Ermagerd, you guys. Yesterday I was driving to work and had a major epiphany which evolved into me staying up until 2am buzzing with ideas about this!! I want to talk to you about Body Image Bootcamp!! My newest brainchild since our last Body Talk! Just like we attend fitness bootcamps and after hours educational classes, I feel there is a need to offer something incredible to help people improve their body image!! Therefore, Body Image Bootcamp became a thing. Click below to find out more!!
If you decided NOT to click on the link and want to follow along here, that's totally cool. Essentially, Body Image Bootcamp is a 6 week course designed to help you improve your relationship with your body in a group setting. You will be provided with a bag of awesome stuff upon the first night and every week after that you will be put to the test to get vulnerable, open up, share, and get out all your feelings. There are a variety of exercises (again, click the link above to get ALL the details) that I will put you through to help you come to terms with who you are as a human and provide you with guidance to achieving a healthier outlook on yourself. If you are excited about changing your view to change your life, then hit me up with an email and let's get you registered!!
Let's Talk About Body Neutrality ~ Winnipeg Empowerment
Better yet, let's not talk about bodies at all. #BOPO #bodypositivity #iambeautiful #iampretty #iammorethanjustmybodyandweneedtostartrealizingthatthisismoreimportant. Has anyone else noticed that "body positivity" is getting extremely watered down? It's becoming so topical, trendy, empty, and void. Don't get me wrong, I love to see women loving their bodies regardless of size, shape, color, etc. BUT now we are heading to far in the other direction and it seems as though if you aren't body positive, you should feel guilty about it. I don't know, maybe I am just being cynical but I think that we should strive to achieve peace with our body...body neutral, if you will. Am I happy to see diversity in the media? Of course, but I would be a hell of a lot happier if they stopped referring to the models as "Plus models" or stopped making their size the focus of their marketing as opposed to the actual garments. Maybe my rant is because I have been working for the last 2 weeks without a day off...I mean, after all I am a self proclaimed body positivity activist, right?
But I have been thinking about this a lot and I thought about myself and my mission and what I am really trying to accomplish. At what point did we forget that we are so much more than just our bodies? I mean, there had to have been a time when our body didn't even register as a thing that was good or bad, it just....was. I am starting to think that this is even more important, possibly, than body positivity.
I get that I am striving to help people be more positive about the things they say and think about their body, but more importantly I want them to realize that there is more to them than JUST a body. My other post about body image not being about the body at all, is a perfect example of this. Instead of extremely hating or hyper-focusing on, how about we just accept our body for what it is: it is the Earth suit that allows us to do our Earth work. Regardless of it's size, shape, color, or otherwise, it is simply a casing on a kick ass interior. And yes, your body is beautiful. And yes, your size is fab. And yes, your skin color is gorgeous. BUT. You are so. much. more. than. that.
You are an accumulation of passion, drive, generosity, fearlessness, courage, brilliance bravery, soul, spirit, and dreams. There is no casing perfect enough to encapsulate ALL of these things aside from the one you have been given. And you are not these things all at once and you're also never specifically one of these things. I like to think of our spirit and who we ACTUALLY are is similar to a beautiful cosmos....swirling, changing, sparkling, showing up, disappearing, a continual eddy of glitter that cannot possibly be found in our skin color, our body shape, or size. And maybe that's what frustrates us ABOUT our bodies.....is that we don't see ourselves truly reflected in our casing because we DO know we are much more than our outsides.
We need to start changing our conversations and the words we use to describe each other and the world around us. Look at the potential, the ferocity, the courage, the brilliance, the confidence, instead of JUST the beauty and bodies. And blame it all on biology if you want. The fact that we look for "healthy" mates and find those with symmetrical faces to be more appealing is rooted in biology. But let's be clear, there's this little thing called evolution or adaptability (if you don't believe in evolution) that has shown us that we are able to change our brain paths and with every new generation we are a bit different than the last. So, let's start to change our biological brains to learn a new habit. One that starts to see past bodies and recognize people for WHO they are, instead of what they look like....and that goes for ourselves too. Look in the mirror, but compliment your inner strength, brilliance, and drive. The only thing you should care about on your body is whether or not you have toothpaste on your chin or food in your teeth.
With every photo project I do, I am realizing more and more that we need to stop comparing because it is like comparing different kittens....THEY ARE ALL ADORABLE!!! Our motivations, our personality, our relationships, etc. are not one size fits all, just as our bodies are not one size fits all. So why do we keep trying to force ourselves into this weird checklist of "perfection"? I get that we want to socially "fit in" and all that, but at what expense? I tried that and I hated myself. I am sure I am not alone in this. You know that feeling when you are talking about something you love and are passionate about and your voice gets louder, and your hands start moving, and your eyes get sparkly and you talk faster and you don't even give a shit to what or how your body looks in that moment?? That's your soul saying "hey, hey! THIS is YOU!! This is what you are made of!!" You will never feel that same sparkle when you try to be someone else because it is not you. Plain and simple. You know that saying "Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole"? That is the fight the majority of people make every single day that they try to be something they aren't.
In this day and age (and yes, I realize how old that makes me sound) we are being sucked into a vortex of sub-species. It's like society is turning us into someone's ridiculous Starbucks order! Everything we try to do or be, someone feels the need to put a label on it: Cis, Bi, Plus, Straight, Thin, White, Black, Brown, Bla Bla Bla. Why is this necessary? Why does everything need to fit into a little packaged box. Why can't we just....be? Do I take pride in being a woman? Of course. But I am more than my gender. Just as I am more than my size, my sexual orientation, my PCOS, and my job. These are just some of the things that make up the cosmic map that is Teri Kristin Lee Hofford and I am trying to be the most Teri Kristin Lee Hofford that I know how to be. Stop putting fucking labels on yourself and other people, they only continue to segregate people and cause hurt and sadness.
So after this ranty post, am I still a body positivity activist? Yes. I always look to the positive so I believe my mission is to help women change their brain paths and habits to help them achieve a healthier relationship with their body. But I have also realized that I am also a sparkly-life activist (don't let the name fool you, even though I'm sparkly, I'm still tough love Teri): I will inspire, motivate, and empower women to achieve their strongest, most effervescent lives without anything holding them back (including body image). I will help women see their cosmic map for what it is and to use their beautiful differences to inspire, motivate, and heal others. I will help women to understand that their beauty is so much more than the curves of their hips, the length of their eyelashes, or the firmness of their breasts. I will ask women the tough questions to help them understand why they feel the way they do about themselves and the world around them. I will help women move out of their comfort zone into a world of growth and opportunity, free of judgment from themselves and inspire them to move mountains with their power, not their body. I will teach women to revel in the galaxy that makes up their soul and to appreciate all the bits, even the ones that make them feel less worthy, because even broken things shine brightly. Lastly, I will remove any and all labels, providing a judgement free space where women can talk about their fears in relation to themselves: their body, their mind, their dreams, their soul and hopefully give them some comfort to move forward into the world, becoming aquainted with their true, authentic, beautiful, powerful self. I will not ask women to be body positive (unless they want to be), but rather body accepting and body neutral. If you can come to a a place of peace with your Earth suit, that is still better than being negative and this peace allows you to focus on the other parts that truly give value to your wonderous being! Now, go forth, dwell in the magic that is your spirit and enjoy the journey!
Too Much of This, Not Enough of That ~ Winnipeg Boudoir Photography
Trigger Warning: eating disorders, bulimia, etc.Miss C has the features and body that young women on Instagram and other social media platforms, quite literally, die for. But it doesn't come easy and it definitely comes with a price....and that price is her freedom. Miss C has given me permission to share the story of her eating disorder with you, in hopes that it will inspire OTHER young women to face these issues and take them seriously. I am doing my due diligence to learn more about eating disorders and why they happen, how we can combat them, etc. and the research I have found implies that more than 80% of documented cases of eating disorders are genetic, usually following closely to depression, anxiety, and OCD. What does this mean? It means eating disorders are usually the result of a cocktail of brain chemicals and environmental factors and every case is different enough for there to be no "one answer" to fixing the issue.
So, where does Miss C fit in to all of this, aside from just "having" an eating disorder? Well, she came to me in response to one of my casting calls and told me about her progress in her recovery program. I was hesitant to put up images of her on my social media (not just because it would get me banned from Facebook) but because I know the internet is a crappy place and people would say some extremely demeaning things about her petite body. So, before anyone comments on the fact that she "needs to eat a sandwich" or "put some meat on those bones" or implies that "men like women with curves, not bones" please note that you have NO FUCKING CLUE about someone's journey. For Miss C. she has made great strides from where she was a few short months ago and has not only started making gains to get to a healthier weight for her frame, but is also battling with the mental game that eating disorders provide EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
For me, it is extremely important that I represent women of ALL shapes and sizes and journeys because ALL women deserve to feel good about themselves at whatever point they are in their journey and I am very happy to have met Miss C because she can shed some light onto a different part of body image that I have no experience with and hopefully her own journey to self love will help change even one girl's life.
Now, my reason for sharing Miss C's story is not so that you will take pity on her or say "awwww, poor girl" but rather, so you will think twice before wanting to achieve a particular "body type" which is deemed perfect by stupid social media challenges and society and also, so you will think before commenting on a woman's body that she is "too much" of this or "not enough" of that. 
So, even though the casting call for Miss C's session was supposed to be an inspiration session, it ended up being more of an empowerment session. Boudoir sessions for Miss C are a good way for her to express herself and get in touch with her body at whatever stage in her journey she is at. Photos are a fab way to document her life changes and see the progress that she is making, because sometimes it may seem slower than she would like. In any case, Miss C is one hell of a young woman and she is extremely bright, beautiful, strong and full of spark and I will continue to walk beside her in her journey to understand her self. {Ps. scroll down to the bottom to watch our behind the scenes video from this shoot!}
Here is what Miss C'story and experience with boudoir:"During my session I felt on top of the world I felt like the sexiest women alive. Teri made me feel so comfortable with showing off my body that I worked hard for. My fear of seeing my photos was not even that my body was going to look bad, it was that I would have weird facial expressions and be unhappy but when I saw my photos I felt beautiful. I felt perfect I wanted to show them off to everyone. I've been bulimic for half a year and my confidence is at an all time low. There are days when I feel beautiful and confident in the skin I'm in but other days when I want to lay in bed all day and not look at myself. I needed a confidence boost and I knew that Teri always gave me the best ones. And I was right. She made me beautiful and confident just like she did the first time and whenever I'm feeling insecure I look back on those photos she took of me and just smile. Thank you for all your help, Teri!"
