Back in the summer of 2015, I did a phone interview with Rhina Valentin, host of BronxNet’s Open Fridays with Rhina show. Here is that transcript of our discussion:
Rhina: Well The Juicy Woman has helped women from all over the United States by spreading a positive message of loving your body no matter the shape or size. She joins us now via telephone which is this thing popping out of my ear. And she’s actually calling in to discuss her upcoming week workshop, Lovin’ the Skin You’re In. That is the name of the workshop. Please welcome to the show Andrea Amador.
Andrea: Hi Rhina, It’s so great being back here.
Rhina: Hello and Welcome back.
Andrea: Thank you so much.
Rhina: Absolutely. I’m just trying to make sure that I can hear you properly. We are so excited about all the work you are doing, Andrea. Thank you for making sure that you share it with our viewers.
Andrea: Absolutely. It’s my positive pleasure.
Rhina: Okay. So that’s Andrea that we’re looking at right now. Can we just share with everyone, a little bit about the book, “Lovin’ the Skin You’re In”?
Andrea: Oh my Gosh! Well basically it’s’ a bible of empowerment for women who have been feeling like they’re not good enough, and they’re too fat and they’re too ugly and too thick and any other too much, too little kind of thing going on.
Rhina: Yeah. You’re absolutely right when you reference it as a bible because Lovin’ the Skin You’re In is quite a reference book. We’re looking at it right now and the thing I enjoy about it the most is the way you wrote it. You wrote it in a way that anyone who picks it up can actually get that the idea is to actually shift your thoughts without making yourself feel wrong.
Andrea: That’s exactly what it is. Yes. You put it so beautifully.
Rhina: And I appreciate it. You do reference it as well because there’s a lot of times in life, in general when you can very easily get caught up in a rut of what you were raised in or certain ways of communicating and then that kind of shifts over to yourself. I mean, while the primary topic is food and your body, there’s a lot more in this book that deals with self and self-abuse.
Andrea: So much so, Yes. Because it’s our thoughts that really create that and set it up for us. If we are not thinking of looking at our negative and disempowering experiences as a means and as a proof for us to say, “Wow, look how amazing I am. I got through this, then we’re going to be stuck in victim mode.
Rhina: Right and what good is victim mode? How do you overcome? How do you gain? How do you progress living in victim mode? Woe is me. Oh my Gosh!
Andrea: You don’t. You just keep getting more of what you got which is garbage. You’ve got to get past that.
Rhina: Right and that’s what we’re here to discuss. This wonderful workshop that you’ve put together based on the book. Now share a bit about it. It’s Wednesday, September 5 thru November. Correct.
Andrea: That’s right. September 16 – November 30th. It’s called Lovin’ the Skin You’re In. It’s an 8 week program for women to learn how to make peace with food and friends with their bodies. It starts with food because once we start realizing that we are not out of control and we’re not fat, ugly stupid pigs, we start going deeper into our life because we realize that, “Wow, it’s a lie. All this stuff I’ve been thinking about, being wrong and my body is not okay, you start questioning other limiting beliefs that are holding you back in much, much bigger ways.
Rhina: I like that you’re saying that and we just showed some images of a group of women who are full-figured which is what I like to consider myself; full-figured. But guess what! I’m healthy. And the media has a tendency to actually play a role in making anyone consider whether they are healthy or not.
Andrea: Yes. And with all the fat shaming going on nowadays, it’s so hard to keep your head above water.
Rhina: And in this workshop, what kind of process do you take the women through?
Andrea: What we do is we work on the source of the stress. We tend to think that it’s about having no control around an open bag of potato chips or we have to eat the cookies at work or whatever, but it’s really not. That is just a trigger. The trigger is the life experience, the stress that’s hitting our lives. It could be the breakup with the boyfriend that happened 5 years ago that you’ve never gotten past or your mother saying, “You’ll never amount to anything or not finishing high school or whatever it is, it reverberates in our minds and it kind of creates an identity for ourselves. By being able to break through and saying, “Wait a minute. This is not me, and this is not what I choose for myself.” That’s when you can really get through it and recognize “Wow, What are the possibilities that exist here?”
Rhina: It’s really interesting how you’re relating emotions to the actual eating, to the actual body shaming because while they may all be related, the idea really is to just embrace who you are and understand where your attention needs to go.
Andrea: Yes.
Rhina: And so the fact that you’re offering a workshop to teach them this. I wish it was here in the Bronx, but I mean, our viewers are world-wide because we’re on the world wide web but I love the fact that you’re offering this. By the way, Congratulations on your success coaching that’s happening in Dutchess County.
Andrea: Thank you so much. I’m so excited to be a part of Dress for Success of Dutchess County. It’s such a thrill to be a part of women whose lives are in transition and they’re going through a place and they’re saying, “Well, I don’t know if I can make it through. I’ve had so many failures. And to completely help them look at themselves in a different way so that they can say, “Wow, I can do this.”
Rhina: You know we can sit here and talk about this topic all morning and we’re kind of running out of time and I do want to say this, just what we’ve been sharing so that anybody who’s looking and watching right now, even when it comes to Domestic Violence Awareness, one of the things that I address in my keynotes is that we attract that which we think we are even if it comes in a different form.
Andrea: Wow! I just got up and down my spine, goosebumps. Amen to that!
Rhina: Yes and Amen to you for actually taking on the role of actually leading these women into a new space of possibility, a space of new possibility and we applaud you and Thank you for sharing it with our viewers.
Andrea: Thank you so much, Rhina. It’s been an absolute pleasure.
Rhina: And Thank you for the book. It’s one of my favorites.
Andrea: Oh I love that.
Rhina: Where can people get the book?
Andrea: TheJuicyWoman.com
Rhina: TheJuicyWoman.com Alright. It’s definitely a nice keepsake and a great reference guide that I recommend every body pick up and for more information on The Juicy Woman or to register for The Lovin’ the Skin You’re In workshop, go to The Juicy Woman.com as well. Go to TheJuicyWoman.com Thank you again, Andrea Amador and much success to you.
Andrea: And to you!
Rhina: Awesome! Thank you.