Body Positivity And Change with Lexi Crouch
Experienced and knowledgeable yet unconventional and always the first to say it how it is, Lexi Crouch is a passionate, honest and inspirational speaker, supporter, educator and positive advocate for eating disorders and body image issues. Lexi is Co-Founder, CEO for a Brisbane Start Up company in creative technology where her desire to create change in the world lies.
Lexi’s ability as a speaker and business acumen have both come from extensive past knowledge and experiences. Having overcome a fifteen year battle of anorexia – Lexi went from pathology to freedom using yoga as daily practice that enhances all aspects of her life.
Lexi is on a mission to provide a positive voice, support and education to anyone with eating disorders, eating issues, body image concerns and low self-esteem.
“Im here to shake things up a little bit, we are not here for a long time and I want everyone to realise their full potential,” says Lexi.
Now currently in her final year of study for a Bachelor of Health Science (Dietetics and Nutrition), a co-parent to her beautiful daughter Mabel, A Yoga Teacher and speaker, Lexi loves to share her life, loves, passion and learnings.
We talk to Lexi more about her mission and what her own journey to healing has involved.
SSC: Lexi, you are on a mission to be a positive voice and support for women with eating disorders and body issues – can you share with us how you came to be doing this work and why you are so passionate about it?
Lexi: Passion stems from wanting to create change. When I was in primary school, I fell quickly into the grips of an Eating Disorder and spent 15 years of my life fighting the illness. For me, most of my late teens and up to mid 20s were spend in countless medical hospital admissions and when this did not work, I was treated intensively at home. I suffered very badly from low self esteem, not feeling good enough and shame & embarrassed of my own body. I was so trapped in the illness and it took away the quality of life. After years in the illness, I started the long road to recovery or what I like to refer to it as “discovery”. I made a pact that if I ever got through this, I wanted to help as many people as I could from eating disorders and body image issues as I believe there is so much more to life than just the physical. I unexpectedly lost my best friend last year to an eating disorder and my mission and voice has only become stronger to help support and be that positive voice that there is another side. I wouldn’t want anyone to go through this alone.
SSC: Are there steps we can do daily that help us all achieve a positive body image?
Lexi: I personally believe there are. For me, I have a daily practice of Yoga that allows me to get in touch with my body. My positive body relationship started with Yoga when through the practice, I was able to see what it could do rather than thinking so negatively of it. I spent years being so embarrassed of the way I looked I used to only wear tracksuits, even in the middle of a Brisbane summer. Yoga allowed me to build strength not only in body but mentally as well. I felt like I was starting at rock bottom and through the magic of Yoga I was able to see the amazing things my body could do over time with practice. I notice my mindset started to change as well and how I thought about myself. This began the very start of my positive body relationship and has become my non negotiable.
I also like to to honour change in the body. Something that I was not always good at. I like to notice the different fluctuations the body has over the month and accepting this is all part of the life cycle, and my number one step to daily achieving a positive body image is speaking kindly to yourself. I normally do this in the mirror in the morning whilst I am getting ready for work and find something I like about myself as I check, for example if my eyes look a little bit brighter than usual. There is always something positive to find.
SSC: As a mum with kids I’m really interested in your thoughts on educating our children – how can we teach our kids from a young age – could education have helped you as a child?
Lexi : I am also a Mum to a little girl and believe there is so much power in education. One of the best example to model is truly having confidence in yourself. This doesn’t always come easy and get be a very hard topic to master, however, this comes with believing in yourself. I learnt of the process through my own recovery to be my own cheerleader and this is where my confidence started to come to me.
As a Mum now, I like to be the cheerleader to my daughter whilst she is young and I carefully watch the way I talk to my daughter to help her fall in love with herself and her qualities rather than focus on physical features. We are currently learning body parts at the moment and as we learn I like to focus on what they can do rather than how they look for example: Thank you nose for helping me breathe. I believe by cheering kids on and encouraging them to be exactly who they are and acknowledging their strengths is going to change the way they feel about themselves physically and rather focus on how important their value is.
SSC: Was there a specific moment when the switch happened for you in your healing journey?
Lexi: I like to call this the little “uh huh!” moments. Sometimes these were few and far in between but they definitely marked milestones. These little moment might of been really simple things to the outside world such as eating out with friends where I realised this was something I enjoyed and suddenly the light bulb switched where I realised I wanted more of this in my life and wanted to work hard to keep doing these activities. Recovery was a very long and slow journey for me, and in all honesty, I am still discovering a lot about myself daily as I continue to evolve. ]
A specific moment in my healing journey was when I realised I valued my health and sanity (which was lost in starvation) more than the revolving hospital day and tiresome battle. The penny dropped when are years of searching I finally found, I was worthy too.
SSC: Where can we see and experience more of your work ?
Lexi: Watch this space is what I have to say. I am currently working on a few projects that will be released over the next coming years – yes it is something big! I stay very active in the eating disorder community and volunteer my time to mentoring those who are struggling with issues and continue to teach Yoga as a hobby. This year I will also be speaking at more events and conferences which you can keep up to date with on my website and with my rambles on my blog. I am a big fan on instagram for positive connection and community, and my virtual door is always open, please drop by and say hi.
You can follow Lexi here:
Bec Van Leeuwen is a truth-seeker, devoted wife and mother, a globe-trotter, a nature lover and a human potential activist. Her mission is to support and inspire awakening women who are on a quest to create real and lasting change in their lives, their communities and the world.