In this powerful episode of Radical Wellbeing, host Ingrid Marsh sits down with body confidence advocate Josie Hough to discuss the pervasive issue of body image insecurity in today’s media-saturated world. Josie opens up about her personal journey with body dysmorphia and disordered eating that began at just six years old, revealing how societal pressures and the highlight reel of social media can distort our self-perception even when we’re consciously aware of the manipulation. Through honest conversation, she explains why we struggle to unfollow content that makes us feel bad, attributing it to FOMO (fear of missing out) and the habitual nature of social media consumption.
The episode tackles the real question: can affirmations and mindset shifts actually work when we’re fighting against a culture obsessed with “perfect” bodies? Josie shares her transformative strategies, including curating social media feeds with diverse body types, taking breaks from platforms entirely, and actively countering negative self-talk with positive affirmations. She emphasizes that there is no such thing as a perfect body—everyone’s body is perfect because it’s theirs. As Ingrid points out, we’re all fighting an uphill battle against magazine covers, TV shows like Love Island, and subliminal messaging designed to make women feel inadequate, making Josie’s message of radical self-acceptance not just helpful, but necessary.
Main Topics
Body image insecurity can begin as early as age 6, influenced by family attitudes and societal messaging about weight and appearance
Undiagnosed eating disorders and body dysmorphia often go unrecognized, with sufferers unable to see their own bodies realistically despite others expressing concern
Social media's highlight reel creates unrealistic expectations; even knowing images are curated and filtered doesn't prevent negative comparisons and emotional impact
FOMO (fear of missing out) drives continued engagement with content that harms mental health, making it difficult to unfollow triggering accounts despite conscious awareness
Practical strategies for recovery include completely revamping social media feeds to feature diverse body types, taking breaks from platforms, and using daily affirmations and mirror work
Active counteracting of negative self-talk with positive thoughts requires daily practice and intention, not passive acceptance of limiting beliefs
Broader cultural issues including magazine covers, TV programming, and advertising perpetuate impossible beauty standards, making individual recovery work feel like fighting an endless battle
Full TranscriptHi, guys. Welcome to women's radio station. My name is Ingrid Marsh and this is the Radical Self Love show. Or is it cal...▼
Hi, guys. Welcome to women's radio station. My name is Ingrid Marsh and this is the Radical Self Love show. Or is it called Radical Self Love Show? We can talk about that in a second, but we're here in our studios at Covent Garden supporting women's well being. Now this is a feature show and I said a second ago, is it called Radical Self Love show or is it called Radical Women's House? Whatever the name, I want you to help me to choose that. This is a feature show and you're going to let me know what you love, what you hate, life, you have to do something that you love it or if you want to hear more of this kind of stuff. So like I said, I've got it as a radical self love. Would you rather be called Radical well being Show? You give us a name. But we do want something that's a little bit edgy. We want to stand out now, guys, because at the end of the day it's about taking ordinary women doing extraordinary things who are shining their light, who are stepping out from the darkness. Okay, so cool. So today we're going to be talking about Love island that's on at the moment and this whole thing around body confidence, it's a big old issue. We've got this self, we've got this Love island showing at the moment. Women walking around with absolutely perfect bodies. We know the insecurities this causes. Something like two thirds of teenagers at the moment are worried about those bodies, worried about their body. Like I said, we've got this Love island show at the moment. Is it making people more insecure? Is it making it more of a problem? So to help us with that, I have the wonderful Josie Hoagie with me. Please give me your surname. Josie. It's Hoff. Josie. But don't worry, everybody gets it. We have the wonderful Josie Hoff with us in the studio who's really big into body confidence. Her mission is a simple one, is that she wants us to fall back in love with our bodies again, whatever our size is. So she wants to help me help you to live life to the fullest. Josie, thank you so much for joining us. How are you? I'm great, thank you. This is so exciting. I'm really happy to be here. We're so glad to have you. So, Josie, tell us your story around body confidence. Body issues. Tell us your story. Wow. So where do I start? I guess when I was younger I always had issues with my body. Probably started at the age of six. Shockingly, I do remember reading back through A diary recently from when I was six years old. And it was about how much I weighed and how much I thought my friends weighed and all of that kind of thing. It's just sad, isn't it? From the age of 6. From the age of 6 this started and then it just sort of carried on. I went on diets with my mum and I've spoken with her about this as well. It's not her fault that she did that kind of thing with me. It's completely society's fault. We'll talk about that later, I'm sure as well, who's to blame? But, yeah, I just always thought I was too big and I just wanted to be one of the girls who's, you know, just smaller. And I was, in my head, smaller was better. Look, I'm gonna tell you guys, if you could see Josie now, you'd be dying. She's like. She's so normal. Like, normal. I say, quote, unquote, looking in size and everything. But it's interesting that you said from age 6 because they do say these stereotypes kick in by age 6, as young as that. So did your mother realize this problem was going on? I think she had the exact same problem sort of growing up as well. But the difference with my upbringing, I think, was social media and I don't know, maybe just media's sort of portrayal of women has just got even more extreme in terms of, as you were saying before, like, perfect women. I think she just wanted me to be happy. And she always did think she didn't, obviously didn't want me to be doing that kind of thing. She just got upset when she saw me upset about my body. But the problem just got so much worse, sort of as I got older. I sort of developed. It was undiagnosed, but I did develop an eating disorder at the age of sort of 16. It went in, it went up and down. I lost a lot of weight. 16. And then again at 19. On my gap year, just after uni, I was actually traveling with some friends and got down to crazy weight for my height. The two friends I was traveling with, really concerned, understandably, actually messaged my parents. And then, you know, they. They got in contact. And from the side of it, when you're going through that, you don't. You don't think yourself as small. And that's the thing when you say, like, you see me now, I see everybody else as, quote, unquote, normal. And that's the thing, you don't see it about yourself. But more recently, I'VE been working on sort of body positivity. I, I did like, I changed my whole social media and this is something I'd recommend for everyone else. Just change all the people you're following to body positivity. Sort of larger women, smaller women, but you know, have got medical issues. People who've got able disabled bodies. Disabled bodies like, you know, variety of women. And you'll see that I don't know, this is the message I'm trying to tell myself and share with everyone else is that there's no such thing as a quote unquote perfect body. So the girls on Love island, as you mentioned before, they have a certain type of body. Yes, but everyone's body is perfect actually, because it's yours. And how long did it take you before you came to this realization? Because I must admit, this is. You're helping me here. And when I first met you and asked you to come on the show, I said to you, look, it's the area I struggle to understand. I'm going to be completely honest with you and I want you to help me because although, yes, I wanted to be slim to fit into certain clothes and what have you, it didn't consist pursue my life. And what I didn't understand, you touched on there that you were following certain people. I struggle to understand why, why you're following people who are making you feel bad. And then someone said to me, well, you can't help it. Can you explain that to me? Because I know there's others who feel the same about that. Can you explain that? Yeah, of course. I think it's. It's like this FOMO thing. I think so People always with social media, fear of missing out. So, yeah, fear of missing out. You don't want to be missing out on what other people are doing. And I think it is a problem with sort of younger millennials and Gen Z age that's on anyone under. Well, I think it's 20-35s at the moment, but that will change as obviously time goes on. But people born with sort of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all of this, if you see images of women and even your friends as well portrayed, you're only showing like a highlight reel. They're only seeing the highlight reel of their lives. They're not going to share the times when they don't feel good about their bodies. They're going to share the best times. But even if you, even if you consciously know that that's what they're doing, as I find myself now, you still, you still Think, oh, but so and so, you know, they looked really great in their bikini on holiday and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, because I have, I've had that conversation with younger people that you hear people say, well, it's not true, it's a lie. And you're telling people this. As a photographer, I've done photography. You know, it's just a snapshot. You know, if I put a certain picture on Instagram, it may have taken 30 shots for that decent one night. And I'm quite open about that. But despite hearing that, what you're saying is it still doesn't help. No. And that's why recently, actually, I've come off Instagram completely. So I've reached a point where I've sort of bombarded myself with my mind with different images of different size women and stuff. And now it's time for me to actually move away from the body and thinking about the body. And as you said before, like, it doesn't consume all your thoughts, but I think it does for so many young women. And so, I mean, I don't, I wouldn't judge anyone for being on social media at all. It's a great tool in many ways, but I think it's such a, such a great thing to do to come off it a bit just for. Have a break. But that's. I know that's tougher to do than. Because you can say, I can say okay off social media, but I know these things become quite habitual. So I know that. I'm so proud of you for doing that. How did you muster that strength? It just became. I was fed up. I was fed up of tired. Just. Yeah, I was tired of feeling the way I did about my body. I was tired of wasting my time looking at other people's lives, which I thought was entertaining me, quote, unquote, entertaining me. But actually, you know, I go on the tube two hours, up to two hours a day, get on my commute to work, and I thought that it was like something to do, entertaining. But actually you don't give yourself time then to think about. It's time to be bored. It's actually good to have time to be bored and to think, to be in touch with your thoughts rather than bombarding your mind with these images and not really thinking about what these images are doing to you. So time away from that is really good. And yeah, I just, I got fed up of. And now I read, I listen to podcasts and just stare out the window or just, you know, do anything else. It's. Yeah, Focus on yourself rather than looking forward to it. And I know you're really passionate about making a change. So I should have mentioned earlier, actually, if you do want to engage in this podcast or, you know, speak more about this and hear more about it, don't forget, you can email us@presenterswomensradio.com and also let us know if you want to hear more of these kind of stories. So going back to that, would you say you now have a full shift of mindset or is it still a process? It's always a journey, I think. I think you always, if you've ever had any sort of disordered eating or body dysmorphia, which is, if anyone doesn't know, that's when you don't see your body in the way that it actually is, or reality is a sort of skewed vision of your. How your body actually looks. And I think you always, you're always working on it. But just as, for example, you have like negative voices in your head or thoughts, you have to actively counteract those with positive thoughts. So if ever I'm like, looking in the mirror and they come up without you even thinking about it, you'll think like, oh, look at my leg, or look at my blah, blah, you know, whatever. You have to go, whoa, stop. No, that's a negative one right now do a positive one. And you have to. And does that work? Because I'm a bit of a skeptic for affirmations. I think, though, that other bit in your head is so powerful, affirmations is just not strong enough. But you found that work absolutely are. And if you. For example, I think one thing I would suggest to do is listen or come up with your own three things that you wish you did feel about yourself. For example, if you don't feel confident at work, even, and you write down I am confident in work, and you just look in the mirror every morning and it feels ridiculous at first, but you just say it. You say, I am confident at work. And you just look at yourself. Pause for a sec, say it again, Just say it again. Until you think, yeah, I'm comfortable with that statement. And then you just go on your way. Just has to be a minute, a minute every morning. That is wicked. No, thanks for sharing that because I've always been a skeptic over that, so please know that works. So we've got programs like Love Island. One of the things that just infuriates me when I go into the supermarkets and I look along the shelves and every Image at the front of those magazines is a woman's bottom, her boobs, how slim she is, she's got a man, she got married. And we have these same messages, even on a subliminal level. I'm looking out for it because it annoys me. Are you not fighting a big old battle here, Josie? That. Yeah. Can you change it? Can you change it? I, I definitely think we've made such progress in this whole spirit, like so I don't know if you saw that. I think it was on cover of it. Was it Vogue or Cosmopolitan? Okay. I think it might have been Cosmo. They, they had Tess Holliday or Holiday, I can't remember her surname. But yeah, so she's a plus size model and that would never have happened 10 years ago. So yeah. And this movement in body positivity is just, it's working. It is working. Josie, I'm glad to have you here for so much longer. There's so much coming. We are running out of time. I want you to give us three quick badass tips about getting confident about our bodies. Again. Read the book the Body Positive Power by Megan Crabb. I would say move and eat in ways that make you feel good, not look good. And listen to Lizzo, especially the song Tempo. It's great. Sounds awesome. Okay guys, so do stay with us. Josie, thank you so much. You are awesome. You are certainly a badass. Thank you so very much. And coming up after the break we've got Sharon Gale who from a cough particularly throat rather developed full blown cancer. We're going to be sharing with you how she fought back. So do stay tuned with that awesome young mother. 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I'm a birth doula and mum of three and I'm passionate about supporting women to have empowering and positive birth experiences. Please join me for my brand new show From Tummy to Mummy here on Women's Radio Station. Every week I'll be here with an expert guest talking about women's reproductive health, everything, fertility, pregnancy, birth and baby related, right through to the menopause and beyond. Please join us for an informative and fun hour. Hi, I'm Hazel Butterfield, a blogger, book lover and mental health advocate and you can listen to my show get booked here at Women's Radio station daily at 5am and 5pm throughout my shows we'll talk about the books I've read, new releases, chat to authors, publishers and books enthusiasts, all with the theme and aim of supporting women's emotional well being. If you have a book to tell us about, get in touch@presentersomensradiostation.com join me on my show and share my love of books and writing. Hi, I'm Valentina Barbacci and I'm the Executive Director of Media Matters for Women. We're a registered charity operating in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo and we produce and share podcasts via Bluetooth on mobile phones focusing specifically on women and girls excluded from information due to extreme poverty. We empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms how they access, own and share information. To find out more and be part of this movement, come check out our website@mediamattersforwomen.org you're listening to women's radio stations supporting women's well being women's radio stations creating a global network for the empowerment of women and we want you to be involved. Join us on Instagram and Twitter Women's radio station, that's womensradiostn or Facebook Women's radio station to keep up to date with all our exciting programmes. Hi guys, my name is Ingrid Marsh and welcome to Women's Radio Station. We're here in our awesome studio at Covent Garden supporting women's wellbeing. Now this is called the Radical Self Love show. Or is it called that? Is it called the Radical well Being Show? We need a name so I do need you to email in@presentersomensradio.com Give me a name for the show. Do you want to hear more of this? And we want something a bit edgy. Guys, this is no more fitting in, no more conforming. We want to start shining our light. But it is about bringing in ordinary women doing extraordinary things to help me, help you live life to the fullest. So come up next, I have with me the awesome Sharon gal, now showering gal. She had a cough. Was it a cough? More like a tickly throat. A bit like that. It transpired to be a life threatening cancer. She found about this in a really bizarre way. But we want to find out how this young mum fought back. Sharon, hi, how are you? Hi, Ingrid. Are you okay, my lovely? I'm good. Thank you so much for coming in. I really appreciate that. So, Sharon, let's take us, take us right back to the beginning and tell us about the early symptoms that you had. Okay, so I was, gosh, normal mum in the gym, boxer sizing, spinning classes, first person up on holiday in the pool. You know, normal life, just, just going, doing my thing. Three adult children to raise. And you know what it's like with the adult teenagers and working. We had a shop at the time and I was working, also doing a full time job. And I noticed that tickly cough, as you say. Annoying. And then it then progressed and I realized I couldn't even commute to work. If a bus came and I wanted to run, I couldn't run for the bus. It got so bad I couldn't put one foot in front of the other. I literally, my children had to push me to walk up the road. And how long did it go from feeling week like that was a general progression or deterioration? I would say about a year. Oh, right, yeah. And I had gone into hospital, they couldn't find anything. Gone to the doctors, they said I was suffering from stress. I wanted to believe this stress anxiety theory, as it were, but it just progressively got worse and I knew that something seriously was wrong with me. That's interesting because I want to ask you, Shan, you know that you felt that something seriously wrong. Yeah. Did the word cancer come to mind? You know, it didn't. I thought maybe it was an organ problem. I thought, you know, respiration. I really didn't believe that. I. Those five letters, I'm hoping they're fine. I'll quickly count to no. 6. Right, yeah, exactly. Not from being short of breath, not from, you know, being tired. No, it didn't. No. I'm not surprised. So how was it eventually diagnosed? So basically I was in and out of hospital, as I said. I've got a friend who's a GP and she was really concerned And I suspect that in her mind she thought there's something seriously wrong. Right. And she said I was going to my local hospital, they couldn't find anything. She said, get yourself referred to St. George's and I did. And within a month, this is now 18 months after they found the consultant straightaway said, you've gone from a usually fit person, you've been, you know, alarm bells are ringing. And he put, did all the tests and eventually within a month I got a phone call at work to say we found a serious condition and you need to see the consultant. Did cancer come to your mind then, Sharon? No, because the condition was amyloids, amyloidosis and although that is life threatening and it's, you know, fatal, you still, it's not confirmed that it's cancer. So we looked it all up as you do, it wasn't confirmed. And then they rushed me in for all the tests at the, you know, the Royal Free where they have a national amyloidosis centre and that's when it was confirmed that it could be it's either hereditary or it's from cancer. And the chances of it being hereditary at my age was very, very slim. And so when they did do the test they realised that it was. So is it fair to say that had you not taken the bull by the horn? I said I know that you've been through, I know you're writing your book at the moment, we've touched on that, you've gone through various tests, you've been sent back from various hospitals and what have you. Is it fair to say that had your doctor friend not say to you go and self refer yourself that you may not be here today? It's a fact I wouldn't be here today if I hadn't got referred when I did and in fact when I was referred to and they rushed me and straight away started chemotherapy and even at that stage, six weeks into that treatment, I was told that I still had six months to live. So if I hadn't of gone in. Exactly, yeah. Oh yeah. So that was told to me at that time. Well done to you, well done to your friend. Because sometimes we listen to doctors, don't we? We just hear what they have to say, say this is you guys say, just listen. Having that intuition. We say that intuition is our God. But the thing is I, I listened to them and I actually believe that, well, it must be stress. They were doing all the big tests, everything and I just was plodding on, plodding on until, you know, the fret. My Friend said, Jackie said their defense. It's quite a rare cancer, is that? Yeah, it's a rare. It's a rare fatal illness which they. Doctors might study it at one stage in their life, but they rarely a brief because amyloidosis, just briefly, it's where your bone marrow is emitting abnormal cells. And they were attaching themselves to my heart so they can attach themselves to different organs. In my case, it was my heart. It was weakening my heart. My heart was getting weaker and weaker. All these proteins, as it were, in the lining of my heart making it stiff. So my heart was at risk of heart failure. This is extraordinary. From a tickly cough. Yeah. Through this process. Sharon, what was your darkest moment, would you say? So being in hospital, thinking the chemo is working, being told, yes, it's working, we're going to up the doses, it's actually attacking these proteins. And then suddenly being told. The consultant came into me one day whilst I was in the bed and she says, sharon, I'm sorry to tell you, but you know, we've been monitoring the heart. It's not work. Chemo's working, but your heart is at risk of cardiac arrest and your life expectancy is six months. Okay. Did you share this with your children? I didn't, I didn't want to share it with anybody. She insisted that I, you know, in my book I go into a lot more detail about it. And you're going to come back to us. I have actually finished the book now and it's just in the process of being published, so I will come back to you more. But, you know, I go through all of this in the book and it's a story of my struggles, everything that I went through at the time. But it's also a story about relationships and how there's different relationships in, you know, helping me to get through, you know, this time. But yeah, the darkest time, I would say was being scooped up off the floor after being told, you know, you only have a life expectancy of six months. What was the most inspiring thing that you've picked up from this? What have you taken from this, Sharon, what would you say because you're in remission now. I am. I've been in remission for the last three years. And so for me, it was all about the friendship. I had a WhatsApp group of 50 something people on there encouraging us. But I remember the day before I was given the chemo, my nephew calling me from California and saying, auntie, fight this with all your might. Don't give in. To this drug. You've got to fight. And I suppose for me, that was inspiration to. To keep going. You know, I'm a woman of faith, so I pray. There was loads of prayers going around and, yeah, that was the most inspirational moment for me. But again, having the, you know, the family, the friends, the. Just the support that I had really kept me going. And that's interesting you say that, because I'm big into mind as, you know, mindset is so important that it isn't just the. The chemo, the doctors and what have you, but there's that element of like, fight, shy fight. Don't give up, don't give up. You've got to. You can't give in to what the doctors have said. If I had even believed, my husband said, we don't believe this. We're not going to accept this. We believe in God. We're not going to accept this. And we fought. And I believe that's what helped me through and still helps me through today. How did your children manage? You've got three children. Tell me a little bit about them. Did they all deal with it the same or was it all quite different? No, definitely not. And again, in my book, the different characters come through my. I've got two boys and they like chalk and cheese. I've got my daughter, Jessie. She's actually studying medicine. And so she was. She knew all, you know, she would look everything up, and that was the disadvantage in a way. But they were very supportive. I mean, they changed overnight. I wouldn't have been able to, you know, get through it without my children, my family, my husband. It's interesting you're saying that. That she looked things up. They always say now, when you have an illness, don't look it up. Yeah. Oh, no. She was. Oh, I was hoping it wasn't going to be that one. And I was hoping it was, you know, it was always that one. So she knew. Okay, Sian, I need from you three badass tips to send out to our community after going through this. Coming back, fighting back. You're one cool woman, by the way. Give us three tips. You know, I think the sky's the limit. I always say to my children, the sky's the limit. You can do anything. And don't be, don't. Whatever people say, listen to your heart. Go with your heart. Live today as if it's your last. In fact, live the week as if it's your last. Is that one or two? There's loads. I need another quick one. Shall I? Okay. Pray. Prayer helps. And have faith. Believe. Faith. We have to have faith. Believe. You have to believe. Absolutely. I believe that will help you through. You are tremendous, Sharon. And like I said, you've just finished your books. A bit of a publisher's listening. Want to come on board? And don't forget to contact us here, obviously@presentersomensradio.com Like I said, guys, this was a feature show. If you want to hear more extraordinary stories. Like I said, we're not Piers Morgan. We don't have famous people. We have women on the street, women like me and you who are doing extraordinary things, who are fighting back from the negativity that's out there. If you want to hear more of this, please let us know. If you want to hear more, let us know too. And we also need a name for the show. We need a name for the show. So don't forget to email us in@presenterswomensradio.com with some awesome suggestions about the name of the show. What else you want to hear? What kind of stories do you want to hear? Do you want more here about body confidence and finding about families? Let me know. Welcome to the women's radio station supporting women's well being. Women's radio station is all about diversity from opinions, career, ethnicity, education and most importantly, women's well being. We aim to celebrate the individuality of every woman everywhere, providing opportunities and the platform for your voice. Visit our website womensradiostation.com for more information. I'm Tamina Zaman, founder of Empower and Enrich. When it comes to money, do you clam up or get confused? Do you wish you could save more money or are you hoping you have enough for retirement? You are not alone. 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