Who's Dat Phat Girl with Brooke Hoover

Here's a healthier take on Thanksgiving, y'all. First off, stop beating ourselves up if we DO overindulge on the food-iest holiday of the year. Second off, I'm sharing some ways I've made some of my Thanksgiving faves healthier over the years such as Crab C'est Si Bon (crab meat and artichoke based) instead of bread stuffing, sweet potatoes candied with only juice and hunks of pineapples and using...

While being diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome was the biggest push for me to pursue a more holistic approach to my health, the seed was planted long before thanks to my Maw Maw Leona. Maw Maw was well ahead of her time with a natural remedy for anything and everything - oftentimes involving garlic, yogurt or lemon. This episode is in honor of my Maw Maw and all of the grandparents or elder...

How am I managing my ANXIETY ?!??!?! With gratitude y'all. Gratitude is higher on the emotional guidance scale - so high that it's Number 1 along with Joy whereas frustration and irritation are a Level 10 (which in layman's terms, ain't so great). Something I tell myself is that Anxiety is worrying about WHAT IF whereas appreciation is focusing on WHAT IS. I hope y'all find what I'm teaching mysel...

Want to know where my PHAT all came from? Maybe, just maybe it's with a last minute extra fabulous fallen angel Halloween costume where Brooke gets her groove back in senior year of high school. The third (and final) part of the childhood Halloween Saga but the first part of learning to go from FAT to PHAT.

In an honest attempt to get me out of my Halloween costume (and body confidence) funk, my dad brings me to the Shrine Circus...where I have to dress up like a clown. Instead of being a barrel of laughs, I tell myself that now not only does my body need to be covered up, my face has to be masked as well. Will I EVER get out of this self deprecation rut? Tune in next week (airing Halloween 2022)

My favorite homemade Halloween costume of all time - the Sexy Harem Girl AKA Genie - was actually the first time I experienced body shaming at the age of 7 and it was from then on out I gave up my self confidence. THAT, y'all is scarier than Michael Meyers, Jason Voorhees or Chucky combined. In this three part Halloween Saga of costumes inspired by my solo show "PHAT GIRL COSTUMES" I tell tales ab...

When life gets you down, how do you get back up again? For me, it's remembering my Cajun ancestry, the things my Momma has taught me and making some quiche, beans and scrapping wrought iron along the way. 

In honor of the U.S. Open going on in New York, I'm talking about one of my favorite past times - TENNIS. And, come to think of it, it's perhaps the ONE physical activity endeavor where I didn't let competition with others or especially within myself get in the way. I didn't think garbage thoughts like "my body is too fat to do this, people are judging me, I won't be good at it so I shouldn't even...

I didn't fit in to the perfect yoga girl's body, athleisure or mindset. And, I almost gave up. When our beloved rescue Pomeranian Precious passed away, yoga was the thing that got me through. And, it's still something I do every day, now with my rescue dogs Annie and Archer smiling at me. I'm still not the perfect yogi. I curse, I sometimes practice without a sports bra, I don't like green tea BUT...

Over DO-ing, overwhelm, burnout. We've all been there and yet many of us (like yours truly) still don't learn the lesson and the importance of just NOT DOING it sometimes. I am really trying hard to riff on the Nike slogan of JUST DO IT. But, I'm pulling straws here. Much like I'll keep pulling straws in life oftentimes to accomplish a goal - be it creative or weight loss journey related. And, ove...

Fat shaming in the office place shouldn't be allowed, right? But in show business, it's the only place where it's acceptable to interview (or not interview) or hire (or not hire) someone mainly based on their appearance. Oh, it happens in the corporate world ALL the time, I'm sure. It just happens more hush-hush. And, honestly, I much prefer the blatant rejection in show business because it's like...

One of my best tips for weight loss is eat a LIGHT supper - and summer time is the perfect time to rock that out. When you don't want to cook, but you need to eat something healthier than those low-cal ice cream pints, here's FOUR PLANT BASED QUICKIES for y'all. And for some of the recipes, you don't even need to crank the heat. 

Much like there are different versions of "The Little Mermaid" story out there - for example, the Disney version and the Hans Christian Andersen versions have MUCH different endings for their little mermaids, my ten year old self told a different story than was real or than was actually necessary about my mermaid Halloween costume. The foundation was a long sleeved flesh tone leotard and all I wan...

Diet culture tells us we'll be happy when we lose the weight. But, all my hippie dippie teachings taught me that I must be happy first in order to lose the weight. But, I couldn't be happy until I lost the weight - or could I? Marianne Williamson's "A Course in Weight Loss" gave me a little spark to start approaching weight loss in a different way but mostly, it pissed me off because it dug up all...

There are few things in life that I will obsess over. But, cornbread is one of them. Imagine getting a cornbread craving (when you're pretty much carb and corn free) while driving through New Jersey with a broken oven and a Whole Foods, Acme or a gas station are your last hopes. First. World. Problems. Nonetheless, there's a whole episode about my Cornbread Craving* because it parallels a deeper c...

As a chubby kid, I did everything I could to shield my swimsuit body from shame : T-shirts, Shorts, Tankinis and Swim Dresses. It took decades to give myself freedom from oppressive over garments so I could swim more like a mermaid and less like someone who's going to be swimming with the fishes. And, now that I've lost 100 pounds? I'm finally wearing a bikini again...but I am still finding body r...

After suffering a life threatening brain aneurysm back in the late 90's, my dad (AKA Hoover Bob) developed Diabetes Type II. He's had some ups and downs with this condition and we've wanted to kill each other along the way, but somehow, we continue onward. Even at times having a piece of no sugar added apple pie. BE A PART OF THE QI-GONG CLASS BOB LOVES ! Learn more here

Phenylalanine, High Fructose Corn Syrup and Horse Hooves, OH MY ! Oh, the '80's and the stuff we (or at least me) put into our bodies back then. While they may have claimed to be "low in calories! low in fat!" they were oh so high in chemicals and such. There's good reason why, after downing a tub of Cool-Whip or taking one too many sips of my momma's Tab, I felt insane in the brain. Y'all feel me...

From Get in Shape Girl to 8 Minute Abs to Sweatin' to the Oldies and every single exercise in between, I tried it all. And nothing seem to "work", or did it? Because, I finally got to the point where exercise, instead of being a punishment, is now a privelege. It's something I GET to do instead of being something I HAVE to do and more than that, it's something I WANT to do. Not so I can be a certa...

From my lil cousin's kindergarten graduation to seeing all the caps and gowns on social media and the NYC city streets, I was inspired to tell tales about graduation. Which, really translates to "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS NEXT?" Graduation is like weight loss or achieving any goal, we get to that point and then what? Is this where the miracles happen? Is this when I'm supposed to have it all figured o...

From Chris Farley to Lolita Davidovich and many other actors in between, I've been compared to a lot of people. And, I didn't always dig it because my immediate knee jerk gut reaction was to take it as an insult instead of a compliment. Over the years, I've learned that the comparison wasn't an insult but perhaps a way to build familiarity and trust. I mean, after all, I did compare a classmate wi...

Boobs. They were not only the mark of unwanted womanhood growing up, they were the bane of my existence. Bras. They were nothing short of the devil's spawn. Now, I'm just preventing my boobs from hanging low and I'm using my bras to pad my podcasting studio (aka my closet).

Today I'm talking with SPECIAL GUEST and SPECIAL BOYFRIEND, Harry !!! We are talking about body confidence from Harry's perspective and telling tales about our favorite comfort food from Northern India to the Bayou by way of the Big Apple. 

Ah, High School. After years of trying to figure out a way to fit in, to even be "good enough" to be on a team or in a club so I could find "my group", I learned senior year that I could carve my own path by being my school's first* female mascot - The Episcopal Knight.  *There may be some room for debate but I'm 99.99% sure of it. Geaux Knights!

In today's episode I talk about the healthier foods I sub for less  than healthy foods. And, I learned that like actual substitute  teachers, substitute foods can become "the real thing" instead of merely  being almost as good as the real thing. Because, they're better for  you: body, mind and spirit.