Sandi L Boucher realized her excess weight was keeping her psychologically small, holding her back from confidence and professional success. As she improved her self-care through exercise and healthier eating, she stepped into bigger opportunities. She asks viewers, especially women and Indigenous people, whether their weight might be serving as emotional protection.
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I am so nervous this video could get me crucified. But I honestly believe when it comes to your personal body, there is a huge difference between body shaming and coming down on yourself and acknowledging the truth. And recently I. It's not that I acknowledged a truth, I discovered a truth. Let's talk about it. Foreign. Hi everybody. My name is Andy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And today I wanted to talk about the fact that for most of my adult life I have struggled with carrying around excess weight. And again, I am not trashing myself. That has been my reality. And I'll admit in my younger years I probably wanted to be thinner for all the wrong reasons. Now I would like to be thinner to be healthier or I guess I'd want to be healthier. And I know that that involves losing some weight. So as I said, this was kind of revealed to me because I've come to realize it's so much more than being healthier. And I'd be willing to bet, especially for the women watching this, especially indigenous, but not just indigenous, you really got to unpack why the extra weight. Now, of course, poverty, cheap food tends to be bad food and really easy to put on excess weight if you've had children, really easy if you're older. There's so many things playing into it. But what I discovered was so much more important than that, so much deeper than that. So as I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I had recently done this amazing keynote. It was for a very large audience, dressed in my power suit. It went incredibly well. But one of the reasons it went so well, and this is me just being totally blunt, honest, I'm not shaming anyone, I'm talking about me. Recently, I've really refocused and really just got in the habit of working out and eating better, just finally honoring myself, practicing some self love in caring for my body. As a result, things have started to tighten up and tone up. And yes, I happen to lose some weight. I bought myself some new clothes just to help me me just really enjoy this new stage of my life. And that day when I went on stage, I felt amazing, I felt powerful. And I realized that even before I got to the stage, when I was still in my hotel room. And that's when the realization hit me that the extra weight had allowed me to remain small. The extra weight meant in my mind, not necessarily the truth, but in my mind it meant that People wouldn't look at me personally or professionally, that I was nervous of what that level of success would look like. Could I really get on the stage and be as powerful as I am? I wasn't sure I could do that. And the weight was a really good safety net keeping me from having to discover it. With the weight off and feeling really good, I got on that stage and knocked it out of the park. And it felt amazing to be me. And I didn't worry about people looking at me because I like the way I looked. So I realize that I owe myself, my career, my future, my family, my sense of being that I have to be healthier and I have to take off those barriers because I don't need them anymore. I can be strong, powerful me and safe. And that's what I realized. So to all of you people out there, is it just bad habits? Is it just lack of exercise? Or do you need those extra pounds for another reason? And is it time to finally bring those walls down? I know I am looking forward to dancing on the stage, many more stages in my full, beautiful, powerful self because that's what this country needs. It doesn't need me hiding behind a wall of extra weight, keeping myself small. I hope that made sense. I hope I don't get attacked, but if I do, I'll be fine because I know this is my truth. I'd love to know what you think. Do you relate to that? Do you know someone that maybe needs to see this video? Please share it with them. What are your thoughts? Don't forget to subscribe and I will see you tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.
