For most of my life, the mirror was not my friend.
I remember standing in front of it when I was thirteen years old and hating what I saw. Looking back now, objectively, I probably had what people would call a “perfect” body. But that didn’t matter. The problem was never my body. The problem was the way we are taught to see ourselves.
As girls, we grow up learning that something about us is always wrong. Too much. Too soft. Too big. Not toned enough. Not thin enough. Not pretty enough. The mirror becomes a place where we search for flaws. And no matter how good we look, we always find them.
That mindset followed me for most of my life.
Of course, with age comes a little more kindness toward yourself. You become less harsh, a bit more realistic, a little more forgiving. But even then, the mirror never truly felt like an ally. It was still a place of quiet criticism.
And then something changed.
When I discovered functional training, I didn’t start because I suddenly loved my body. I started because I wanted to move, to challenge myself, to try something new. At first, it was just training. Workouts. Sweat. The usual soreness that comes when you push yourself.
But slowly, something deeper happened.
About two years into consistent training, I caught myself looking in the mirror one day and thinking something I had never thought before:
This is exactly right.
Not perfect. Not flawless. Just right.
Because the body I saw was no longer just something to evaluate. It was something I understood.
I saw a strong body.
A capable body.
A body that carries me through runs, lifts weights, pushes sleds, and gets back up again the next day.
For the first time in my life, I didn’t see something that needed to be fixed. I saw something that was working for me.
And that changes everything.
Even my relationship with food transformed along the way. Yes, I could absolutely be more disciplined about my nutrition. I could count calories more precisely or pay more attention to every ingredient on my plate. At BADDAZZ we write a lot about nutrition, and we know how powerful it can be.
But the goal has changed.
Eating is no longer about becoming smaller.
It’s about becoming stronger.
Food is fuel now. Support. Recovery. Energy for the next training session, the next challenge, the next goal.
And that shift — from shrinking your body to supporting it — is incredibly freeing.
For women especially, this change in perspective is powerful. For so long, we have learned to see ourselves through the critical eyes of others. Through expectations, beauty standards, comments, comparisons.
But strength does something remarkable: it gives that power back to you.
You stop asking whether your body is good enough for the mirror.
You start asking what incredible things it can do next.
Today, when I look at myself, I feel something I never felt as a teenager.
Pride.
And gratitude.
Gratitude for a body that has carried me through life. A body that learned new things, adapted, became stronger, and keeps surprising me.
This body is not something I fight against anymore.
It’s my partner.
And when I look in the mirror now, I don’t see flaws.
I see everything this body has already done for me —
and everything it will still allow me to do.
Be bold. Be Baddazz. 💥
