Every day on our Instagram “Explore” page, we’re forced to troll through unrealistic body ideals, whether it’s by fashion bloggers or the latest fitness influencers. Women need to see more realistic versions of themselves rather than this cartoonish ideal that looks more like Jessica Rabbit than a human being. Enter Laura Morgan from Wisconsin, a body positive hero to her nearly 300k Insta followers, and the plus-size community.
Laura happens to work for Balance Athletica, which isn’t some corporate fitness fad but a family owned and run company. Its apparel is created with the intention to empower people and ‘be comfortable in their own skin.” It’s literally in the name – balance is necessary to our lives, and Laura helps people achieve that.
Laura might be considered overweight by some, but she’s actually lost a significant amount of weight – over 140 pounds, to be precise. But Laura isn’t about a goal weight. Instead, she’s all about balance, like the brand that she works with. She says that just being able to fit in an airplane seat was a huge milestone for her. It’s all about the little things, right?
Other celebrations for Laura include being bale to buy outfits at normal clothing clothes. Laura stays fit in a variety of ways, rather than forcing herself to run on the treadmill every day. Outside of the gym, she does things like hiking and paddle-boarding. Once, she hiked a 14,000 foot mountain in Denver.
After the weight loss, Laura feels more confidence and joy in her every day life. Most importantly, she feels capable. Having an army of supportive Instagram supporters doesn’t hurt either.
To those looking to make a change in their lifestyle and weight, Morgan suggests starting small, citing her own mistakes in the beginning as going from 0 to 100. Rather than trying to fix all of your mistakes at once, slowly reduce unhealthy foods or activities one at a time. Tiny changes are effective longterm – going dramatically cold turkey doesn’t!
Laura Morgan is not a believer on obsessing about the number on the scale, or being scared that you’ll have to start from scratch if you make a mistake. Positive changes can still be made even if that number isn’t going down – FIY, muscle weighs more than fat.
Her inspirational Instagram posts seem to really get through to her IG followers, and they got through to us too. Quotes like “no one is you and that is your power” will become your daily self esteem mantra, and are far from the corny quotes we often see on social media. Laura shows us how to attain mental self-peace as well as physical results.
Rather than being focused on sponsorships or cute outfits, Laura posts relatable workout content and frequent videos of her workout routines. She isn’t afraid to get silly with the dances that she often does in the beginning of her workout videos. Girl has some dance moves along with those sumo squats!
Sometimes, we also get snippets of delicious and healthy foods to make at home, like her roasted honey balsamic glazed carrots and parsnips. These are scarce on her page but look oh so tasty, and we hope she adds some more recipes for those quarantining – there’s not much else to do but cook.
Morgan is all about working hard, but she is also about playing hard and not taking yourself to seriously. If the fitness industry had a little more of that, and a little less judgment or perfectionism, that would be a thing of glory to behold. For the lost or hopeless, the existing industry is quite daunting.
She first demonstrated her massive weight loss by posting a before and after picture of herself in the same dress. What a difference that two years makes! She cites “huge wins and major setbacks” in the weight loss process, which is a fantastic and realistic way to describe making any big chance.
Rather than following fad diets or fasting, Laura is all about four food moves when it comes to staying healthy. Reduce your fast food intake, learn how to cook, abide by portion control, and eat nutritious ingredients. Once these staples are down without too many relapses, you can start to integrate workouts.
This might start with just walking so you don’t overwhelm yourself in the beginning of the journey. Morgan decided to record and post her results after finding it difficult to relate other influencers’ weight loss journey. In the process, she forged her own online community that’s part of a healthier fitness movement – one we’re proud to be a part of.