Who is a Girl in Sweaty Spandex?

Hello and welcome to A Girl in Sweaty Spandex! I'm Lauren Truslow and I'm here to be real and break down the impossible standards of women, while turning up the positivity and self love.

 Listen to Episode 1 |  Who is A Girl in Sweaty Spandex?

Episode Transcript:

So today let's dive into who I am, and what is A Girl in Sweaty Spandex, and why did I start this podcast. Well, first things first I am surrounded by women. I have two sisters, obviously a mother, three daughters, all female employees and hundreds of women coming in and out of all of my businesses each and every day. Women everywhere. I own two fitness studios and I teach every single day, so the fact that I teach fitness obviously requires spandex. I pretty much have more spandex in my closet than I have anything else. After I teach, I own a barre studio but we have a big cardio component, I truly can ring out my little side bun and sweat will fall to the ground. I look like a drowned rat- I am sweaty in spandex every day but it's about feeling comfortable and confident in my own skin. I show up at big bank meetings, any meeting really, school plays in the middle of the day and you know all a lot of moms are dressed to the nines and look fabulous but you name it now no matter where I am, I am there in spandex. A lot of times that drowned rat may have dried off a little bit but still looking a little drowned.

I think A Girl in Sweaty Spandex is also having that confidence in your body image. Now, I do not, have not and will not ever look like some fitness model. I was a gymnast growing up and I have the thighs to prove it. When I used to look in the mirror I would see “Oh my gosh- thighs,” truly and it's taken me years to get to where I feel comfortable in my own body. No matter where I am, those thighs are out y'all, because I'm in that spandex. I’ve had four babies and I’ve been in this role of instructor and studio owner through all the pregnancies and all the babies, the nursing, the whole 9 yards, then not only did I have the thighs, I had the boobs. There was a moment after I had the twins, I was wearing zip up sports bras so that when I had to nurse them, which let me tell you that was a whole nother deal. If you could just let me paint a picture real quick for you, there's this thing called “my breast friend” and it's an extra big boppy pillow because you know, you need the room. It was kind of like a little table around you, and I would put one baby on one boob, one on the other, and I mean it was just a lot of boob. So I was teaching class one day and thank goodness it was towards the end, and my zip up sports bra just burst open. I had been back teaching only a few weeks, and I'm not one of those cute pregnant people, not even a little bit. I gained weight in all the places, and of course I had on a white tank. I remember thinking just “Oh my God”. I crossed my arms and thank goodness they were doing a bridge so they were looking up at the sky, not necessarily at me and I just thought well thank goodness for small favors. I just tried to get through the rest of class and kind of crossed my arms as they left.

You know body image is so tough- there's been so many highs and lows and a roller coaster ride with my body throughout the ownership of my studios. I have felt all the feelings of the women who have walked into my studios and I know that all of us have seen the best and the worst, but when we come into our studio, it's the place where we can all move and sweat and get the physical and mental release. Strengthening and empowerment is everything to me and so this pair of sweaty spandex is that symbol of it doesn't matter, the highs and lows and the roller coaster in between, it is that symbol of physical and mental strength. Working out for me is both, and hopefully you like to work out too, but your sweaty spandex doesn’t have to be because you worked out, the sweaty spandex is just that mind frame that you have, that's just like F it, take me as who I am. Big thighs, busted sports bra and all here I am. It's also, diving back into that, the fear of walking somewhere wearing spandex. I think that sometimes keeps us away or the lack of confidence, it's hard at any age. I told one of my daughters this week, when you step your foot out of the car to go to school, I want you to put that confidence cape on and hold your head high and pull your shoulders back. So this image of sweaty spandex is about confidence no matter where you are and no matter what age you are, cutting down those fears and lack of confidence that keeps us from doing things that we enjoy. There's messaging in the world that prevents us from just being this way innately, the messaging out there is tough. There is an imagery that I show in some of my talks with the sorority groups on campus of decades with the best body of that decade, you know what was hot in one decade and then what happened in the next decade. It was so crazy because they were all so different. One decade it would be you need a big butt and to be curvy and voluptuous, and then the next decade it was thin, it said “slender boyish figure”. I'm like well goodness gracious, that is so hard to keep up with, it's impossible. You cannot tell me “Oh, I'm sorry Lauren, curves are out.” Well I've always been curvy, if I need to have a slender boyish figure I couldn't do it unless I went under the knife and had everything chopped off, you know? I also saw something recently and it said “heroin chic is back”. I mean heroin chic? I literally wanted to vomit. I could not believe that a media outlet had even put that out there. It was like, “look at all these celebrities and their heroin chic makeovers”. I mean I can, as a 39 year old, read that and read right through the bullshit, but you know you look at my 10 year old or my 7 year olds. First of all they wouldn't know what heroin was but say they were teenagers later on, how are they supposed to to wade through that and think “yeah that's stupid.” They don't have all the mental capacities to get there. It's so sad, but that's the messaging that keeps trying to break this confidence down in us, especially as women. I feel like it's really meant to make us feel bad about ourselves, they're impossible standards and we just have to start deleting them from our brain, turning off the messages and the images. If there's something like that that pops up on social media or whatever promotes that BS, hide it, unfollow it. If it makes you feel bad about yourself in any way I'm just like, nope chuck it. It's okay to have those highs and lows, there's no way we can just have a world of rainbows and sunshine, where it's just positivity, love and light and yay. I get that, totally, but we can cut down on what we can.

I remember a few years ago I was on a massage table, and it should have been a lovely time. It was me and my mom and my sisters and we were at the beach. My mom loves to go to this little spa. I walked in and she's like okay, tell me about yourself and I said oh, I have some ailments here and she was asked me what I do, and I remember this was pretty soon after baby number whatever was born, and I did not look and feel my best at all, and I remember feeling embarrassed to tell her what I do. Thinking, oh my gosh what is she going to think, I don't look like a fitness instructor right now. I don't look like a fitness studio owner, what is she going to think of me? That was my own insecurity, I was not that girl in sweaty spandex who walks into the big bank meeting in my tennis shoes, just leaving class, walking in confidently. I did not have that, it had been chipped away. But you have to continue to surround yourself with people who make you feel better about yourself and have more highs than lows to help combat all that negativity we will inevitably be fed out there in the world.

I have a mom that built confidence in me every day as a child, well and still does. She's great obviously, but I learned that not everybody has that cheerleader at home telling them “you're beautiful, you're amazing, your thighs are great, why are you even thinking about that?” You hear little tidbits here and there and as my girls are growing up, having these discussions with other moms saying things like “Oh my gosh you're so skinny” or “Oh my gosh did you gain weight,” the things out of people's mouths, sometimes I think oh my goodness what is wrong with you? I had a mom that made me feel confident every day and built a lot of who I am in this space. I want us all to be there, becauseI have had a journey for sure, you get into that tween and teen world and then you get into college and there's just all these things that can break down all those little pieces of confidence in you. I want this podcast and this space to be something that builds all of us up. I want you all to be confident in your sweaty spandex. I want this podcast to be talking about real things like busting your sports bra open in the middle of class, I mean I'll tell you all the things. I've never been afraid to share my journey in all different ways, because if it helps one person then that's worth it to me. I want you to feel all the feels, I want us to talk about all the things that matter, and I want us to feel like there is a community of women that have each other's back here. I want you to feel that when you walk into a room when you put in all the effort in the world and you're in a ball gown and you’re ready to rock out this black tie event or you're in a pair of jeans or in a pair of sweaty spandex. I don't care what it is, I want you to feel like your best you, your happiest version, your best self because it doesn't matter what you wear. It matters what's on the inside, and I feel like no matter how old we are we all need a little confidence boost, we all need a little confirmation that we are enough, because it's hard out there. So hear this, I want you to love yourself and be confident in who you are and I want you to look in the mirror in your sweaty spandex, and I want you to feel like a badass. I want us to come here once a week and be reminded of all those things. So I would love for you to leave here today and take some time to think about you, your perfections and your imperfections and what makes you who you are. What makes you feel confident, and what are some of the things that you maybe need to work on. I have done a lot of self reflection over the years and a lot of times standing in that ginormous mirror, teaching class. I've had to deal with all these thoughts and at the end of the day, I want you to be your best, happy self wearing that sweaty pair of spandex, and remember- I'm going to tell you each and every time- you are beautiful, you are strong and you are enough. I look forward to seeing you next time and taking you on this journey of A Girl in Sweaty Spandex.