When it comes down to it, creating a healthy mindset and relationship with your body and food can be a difficult task for anyone. The online community oftentimes projects unrealistic standards, diets, and approaches to healthy living, which can drastically influence and oftentimes harm the mindsets of those tuning into toxic content. Luckily, there are still genuine people who are working towards changing that by realistically showcasing what it looks like fail and succeed in the pursuit of a wholesome lifestyle.
20-year-old Alivia D’Andrea has become a sensation on YouTube for the two seasons of her series titled ‘The Glow up Diaries’. This series explores Alivia’s vulnerability as she documents the many struggles she faced with maintaining a healthy lifestyle. She expresses both her failures and successes, leaving her viewers with a rather raw representation of her honest self. Although content like this can be triggering for some, it can also be a saving grace to others, as Alivia explains the science, accuracy and journey that all comes with obtaining a nutritious way of life.
To help you learn more about the mindset behind Alivia D’Andrea’s videos, she spoke about her unique approaches, biggest struggles and positive reminders.
What inspired you to begin creating your ‘Glow up Diaries’ series?
ALIVIA D’ANDREA: I was struggling with cystic acne and poor lifestyle habits including binge eating. These ordinary problems didn’t seem so common because I only saw people’s highlights on social media. The lack of representation online made me feel lonely so I decided to pick up my camera during this low time to bring a bit of reality to the online world. I hoped that by showing my insecurities it would normalize some of these issues so others wouldn’t feel so alone and possibly feel a little more confident in their own skin seeing someone just like them on their screen being so vulnerable and owning it. I was also very determined to show people that there is a light at the end of every dark tunnel. I knew things would get better if I kept trying and I wanted to show that in hopes of inspiring others in a similar situation.
How have you learned to steer yourself away from the unrealistic standards the online health and wellness community can project at times?
ALIVIA D’ANDREA: I think it’s realizing how unique we all are as individuals. Healthy looks different on every body, healthy means something different to everybody. It’s about keeping an open mind and trying different methods until you find one that works for you and makes you happy. And your happiness doesn’t have to make sense to others.
What have you learned most about yourself while creating your series?
ALIVIA D’ANDREA: I had an epiphany in season two. I realized that I had a very low pain tolerance and this was holding me back from success. Pain made season one Alivia hide in her bed. Season two Alivia smiles at the pain, failure and disappointment and watches all of that fade because nothing lasts forever. Seeking discomfort helped me develop a mindset of coping with life challenges in an optimistic and brave manner which will greatly help me as I move forward in life.
What advice can you provide to those struggling with feeling confident in their body?
ALIVIA D’ANDREA: I have two tips that I applied to my own life:
First, tie your self worth to your choices and your dedication to your goals, not the end result.
When I was overweight I told myself I had to learn to be confident in the beginning because if I could be confident in my overweight state, imagine how much more confident I would feel in my fittest body. I began consciously linking my confidence to doing difficult things (pushing myself an extra two minutes on the treadmill, starting a conversation with a stranger, etc.) I created a rule in my head: discomfort = growth and growth = happiness.
Second, don’t let magazines define your standard of beauty. I think beauty is knowing your own flaws, being a little rough around the edges, a little messy. And that’s what it means to be human. Eat your vegetables, do your squats, hydrate yourself and physical results will follow. Then move on! Life is much too short and grand to spend so much time focusing on yourself. Open your heart, pull the blinds and look around you. It is a weird, wild, and wonderful world out there. Admire the Earth’s beauty and lose yourself in the service of others.
Do you have any daily practices to better your mindset?
ALIVIA D’ANDREA: Of course! Just like how we have a gym where we go to workout our bodies, I also have a mental gym full of tools and exercises to keep my mindset fit and healthy. One of these exercises is visualization. Everyday I visualize myself doing something that would help me grow while also picturing how I would feel doing it. I marry a behavior to an emotion in my head. For example, I would picture running on the treadmill and wanting to give up during the final minutes of the workout. I see myself pushing through the struggle and smiling at the end, panting, and sparkling in sweat and pride. Visualization is powerful because our brains have a difficult time differentiating imagination from reality. You can actually practice and strengthen skills by just visualizing!
What has brought you most joy during this pandemic?
ALIVIA D’ANDREA: Reading! The presence of books melted away that lonely feeling in isolation. I actually made so many new friends during this pandemic – the authors.
Do you have anything else you’d like to mention?
ALIVIA D’ANDREA: To glow up you must break outside of your limits, what you know, and what is comfortable and that’s how you change. There is no other way to change.
A comment I received: ‘Glow up Diaries Season 1 was way better. Season 2 is too dark and negative.’
My response: In season one, episode one; the glow up journey was foreshadowed through a rose colored lens. Eat this, exercise that and you will glow up. It’s the generic “pretty” definition of a glow up portrayed in society.
I didn’t glow up in season one because I avoided the pain and discomfort of change. I ran away the second something hurt.
In season two, episode one, the viewer is hit with the dark side of my reality. I find season two much more beautiful than season one because of how ugly it got. In that ugly, chaotic madness we survive is where we gain our strength. I glowed up in season two because I worked on everything that destroyed me. It was painful as hell at times but that’s the only way to grow.
In the society we live in people tend to talk about glow ups and change like they are something beautiful but they’re not. When you try to change you are breaking yourself apart, changing every single habit that your mind picked up to comfort you and then you go and destroy them to rebuild something new. It’s scary and that fear stopped me in season one. Now? I say scared is good! Scared is fantastic! Scared means you’re doing something really, really brave and that’s what makes life exciting, what it means to FEEL ALIVE.
Subscribe to Alivia D’Andrea’s YouTube channel to watch her current second season of the ‘Glow Up Diaries’ as she shares her risks, journey, failures and successes all with her audience. If you wish to see even more of her, check her out on Instagram.
