6 Steps to Feeling Comfortable and Confident in Shorts
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Let’s chat about SHORTS. I know shorts may be your nemesis, but I also know you WISH you could wear them. I’m here to tell you, YOU CAN WEAR THEM and you CAN WEAR THEM WITH CONFIDENCE.
Don't believe me? You will after you follow these 6 steps I’m about to share with you!
What I discuss:
Wear shorts around the house.
Take care of your legs.
Work out your legs.
Find your perfect pair of shorts.
Start working out in shorts
Toss all the steps out the window and just go wear the dang shorts! :)
Link mentioned in this episode:
Episode 87: Real Talk on Hating Your Body
If you want more from me, be sure to check out:
Instagram: @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
Workout app: sale.movementwithjulie.com
Amazon storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/influencer-6bda1ca8?ref=cm_sw_em_r_inf_pub_influencer-6bda1ca8_dp_DgsIam9salgfi
Transcript:
Hey. Hey, beautiful human. Can I steal 5 minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Role With Me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace a real. Let's get it. Let's go.
Hello. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Embrace Your podcast. Today we're talking all about shorts. Now, I know that shorts might be your nemesis. They were for me for like a decade of my life. I'm telling you, I hated shorts. And I was thinking back like, Man, what episode would really help a girl feel more confident in shorts? And I know this might sound silly. Like, on the surface, six steps to feeling comfortable and confident in shorts, but I'm trying to place myself in what I felt for a decade of my life. And that might be you. You might hate wearing shorts, like you might literally dread them, never wear them. And I just want to tell you that you can I know that you feel like you might like you wish you could wear them and you're just like, No, Julie, you don't understand. I can't wear them. That was me. And I swore I was like, I'm never going to wear shorts in the summer. I'm going to be a legging type of girl. I'm going to wear dresses. I literally tried everything possible to avoid wearing shorts, and I'm telling you that you absolutely can wear shorts, and I want you to wear shorts. I don't want you to just wear the shorts. I want you to feel comfortable and confident in these short. So in today's bonus episode, we're going to be sharing six steps that will help you wear shorts with more confidence.
But before I drive in, I had to share. The super awesome reveal comes from Amy B. She gave a five star review and said The best love Julie, her messages and her workouts all the way from Ohio. Julie makes girls feel like they're not alone. I couldn't recommend her to more people. It's not only the feel good words, it's the change your life words. I love that so much. Thank you so much for the review. I appreciate you so stinking much. Love every single one of you guys in this community. You guys are my people.
All right, step one wear the shorts around the house. If you haven't worn shorts in ages, I get it. It can feel super weird to put on George. I remember that feeling when I decided one summer I am no longer going to be hiding my legs in these leggings, feeling so hot, feeling so self-conscious. And so I just started wearing shorts around the house. You might feel extremely exposed when you put shorts on, and that's why I just want you to start out wearing them at home. Wear them. You know what? When you're just lounging around, wear them. When you're cleaning, wear them, when you're just hanging out, it's a great way to kind of introduce them back into your wardrobe and gain some confidence while doing so. You're going to get used to seeing your legs the more you wear them at home and the less exposed you'll begin to feel when it comes to just that feeling of like, Oh my gosh, my legs are showing. Step number two is to take care of your legs now. Lotion, shave and tan. I'm a firm believer in a good tan. Like, it's like the gym tan laundry. Except it's lotion, shave, tan. So it's L-S-T, LST. We need to LST, okay? Actually, it probably should be the opposite way. Should probably be S-L-T. So shave, lotion, tan. The more you spend time loving and taking care of your legs, the more confident you will truly feel in your shorts. I personally use self-tanner every single week. It's just in my self-care routine. I feel my best when I'm tan. I feel I don't know. I just feel like more like myself. And I know that sounds silly, but it's something that I truly value. And I am not going to, you know, risk putting myself in a tanning bed to get tan. And so for me, I just tan. I do self-tanner every week. And Josh is a part of that. He knows every Sunday night he's going to get my back and he is the true man. He is amazing for that. I love him so much for that. But I, like I said personally use self-tanner. I also shave regularly, I exfoliate my legs and those just that just simply helps me feel more confident in my shorts. Just remember, sometimes all we need to do is give ourselves a little bit more TLC to feel good about ourselves. I know it sounds silly, but it can really help and I know that I'm going to get this question. I already get this question a lot. But on the topic of self-tanner, I use a product called Bronze Cactus Sunless Tanner. You can get it both on her website or you can get on Amazon. I believe it's the same price on either with prime shipping on Amazon or on her website. If you use my code Julie, that does support me, but totally understand if you're needing to get it super fast, please. By all means, I just want you to support this woman because she's amazing. And this is the honestly, the only tanner that I found that doesn't make my skin orange. Instead, it just gives me a beautiful bronze and I sweat on a daily basis. And I have found that it just it doesn't fade super fast. So once you put it on, you will for sure be able to have it on at least all week and sometimes even go, you know, nine, ten days, depending on what my workout schedule looks like and how my tan is feeling and looking. But she's amazing. She's a small business in Utah. Again, the name is Bronze, Cactus, Sunless Tanner. I love it so much. I use the chocolate glaze color. I love that color. And I feel like that's just a great. Just a. I don't even know how to describe it because I'm not a sunless tanner kind of. SAWYER But it is. It's just a beautiful color and it goes on so well. And I personally don't feel like it smells that bad, so I just put it on at night all over after I have exfoliated. I also use a tan remover that just really helps make sure that all my tan is off. So I use my tan remover. Leave that on for 5 to 10 minutes and then go in the shower exfoliate and then I will put my self-tanner on. Typically I will either do that on Sunday night or I will put on my tan eraser on Saturday night and then I'll do kind of that whole routine. And then by Sunday night I'm good to go. So again, it kind of varies, but I love it. Bronze, cactus, sunless tanner, shade, chocolate glaze. It's amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing.
Step number three Work out your legs. When you start working out your legs, you're going to start to see more definition your legs and you're just going to feel stronger. And when you feel stronger, you you feel just more confident in your body. I remember when I was thinking, I just wish that my legs were skinnier. I just wish that my legs had this huge thigh gap, like all of these crazy thoughts in my mind. But I'm telling you, that strength is truly beautiful. And when you put work into building the strength that you have in your legs, they deserve to be shown off by wearing legs. Like be proud of the legs that you are building. They are so, so, so beautiful. All legs, all different shapes and sizes are so incredibly beautiful. I'm not saying that you have to work out or lose a bunch of weight. That's not what I'm saying. Or even gain like definition to feel comfortable in your shorts. But what I'm saying is if you do start working out, you'll feel physically stronger and as a result, you'll feel more confident in your shorts, no matter how defined or strong your legs are or how far you still have to go. You will just be proud of where you are and proud to show that off.
Step number four is finding your perfect pair of shorts. This is so key, and this is something that I feel like so many people don't talk about. But it's amazing what the perfect pair of shorts can do for your confidence. If you don't feel confident wearing shorts, it may just be because you haven't found the perfect pair of shorts yet. And I know for me this was me, like when I didn't know that this company existed. So I started out wearing jean shorts using a company called Friend Denim. Loved them so much, still wear a ton of their shorts. I have since found some other brands that I really love as well, but friend denim is built for the athletic body, so I do have a smaller waist and bigger thighs when it comes to with shorts. So I found like I was always gapping, right when you sit down like your shorts always gap and these shorts do not. They fit your waist, they fit your thighs, they fit your booty. They're not like closing your booty off. I know there's some shorts that I have tried on and I'm like, Where's my body? I know I have one. But these shorts are like pushing it down. These Fran denims are amazing. They like accentuate all of your shape and super important to find ones that you love. Another pair brand that I also use is Abercrombie Curve Love. Never thought I'd be saying at 32 that I'm wearing Abercrombie, but here we are. Love the curve, love brand. It's made for kind of curvier bodies, athletic bodies. And I have found that the ratio of kind of the legs to the waist is similar to friend denim, but they also have these four inch mom shorts. And I'm obsessed with I have them in like every color and style and they're just incredible. Love them so much. So Abercrombie curve love. I also do have regular Abercrombie mom foreign shorts those are awesome too. And I have I just feel really comfortable in those trying to think of other ones. There is a Goldie, so the a Goldie brand is pretty pricey. So it is an investment, I would say. I think they're like $130. I know that's really expensive for shorts, but if you find a pair of jean shorts that you wear into the ground, I mean, it is worth the investment to find something that you feel comfortable in. And the Parker Short, I believe that's what it's called. I hope that's what it's called. Yeah, I think it's the Parker Short by a Goldie. I love that company as well, but my go tos our friend Denim and Abercrombie Curve love typically. But it's so important when it comes to finding your perfect pair of shorts. I personally usually size up when it comes to shorts, especially jean shorts. Just because I want to feel comfortable in them. I don't want them to squeeze everywhere. I want my legs to have some room. And so really finding shorts is so important. And then when it comes to finding shorts for your workouts, oh, this is been so hard for me and it's been a journey. I absolutely love Lululemon. I know that they're pricey, but I just find that their leggings and their clothing lasts forever. But one thing that I don't like about Lululemon is that they're A-line shorts have a seam, and I know that sounds silly, but once you have gone to seamless shorts like in the front, like the no front seam, it's really hard to go back to the seam again. I don't know what it is, it's just not really comfortable for me. And so. I've been on a hunt for the last year and a half to two years to try to find, like, the perfect workout. Sure. And I've yet to still find, like, the perfect workout short. But I found some good ones there on my Amazon store front. I don't know the names off the top of my head. One of them, I think, is Tom Tiger from Amazon. They have a good no front seam short. That's a six inch, which covers my booty. That's one thing that's really important for me, especially because I'm pretty tall and I'm like all legs. So I find that shorts tend to just be like riding at my butt and I don't like that. So those are awesome. And then I also have another brand from Amazon called La Vinto, L-e or L-a-v-e-n-t-o, and those are a five inch, so they are a little bit shorter, but they have a no front seam and those are really comfortable as well. And then I've also shared the controversial butt French shorts, which honestly, like I hate to say it, but I am a fan. They just make the butt look so good. There's no front seam, they're super comfy, they are like a biker shorts. So I do kind of hike them up for my workouts, but they're so good and they come in all different colors. So that's another one of my shorts that I like when it comes to workout shorts. All that to say. It's super important to just find shorts that you feel comfortable and fabric that you feel comfortable in and like maybe if jean shorts are not your jam the solely find fine. There's tons of like flowy options and just find the shorts that you feel most comfortable in and I promise that will help you just overall feel more confident.
Step number five is start working out in shorts. So once you find those good shorts, you know, and it's going to be a hunt, like there's I have spent a good amount of money and a good amount of time, thank goodness for Amazon being able to return stuff because I've returned more shorts in the last year than I can even count simply because I'm like, immediately put it on. I'm like, Nope, but it's really important that you start working out in shorts. Like, especially if you're working out at home, just work out in the shorts. You're going to feel so much better. You're not going to be as hot, and it will slowly start to build more confidence. And then the more that you start wearing them, you can go out in public in them and the more confident that you will feel kind of showing up, you know, on a date, a girl's date or a date or going to a barbecue wearing shorts. So that is what I recommend, kind of like slowly easing you into it.
And then step number six, at some point you just need to go and wear the dang shorts. I specifically remember the day that I found, you know, the friend denim shorts. And I was I was wearing them around the house. And then when I would go out, I would still put leggings on and then I would be really hocks. It's like 90 degrees out. And then I remember the one day I was like, No, I am wearing these shorts. I'm not putting on leggings. I'm going out in public and I'm wearing the shorts. And I can't tell you how empowered I felt. I felt like I was, you know, all I went to King Soopers, like all I went to was to the grocery store. And I can tell you, I was walking through the aisles of King Soopers just like it was my runway. I was like, yes, I am stretching these legs. I'm strong, I'm feeling confident. And of course, like there were, you know, moments in that time where I was still self-conscious, but I was just so dang proud of myself. And I want you to be proud of yourself. And I know personally that action cures fear and gains confidence. That's one thing that my mentor said to me a few years ago, and I will never forget it. And it is a life lesson that I have in so many different areas of my life. But action cures fear and gains confidence. So please, please, please, just start wearing them and just embrace them. If you think that you can't pull off shorts, you absolutely can. The only way to pull something off is by wearing them with confidence. And the only way to have confidence is by taking action because you cure that fear and you gain the confidence.
So let me recap those six steps. Step number one, wear the shorts around the house. Wearing them at home is a great way to kind of introduce them back into your wardrobe and gain some confidence while doing so. Step number two, a little TLC when it comes to your leg. So shaving your legs, lotion, exfoliate hand, all of those things that will help you feel good about your legs. Step number three work out. You'll feel physically stronger and as a result, you'll feel more confident in your shorts, no matter how defined your legs are, how much further you feel like you have in your journey. Step number four Find your perfect pair of shorts the size, the length, the fabric, the cut. What makes you feel most comfortable in those shorts? Both kind of, you know, going out shorts as well as workout shorts. Step number five, start working out in the shorts, then take the next step to get out in public. And then step number six, just literally wear the shorts, like go out there and wear the shorts and you will gain more confidence the more you do it. If you love this episode, I know you'll also love Episode 87 Some Real Talk On Hating Your Body. This episode, I truly believe, will give you some peace of mind so you can go listen to that. I will link it in the show. Notes below again, that's episode. 87. I hope that you found this episode helpful. I hope that it was like a good pep talk from a sister to sister to just remind you that you are strong, you are powerful, and your legs deserve to be seen this summer. So go out there and wear those freakin’ shorts.
Love you so much. If you have a sister or a friend or a coworker that you feel like would benefit from this specific pep talk, you can screenshot this and either post it up on your story or you can send it to them in a text message. I love seeing you guys share this podcast. It really does bring joy to my soul. I love you so much and I'll talk to you in the next episode. All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, Julie. A lot better. Yes. It's women in the middle for that Daily Post workout. Real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember, that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace the real because you're worth it.