62. What It Really Means to be a Sturdy Human [Season 6!]

We’re back for Season 6 of Sturdy Girl! And we’re kicking things off with a big question: What does it really mean to be a sturdy human?

Spoiler: sturdiness isn’t about having defined thigh muscles, perfect confidence, or an unshakable routine. It’s about resilience. It’s about having deep roots and flexible branches — the kind of strength that helps you bend without breaking when life gets messy.

In this episode, Jess is breaking down her own evolving definition of sturdiness (from shrinking herself with running → to barbell training → to navigating pregnancy), the three pillars of being sturdy (body, mind, and self-relationship), and why sturdiness matters more than ever in a world obsessed with “looking” or “performing” sturdy instead of actually being it.

You’ll also walk away with a few simple, research-backed practices for building your own sturdy foundation — no overhauls required.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why sturdiness is about resilience, not perfection
• The 3 pillars of being a sturdy human: body, mind, and self-relationship
• How diet culture and hustle culture confuse “looking sturdy” with being sturdy
• Research on body image flexibility + self-compassion (and why it matters for resilience)
• A few of my favorite tiny sturdy habits you can start this week

So, hit subscribe and we'll chat on Friday.

Join the Sturdy Girl community on Instagram HERE.
Connect with Jess HERE.

Stay Sturdy, friends.

Transcript

Jess: Hello friends, and welcome back to Sturdy Girl. Can you believe that we are in season six? It's been a little while since this last episode, As in May when we wrapped up season five. Since then, I've been coaching, building out some new programs with an Ever Wild, and oh, by the way, you know, growing a tiny human and nesting so hard. Right now as of this recording, I am less than 10 weeks from Baby Time, which makes the season feel extra special to record kind of.

Like racing against the clock a little bit. I have some high hopes for getting lots of episodes drafted and ready for you guys so that there's no breaks even after she arrives. And here's something new. For this season of the podcast, I actually wanna bring Sturdy Girl and ever wild performance closer together.

Until now, the podcast and my coaching. Have kind of lived in their own separate corners, but the truth is they're both rooted in the very same mission, and that's helping you become sturdy in both body and mind.

So this season you'll hear me talk not only about body image, but also about the tools I use with my coaching clients. Things that you're probably already familiar with if you are not new to the podcast, things like strength, habits, self-efficacy, resilience, and so much more.

Today we're gonna set the stage by talking about what it really means to be a sturdy human right, sturdy girl, sturdy human. Because St. Sturdiness isn't about looking a certain way. It's about living in a way that helps you bend without breaking. And real quick, if you're new here. Hey, I'm Jess. I'm a coach, a runner, a lifter, a yapper turned podcast host and dog mom soon to be human mama.

Somewhere around the first week of November,

Sturdy Girl is the show where we talk about all things body image, confidence, resilience, and how to live a big rad life in the body. You have today, right here, right now, in this moment. today we're kicking off with a big question. What does it actually mean to be a sturdy human? And if you've been around since season one, you know, sturdiness has been the thread, weaving everything together.

But today I really wanna dig into it, what St. Sturdiness really means, what it looks like, why it matters. Because this season we're talking about stronger foundations, habits, confidence, resilience, and it wouldn't be sturdy girl without talking about lifting heavy things.

So let's start with the word sturdy when you hear it. Okay, sure. We might think appearance, but I'm thinking conceptually. Maybe you picture a big oak tree. Maybe you think of your grandma's kitchen table that has survived 40 plus years of family holiday meals. For me, sturdy doesn't mean perfect. It doesn't mean ripped abs or unlimited confidence, or always having it together.

Sturdy means stable, resilient, flexible, grounded. Like that oak tree, it bends with the wind. The roots hold strong. And truthfully, my definition of this has really shifted over the years. Back in my early twenties, I thought being sturdy meant being disciplined. Oh my God, the word disciplined, running to shrink myself, micromanaging food, aiming to control all of the things.

But you know what? That's not sturdy at all. That was actually fragile. And we learn these things sometimes through experience. Right? One missed workout or one bad quote unquote bad meal. And I felt like I'd failed. Failed myself. Failed the day, the week at ever succeeding in life. A little over overdramatic.

I know, but you know how our brains can be. And that was, you know, early twenties. That was also like. 2010 ish and that whole focus of fitness and getting smaller, right? Which is really, I mean, it wasn't until I found strength training, lifting barbells, feeling my body do hard things instead of just trying to look a certain way that I started to understand sturdiness and now being pregnant, sturdiness feels even bigger.

It's also about what my body looks like or even what it can do, which. Seeing what it can do day in and day out, week in and week out as the belly grows is insane. Sure. But it's more about these roots that I've built to weather a change both physical and mental, but two things here. One, you're allowed to train for aesthetics, and I'm in full support of this, but working out for that sole purpose of appearance is often not a sustainable enough reason.

Two. You'll notice I said that my embracing of the concept of sturdy and what that meant for my health came from strength training, not from running. I, I mean, I alluded to this already, right? I started doing more long distance running, 20 11, 20 12, when the big drive was running to get smaller. It was to lose weight, to shrink myself.

It wasn't until finding strength training and more so barbell strength, that I started to relearn the concept of being strong, of being sturdy, resilient, and you know, actually building muscle and taking up space, which maybe we're just gonna keep making shameless plugs for sturdiness and strength training and how important that is.

More on that later. But okay, let me keep this conceptual to sturdy. There are three pillars in the Sturdy girl Ever. Wild world, three pillars of St. Sturdiness. So these three are body, mind, and relationship with self. This is how we build sturdiness. Body, of course. This is your physical St.

Sturdiness, your strength, your energy, rest, training smart, fueling yourself, knowing when to push and when to pull back. It's the foundation. Most of us start with the workouts, the nutrition, the sleep.

Mind, this is your thoughts, your beliefs, your habits. It's catching the all or nothing thinking, questioning the stories you've been handed about your body or your worth and building nuance. And there's so much good mindfulness stuff to come this season, I promise. And then third, that relationship with self.

This is the big one. It's how you talk to yourself, the boundaries you set, the compassion you bring when life isn't perfect, the way you respond to challenges, how you talk to yourself in the quiet moments and the loud ones. It's confidence, not as I love myself every day, but as I trust myself to figure this out.

And these three. Not separate. They're overlapped and so intertwined. Training your body builds mental sturdiness. Practicing compassion improves your body image. Learning habits strengthens both your mind and your self trust.

I wanna get a little nerdy here. Let's talk about why this matters and some of the research. Because we live in a culture that's obsessed with looking sturdy, but not being sturdy, right? External versus internal diet. Culture tells us if we just lose the weight, we'll be confident that if then does not work, hustle culture says if we just push harder and stay disciplined, we'll succeed.

But both of those kind of leave us fragile, disconnected, stuck, or. Doing things for the wrong reasons that don't last. So the research that actually backs this up, and gosh, we could talk so much about this, but essentially looking at body image flexibility, People with body image flexibility, meaning they can notice negative thoughts about their body without spiraling, are more resilient and have better overall mental health.

And then of course, we've talked about Kristen Neff and her research on self-compassion so many times in this podcast, and link in the show notes for all of those other episodes if you want a deep dive on self-compassion. But essentially it shows that treating ourselves with kindness lowers body dissatisfaction, and it makes us more able to bounce back from setbacks.

In other words, St. Sturdiness protects us. It's the thing that helps us bend without breaking. And this is exactly the work I do with clients. Yes, I coach running, I coach endurance, strength training, but underneath it all, the real goal here is to help people build St. Sturdiness that lasts beyond a single workout or season.

The TLDR and why this matters. Being sturdy isn't about never giving up about unwavering strength. It's about being firmly rooted in ourselves, in our beliefs and our habits.

It's about being like that oak tree with strong roots, but branches that bend that are flexible. This sturdiness protects you. It's the difference between snapping under pressure and adapting, growing and continuing to live that big rad life. No matter what season you are in. Make sense? Okay, so a little more on this.

I wanna bring it back down to earth. Ask yourself, where in my life do I already feel sturdy, stable, foundation, resilient? And where could I use more support? Then I want you to choose one tiny. Sturdy habit this week. We are not talking a full life edit. Full overhaul. One small thing, one little sturdy habit.

And here are three that I decided to choose out of this. And do what these, what you will think of your own. If you wanna go area by area in your life and think about this, that works too. So let's do a little anecdote for this first one. We're gonna talk about small movement breaks as the first one. When I first moved to Portland, I lived in this little ground floor apartment and I put a pull up bar in the doorway to my bathroom.

Again, we're talking like late teens is when I moved into this place. So judge me for having a pull-up bar in my doorway. But there you go. And every time that I had to go to the bathroom, I would stop and do as many pull-ups or chin-ups as I could. Every time, and these little movement breaks are like exercise snacks.

Build them into your day. Is it body weight? Squats when you get out of bed while you're waiting for your coffee to brew plank before bedtime? An intentional moment to stretch when you've been sitting at your desk for too long. If you're an Apple Watch person like I am. You get those stand notifications 10 minutes before every hour if you've been sitting too long.

Acknowledge those. Is it a five minute walk to move around? Just those small movement breaks to break it up because especially if you work from home or work at a desk, it's really easy to let hours go by and be like, holy crap, I've been sitting for a long time.

And then the second tiny sturdy habit that I can't help myself. I'm gonna let my tooth nerd show here. How often do you floss your teeth? Because this is one tiny, sturdy habit that has seriously huge payoffs when we do it. Do you feel sturdy about your oral hygiene? cause if we pair our flossing with an already existing habit. We find ways to reduce the friction to that habit. It can make it so much easier. This is something that I talk every day to my patients at work about. Oh yeah. Side note for you, new listeners. I also am a dental hygienist, just like I said, tooth nerd.

Okay. If we throw our floss in the shower. put it next to the coffee pot and floss over the sink wall, the coffee brew. Put some flossers in the center console of your car for your commute. Do you have a spot? You sit in the evenings to wind down that you could easily leave floss. Worst case scenario, you put it on your nightstand and then you also Google Coca floss.

And use my code brusha Jess 26 and save on the best floss in the entire world. I had to put that in there. I'm not like, they're not a sponsor of the show. It is a dream to have them as one. But seriously, the best floss of your life is Cocofloss It's woven. It's textured. There you go. anyways, third thing, the last one I'll mention here because I also want you to brainstorm some that truly fit your life.

And this is taking a moment to pause and breathe. Again, won't get too into mindfulness in this episode, but the power of putting a sticky note on your laptop that says, breathe before opening can help us take one deep breath, bring us back into the present moment before continuing with our day. It's such a small and sneaky, sturdy habit, but picking the time when you're going to intentionally breathe.

When you pull into your driveway after getting home from work and need to take just a sec. Or maybe it's when you first get in your car after you leave work and you're like, okay, recenter myself back in the present moment. Gotta like exhale the work day, however it went. Is it before you take your first sip of morning coffee, think of where this could best fit for you. To pause, breathe, come back to the present and back to our own bodies.

Okay, those are my three. Thanks for listening to my tangents, but we want to keep these tiny. Okay, so if none of these resonated with you, tiny habits, because research shows habits are built by repetition, frequency, and environment, not by massive motivation. Even the smallest consistent action rewires our brain.

Okay? Think about self-efficacy. When you succeed at small steps, you build belief in yourself. And belief in yourself is the root of sturdiness,

and that is what we're going to be exploring this season. Real life ways to build sturdy foundations in body and mind. Okay. Ah, I'm so stoked. Like wrapping up this episode and being like, ah, we're in a new season. I I feel like I'm sitting here sipping my water, wishing it was coffee, having a little coffee date with my friends.

I'm being like, guys, I have so much to catch you up on because I do like half this episode could have been like, okay. Let me tell you what I've been up to this year has flown by, oh my gosh. Catch me up on how you are, which I'd love to hear. My gosh. Shoot me a message. There is a button right inside the show notes to send me a message.

Tell me how life is your summer, any sturdy adventures you went on. I'd love to hear, and if this episode resonated with you. Hit follow so you don't miss what's next. We're dropping episodes every Friday for the next 10 weeks, and if you know someone who could use a sturdier foundation in their life, share this with them.

It is the best way to help this show grow and keep me in my microphone having fun. and hey, if you want support applying this in your own life, that's exactly what I do as a coach. Whether it's through strength training, endurance coaching, or body image work, I help everyday athletes build St.

Sturdiness that lasts and just a little nudge ever Wild Signature strength membership program. Grit reopens for my birthday September 8th. We are doing a week of just fun little promos to celebrate you for my birthday. This is for endurance. Athletes looking to train a solid strength foundation, whether it's with dumbbells or barbells, their options, or both. This membership is where it's at. We are making it 35 bucks for my 35th birthday. Free first week and the first five people who sign up will get a bunch of sturdy girl stickers sent their way, which I'm really excited about.

and then we are offering a hundred bucks off your first month of one-on-one coaching. So birthday surprises starting September 8th. There you go. Next week's episode, we are busting a big one. We're talking BMI Body Mass Index. Why it's complete BS and why Health is way more complex than a single number.

Oh my gosh. This is not a complete takedown of BMI. I'm not an expert, but it's just something that I see coming up continually in our world, even though we know it's bs. So let's talk about the why behind it and what we can do. Until then, stay sturdy, my friends.