Listen as two best friends talk body image, running, empowerment, and so much more. Amber Rees and Lindsey Clayton are certified run coaches, marathoners, Puma sponsored athletes, senior instructors at Barrys, and the founders of Brave Body Project. BBP is a space for people to celebrate their strength and connect through their passion for fitness, body empowerment, and the pursuit of living a brave life.
Learn more about Brave Body Project here.
Connect with Amber & Lindsay on Social:
-Instagram: @BraveBodyProject | @amber_rees | @lindseyclayton23
-Facebook: Brave Body Project
-Spotify: Brave Body Project
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A LOOK INSIDE THE EPISODE:
TM: there’s a lot of pressure for women, that a lot of us in the world we don’t notice, especially of image and then we’re in constant competition, you know, image wise, are you guys getting that? Do you notice that out there with your runners or just people in general that you work with?
A: We’ve definitely seen it for sure. We’ve had those tough conversations because we’re women, and we’re women in the fitness industry. Before that we were women in the theater world, and we were dancers and singers, and there’s so much weight on how you look, when you’re a dancer, when you’re a singer, when you’re on stage. We both have dealt with that and I think we can speak from experience with body image. We’ve even had issues with it. I had an eating disorder when I was in high school and in college, and even into when I was in theater. So I think that we both kind of overcame a lot of things and we can speak from experience. It’s really interesting to have those conversations with women and for us, our role is to just help everyone understand that our bodies are all different, you’re confident, you’re strong, and you don’t have to lose the inner thigh fat that doesn’t exist. It’s just reshifting our mindset into what’s been so integrated into our lives as women growing up.
L: The fitness industry is wonderful, but it’s also filled with a bunch of crap and a bunch of marketing, and they are targeting you to make you feel like you need to be smaller and shrink yourself. And it works and that’s why it’s a billion dollar industry. It’s up to people like us to cut through the BS and to say like, this is not what it’s about. I think that it’s our job to be leaders in the industry and to say, you need to love and accept your body in all forms because it is literally a gift, like your ability to move is a gift that could be taken away at any point. So when you stop focusing on what it looks like and focusing on what you can do and what it does for you, it’s such a mind flip. That’s a big goal for us, to really get people to flip the script on how they think about their bodies. It’s not easy. It’s tough.