Exploring Your Fitness Gains through Health at Every Size (HAES) w/ Stacey Sorgen

Have you felt like there is a misalignment between your strength goals and what society tells you your goals should be? So often the fitness industry is focused on shrinking your body, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The Health at Every Size movement is a prime example of your ability to work with what you have to be the best possible version of yourself each and every day.

Key Takeaways

If You Want to Embrace Health at Every Size, You Should:

  1. Create fitness goals that have nothing to do with your size
  2. Find a form of fitness that you enjoy and brings you happiness
  3. Focus on what you are gaining, not what you are losing

Becoming The Best Version of Yourself

Stacey Sorgen felt that misalignment first hand. When working to become a personal trainer, Stacey felt like she had to shrink herself to be taken seriously in the industry. Finally, Stacey said enough is enough and has found great success helping people of every size and shape work towards their goals that have nothing to do with the number on the scale.

Making Fitness Accessible

Society tells us that being a larger person is the worst thing that can be done to you. Stacey is here to tell you that that is absolutely not true. The Health at Every Size movement is all about making fitness more approachable and accessible for as many people as possible. 

Because the truth is, there is nothing wrong with the size of your body, and you can become the healthiest version of yourself without focusing on becoming smaller.

It’s Not About Shrinking Your Body

When you use fitness as a tool to expand your strength, confidence, and ability, instead of contracting our bodies to fit a certain mold, you gain the ability to advocate for your needs. Instead of using fitness as a means to an end, Stacey wants you to enjoy what you are doing and focus on what you are gaining, not what you are losing. 

Fitness is about so much more than shrinking your body, and with the right perspective, you too can find health at any size.

Are you ready to set some fitness goals that have nothing to do with the number on the scale? Share how you are embracing Health at Every Size with me in the comments on the episode page.

In This Episode

  • Learn what Health at Every Size means and the main core values of the philosophy (5:41)
  • How to maintain a sense of independence in an all-consuming diet-culture industry (13:32)
  • Addressing the concern troll mentality and the misconception of Healthy at Every Size (17:18)
  • Tips for reframing the narrative around fitness and movement (23:08)
  • What to do if you are ready to do something different but are reluctant to put yourself back out there (32:26)

Quotes

“It’s kind of a revolution of discovering that we can learn to respect or accept our bodies where they are at and do the best that we can with what we have in this moment now.” (7:16)

“We can be larger people, and still be strong, still be active, still be fit, still be any of the things you want to be at the size that you are in your body today.” (10:50)

“If we do not support and love all people, how can all people support and love themselves?”  (18:41)

“As soon as you hit a plateau, if you are focused on contraction, there is only so far you can go. But the other direction, it’s like the sky is the limit, you can really do anything.” (27:52)

“We are always focused on everyone else. But that hour or that hour and a half or that fifteen minutes, focus on yourself and get out of it what you need out of it.” (35:22)

Featured on the Show

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