In this candid YouTube monologue, certified personal trainer Valeria Itriago shares her personal journey from an obsessive pursuit of thinness—driven by cultural and societal pressures—to a healthier, body‑type‑aware mindset. She describes how the relentless desire to be skinny led to unhealthy eating habits, low energy, and chronic dissatisfaction, despite weight loss. Valeria explains the three classic somatotype categories (ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph), emphasizes the importance of identifying one’s own body type, and advises consulting a sports‑nutrition specialist for tailored diet plans. She recounts her own experience as a mixed endomorph‑mesomorph, her brief foray into CrossFit, and the realization that training must align with one’s physiology. The video highlights the mental‑health risks of the thin‑ideal—depression, anxiety, eating disorders—and argues that building muscle through strength training, HIIT, and balanced workouts is a more sustainable path to health and confidence. Valeria provides practical guidance on workout frequency, diet flexibility, and mindset shifts, urging viewers to stop comparing themselves to unrealistic standards and instead cultivate a physique that feels strong and authentic.
Chapters
Hi everyone, I am just turning the candle. Um, today's episode we're going to talk a little bit about my obsession with looking like someone else. I was so sick of pretending that I was comfortable with the things I was eating, with the exercise I was doing. Like, I was exhausted just because I wanted to look thin. I come from a very different cultural background, which is an Hispanic Latin culture. However, being thin was always like a must. But when I came here, it was like shocking how important it is because we live in a society where being skinny is often associated with beauty and success and happiness. And this obsession with being skinny has led many women to develop unhealthy eating habits such as starvation diets, binge eating, and purging. And I don't want to mention other stuff, but nothing has really changed. When I first started working out, I remember I was obsessed obsessed with changing the way my body was. It was like, oh, I think I can have smaller arms and smaller waist, and I can just change the way my body is. And is that meant to be healthier? Um, I haven't— the word healthier was not in my mindset. And that's— I think that's the worst way you can actually start your fitness journey. I had this obsession with being thin no matter what, like I just said. So I stopped eating carbs and taking away fruits from my diet, even if I felt totally drained and low energy, just because I was expecting to be a zero when I was maybe a 2 or 4. And I have never been really skinny, like, you know, I am a muscular person. I have big thighs, you know, I'm voluptuous. I'm from a Spanish heritage too, so I'm a big woman, even I'm like 4'11". But The first thing you should remember when you start this, this journey towards fitness and healthy lifestyle and whatever is you might never be as thin as you want. And I think that was the shift. When you are looking more, more and more skinny every time, you get like obsessed. So even if you're looking or you're losing weight, and that's what's happening to me, it will never be enough. You will still want to lose weight. So I was never truly satisfied with the results. Even if I was losing weight, I would still feel miserable because I have all these things like, like I just said, hormone balance and a bunch of biological factors and psychological factors that affect the way you are going through that fitness journey and that journey of losing weight or getting muscular mass or whatever your goal is. So I was not really into being a healthy person, and I just wanted to show off and shut people's mouths. I want people to stop saying like, oh, it's not skinny enough, or she's not pretty enough. And that was very important for me before. There are a couple of things I did to stop obsessing with a body I could never have realistically. And I— all those things helped me to accept. All those things led me to work on my perfect version, like my perfect body, which was a healthy body according to what it was, which is this body I have. So the first thing I did is accepting my body type. Knowing your body type is gold, baby. Knowing your body type and your body composition is going to change everything. It can help you to know what's the best type of workout to do— weights or a little more cardio, uh, how many times a week should I lift, or how many times a week maybe should I try yoga or LISS or HIIT. So everyone— everybody's body is unique. You have to understand that your body type can help you develop a more efficient fitness journey and nutrition plan that is tailor-made to your individual needs. So maybe you are like, what is the body type? What, what do you mean with the body type? And I'll explain a little bit. There are 3 main body types: ectomorph, endomorph, and mesomorph. Ectomorphs are typically lean and have a fat metabolism. I hate these fuckers. No, I'm kidding. I'm really kidding. I just, I always wanted to be an ectomorph because they eat, they eat, they eat, and they don't get fucking fat. It's just like Fuck. Anyways, so it's— it for them is very hard and difficult to gain muscle mass. Mesomorphs are naturally muscular and can easily gain and lose weight. Like, endomorphs tend to gain weight and, you know, have this, um, fat storage very present and have a slower metabolism, making difficult for them to lose weight. If you don't know your body type, you may find it challenging to achieve your goals. Anyways, I would like to say this: I'm not a nutritionist, I'm not a— look like a specialist. I am a certified personal trainer, but I will highly recommend you to go to a nutritionist specializing in sports if you want to do a significant change in your body and if this is the first time you're approaching the fitness. Going back to the point, I went for the first time to a sports nutritionist when I competed in CrossFit, and I realized I was a mix between endomorph and mesomorph. What happened to me, I was getting really bulky, not just muscular. I'm like, I'm more cut right now, but I was like big and like a— I'm gonna put it here— like a bonky, like a truck. And I didn't— I felt very bad because I didn't want to look like that, so I realized that maybe CrossFit, some things of CrossFit, I can integrate it into my daily routine when I'm working out. But I decided that I would stop doing CrossFit because I just didn't like the way I feel with my body. And most of the time you have to try a lot of stuff so you can find that type of workout that is gonna help you to build the body you want. Everybody, you can modify everybody because normally how it works, like, we have like a mix between certain types of body types. You can have a unique body type, you can be just ectomorph, or you can have a mix between one or the other, like me. So I, like I just said, I was a mix between endomorph and mesomorph. For example, like, if you are an endomorph and you're trying to gain muscle mass, you might need to consume more calories than someone that maybe it's a mesomorph and have the same goals, but they work just— their body just works differently. So Alternatively, if you are an endomorph trying to lose weight, you may need to focus on reducing your calorie intake and increasing your physical activity because that's how your body composition works. So again, go to a specialist if you really want to have like a very tailor-made diet because this is not a space to, you know, I just want to make sure you're safe, I'm safe with what I'm saying, and this is just based on my experience. I will anyways a couple of channels with information that you can just check if you just want to get more info about this, and then you can go to one with a specialist. It's also important to recognize that your body type is largely determined by genetics, and this is what people never remember when we're doing— they're doing this. It can be changed completely, but you can modify a lot of ways your metabolism maybe operates in your body, and and the way you're, you're just like building or lowering fat percentage or whatever, you can certainly improve your fitness overall anyways. Even if you cannot change completely your type of body, you can totally improve your health and improve your physique. You can't fight against your body type because that will be doing what I did at the beginning of my journey, and you will suffer a lot. But Understanding this and working with, with this rather than be against it or trying to build a body that just not matches with your composition. You have to understand that this obsession, it's not a joke. When I said that you're gonna suffer a lot, I am not lying. And the consequences of this obsession with being skinny are many. You can read any like scientific, scientific paper about, or psychological paper about the consequences of of comparing yourself constantly with other people, or just the cult of thinness. But besides physical health problem, it can also really, really, really fuck your, your head up, and it can bring other problems long-term, like depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. And we don't want to have more eating disorders. Many women spend hours doing excessive amount of cardio and Pilates, like 4 times, 5 times a week, because they want to match with this thin beauty standard, and some of them are not eating healthy or are not sleeping well. So there's a bunch of factors that are going to help you to lose weight and to get, you know, more shredded or cut or whatever. You don't need to do cardio every day, you don't need to lift weights every day, and you don't need to count your calories every day. This is a mistake. The path towards a healthy body goes with you, when you can find the right balance. But the more you know about your body and the more you read about fitness and this stuff, the more you will try things that maybe matches with your lifestyle, with your goals, with everything. But one thing at a time. The other thing I will tell you is you have to change the mindset and focus on building muscle. Yeah, I know some girls that are watching my video are going to get very triggered and you're gonna be like, what the fuck, Val? But believe me when I said that the first time I saw my shoulders popping out, uh, and I can use like this type of shirts and feel like empowered and powerful, I felt like so much better. And building muscle, it's not just for men. And this is a story, like a myth that we need to debunk if we want to create a healthy body. Muscles and muscle mass, it's so important for a lot of things that are going to work with your body towards building this healthy ecosystem that lives inside of you. In fact, building muscles can help you achieve a healthier body without starving yourself. So I always like to think like, if I am building muscle, if I'm doing a strength workout 2-3 times a week, then I can maybe be more flexible with my diet and integrate more stuff. Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue. This is something that I always like to tell everyone. So, which means that the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn, even if you're not working out. That's what I love to do, for example, HIIT workout, because HIIT workout are super good and you burn calories even when you're done. So I do like a mix between strength workout, which is HIIT and high intensity, with some things from CrossFit, like some weights type of a workout from CrossFit. So build a good balance. And when I say this is, okay, you have to build muscle, but you also have to take care of your diet. It's a whole balance. Like, you can gain muscle without a diet that it's customized for that goal. So the key is to focus on strength training exercises, such as like you can integrate weightlifting, resistance training, and bodyweight exercises. Maybe sometimes you don't even need to use weights. So this exercise will help you build lean muscle mass and improve your metabolism. You're gonna burn fat using weights. As a woman, it's important to focus on building muscle and achieving a healthier body, and rather than just being skinny. By incorporating like strength workouts but also cardio and having like a healthy diet, you can achieve your fitness goal and live a happier, healthy life. This is not complicated algebra. This is just being smart with the way you are treating your body and stop being an idiot and, you know, stop trying to be a body that is not yours and stop trying to build a body that is not yours. Stop obsessing with the way other people look like because most of the time the people you praise are very unhealthy. So build your own version, build the version of the body you're gonna feel proud of, and you don't have to give a fuck about what other people think, say, or want.
