she's you know, makes the full team.
But keep an eye out. You could look her up
on her social media handles Ella Martinez, Badass.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Ella Martinez, remember the name.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Okay, Well, I have to say, this was a very
interesting conversation Kami and I hope that our listeners got
a lot out of it, but we also want to
hear from our listeners as well, because this is all
about building community and being open with each other. So
if you all have any of similar stories of dealing
with body image and also how you got through it,
(28:48):
what changed that for you? Was it setting a goal?
Was it changing the way that you talk to yourself?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
We want to know, We want to know and remember
you guys, like we're doing this on our side. But
the more that we talk about the topic and the
more changes that we make together and that we continue
to have this conversation We need your help. The more
people that we have, men, women, literally, any person out
there who feels passionately about this topic, talk about it,
be about it, help people so that we can all
(29:14):
learn to love ourselves and lead the life of happiness, joy,
and self acceptance that we deserve.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I'm in, I'm in, baby, and baby this. That's right.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
That's it for this episode of Make sure to subscribe
to our podcast and thank you so much for being this.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Is an iHeart women's sports production and partnership with Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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