About once a month I do a video interview for the project Women Empower Active, an initiative of the company UR Sportswear. We talk to women doing amazing things, finding inspiration for our own healthy, active lifestyles. The latest interview was with Brandi (Bee) Asher, a former marathoner turned Strongwoman competitor. Lifting heavy weight has changed the way she viewed herself and her relationship with her body.

She was a runner for most of her life (and, for the record still runs, just not as regularly) but her obsessive personality focused on too many negatives, particularly her weight. She would gasp if the scale reached 110 pounds. When running became work instead of joy she cut back and found weight training, first through body building then transitioning to power lifting and Strongman completely changing her relationship with her body and her athletic goals. What would she tell her younger, marathon-running self?

It’s OK to take up space. It’s OK to not worry about your weight. … I wish I discovered this when I was a teenager because the way that I view myself and my body image would have been so different. It would have been a much healthier connection with my body. Instead of using this to escape everything or having to be this ideal shape or weight or look this particular it’s “Look what I can do. Look at what your body can do and what it’s capable of.” I would tell marathoning me to stop worrying and just enjoy it. You don’t have to do a particular thing or be a particular thing. Do it because you enjoy it.

Check out her blog which is freaking awesome and hit her up on Twitter (@beesquiggle) and Instagram (beesquiggle). And here is the interview. (Ignore the fact that I forget how to speak English in the first five minutes and the fact I’m still learning how to do the whole on-camera thing. What Brandi has to day is worth it!)