EP. 83 I really believe that we have so many amazing gifts and talents and things to share with the world, but if we don’t feel good in our body it’s really hard to share with people.
Steph Gaudreau is a Nutritional Therapy Consultant, weightlifting and mindset coach. She’s also the highly coveted author of the brand new book, “The Core 4”, and passionate about helping women build their inner and outer strength so they can take up more space.
Through her ‘Core 4’ teachings, Steph empowers women to ditch their diets, the scales, and exercise as a form of punishment. Her work is powerful, her story is inspiring, and I could not wait to go down the rabbithole with her in this incredible episode.
Like lots of other women, Steph used to struggled with her weight. She suffered with body dysmorphia and was obsessed with dieting. Food ruled and Steph never felt enough. Her inner dialogue told her she wasn’t pretty enough, smart enough, thin enough or even good enough. She had problems with blood sugar regulation and she wasn’t happy.
But all that changed when she discovered a whole new way of eating called paleo.
Out went her relentless calorie counting and in came fats and animal proteins. It was a revelation. Steph’s energy levels soared, and her body, mind, and confidence began to heal after years of pain.
And now, Steph helps other women experience the exact same results.
So if you’re fed up with endless dieting and you want to transform the way you feel about yourself and your body so you can get on with living, this episode is for you.
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The people you see in life that you perceive as the most successful or are able to overcome hard things – they are not generally fearless. They are people who feel the fear, they recognise that if they take this action they can deal with that amount of fear and they’re going to do it anyway.
In this episode, Steph dives deep into her experiences to share the practices, mindsets, and philosophies that can help you live a full life.
We talk about:
- Steph’s ‘Core 4’ pillars of health that provide nourishment, care, and strength
- Why confidence follows actions — it’s not the other way around
- Why you don’t need to be fearless to create the life you want
- The importance of creating space in your life and what space does for you
- A quick fix for healing your people pleasing tendencies
- How physical strength increases your mental and emotional strength
- How to take up more space as a woman — and why you want to do this
This episode was recorded LIVE in front of my Stay Grounded Hero community. The feedback from members was off the scale good.
So if you’re ready to look at health and wellbeing through fresh eyes and empower yourself with strength and space, this episode is for you.
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I really try to honor myself and who I am. For me that means a lot of quiet time and alone time.
Time Stamped Show Notes
[5:05] We kick off the conversation with Steph explaining the “Core Four.” Steph’s “why” and her purpose is to help women build their strength (both inner and outer) to change the world in whatever way makes sense for them. She says that we all have incredible gifts, talents, and qualities to share with the world, however, if we don’t feel good in our bodies that can be difficult work to do. Throughout all of her endeavors, it became more and more apparent to Steph how important a holistic approach to health and wellness is; this led to her creating a program that evolved into the “Core Four”
- Eat Nourishing Foods
- Move with Intention
- Recharge Your Energy
- Empower Your Mind
[15:13] Listening to Steph’s story about the small shifts she made with the way she looks at food and how she began placing her focus on strengthening her body instead of how she looked, it dawned on me that those changes were also building confidence. I ask Steph how she’s cultivated confidence throughout her journey? She says she realized that most of us, not only, wait for confidence but we’re waiting for the “moment” when the stars align and we’re hit this big wave of confident energy. She says confidence can simply come from gathering information; she also sees it as a cycle, one that begins with the action
Take the Action – Feel Confident – Take the Next Action – Build More Confidence – Repeat
[20;50] Steph speaks to the role that fear plays and how it can stop many of us in our tracks. She says there’s a lot of talk in the personal development space about the concept of “fearlessness” and that can be problematic because the last thing many of us want to do when we’re scared is take action. Steph says the most successful people, those who we admire and aspire to be, aren’t generally fearless: they feel the fear, recognize it, acknowledge it and they do the thing anyway.
[36:55] Steph wants to empower women to take up space and I ask her to elaborate a bit on her definition of space. She says it’s a definition that can take many forms; sometimes she does mean literal space. We’re surrounded by negative media imagery and messaging around body image, along with a pervasive diet culture. In addition to that, women are dealing with limiting stereotypes and consistent messaging of what a woman’s body “is supposed to look like.” They’re also spaces where they aren’t being heard and don’t feel supported, as a result, many feel that they should defer to the opinions of others. Women are also existing in places where they don’t feel that they have a seat at the table. Taking up physical space looks like stopping the chronic dieting, no longer viewing exercise as a punishment, feeling powerful, and using their gifts and their voices to talk about the things that matter.
[53:52] Steph stays grounded by honoring herself and who she is. It means a lot of quiet time and a lot of alone time. The more she embraces those moments in her life and doesn’t feel pressured to be something that she’s not, the more grounded she feels. She also incorporates some form of movement into her day, it’s how she connects with herself, with her body and with her emotions
Steph Gaudreau