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Hot Girl Walks & Wellness Trends: Is Your Wellness Practice Empowering or Just Expensive?
0 Playsin 9 hours
Hot girl walks. Pilates. Korean skincare. Wellness trends are everywhere, and they all promise empowerment. But when does a helpful practice stop being about your wellbeing and start being about someone else's bottom line?
What we're unpacking about the wellness industrial complex:
- When aesthetic and gear become more important than the actual practice
- Paywalling basic things like hydration and movement as luxury
- Turning missed days into failure when systemic barriers are the real problem
I also talk about how wellness trends targeting women are tied to beauty standards. Post-COVID brought thinness back as health. "Good outfit or is she just thin?" Rest is something you earn, not something healthy. Moral virtue gets attached to how "well" you perform wellness.
Subscribe. Share. Remember that wellness is a relationship with yourself, not with your gear.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Growing With Soul'
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello beautiful souls and welcome back to another installment of the Growing With Soul podcast, where we explore the moments and stories that shape who we're becoming. I'm Marisol and this is where I love to have real conversations about growth, self-discovery and learning to put yourself first Whether we're diving into books that change our perspective or unpacking personal experiences that teach us something new, this podcast is for women who are done playing small and are ready to embrace their own journey.
00:00:31
Speaker
If you struggled with putting everyone else first or battled self-doubt, then you're in the right place.
The 'Hot Girl Walk': Ritual and Benefits
00:00:38
Speaker
This isn't about perfection. It's about the messy, beautiful process of growing into yourself.
00:00:44
Speaker
So come grow with me.
00:00:48
Speaker
The hot girl walk. It's a vibe. It can be a ritual. And it can even be an identity at this point. I always go on mine to be completely transparent. I go on my hot girl walks mainly because i need to walk my dog at least twice a day.
00:01:07
Speaker
So I just feel like it doubles as a hot girl walk. But it's more than just that at this point, too. Like, not only is it just me going for my little hot girl walk, a mental health walk, walking my dog, but I also use it sometimes, at least, to listen to an audiobook or maybe catch up on a podcast.
00:01:26
Speaker
So it kind of doubles for like, you know, multiple things here. And I've also have seen talking about like fitness trends and all of that.
00:01:37
Speaker
I've seen over the last three, four years, so many like girl groups pop up, at least within like Southern California.
00:01:48
Speaker
whose like sole purpose is going on hot girl walks together. So it's definitely, definitely a thing, definitely a trend. And at what point I'm always curious when it comes to things like this, is this wellness trend really helping us versus it just becoming an aesthetic and adding to your shopping list?
00:02:15
Speaker
We're going to talk about just that in this episode. We're goingnna talk about what works.
Wellness vs. Wellness Industry
00:02:20
Speaker
We're going to talk about what's really just a marketing scheme and also end with some practical tips when you feel yourself maybe teetering that line between it actually being a helpful wellness practice compared to you're just being sucked into the aesthetics.
00:02:42
Speaker
So let's define some terms. If you've been here for a while, then you are very well aware that I like to define my terms as we go along. So wellness, what is it? How do we define it?
00:02:54
Speaker
Essentially, wellness is a practice or a variety of practices that support health and well-being. The wellness industry, however, is going to be products and services marketed as and for wellness and someone's well-being.
00:03:13
Speaker
Two very different things. So we can essentially, in theory, have wellness without needing to essentially participate in the wellness industry.
00:03:24
Speaker
But we're going to get into a little bit more. I think also what's really important to take a look at when it comes to this is looking at how it truly impacts women specifically.
00:03:37
Speaker
i do, especially with like hot girl walks and Pilates is another huge fitness wellness trend. The Korean skincare stuff that's been blowing up the last year or so on TikTok and social media in general. All of these are definitely geared towards women and why is that?
00:03:57
Speaker
Like it always, it baffles me, you know? I mean, not really. You just think about it a little bit. You kind of know. But I do see a lot of these trends that center around wellness and fitness.
00:04:11
Speaker
They are inherently tied to the beauty standard and the beauty industry, hence Korean skincare being a huge thing here in the U.S., And essentially, what makes someone beautiful is often what we in society tend to associate with markers of good health. So clear skin, full hair. Oh, that's a trend I've been seeing a lot as well. Like Whether it be like tips to grow your hair or supplements for hair growth and like fuller, thicker hair. Overall thinness as well is a huge component of the general beauty standard. And we see that a lot like Pilates, hot girl walks, even mental health walks. Like it's all interconnected.
00:05:01
Speaker
And I really wanted to show the thin part as well, because often that's where it tends to begin, especially with these wellness trends.
Societal Pressures: Thinness and Fashion
00:05:07
Speaker
They all are eventually tied to being thin and being or like conforming to the beauty standard. And naturally, the beauty standard does change. It fluctuates. I've seen it change in my own lifetime, which I have discussed previously on the podcast.
00:05:26
Speaker
But Even more recently, there has been this connection or this sort of revisiting of being very thin and that being connected to health and well-being.
00:05:45
Speaker
And I've seen this connection or I've seen this, yeah, essentially this connection between health and thinness a lot more post-COVID. And i don't know if it was, i don't think it was last year. It might've been back in like 2024. I did try to look for the video and I, you know, I only have so much time in a day. i didn't find it.
00:06:05
Speaker
And that might be... a knock on my own search skills, ah but it might've been back in 2014. This creator on TikTok, Crutches and Spice, did a whole like...
00:06:20
Speaker
I mean, it was, i think I thought it was maybe like a longer TikTok, but she, aren she and in this one TikTok that she posted, she essentially called out with a quickness that like right after COVID that society was going to start connecting its experience, like the experience of COVID as a society, then like connecting the like aftermath of that to and influencing the new beauty standard. And how that beauty standard was going to be shifting towards thinness because of what we had experienced. So essentially underpinning that there has always been this maybe not so undercurrent um association of
00:07:05
Speaker
Someone being bigger, being connected to being unhealthy. I mean, if you're even just somewhat overweight and a woman and you go to the doctor, they're already telling you that like, oh, you're complaining of X, Y, and Z symptom, lose weight, it'll fix it. And it's like, how is that going to fix, you know, what I'm experiencing? Like, ah, lose some weight, it'll be fine, you'll fix it.
00:07:28
Speaker
So we already have that. And I think that is a good example of how in society we connect thinness with health and vice versa. If you are not thin, then you are not healthy.
00:07:42
Speaker
And in this video that Crutches and Spice published about like maybe two years ago, she was is essentially Forgive me if that is not their pronoun. um They essentially connect how the world experienced COVID and how the beauty standard then shifted towards being thin again as the beauty standard. Because for a while, and again, I talked about this before, for a while, being like slim thick or being a little bit thicker was the beauty standard. And then on top of that, during that like slim thick era, we also were experiencing body positivity a lot more. And that is going away
00:08:22
Speaker
Where now we are seeing that even though people don't necessarily need to be like a size zero or double zero to be considered beautiful like it was back in the early 2000s, we can definitely see that thinness is definitely coming back much more into vogue, for lack of a better word.
00:08:44
Speaker
On top of that, when it comes to like beauty standards and how people look and health and all of that, there is a lot of social pressure to be, you know quote unquote, effortlessly put together.
00:09:01
Speaker
And when we look at fashion, which is something that we all experience on a daily basis, fashion is definitely geared towards someone one who is in a thinner body.
00:09:16
Speaker
And nothing exemplifies this more than all of the like fashion girlies and creators on TikTok, which is, that's where I tend to be. I tend to be on TikTok, but I'm sure they're on other platforms. But essentially all of the like midsize to plus size creators who make those those videos where it's like, is it a good outfit or is she just thin? Like, I haven't seen one of those in a while, but I feel like it was a trend maybe sometime last year.
00:09:43
Speaker
And I absolutely loved those videos because how often do we see like celebrities and they look fantastic. And everybody's talking about how like the celebrity is like a fashion icon. And then like somebody who is in a you know, average body, standard body that most people are walking around in who don't have access to like personal trainers and nutritionists and personal chefs, um then try the same outfit. And it's like this outfit actually kind of sucks. And like, it looks good on her because she's just thin, but it's not really a good outfit.
00:10:17
Speaker
Love those videos. And I will say as somebody who has fluctuated in size myself, that I definitely had an easier time shopping and a much more enjoyable time shopping and just enjoyed fashion a lot more when I was closer to like in like 127 pounds to like 140 pounds.
00:10:44
Speaker
Like that, that was really, it was really easy to shop when I was around that weight. Even deeper than that, though, when we are looking at that connection between health and wellness and the beauty standards, there is also this connection of like a moral framing where being healthy is like a virtuous thing.
00:11:07
Speaker
and that on top of that, rest is something that you earn, not necessarily something that you should do because it's a healthy thing. And also when we are looking at like, ah as I mentioned, TikTok a lot, algorithmically, the visibility on the algorithm, essentially trends spread because the person who's doing the the trend on the camera, they look good.
00:11:29
Speaker
You know, that's why. So if you fit the beauty standard, then the chances are you're going to be seen more. So there's all these different factors going around that are linking all of these things together.
Benefits of 'Hot Girl Walks'
00:11:40
Speaker
so Where does our, like i was talking about originally, our hot girl walk? Where does that land? You know, the care, the practice of it.
00:11:52
Speaker
Is it content? Is it consumption? Like how, where is this landing in this? And the thing about the hot girl walk, and I think the reason why it became such a trend is because that it was easy, so to speak. It's a low barrier, a high upside.
00:12:08
Speaker
Walking is accessible. it is mood boosting. And it doesn't require a lot of stuff. You could just put your tennies go for a walk. On top of that, another great thing about it is like you're reclaiming space. you know You're outside. You're taking up space.
00:12:25
Speaker
And you're outside on purpose. You're not just you know going from one place to the other. You're not just commuting, trying to get somewhere. You're taking your time. You're moseying on by. You're just going for a chill little walk. You know you are fully enjoying the outside world.
00:12:40
Speaker
And i do think that the hot girl walk trend had this air of like agency of I'm doing this for me, not necessarily a I'm doing this for like a before and after type of thing.
00:12:55
Speaker
We did get there. And I do see people talk about this a lot, especially fitness influencers, which I get. That's definitely their lane to talk about fitness and how to get, you know, your dream physique. There's a time and a place for everything.
00:13:07
Speaker
But I will say when we're looking at everything together, that especially the fitness influencers do talk about how increasing your steps, going on those hot girl walks, even maybe even extra hot girl walks do lead to losing weight for a lot of people.
00:13:21
Speaker
I also will say that in terms of like an upside to hot girl walk is building community, especially building community without any type of like comparison around it when done correctly. So like I mentioned before, like a lot of groups,
00:13:37
Speaker
you know, springing up, having, you know, hot girl walks together, or maybe even going hiking together. They do also have like, you know, you can check in with your friend as well. You can use that hot girl walk as like a time to chit chat with somebody, catch up with somebody.
00:13:54
Speaker
Also, if you have someone else who wants to go on a hog or a walk, maybe even somebody who is you are' not in the same city, you can still be a gentle accountability partner for a set person.
00:14:05
Speaker
So there are a lot of good things around this trend. I especially love how accessible it is for the average person. So I would say if you have been thinking about doing hot girl walks, if you've done hot girl walks, and maybe you're like, hmm, is this still the right thing for me?
00:14:23
Speaker
You know, what is your intention when you are going for a walk? Is there one? At all. Chances are there is. So what what is that intention? Often, for example, mine is walking mochi. Let's be real. i am a dog mama. Usually when I'm going for a walk, it's because he needs to be walked or he needs to potty. But like I mentioned, I also use it for audiobooks and podcasts.
00:14:47
Speaker
And like I mentioned as well, the steps, like if I walk mochi like twice a day, I'm usually getting somewhere between like four to 6,000 steps. So it helps.
00:15:00
Speaker
So where now does this, like the wellness industrial complex sneak in? Because it does, it always does.
Aesthetics vs. True Wellness
00:15:09
Speaker
That is when the aesthetic, the aesthetic and the gear are going to become a lot more important than the wellness practice itself. And I see this happening, okay? Because how many times do I see a lovely little video of a hot girl walk and she got everything going on, okay? The water bottle, the matching outfit, the like...
00:15:31
Speaker
the sneakers that are in style right now, brand new, like the headphones, everything. And you know what? If you already own all those things or it's definitely within your budget to buy new things consistently, do you?
00:15:51
Speaker
That's fantastic. Do you enjoy? However, when it becomes problematic is when You are now thinking, oh well, don't really have what I need in order to do this. Like, I don't really have what I need in order to, like, really enjoy this.
00:16:11
Speaker
Or well, not necessarily or, it's that and when you've maybe set up a routine of doing your hog girl walk and you maybe miss a day. It happens.
00:16:24
Speaker
You know, we shoot for perfection, even though what we really should be shooting for is consistency. But when we miss a day, we then turn that into a failure.
00:16:37
Speaker
Or even bigger than that, if we sort of extrapolate that or like kind of like zoom out a little bit, we see our maybe inability to even go on a hog or walk as an individual failure. When maybe, systemically speaking, it's not possible for you.
00:16:55
Speaker
Maybe you live in an area where it's not really the most reliable thing, you know, to go for a walk. Maybe it's not accessible. Maybe it's not, you know, walking friendly, pedestrian friendly area, which unfortunately there are a lot of those in the United States. I saw a TikTok recently of somebody trying to walk around a certain area in Irvine, which Irvine is a city in Orange County. If you are not from the l LA OC area,
00:17:22
Speaker
Irvine is interesting, but very car forward in its design as a city. So I wasn't really all that surprised that like it wasn't all that conducive to pedgeion pedestrian like foot traffic. But there are a lot of people who live in areas like that. So maybe going for a walk isn't the most accessible.
00:17:45
Speaker
And that's not your fault. That's the fault of maybe the city planner, whoever that person is. It's also important to remember that like it can be a little bit of a red flag when we are now starting to like essentially paywall basic things like hydration, like movement being repackaged as like a luxury thing.
00:18:11
Speaker
And that can start to happen when we start focusing on like, well, I need to have all the supplements. I need to have my electrolytes. I need to have like, you know, my pre-workout or whatever it is and all of those things. Can those things be useful tools? Yeah.
00:18:26
Speaker
But do you need them to be consistent with your walks? No. No, most likely you don't. So essentially at this point, you have to think, like pause and think, if this trend makes me feel like I'm falling behind, then it's not really doing its job anymore. It's really just being of service to someone else's bottom line.
Assessing Wellness Trends
00:18:53
Speaker
So what are some things we can do in order to make sure that whatever trend we are participating in, like the Hawkgirl Walk, is actually going to be beneficial and empowering for us and not taking away from?
00:19:07
Speaker
we can ask ourselves, does it improve my day without any new purchases? Is the benefit measurable? Is it felt like do i have better sleep, better mood, higher energy, or is it just an aesthetic that I am participating in?
00:19:24
Speaker
Is it flexible or does it demand perfection? Is it supported by credible guidance or is it mostly just testimonials and affiliate links?
00:19:37
Speaker
to be spending more money? Does it expand your life? More ease, more connection, bigger capacity, or does it shrink it?
00:19:48
Speaker
More rules, more guilt, obsession, especially with fitness and wellness trends. I would say at this point to take some time to really reflect on those questions.
00:20:03
Speaker
And it's important as well that if you are enjoying, say, hawker walks, that you remember to keep it a realistic thing, to make sure that it is working for you.
00:20:16
Speaker
So if it is a 10-minute walk, great. Set it into your schedule every day when you can go for that 10-minute walk. Maybe doing some add-ons, kind of like I do, where I add a podcast, add an audiobook,
00:20:32
Speaker
I have also done like a voice note for my friends. I am notorious for like, i I am the friend who leaves a 10 minute voice note. Okay. I like, here's my little podcast just for you. i'm sorry.
00:20:46
Speaker
Music also works as well. You can also set a boundary around your hot girl walks, maybe no buying for 30 days to optimize said thing.
Personal Relationship with Wellness
00:21:00
Speaker
Ultimately, wellness is a relationship with yourself and not just the aesthetic or the supplement or the gear that you are purchasing. Those can be motivational.
00:21:13
Speaker
They can definitely help make things a little bit more fun, but they're not necessary.
00:21:20
Speaker
The next time you're thinking about going on a walk, think about your intention. Think about the five questions that I mentioned earlier and Remember that this is for you and your wellness and your well-being.
00:21:35
Speaker
So if there is something that is taken away from that, take some time to reflect. Thank you for tuning in today to the Growing With Soul podcast. If today's episode resonated with you, make sure to leave a five-star review because it helps to get it out to more people who need to hear it.
00:21:53
Speaker
Additionally, i am taking on a new client. So if you are looking for support in any changes that you are looking to make this year, feel free to schedule your very own discovery call with me in the show notes.
00:22:04
Speaker
Until next time, keep growing.