The Chisme Corner with Vee Rivera

"Loving Yourself Out Loud with Jessica Battle: A Conversation on Body Image & Healing"

Date: November 19, 2025
Host: Vee Rivera
Guest: Jessica Battle (Lifestyle Influencer, Podcaster, Motivational Speaker)

Main Theme & Purpose

This heartfelt episode centers on embracing self-love, healing personal wounds, and challenging toxic body image norms, especially as women and women of color. Vee Rivera and her guest, Jessica Battle, dive into their experiences with body image, diet culture, building community, motherhood, setting boundaries, and learning the power of vulnerability and authentic connection. With a candid, no-filters-attached approach, the conversation brings together chisme (gossip), culture, healing, and the realities of being a woman in 2025.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Building Authentic Connections in a Digital World

[01:09-04:50]

• Vee and Jessica reflect on meeting as "Delaware transplants," bonding over Instagram support in a sometimes competitive influencer space.
• Jessica points out the scarcity of genuine connection online: "I always love your fashion... I think you’re dope, and I want you to know that. I wish that more people were willing to do that." [03:28]
• Both agree inspiration should be shared, not hoarded: "I love watching, getting new ideas and stuff... not necessarily taking what they're doing and duplicating it, but making it your own." —Vee [04:43]

2. The Challenges of Moving & Motherhood

[05:11–07:34]

• The two swap stories about relocating, cultural adjustment, and the impact of moving away from family support during big life changes, like pregnancy and marriage.
• Jessica explains her move to Delaware, stating, "I had an opportunity to move back home if I wanted to... I wanted to keep as much familiar as possible." [06:27]

3. Jessica’s Upbringing & Body Image Journey

[08:00–15:35]

• Jessica details a tumultuous childhood marked by familial abandonment, emotional eating, and instability after her father left: "He moved and literally started a new family, raised somebody else's children, and just basically completely forgot about us. And it devastated me." [08:22]
• Early emotional eating led to weight fluctuations and unhealthy coping: "At the time obviously didn’t understand, like, oh, I’m emotionally eating. But as I grew up, I began to realize..." [09:07]
• She highlights a hard-won truth: "Just changing your body is not really going to change your life." [14:43]

4. Debunking Toxic Diet Culture & Social Comparisons

[11:38–15:35]

• Discussion turns to societal pressure to "bounce back" post-baby, triggered by celebrity endorsements of rapid weight loss:
  • "It is so dangerous to me... let your body heal and take its time." —Vee [12:55]
• Jessica reflects on the hollowness of superficial transformation: "Your body doesn’t create the emotions that you feel. The way you think about your body creates the emotions that you feel." [15:06]
• Both stress that health is not equated to thinness.

5. Generational Cycles & Role Modeling Healthy Habits

[16:04–17:05]

• Jessica opens up about lacking positive health models growing up: "I didn’t witness anybody in my life, like, take care of themselves... Sometimes I wonder how my life would be different if someone instilled healthy habits in me." [16:04]
• She emphasizes her mission: "We all get to be leaders in this world...showing the world what it looks like to really take care of yourself inside and out." [16:43]

6. Choosing Not to Have Children & Owning Your Path

[17:09–21:38]

• Jessica candidly explains her decision to remain childfree, how it was influenced by childhood loneliness, and pervasive social pressures:
  • "I desperately wanted a baby... if I have a baby, I'm going to have someone that loves me unconditionally." [17:36]
  • "I just feel like I shouldn’t have to have children because society says...that’s my duty as a woman. No, it’s not. My duty is to get this bag and go to sleep at 8pm." [21:24]
• Both deconstruct the societal expectation that a woman’s worth is tied to motherhood.

7. Navigating People-Pleasing, Boundaries, and Healing Relationships

[23:43–28:43]

• Honest talk on being empathic "people-pleasers" and learning to set boundaries:
  • "My biggest issue is that I get resentful of people when they’re not reciprocal of that." —Jessica [25:59]
  • "You cannot expect people to have the same heart as you. People don’t have the same heart as you." [28:02]
• Vee and Jessica discuss the challenge (and necessity) of learning that people won’t always reciprocate energy or support.

8. Healing Food Relationships & Self-Trust

[28:56–32:42]

• Jessica details how healing food issues requires "self-awareness and treating yourself as someone you love and respect":
  • "It requires a level of self-awareness…to pause in the moment and be like, what am I actually seeking to feel?" [28:56]
• Vee agrees: "You have to have some type of level of self-awareness to get through life." [31:07]
• They note how prioritizing oneself, especially as mothers and caretakers, is an act of self-love, not selfishness.

9. Perfectionism & Navigating Wellness Without Extremes

[32:42–35:35]

• Jessica describes her battles with all-or-nothing thinking:
  • "There are so many other options besides doing everything and doing nothing. If we see it as a scale...zero to 100, there’s 99 other percent in there." [32:47]
  • She addresses continued societal pressure to shrink herself as a plus-size woman, even as body positivity grows online.

10. Harmful Trends in "Inclusivity"

[34:19–35:35]

• Both critique brands for performative body diversity ("You want to be able to say it, but you’re not actually doing it with your heart." —Jessica [35:08])
• Conversation on the cycling of beauty trends (e.g., BBLs to "heroin chic") and the shifting standards women face.

11. Emotional Toll of the Weight Loss Journey

[37:23–41:18]

• Jessica recounts her experience of extreme weight loss before her wedding, subsequent binge eating, and the realization that "you’re addressing the wrong thing... you’re obsessed with being skinny, but not addressing what's going on within." [38:57]
• Practical advice:
  • "A smaller body is not the solution to a happier life...you have a choice to either continue to be in something that is not serving you or take the first step." [41:18, 72:45]

12. Divorce, Boundaries, and Moving Forward

[45:16–62:20]

• Jessica discusses the difficulties of going through a public divorce and the importance of protecting her ex-husband’s privacy:
  • "I want to be careful about the way I portray the people in my life." [45:31]
• Lessons learned include the necessity of honest communication and realizing the importance of not losing oneself in partnership.
• On new love: Jessica describes her current partner as someone she feels seen by, emphasizing the need for emotional availability and soul-level connection:
  • "I want someone that is emotionally available who can handle the bigness of me." [59:26]
• They both talk about shifting love languages, the reality of changing needs over time, and the myth of having to be “fully healed” before loving or being loved.

13. Advice for Starting Over

[71:09–73:26]

• Jessica shares wisdom to those scared to start over, at any stage:
  • "If you're going to be here for another day...don't you deserve to live the life you really want?" [71:14]
  • "You’re not going to have it all figured out...Let life unfold the way it’s meant to." [73:08]

14. Defining Wellness & Next Chapters

[76:36–77:50]

• Jessica’s one-word definition of wellness: "Self-compassion."
  • "We think about being healthier for so many people, it’s coming from a place of hatred towards ourselves and feeling like, not enough... But I think if we could approach wellness with self-compassion, we would realize that so much of being healthy really does start within yourself and the relationship that you have with yourself." [76:36]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Just changing your body is not really going to change your life." —Jessica [14:43]
• "Your body doesn’t create the emotions that you feel. The way you think about your body creates the emotions that you feel." —Jessica [15:06]
• "I shouldn't have to have children because society says, like, that's my duty as a woman...No, it's not." —Jessica [21:24]
• "You cannot expect people to have the same heart as you. People don't have the same heart as you." —Jessica [28:02]
• "If you're going to be here for another day... don't you deserve to live the life that you really want to live?" —Jessica [71:14]
• "I want someone that is emotionally available who can handle the bigness of me." —Jessica [59:26]
• "Wellness is self-compassion." —Jessica [76:36]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:09] - Vee introduces Jessica & their friendship origin
• [08:00] - Jessica’s childhood & emotional eating backstory
• [11:38] - Dangers of celebrity-endorsed weight loss narratives
• [15:06] - “Your body doesn’t create the emotions…”
• [21:24] - Pushing back on motherhood expectations
• [25:59] - Emotional labor & resentment in relationships
• [28:56] - Self-trust as the cornerstone for food & life choices
• [32:47] - Perfectionism and learning balance
• [34:19] - Calling out fake "inclusivity" in brands
• [38:57] - Binge cycle at her own wedding
• [45:16] - Navigating divorce & setting public/private boundaries
• [59:26] - What Jessica now looks for in a partner
• [71:14] - Advice for anyone afraid of starting over
• [76:36] - One-word definition of wellness: self-compassion
• [79:32] - Dreaming about moving back to Puerto Rico
• [80:09] - Upcoming women’s retreat in Greece

Conclusion

Vee and Jessica keep it real—never shying away from tough truths, but always infusing the conversation with humor, warmth and deep mutual respect. Their open-hearted discussion invites listeners to heal loudly, challenge diet culture, honor boundaries, and rewrite their own rules for happiness, whether through new love, parenthood (or not!), building community, or finding wellbeing via self-compassion.

Find Jessica:

• Podcast: "Queen of Pep Talks"
• Instagram: @join_jessica_exo

Next up: Jessica heads to Greece for her sixth annual wellness retreat—living proof that honoring your healing and your “bigness” is always worth it.