Strength with a Purpose w/ Ola Alghazzouli
Fuel Your Strength
Steph Gaudreau
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 30 April 2019
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ola Alghazzouli came to the United States at age 11 from Damascus, Syria. With her new home, she found a string of language and cultural differences that lowered her self-esteem and made her body conscious to the point of bulimia and binge eating. After being introduced to weight lifting, Ola was inspired by the changes she saw in her body and the power that focusing on the positive changes she was seeing gave her. After coming out the other side of her shame surrounding physical strength as a Muslim woman, she embraced her new found ability and feels passionate about helping others do the same.
Strength with a Purpose
Getting back to basics, being outside in nature, art therapy, and movement is what Ola believes to be the key contributors to finding your purpose and loving your body. We are discussing the importance of stepping back and allowing your body to take a break, how to find your purpose through fitness and ways that Ola is able to blend faith and fitness without pushing a religious agenda.
You don't have to be perfect, but if you keep working towards your goal from a place of enjoyment and purpose, you can heal your relationship with your body and live in the true paradise known as Akhirah. Ola is here to open your eyes to the intersection of functional fitness, Muslim faith and the divinity of being in your purpose.
How does your self-body image as a teenager impact how you interact with fitness today? Share with us in the comments on the episode page!
On Today's Episode
- Addressing the stigma across cultural borders towards women bulking up
- Exploring themes women struggle with from adolescence into adult life
- Tips on how to work out and eat healthily during Ramadan
- The physical and mental benefits of being outside and moving your body
- Learn how different fitness modalities can help you transition through difficult points in your life
Quotes
"I was afraid of the gym at the beginning, but once I got hardcore into weight lifting, I started seeing differences in my body, and not caring about who was looking at me." (16:02)
"For anyone who is super exhausted, you are not going to find motivation until you give yourself a little break, take a deep breath, take care of your body, and know why you are doing it." (23:56)
"When 2014 happened, my grandma passed away, and I was like 'oh my gosh, my body is a responsibility for me, what the heck am I doing with it?' And that is when the whole awakening happened, and now I see that it is all meant for me, I am meant to be this trainer." (28:54)
"My main goal and hope is that I am able to help people see their body in a positive way. And it's not just about toning out or losing weight, it's about getting a strong mind, loving who you are and what you look like as of now." (30:48)
"Just go for it, you never know what you can do until you do it." (44:31)
Resources Mentioned In This Show
- BeFit4Akhirah Website
- Join the Ramadan Prep Fitness Challenge Here
- Purposeful Fitness with Coach Ola Podcast
- Follow Coach Ola on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
- Pre-Order The Core 4 by Steph Gaudreau
Check out the full show notes here!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Harder to Kill Radio, a weekly podcast where we explore what it takes to build unbreakable humans |
| 0:08.0 | through fitness, nutrition, and mindset. I'm your host, Steph Godro. My mission in life is to help women build stronger bodies and resilient |
| 0:18.8 | minds so that they begin to embrace and really own their inner power. |
| 0:24.6 | The vision I have is that one day, |
| 0:26.9 | girls will grow up into strong women who appreciate their bodies, |
| 0:31.1 | know their worth, take up space, and live bigger, without the pressure of impossible to fulfill |
| 0:38.1 | bullshit societal standards. |
| 0:40.7 | That is what it means to be harder to kill. |
| 0:43.0 | This podcast is one way to explore these issues, |
| 0:47.0 | and you may not always agree with the viewpoints presented here, |
| 0:50.0 | but I can guarantee one thing. It will make you think. I'm here to lead a community of women and then we need you two who are ready to define what it is they truly want from their lives on their terms. |
| 1:05.0 | If a particular guest or episode resonates with you, let us know. |
| 1:10.0 | Leave us a review on iTunes Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe on your podcast app. |
| 1:17.0 | And also be sure to tune in to my weekly companion show, Fear's Love Friday, every Friday. On that note, let's do this. Hi there. Welcome to episode 199 of Harder to Kill radio. I'm your |
| 1:47.1 | host Steph Godro and I'm so pleased that you're here with me today for another |
| 1:52.1 | Tuesday expert guest interview. |
| 1:55.0 | It's such a pleasure for me to do these shows because I get to connect with and |
| 2:00.0 | share with you people who are really doing amazing things in the world regarding nutrition and fitness and mindset |
| 2:09.0 | in the hopes that you will learn from them and if what they have to say really resonates with you that |
| 2:15.1 | you can go off and dive into what else they're doing and really use that as a |
| 2:21.9 | tool so it's always a pleasure to sit down and do these really use that as a tool. |
| 2:22.7 | So it's always a pleasure to sit down and do these |
... |
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