168. Your Goal Weight Won’t Give You the Life You’re Waiting For with Felicia Hernandez

How many opportunities have we talked ourselves out of because we didn't feel good enough in our bodies?

Maybe you don't want to be on camera until you lose the weight. Maybe you don't want to go on the trip until you feel more comfortable in your clothes. Maybe you've told yourself you'll feel confident, successful, desirable, or worthy once you reach a certain goal.

But what if you stopped waiting for your “goal body” to start living your life?

In this episode, I’m joined by my amiga Felicia Hernandez, founder of Gorditas Way, for a deeply honest conversation about body image, wellness, culture, motherhood, and what it really means to reclaim our relationship with our bodies.

Felicia shares how Gorditas Way began as a wellness blog documenting her own fitness journey and how losing 40 pounds didn't magically make her feel at peace with herself. That realization became the foundation for a much deeper mission: helping women and communities give their bodies dignity, honor, and respect.

We talk about the pressure so many women experience to change their bodies before allowing themselves to fully show up, and how those insecurities can keep us from pursuing opportunities, creating, connecting, and becoming the women we are meant to be.

I also open up about my own complicated relationship with my body, from growing up with comments about my weight, to being judged on my appearance in TV and pageantry, to trying fad diets, and ultimately realizing that health had to become about so much more than how I looked.

And we go even deeper into what happens when we become mothers, the pressure of “snapback culture,” the generational body comments many of us grew up with, and why healing our own relationship with our bodies matters if we want to break those cycles for our children.

This conversation is not about telling you that you can't have body or health goals.

It’s about learning how to pursue those goals without making your worth dependent on achieving them.

Because you can want to change something about your body and still respect the body you have today.

You can work toward a goal and still celebrate yourself along the way.

And you can decide that this version of you is worthy of showing up right now.

In this episode, we talk about:

Why reaching your “goal weight” doesn't necessarily mean you'll finally feel good about yourself
How body insecurities can keep us from showing up for opportunities and relationships
Felicia's journey from wellness blog to the Gorditas Way movement
Using movement as medicine rather than punishment
Reclaiming our relationship with our bodies and wellness
The impact of cultural and generational body-shaming
Why “snapback culture” can be so harmful for mothers
The importance of dignity, honor, and respect when making decisions about your health
Learning to separate your worth from your body size
How our relationship with our bodies can affect the next generation
Why self-advocacy and surrounding yourself with people who honor your values matter
The vision behind the Body Liberation Conference in Chicago

Meet Felicia

Felicia Hernandez is the founder of Gorditas Way, a cultural movement created to empower communities through body liberation, wellness, movement, and cultural connection.

Her work centers on helping women of color and LGBTQ+ communities build a relationship with their bodies rooted in dignity, honor, and respect.

She is also bringing these ideas to life through the Body Liberation Conference, a full-day experience designed to bring together conversations around body liberation, wellness, cultural identity, reproductive health, movement, and community.