Welcome to This Is Me Thursdays! To read other posts in this series, click here. If you want to be involved, please email me for more details! Today, learn more about Paige Fieldsted, someone I connected with last year after I read her book, Confessions From Your Fat Friend.
I originally got connected with Paige on Instagram, and I’m so glad! She wrote a book that I reviewed last year that I absolutely loved, and I know she’s written other books as well. She’s such a wonderful, loving person who also keeps it real and vulnerable on social media, which I really appreciate. She talks often about self-love, body positivity and more in her own unique way, and I think you’ll also really like her and learn a lot from her. Visit her website, Twitter and Instagram , and let her know you saw her post here!
This Is Me: Paige Fieldsted
Share a little about yourself, your background and what you’re doing now.
I’m Paige and I’m a mom, wife, writer, author, blogger, ice cream addict, and self-proclaimed body positivity advocate. If you had told me 5 or 10 years ago that I would be sharing my story and advocating for loving your body on social media I would’ve laughed in your face. I hated my body for the majority of my life, from the time I was in Kindergarten until I was a 28-year-old new mom. I tried all the diets, all the workouts and every time the weight came back I felt more and more like a failure. It took having a child and a life-threatening medical experience to finally start to appreciate my body and start my own self-love journey. That journey has led me here, author of a super vulnerable book about being the fat friend and advocating for everyone to love their bodies.
Have you discovered your life purpose, and is that important to you? What motivates you in your life?
I think, at 31, I have finally discovered my life purpose and I’m just getting started on fulfilling that purpose. I truly believe I was meant to be a writer and advocate, to tell my stories and connect with other people. This purpose in life has become super important to me over the course of the last year. It took a lot of conversations with myself to really pursue this path and now it’s something I couldn’t go back on if I wanted. The things that motivate me in life are connecting with other people, making an impact and being there for my family.
Thinking about your life now, is it what you always imagined you’d be doing? Why or why not, and what have you learned because of that?
In a way yes, but also no. For a long time, I have known I wanted to be a writer but I didn’t know what that would look like. And it’s actually something I’m still figuring out. I think as the world and social media changes, the way a lot of us do business changes and I’ve learned I have to be adaptable and willing to give up what I thought it would look like in order to really step into my full potential. It has really challenged my control-freak nature but in the best way possible.
What’s something you desperately want other people to know or realize that may help them in their lives?
Three things.
- You are your own worst critic, no one else is thinking about or caring about your “imperfections” nearly as much as you are.
- Your body is perfectly fine the way it is right now and it is the least interesting thing about you. We spend too much time and energy thinking about and trying to “fix” our bodies when there is life to be lived!
- Not all bodies are meant to be thin, body diversity is real and we have to stop with the lies that thin=healthy.
When we encounter challenges in our lives, we can choose to run from them or to them. What have you learned from either of those ways of thinking in your own life?
I read something in the book, The Universe Has Your Back by Gabrielle Bernstein, recently that really resonated with me. She basically said that if you choose not to learn a lesson when the universe presents it to you, it’ll keep coming up in different forms until you’ve learned that lesson. I think the same thing can be applied to challenges. The comfortable thing to do is to shy away from challenges, but there is also very little, if any, growth in our comfort zones. For me, I don’t want to spend my whole life in the same state of comfort. I want to grow, learn and be challenged. So while I wouldn’t say I run to the challenges, I also think shying away from them is only delaying the inevitable.
What do belonging and connection mean to you, and how do you incorporate that into your life and/or business?
Belonging and connection are at the center of our lives and I believe most people in the world are craving belonging and connection with other humans. It took me a long time (and reading some Brene Brown) to figure out that fitting in and belonging are not the same thing and that true connection comes from being ourselves, being vulnerable and owning who we are. For me, that has been scary but so rewarding. I try to be real and vulnerable in all things I do now, especially in my business, because I think that is how we truly connect and make a difference in each other’s lives.
How have self-care and self-love played a part in your journey so far?
Self-love is a HUGE part of my journey. I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am today without it. Learning to love myself has given me the confidence to pursue my dreams and passions, to speak my truths and be vulnerable in a way I was never able to before. Self-love has also really allowed me to participate in self-care. I’ve come to realize what I need to be at my best and I no longer deprive myself of those things. I’m a better wife, mom and person in general when I take care of myself from a place of love.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Go, live your life right now! I spent so many years waiting until I reached my goal weight or my goal jeans fit to truly go out and live. Don’t do that. Life isn’t going to wait. I have realized I’ve missed out on a lot of things waiting but not anymore. Life is meant to be lived!
Photo courtesy of Paige Fieldsted
