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

Daryl Perry

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. 2d ago

    Whose Opinion Is Shaping How You See Yourself?

    How much of the way you see yourself actually comes from you? In this episode of Love the Body You Have, I want you to think about who has influenced the way you see yourself, your body, and even the person looking back at you in the mirror. Maybe there is one specific person whose opinion carries more weight than you would like. Maybe comments about your appearance from years ago still come back into your mind. Maybe it is not even something anyone has actually said recently. Sometimes it is the perception of what we think other people are thinking about us that starts shaping how we think about ourselves. I share some of my own experience living with cerebral palsy and dealing with comments, looks, and opinions about my appearance throughout my life. Even when I am operating from a calm headspace and genuinely appreciating who I see in the mirror, some of those old thoughts can still show up. That is why simply telling yourself that someone else’s opinion does not matter is not always enough. You deserve the opportunity to understand how those experiences have affected you. There is no right or wrong answer here. There is only your answer. As you listen, grab your journal and ask yourself who has influenced the way you see yourself, whose opinions still carry weight, and whether you are sometimes seeing yourself through someone else’s eyes instead of your own. The goal is not to pretend those experiences never happened. It is to better understand them so you can continue building a relationship with yourself that comes from the inside/out. Brand New to Your Level Fitness? If you're brand new to Your Level Fitness, check out everything available at: https://yourlevelfitness.com

  2. 3d ago

    How to Feel More at Ease When You See Yourself on Camera

    How do you feel when you unexpectedly see yourself in a video, a reflection, or simply moving through the world? That reaction can tell you a lot about the relationship you currently have with yourself. In this episode of Love the Body You Have, I want you to pay attention to what happens internally when you catch a glimpse of yourself that you did not plan or control. Maybe somebody else recorded the video. Maybe you see yourself walking past a reflection. Maybe you catch yourself from an angle you normally would not choose. What thoughts immediately show up? My hope is that, over time, those moments can start to feel calmer. You can learn to see yourself without immediately picking yourself apart. You can become more comfortable with your appearance, more confident in how you move through the world, and more at ease with the person looking back at you. That does not mean you will feel that way 100 percent of the time. It takes practice. It starts with choosing how you want your relationship with yourself to feel, then continually redirecting your thoughts and actions toward that relationship. You deserve to see yourself without your body immediately becoming something that needs to be criticized, corrected, or changed. So the question for today is simple. How do you currently feel when you see yourself in motion, and how would you like that experience to feel instead? Brand new to Your Level Fitness? Start here: https://yourlevelfitness.com

  3. 4d ago

    When Do You Feel Most Comfortable in Your Own Skin?

    When do you actually feel most comfortable in your own skin? Not when you think you should feel comfortable. Not when somebody else tells you to love yourself or be confident. I mean the actual situations, environments, and moments when you feel most at ease with yourself. In this episode of Love the Body You Have, I want you to think about a time when you genuinely felt comfortable being you. Maybe there is a situation that consistently creates that feeling. Maybe it is a certain environment, activity, group of people, or moment in your day. Or maybe you have to think further back to remember the last time you really felt at ease. The reason I think this exercise matters is because simply telling ourselves to be comfortable in our own skin does not necessarily give us anything to work with. But when you can remember what being at ease actually feels like, you have a reference point. You can start reconnecting with that feeling in your mind. Then, when you are ready, you can begin looking for ways to recreate pieces of it in other areas of your life. The goal is not to feel comfortable, confident, or completely at ease all the time. There will still be moments when you feel anxious, uncomfortable, ashamed, or disconnected from yourself. But developing awareness around the moments when you do feel at ease can give you somewhere to redirect yourself when those harder feelings show up. Take a few minutes while listening and write down your own answers. When do you feel most comfortable in your own skin? What is happening around you? What are you thinking and feeling? And what pieces of that experience could you intentionally bring into other parts of your life? Learning to love the body you have is about much more than what you see in the mirror. It is also about understanding the relationship you have with yourself underneath everything else. Brand new to Your Level Fitness? Start here: https://yourlevelfitness.com

  4. 5d 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

  5. 6d 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

  6. Oct 2

    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

  7. Oct 1

    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

  8. Sep 30

    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

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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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