Love the Body You Have: Begin to appreciate what and who you see in the mirror.

Daryl Perry
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Health & Fitness
  • Updated Weekly

Love the Body You Have, hosted by Daryl Perry of Your Level Fitness, helps you navigate the questions so many of us quietly ask ourselves. Why am I so hard on my body? Why doesn't losing weight automatically improve how I see myself? How can I appreciate my body while still working toward my fitness goals? Through conversations about body image, confidence, self acceptance, fitness, and mindset, each episode will help you build a healthier relationship with yourself while creating a forever active lifestyle that reflects who you are, not who you think you're supposed to be.

  1. 8h ago

    What Thought Sends You Into a Negative Body Image Spiral?

    What is the thought that tends to send you down the body image rabbit hole? Maybe it happens when you look in the mirror. Maybe it is a certain picture of yourself. Maybe it is an angle you do not like. Maybe one thought appears and, before you really notice what is happening, you are seven or eight thoughts deep and tearing yourself apart. In this episode, I want you to start noticing that pattern. What is the first thought? Where does your mind go next? What emotions come up along the way? I think it is easy to look at these patterns logically and tell ourselves that we should just stop thinking that way. But the emotions underneath those thoughts still matter. You have to respect what you are feeling. That does not mean the feeling has to determine where the rest of the thought process goes. It means you can acknowledge what is there, sit with it for a moment, and then begin working toward another path you can choose. At first, you may only catch the pattern occasionally. Over time, with repetition, awareness, and plenty of compassion for yourself, you can start creating a different default. I also talk about why a productive relationship with a therapist or counselor can be valuable when you are working through deeper body image patterns, especially when that relationship includes identifying blind spots and practicing things between sessions. Because loving the body you have is ultimately about much more than the reflection itself. What you see in the mirror may be the starting point, but underneath that is how you see the person looking back at you. New to Your Level Fitness? Start here: https://yourlevelfitness.com

  2. 1d ago

    What Changes When You Feel Like People Are Watching You?

    Why do you suddenly feel self-conscious when someone looks at you? That is the question I want you to sit with in this episode. For a lot of us, attention can create discomfort very quickly. You may feel completely fine with yourself, then the second you notice someone looking at you, your awareness changes. You start thinking about how you look. How you are standing. How your body is moving. What they might be thinking. And depending on your past experiences, that feeling can bring up a lot. In this episode, I talk about why I think it is useful to slow that moment down and get curious about it instead of immediately judging yourself for feeling uneasy. What are you actually feeling? Why do you think that feeling is there? What past experiences might be influencing the way you interpret attention now? The goal is not to pretend those old thoughts and feelings never existed. It is to recognize that they do not have to remain your default forever. You can start observing how you respond, decide how you would rather feel, and gradually practice a different way of seeing yourself in those situations. That process takes repetition. It takes patience. And it starts with remembering that nobody knows your experience better than you do. New to Your Level Fitness? Start here: https://yourlevelfitness.com

  3. 4d ago

    You Can Want to Change Your Body and Still Appreciate It

    Can you be proud of your body without being proud of how it looks? I think that is a much more nuanced question than it first appears. You can appreciate what your body does. You can be amazed by what it has carried you through. You can also look at certain parts of yourself and wish they were different. Those things can exist at the same time. Where I think we have to be careful is when changing our appearance becomes the thing we believe will finally make us feel better about who we are. In this episode of Love the Body You Have, I talk about the difference between wanting to change something about your body and believing you need that change in order to feel like you are enough. I also explore why it is worth asking yourself where your body standards came from in the first place. Why do certain parts of your body bother you? What standard are you comparing yourself against? And what do you believe would change emotionally if your appearance changed? I share some of my own experience with cerebral palsy and the frustration I sometimes feel toward my body. There are moments when I wish my body responded differently. I let myself feel that frustration, but I also work to return to appreciation instead of making frustration my default. You are going to have moments when you do not like what you see. The goal is not pretending those moments never happen. The goal is creating a foundation where appreciation, respect, and love for your body are what you eventually come back to. Brand new to Your Level Fitness? Start exploring the Your Level Fitness approach to body image, mindset, health, and building a forever active lifestyle at https://yourlevelfitness.com

  4. 5d ago

    Your Body Changed, So Why Don’t You Feel Different?

    What happens when your body changes, but you do not feel the way you thought you would? There can be a lot of expectations attached to weight loss, changing your body composition, or reaching a physical goal. We are constantly being shown what we are supposedly going to feel like once we get there. More confident. Happier. More fulfilled. More comfortable in our skin. But real life is usually more complicated than that. In this episode, I talk about the identity shift that can happen alongside physical change, and why the emotional experience may not line up with the story you were sold. You can be proud of yourself and still feel grief. You can be excited about where you are and still feel connected to versions of yourself from the past. You can appreciate the work you have done without feeling like you suddenly became a completely different person. I do not really believe in the idea of an “old you” and a “new you.” I think you are the same person who continues to evolve. Those earlier versions of you do not disappear because your body changes. They are still part of your story. My goal is not to let them drive the car, but I do think they deserve to be acknowledged, heard, and treated with compassion. I also talk about the way people use the term body dysmorphia online after weight loss, and why it is important to separate those experiences from clinically diagnosed conditions. Sometimes what people are describing is an identity and perception shift that deserves to be explored rather than quickly labeled. This is where journaling can help, and where working with a therapist or counselor can be especially valuable. When you are unpacking how you see yourself, there are likely going to be blind spots that are difficult to recognize on your own. The goal is not to force yourself to feel a certain way because your body changed. It is to get curious about how you actually feel, give yourself room to process it, and continue treating every version of yourself with kindness and compassion. Brand new to Your Level Fitness? https://yourlevelfitness.com

  5. 6d ago

    What Your Reaction to Social Media Can Teach You About Yourself

    We hear it all the time. Social media is just a highlight reel. People are fake online. That picture is edited. Maybe now we even wonder whether something was created with AI. Sometimes those things are true. But I think they can also become convenient ways to move past a much more interesting question. Why did that piece of content make me feel the way it did? In this episode of Love the Body You Have, I talk about using our reactions to social media as opportunities to better understand ourselves. Social media has an incredible ability to bring insecurities to the surface, especially when we see someone else's body, lifestyle, accomplishments, or carefully presented version of their life. The goal is not to judge yourself for having the reaction. It is not to minimize the insecurity or explain it away either. It is simply to notice it. When something online really hits you, consider closing the social media app and writing down what you are thinking and feeling. What did you see? What did you immediately tell yourself? What insecurity might be tangled up in that reaction? You do not have to share those answers with anyone. But I think you deserve to know what they are. This is part of the deeper work behind loving the body you have. We might begin with what we see in the mirror, but when we start looking underneath that reaction, we often discover much more about who we see in the mirror too. Brand new to Your Level Fitness? https://yourlevelfitness.com

  6. Sep 29

    How to Step Outside the Thought Loop Without Disconnecting From Yourself

    Are you fully experiencing your life, or are you watching yourself experience it? I actually think there is a place for both. We need to be present in our own lives. Time moves quickly, and even during difficult seasons, there is value in being connected to what we are actually experiencing. But there are also moments when stepping outside of the immediate thought loop can be incredibly useful. In this episode, I talk about what it can look like to figuratively step outside yourself for a moment, observe what is happening, and decide how you want to respond instead of automatically getting pulled deeper into the same emotional loop. That does not mean suppressing your emotions or trying to make everything logical. Fitness, weight loss, body image, eating, exercise, and life in general are all emotional. The goal is not to eliminate that. The opportunity is to create enough space to notice what is happening, evaluate it, and make a more deliberate choice. Sometimes that choice will work exactly the way you hoped. Sometimes it will completely blow up. Either way, there is something to learn. The more you practice observing without immediately judging yourself, the more you can build trust in your ability to adjust, recover, and figure things out. You do not need to be perfect at this. You just need to keep practicing. Brand new to Your Level Fitness? https://yourlevelfitness.com

  7. Sep 28

    Are You Improving Yourself or Running Away From Yourself?

    Do you always need to be improving yourself? I think the better question is what is driving that desire to improve in the first place. There is nothing wrong with having goals, wanting to evolve, pushing yourself, improving your fitness, changing your appearance, or going after something meaningful to you. I actually think being able to grow and evolve is one of the best parts of life. But there is a difference between improving from a place of appreciation and constantly trying to improve because you are attempting to get away from yourself. In this episode, I talk about paying attention to how your goals actually feel day to day. Are you generally at ease with yourself? Do you trust yourself to figure things out? Are you comfortable in your own skin most of the time? Or does the pursuit of improvement feel anxious, tense, or like a constant mental tug of war? You are not going to be perfect with any of this. Old thoughts and feelings will still show up. What matters is the place you keep returning to once you notice them. I do not want you to shrink your goals or stop being ambitious. I want you to go after what you want from a calm headspace and at a deliberate pace, while knowing that your value is not waiting for you at the end of the next goal. You are already worth appreciating. Improvement can be something you pursue, not something you need in order to finally be enough. Brand new to Your Level Fitness? https://yourlevelfitness.com

  8. Sep 25

    Losing Weight Can Create New Body Insecurities

    Losing weight can change your body without automatically changing the way you see yourself. For a lot of people, weight loss has been connected to the idea that reaching a certain number will finally make them feel more confident, more desirable, or more comfortable in their own skin. So when the weight comes off and those feelings do not change the way they expected, it can be confusing. In this episode, I talk about why weight loss can sometimes amplify old insecurities or create new ones. A big part of this is realizing how much deeper body image can go than appearance. The way we see what is in the mirror often connects directly to how we feel about who we see in the mirror. That is why I think it is important to slow down and get curious before immediately trying to fix another behavior, chase another physical goal, or find the next thing to change. What are you actually feeling? Where do you think those feelings are coming from? What did you expect weight loss to change for you? I also talk about intentionally creating a different way of seeing yourself through practices like journaling and the 60-second Body Noise Challenge, where you stand in front of the mirror and practice building yourself up instead of tearing yourself down. This is not something you do once and forget about. It takes repetition and reinforcement because the old way of seeing yourself may still show up. The goal is not to eliminate every insecurity. It is to build enough trust and appreciation for yourself that you are no longer constantly looking for something outside of you to finally make you feel complete. Brand new to Your Level Fitness? https://yourlevelfitness.com

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Love the Body You Have, hosted by Daryl Perry of Your Level Fitness, helps you navigate the questions so many of us quietly ask ourselves. Why am I so hard on my body? Why doesn't losing weight automatically improve how I see myself? How can I appreciate my body while still working toward my fitness goals? Through conversations about body image, confidence, self acceptance, fitness, and mindset, each episode will help you build a healthier relationship with yourself while creating a forever active lifestyle that reflects who you are, not who you think you're supposed to be.

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