Brianna "Chickenfry" LaPaglia on Eating Disorder Recovery & Choosing Herself After Heartbreak
44m 20s
Brianna La Paglia opens up about her journey through a toxic relationship, detailing the emotional trauma, anxiety-induced eating disorder, and deep body image struggles she faced. She emphasizes that true closure isn’t found in apologies or explanations, but in self-acceptance and the courage to move forward. A pivotal moment in her healing was a solo trip to Scotland, which allowed her to reconnect with her authentic self, build confidence, and form genuine connections with strangers. She champions self-care, body neutrality, and the idea that being selfish—prioritizing one’s well-being—is the most unselfish act. Brianna shares her evolving identity and personal growth, highlighting how self-awareness leads to healthier relationships and a more grounded life. As a prominent voice in women’s empowerment, she uses her platform to create safe spaces for others to heal, challenge societal beauty standards, and embrace their true selves. Her message of intentional living, self-compassion, and emotional resilience resonates deeply with listeners navigating heartbreak, self-doubt, or personal transformation. This conversation not only offers personal insight but also inspires listeners to prioritize self-love, take risks, and embrace authenticity in all areas of life.
(soft piano music) - Lemonade. - The following podcast is a deer media production. - Welcome to RealPod. It's your host, Victoria Garrick Brown, and this is the podcast where we hold nothing back. - Oh, so we're getting deep, huh? - I really cried for 12 days straight. - Why do I want to be perfect? There's nothing in my life that is perfect. - Every week, I'll bring you honest, unfiltered, and eye-opening conversations to help uncover the real in all of us. - I crave the type of content that you're talking about. - I actually felt insecure. - Oh my God, I'm not gonna cry. - Let me just unload everything. (laughing) - New episodes every Wednesday, leave those filters at the door 'cause it's time to get real. - Hello everybody, and welcome back to RealPod. Joining us on the pod today is Brianna, Chicken Fry, is what she's most known by. But her real last name is La Paglia. Brianna La Paglia is joining us. She is one of the most prominent female voices at Barstool, which is iconic. She just relaunched her flagship podcast, "Planbury Uncut," which marks a new chapter for her show. Earlier this year, she appeared on one of my favorite shows, Fox Special Forces, and earlier in 2025, she was featured in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. Iconic loved that for her. You may have seen her name in the headlines after she endured a very public breakup, separating from a situation in person that created a very abusive environment for her. On today's episode, Brianna's gonna share the revelations that she's had around closure. How can we really feel closure in our own lives and move on from something that felt so monumental? How can we put the pieces back together after heartbreak? She's also gonna talk about solo travel and her strong relationship with herself. This was so fascinating to me. And so if you're interested in getting to know yourself on a deeper level and spending time just alone, I think what she has to say on this is super inspiring. And it's definitely inspired me to explore some solo vacations in the future. Brianna's also gonna open up about the anxiety and just eating disorder that she experienced and particularly being in a situation where she had to be putting on weight. I know we talk a lot about disorder reading on this podcast. And I think this is the first time we've ever had someone open up about the need, desire and pressure to gain weight to get their body into a healthier state of being. So without further ado, please join me in welcoming Brianna to the podcast. (upbeat music) Brianna, welcome to RealPod. I'm excited to meet you. Hi, thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to chat. You look so cute today. The outfits nowadays that I'm most impressed with are the ones like no one can recreate because everything was like thrifted or carefully curated. I used to want what everyone has and now I'm like, I don't want that. Oh my gosh, right? It's my favorite to like find the best thrifted piece that no one else has from so long ago and it's like one of one. So how are you doing today? How's your spirit? I'm good. Today's been a good day so far. I'm just like so happy. I don't know. It's a good day. It's a good week. Good, I'm glad. I feel the same. Like with a really positive attitude and I'm like, let's not lose this. I know. I feel like this is the first new year. Not that I've really made resolutions, but I've set intentions instead of making resolutions. I think it's more a more realistic way so that you don't like complete what you want to. And then you're like, ah, I'm the worst. I didn't do it. But I set my intentions to just like be healthier, to be more mindful, to like really focus on work. And this is the first year. I feel like I'm actually doing it. I love, yeah. I love that so much. What are your intentions? Can you share? Yeah, I think like my main focus is this year is to really kind of put myself first, which I've done in the past year. And it helped me so much. It's like the first time my life I've done it. I think to just be more mindful in focusing on myself. I think we spend so much time putting efforts into friendships, any type of relationship, you have to put so much effort into it. But if you're not putting that same effort into yourself, all of those relationships kind of crumble. So I'm trying to really focus on the relationship with myself and then just honestly be healthier. Like I'm a fucking mess. Like not a mess in a way of like I'm all over the place. Just I eat so unhealthy. I like don't work out. I'm vaping up the wazoo. So I'm trying to just be a little healthier this year. Yeah. And I think I saw your tick talk about this too, where you wanted to take some steps towards just setting yourself up to like feel better every day. And I think that's so important. I think a lot of people will go on like a crashed diet and they'll follow something. But more so it's like what's working for my body? What's not working for my body? What are the choices I know are going to like make me feel better? And can I just try to make more of those choices than the other? Exactly. I was recently diagnosed with PCOS. So I intentionally like have to change my diet in order to like balance my hormones, which was a struggle at first. Because when you're so used to eating poorly, you just like crave it. But now I'm in like a stable zone where I feel good and my body feels good and I'm like holy shit. Wow, mind blowing, eating healthy actually changes your life. Yeah, the nutritious foods make a huge difference. I was going to ask about this later, but we're talking about food. So I had a needing disorder and I post a lot of the internet about like recovering from that and positive body image. And I've loved seeing like here and there, you kind of open up a little bit more about like your experiences with food and body image. And so I was just curious, was there a point in your life where you hit a low stride with that? And what has it been like working yourself out of that? Yeah, I would say for sure. So I had an anxiety induced eating disorder where I was always nauseous. Anytime I ate something, I would throw up. So I would just avoid food at all costs because I knew that it would make me sick or I was just like so nauseous all the time for my anxiety that I couldn't eat. Very unfamiliar with this. That's never really been on like the front of my mind. I just would always eat and I didn't really look at my body in that way. So then I was having a really, really hard time. I think I hit my rock bottom August and September of 2023. And I was at my lowest weight. I mean, people were horrified. Every time I went home, my family was like, oh my gosh, I was like anemic from it. I had bruises all over me. And it was really, really hard when you're in it for so long, your body just gets used to it. And when I kind of came out of all of that anxiety or I kind of finally was able to look at myself and the mirror and saw that the way I looked was just like so unhealthy, I had no energy. I wanted to sleep all day. I still couldn't get myself to eat. So I was really working hard on like a healthy relationship with food and not correlating eating time to being sick or being anxious. And it really did without me even knowing created an eating disorder that I didn't know how to navigate what to do with it. And I slowly but surely I gained like 25 pounds back. I was back at a healthy weight, but it didn't happen overnight. Once I realized I was like, holy shit, this is what's happening to you. It took me like four or five months to get back to a healthy weight or get back in a healthy mindset and sharing it on the internet. I didn't really know anything about anxiety-induced eating disorders. I didn't know so many people struggled with it. And especially when you're in a bad situation, you're in abusive relationship, which so many people resonated with me is when they had their anxiety-induced eating disorders. And I helped so many people, they helped me. And I built this community around it where it was just so empowering and uplifting or even just gave me a place to feel safe. Like, okay, I'm not the only one this is happening to. This happens just so many people. And it gave me a community where I didn't have to feel embarrassed about it. And what's not talked about as much is the difficulty for people to gain weight, right? Like we hear so much about so hard to lose weight. It's so hard to lose weight. I just want to lose weight. And then there are people in this community who are trying to gain weight because the way that they're at is not the best for them. So how were you like in a conscious and mindful and also good for you way like putting on weight? Were you having like more higher caloric smoothies where you just trying to make sure you got a certain amount of meals per day? - Yeah, so when I was like struggling with eating, I think I would only rarely, sometimes it wouldn't eat all day, but I would only do like one meal a day. So I tried to, whenever I felt hungry like that little, like, oh, I could eat something right now, eat immediately because I used to suppress that. And like the little tiniest sensation of, oh, I could eat that. I'm kind of a little bit hungry. Straight to the fridge, straight to order food, straight to the kitchen. Like would immediately eat whenever I was hungry. I wouldn't care about what was going into my body. I literally just cared about getting something into my body. And I'm a naturally thin person. I've been like skinny my whole life. So it's always been hard for me to gain weight. And it was a fucking process. I remember I'm eating pounds of pasta. I'm eating so much, I'm drinking smoothies. I'm doing the protein shakes. I'm like, when the fuck am I gonna fill out like a pair of skinny jeans? Like everything was baggy on me. And slowly but surely, obviously with like anything that you do over time, it got better. - Good, I'm so glad. And such an important message nowadays, like as everyone's trying to just become the smallest possible. Like I love that you were like, I need to put some more meat on the bone here. - Yes, it's so crazy right that like body trends are even a thing to have your weight be a trend now. Everyone's like being super skinny as chic and in right now. I'm like, what the fuck? That's insane because I know a lot of these people that are super chic and skinny. And they all are doing it in the most unhealthy way. You look at these people of course, it looks great, but you don't wanna feel how they feel. You don't want to be in the mindset
everything revolves around how many calories can I have? It's just it's such a triggering conversation. You're also just so damaging in the long run. My health declined so much when I wasn't eating. Yeah. And it really is crazy how influential everything around us is. I'll see a video come across my feed that I love. And it's like a size 10 and a size 12 like honor going out for the night. And like these girls look like so hot and they're so cute. And it like influences you in like the positive way. But there's like one percent of videos online are that messaging and like 99 percent of them are about like being a size 0 or being a size 2. And so yeah, I just hope people continue to like try to stay strong and not fall into this pressure. Yeah. The sad but scary truth about it is it genuinely just comes with age. The younger you are the more influential you are. And I mean, I know I struggled with it when I first started in the industry because I saw myself on camera every day. I was so worried about what I looked like or what the comments said or comparing myself to other people. The older you get, you truly realize like the way that you look is the least interesting thing about you. And it just sucks that it takes time to get there. But I hope that like with us having this conversation and younger people listening, they can get there a little quicker than maybe I had to. Yeah. I had to like call myself on this last night. I went on some rabbit hole of like different contouring techniques and I was like Victoria literally touch grass. Like there's literally more important things that like how pretty you can look. I'm not saying like don't have a fun day where you like try to get better at makeup. But I think a lot of times girls and women think that the number one thing we could accomplish in our lives is being the prettiest girl in the room. And it's like that's so far from the truth. And there's some quote it's powerful. And it's like society wants women to spend more time looking in the mirror. So they spend less time looking at the world. I'm misquoting it. But it's just about like how powerful women are and men are not as distracted like looking into the mirror. Yeah. Don't get me wrong. I mean, look at me right now. I love clothes. I love hair. I love makeup. I love fashion. I love getting ready. I love all the girly things. But it's not like the forefront of what I care about or when I go out, I'm like, I don't want to be the prettiest girl in the room. I want to be the nicest or the funniest or the coolest, like the most interesting us caring about that so much. It's like drilled into our brain. It's just internalized misogyny to look in the mirror and be like, how do I look? Everything is like based off the patriarchy and the norms that were pushed on to us. It's such a young age. Definitely. And something you said earlier, Brianna was this word closure. And I was just curious, like where are you out with closure and what's your relationship like with closure? I kind of talked about this on TikTok a little bit. Regardless of what we experience as people, whether you go through a traumatic breakup, you go through a friendship breakup, you have something going on in your life, you have death, you're grieving, I think you're always looking for an apology, you're looking for a why, you're wondering, is there something I could have done differently so that these bad things didn't happen to me and you find yourself like ruminating constantly on the what ifs. And if I got this apology, will I have closure? Will I be able to move forward? If I got a why, is it going to be better? And I think you stay stuck on those things for so long that no closure is the closure. Like there isn't always a why. If someone that hurt you came back into your life and told you exactly why and they apologize to you, is it going to take away any of the pain you endured? Is it going to take away anything that you experience post whatever happened? Is it going to take away the nights you spent crying? No, it's not going to reverse anything. So within like wanting that apology or that reason or that why, you're not going to really get any closure from it. And once I accept that in all aspects of my life, I felt like I like broke out of these change where I just don't care about the past anymore. And all I'm focused on is what I can do in this moment or in the future. And like no closure is seriously my form of closure. I all ask back. It's such a powerful message. You don't need someone else's permission to take a step forward in your own life. I mean, of course, it's just human nature to like want the reason or want the apology or I guess I can just speak for myself. I have this toxic trait where I think everyone has the same heart as me and I'm like, well, how could they do this and how couldn't they acknowledge that? Once you realize not everyone has the same heart as you, we're all different and people just move differently, you can only really protect yourself by moving forward in any way that you can. So I don't know if that makes sense with that's where I'm at. It definitely does. This episode is brought to you by Premiere Protein and I love Premiere Protein so much. I feel like I don't go a day anymore without having a protein drink because it is just so hard to ensure that we're getting enough protein and the amount that we need every single day. And sometimes I'm super busy. I just like can't think about that in every single meal and I don't like to hyper fixate on it, right? So that's where Premiere Protein is the solution. It's easy and delicious and a protein packed way to power your day. There's so many incredible flavors. 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So that's viori, v-u-o-r-i.com/realpod, exclusion supply, visit the website for full terms and conditions, but 20% off your first purchase. I mean, it's so exciting. I would highly recommend you look into anything with the DreamKnit fabric. I feel like that's Viori's bread and butter. Those are those really soft joggers I was talking about. So look for the DreamKnit fabric. And then I also just got the cutest butter yellow zip up. And I'm so excited for it to arrive and I just know anything I get from Viori is going to just feel so soft and so yummy in my hands. So head to viori.com/realpod for 20% off your first purchase. That's viori, v-u-o-r-i.com/realpod for 20% off your first purchase. That's viori, v-u-o-r-i.com/realpod for 20% off your first purchase, exclusion supply, visit the website for full terms and conditions. It's just so relatable for people to be disappointed in life to get their hearts broken and then to feel like they don't know how to put the pieces back together. And something I really admired from your journey is I would say the solo adventure you went on in 2025, not only literally to Ireland, which we have to talk about because that was one of the most iconic things ever. Someone who's so type A, I simply can't do something unless there's a plan. I was like, that is my spirit animal. And I'm actually doing a random road trip with my husband to try to just like emulate some of that in my love, but I loved that you did that. And also I think you know when you were coming out of your past relationship, you really took the full year to know yourself on a deeper level. What was 2025 like for you just healing, getting to know yourself better? Do you have any like major lessons learned that you want to share with people who are maybe still hung up on something from the past? I think I try to be as open and honest about everything. I have been what I've been doing this since I was 19. I've always been an open book online. I think like I have a lot of new eyes on me the past two years and people don't really know that this is my stick. Like I've always shared every detail of everything I've ever done. That's just been me forever. And I think I've been open about the past year where I'm doing obviously a hell of a lot better, but it wasn't linear. And I think it's easy kind of what we talked about to compare yourself and looks to people, but it's also easy to compare yourself and kind of career relationships like money wise to people online and just kind of fill yourself like, oh my god, well she went through this and she seems to be doing this and she's great. Everything online isn't true.
when I try to make sure I tell people that, where I think in the beginning of my healing journey, the most important thing for me, because I was coming out of a relationship, was to like vow to myself, no relationships, no situations, no anything, for a whole entire year. Like I am closing that book, and I am just gonna sit with myself and my feelings. I'm not going, and I did that for myself, but I also did it, because I don't want to be emotionally unavailable to someone, they come into my life, and I hurt them in any way, shape, or form. Like I knew I wasn't ready to be in a relationship, so why hurt others in the like, you know, I don't know, the year where I was trying to figure myself out. And I think that was my number one thing, and coming out of something traumatic relationship-wise, and I try to really get this across to like my followers, is you have to give yourself time. It's very apparent when someone jumps into a relationship immediately, like who the problem was and who wasn't. Take time to heal for yourself, and don't throw your baggage on other people. This is kind of gonna sound stupid, but I think being selfish is the most unselfish thing you can do, because once you truly have a good relationship with yourself, you know exactly what you want, what you need. It leaks into every aspect of your life. Once you're sure who you are and what you want, and you took that time for yourself, your romantic relationships are gonna get better, your friendships are gonna get better, your career is gonna get better. Being selfish is like the most unselfish thing you can do. - And it's something that we're just told. I mean, I know you say you're a people-pleaser, I feel like a people-pleaser as well, especially women, like to put yourself first, to say no, to have an encounter where someone might be slightly uncomfortable, like I'll check myself when I laugh at a joke I don't think it's funny that a man made because I don't want him to feel uncomfortable, but I feel uncomfortable by his weird-ass bad joke. I think knowing yourself, what works for you, having clarity on who you are and what you want is really powerful, and then you can win. - Truly, just be more intentional with everything that you do. It sounds so cliche and such like an easy thing, but I really don't think I started being intentional until this year. I just kind of would think about the next day, I never thought ahead about anything, which I think, I don't know, and that might be a fine way to live, but I think to just be intentional with who you want to show up as in a room, who you want to come across as online, what kind of friends you want to be, what kind of partner you want to be, like if you have those intentions, then those are the standards that you'll live by, which is really important. - Lastly, on the topic, a lot of people who are getting out of a breakup might have the luxury of out of, say, out of mind, because they could just move or never see the person again. A lot of what you do in your field, like is gonna be public, or you might open your phone, and you might see a video, you might see that. So how are you kind of putting your blinders on and protecting your peace and this healing that you've been on to kind of stay the course? - I mean, of course my situation is very intricate. I don't think many people probably experience exactly what I've went through, so it's not that relatable in the sense of its public, and I share everything, but I know what I signed up for, which is kind of the good and the bad that comes with this job because it's amazing, and I'm so grateful, and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else, but there are days where I wish I was just a normal person, and like people on the street don't fucking know everything that I went through, or where I'm at in my relationship, or like, no, my ex, you know, like, of course I wish that, but I know what I've signed up for, and I think to protect my peace, I don't look at anything, like if you were to look at my for you page, I guess it would be all heated rivalry, stranger things, like, real housewives, like my phone is happiness. It's all just amazing things that, when I use my phone, it's fun. I don't ever look at comments, I don't ever look at videos about me, I don't read things like that, because that's none of my business. Like, it's not my job for people to have the right, like, perception of me, if you know me, you know who I am, if you don't like, fuck off, you're never gonna know me, you don't get the privilege. So it's like, I don't really give a shit about that, and I never have, which is why I've had so much longevity in this career. I think that's just how I've always been. - Yeah, I forget the iconic Timothy Shala make quote, but it was something like, if my number's on in your phone, I don't care. - Yeah, like, if you don't have my number saved, like you don't even have the right to have a fucking opinion on me, you've never been in a room with me. - The heated rivalry though, oh my gosh, it's also my whole for you page. - That's so good. - I'm so, I'm so in deep. I haven't felt this way about a fictional love story since Bella and Edward. - I know, it's so good. I'm like, am I a gay man? I fucking love it. - No, I know. Well, I know you have been talking a little bit about wanting to date women, which is exciting. You're like, I'm so over men, let's go. - Yeah, it's not even like, I mean, it is. I'm so fucking over men. I've been saying I'm bisexual forever. Like, I've just been bisexual forever, but I'm getting to the point where I'm like, am I just literally a lesbian? - There was someone talking about this on TikTok recently, and it was like, how women talk about men? You can tell if they're like secretly or closeted, they don't even know, just like a straight up lesbian. The way that I talk about women, like I think every woman's gorgeous, I like uplift all women. I think they're amazing, but then I'm like, oh, there was like this one-hawk guy that I've seen in 10 years. - Maybe that, like I just don't even like men, like everything they do just rubs me the wrong fucking way. So yeah, I don't know. I might just straight up be a lesbian. I'm gonna give one more shot to men. I'm like seeing a guy this weekend, and if I like him, maybe we'll try it, if not, I think I'm done. - This dude, I have no idea what he's doing right now. Little does he know your entire future is banking on how he shows up at this date. - I know literally, I'm like, oh my gosh. I honestly hope it doesn't go well. I'm like, I'm over it. - That is so funny. Yeah, you're rooting against him. - Yeah. - No, he's great. - Who knows, let's see. - Okay, well, I love that. Okay, I do wanna talk about this. Spontaneous trip to Ireland, you took. So you, just on a whim, we're like, I wanna go to Ireland. I'm gonna go by myself, which I love. I think we all need to be spending more time with ourselves. I will try to frequently catch myself. But I'm in the car, and I go to call this friend, this friend, that friend, that friend. I'm like, Tori, I just listen to a song. Think, turn the music off. It's really hard sometimes to be alone. So how did this come about? And then what made you actually pull the trigger to book a flight with no hotel on the other side? - Yeah, okay. - So I don't know if you're talking about the Scotland or Ireland trip, but I did do too. - Were there two? - Okay, iconic. - The Ireland one, I booked that morning, and my friend did end up coming on that one with me, but the Scotland one was completely solo. So I'll talk about that one. - Okay. - I was at my sister's wedding, and it was amazing. It was with all my family, and I'm like, I'm already over here. I've always just dreamed of Scotland. I think it's the most beautiful place. I also, I don't know if this is like weird, but I do love being alone. Like a solo trip to me is the definition of like fucking amazing. Like that is so great to me as a people pleaser. Like you don't have to worry about anything. And the plans that you make are the plans that you want to make. You don't have to make plans. And then wonder, oh my gosh, did I make the wrong plan? Do the people hate this or are they having fun? So I'm like, this is amazing. But I had never really been on a full solo trip on the other side of the world, obviously by myself. I was intimidated going into it. It was the most liberating, amazing time. I was in Lisbon, and again, I didn't have a flight. I booked it that day. Did you have to like cancel work, or was it like you had some free time? Like did you have podcasts? You had to reschedule or like brand deals? - So I travel with all my equipment. So I had my Sony FX. I had all my podcasts equipment. I had everything. So I never stopped working. I should bring everything with me, which is the best about this job. You can do it wherever of that. So I recorded a podcast in Scotland. I vlogged everything, which is like I love my job because I didn't feel alone. I was talking to my phone the whole time, which sounds so fucking weird. But I love to make videos. I just always have. And I love like inspiring people to do things. So many women took solo trips this year because of that solo trip to Scotland, which like makes me the happiest person in the world. I just booked my flight. I talked to strangers. I went out with a bunch of girls. I met that day. I was at the clubs. I was at their apartment. I spent like five days alone in the hills, like in the mountains in Scotland. Just walks by myself, talks to myself, wrote by myself. It was amazing. I think people that are uncomfortable being alone would really benefit off just stepping out of your comfort zone and doing it because you learn so much about yourself and what you want and kind of what you lack in. Because you're alone with yourself. Like sometimes you're like, damn, do I hate myself? Should I change this about myself? I just learned so much about myself, truly from a solo trip. What do you think are the biggest things you learned? I think the number one thing for me coming out of that solo trip was it kind of ties back into my previous like relationship experience and being in a relationship with a narcissist. You are kind of made to hate everything. All the parts of yourself that you loved about yourself, they're made small and they're made to be like your character flaws. So for example, before I got into my last relationship, I was always like, very outgoing. I would talk to everyone in a room. I wouldn't hold back in any way, shape, or form. I'd laugh, I'd joke. I was just completely me. And obviously I lost all of that. And coming out of that part of my healing journey was trying to like myself again, genuinely, like get back to a place where I enjoyed myself and being in Scotland, making those videos.
going out with strangers, like stepping out of my comfort zone and realizing, "Oh, wait, you are great on your own. You do have a great personality. It's not too much. You are interesting. You're not too loud. You're not too, like, un-serious." That was the, like, the number one thing I got out of solo travel was just, like, learning to enjoy my personality again, because you're stuck with yourself. You have to have fun with yourself, or you're not going to enjoy your time. And yeah, you're free of any judgment from anyone, or opinions. So it's like, who would I really be, you know, without the fear of this, is how I need to act or show up, or this is what is expected of me? Yeah, it's just whatever you want goes, which was really cool. If you are in need of new towels, new PJs, new sheets, new bedding, new pillowcase covers, all the things that are so important, and a huge part of our every single day, that I feel like we often forget to upgrade. 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How did you make those first steps to kind of become friends with those strangers? Because I think there are people who are like, okay, the solo trip, that's hard. But then she was talking to random girls, and then they became friends. Like, how do you even strike that up? Yeah. Well, I talk to strangers wherever I go. I think it's a crucial part of being a person, the most important things you can do, and the most helpful things you can do as a person, to just help you in any career, is to be able to public speak, is to be able to talk to strangers, to spark up conversations, work on icebreakers, work on, you know, being uncomfortable and feeling awkward. The second that you step out of that, and like, you're not scared of being cringe or being awkward, your life fucking changes. So whenever I go anywhere, like, I'll just talk to whoever's next to me, or I'll like, talk to the bartender, talk to the waitress. But the girls that I ended up going out with, this is where my unique situation comes in, they were followers. But still, I hadn't known them, and they DMed me, and they were like, we're going out tonight. We're Scottish girls, one girl was Italian, but she lived in Scotland, like, she want to come with us. I remember freaking the fuck out, because going out with girls, right? Like a new friend group of girls, is the scariest thing in the world. Like a first date easy, you're like a guy just likes a woman, it doesn't matter. You can see whatever. Girls is like, you want to impress them. So I was so nervous, and I just remember almost canceling and calling my friends and me like, should I do this? Am I going to get murdered? And then I was like, just fuck it, do it. This is a once in a lifetime experience. It was the best experience. I learned so much about myself, about these girls. I think you just have to do it. If you don't do it for the first time, then you're never going to do it for the second, third, fourth, fifth. I love them. And what is your favorite icebreaker with a stranger? Oh my gosh. I mean, it's kind of crazy, but you learn a lot about a person when you ask them what their biggest fear is. And you can go into a lot of different conversations off of that, for sure. Interesting. That's your biggest fear. There's probably spiders. That's like a simple one. I mean, the death of everyone I love. Yeah, like spiders are terrifying. And then it's like, what's, and then so when someone gives you like the spider answer, then you're like, what's like a real life fear of yours? So what's a better answer? No, no, no, but then you're like, okay, so then what's something like in your life that you're scared you'll never accomplish that you want to accomplish? Yeah, no, that's a good one. I feel like the irony of my answer to that question would be never giving myself an extended amount of time to actually accomplish nothing. I feel like I have been so set to accomplish and achieve that actually I'm unable to like spend a month with nothing happening in my life that progressed my work forward, which is a problem, which is why I want to do the road trip. I love that I promise you the road trip will change your life to just have no plan. That's when the magic happens. What about you? What's something you fear you might not accomplish in your lifetime? I guess it's kind of along the same lines as you, but I think like getting to the end of my life and feeling like I accomplished nothing, which is because I struggle with the same thing of like if I don't have something like every three days that I feel like I'm progressing or doing. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm a failure. So I think maybe I need to work on the same thing as you, but I just don't want to get to the end and be like, am I happy? I want to know I'm happy, you know, yeah, I want to be satisfied. What are some of your big philosophies when it comes to work in your career? You said I'm always working. I always travel with my equipment. Obviously you are very successful and you have such a strong audience across social media and you found your voice and you have a lot of confidence. So I'm just curious. Yeah, I mean, I think they're all probably so cliche, but things are cliche and oversight because they're true. I think just genuinely when you're told no or when you really do fail or you have major setbacks, it's so easy to just consider it done and think like this isn't for me or I shouldn't be doing this. Like countless failures, setbacks, like cancellations or whatever in this career. And if the first time I was like, oh, fuck, I can't do this. I can't handle this. This isn't for me. Then I would have only lasted a year. So whenever you're hit with something that feels like, oh my gosh, this isn't for me or this is a setback or a failure. A woman's gut intuition is just so true. If it's something you're passionate about and you want and you love it, there's really nothing that should stop you from doing it. So just like don't take no for an answer. I love that. And something I realized is I say no to myself a lot. Like I'll be like, oh, I should pitch this person and then I'll think, oh, no, they wouldn't because of this. And then I find a year later, I built up the confidence and I do it. And it's a yes. And I'm like, why the hell did I say no to myself? I'd rather hear a no from them than give it to myself. And so that's been like a new rule I've had is don't be the one to say no. Let someone else do it. That's really good. I needed to hear that because I do the same thing where I like put it in my head. No, I shouldn't because you guard yourself from failure or you guard yourself from like rejection. So you put up these walls to say no. So you're like, oh, it can't happen. So I won't get hurt. But then you're just like, you're just ruining everything for yourself. And then when it happens, you're like, of course it did. Like, why was I say no to myself? I remember it was, I think it was like two years ago. And I. I was like, oh, you know, I've always wanted to have Mike Posner on my podcast. I just think he's like really cool and like his whole story and his enlightenment. And I was like, I should DM him. And I was like, oh, he'll never respond. He won't want to come on. And then I was like, just DM him. I shit you not. It was 10 minutes later. I love to come on your show. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I know, right? I never know if you don't try. I know exactly exactly what are you. So I know you just launched plan. Brienne cut. Is that what you're focusing on right now? It's so exciting. Like, what do you see 2026 unfolding career wise? Yeah. I mean, plan. Bri has always been my baby. And I took a year off, which like fucking killed me inside to do. But it was just necessary for my mental health. So that's really my main focus is just being back in this chair and like I don't have BFFs anymore.
So, Plambri is just my baby, I'm really honing in on that, and then lots of like fun. Just like throughout my career, I've always known that I want to write and do that in 2026. I'm like finally allotting time to actually make it something that I do instead of something that I say I want to do and keep just pushing it off until the next year. So Plambri, number one priority, writing, and hopefully you see me back on your TV before the year ends with some reality TV. Oh, fun. How is your Fox Special Forces experience? That's my dream show. Oh, my gosh. It's not a dream. I mean, it was all the things, right? Like it was so fucking hard. It probably, I mean, obviously the hardest thing I'll ever do in my life. So rewarding, so scary, but at the same time, like I'm so thankful I did it. Like I'm so grateful I said that's something I would never say yes to. Like that is so not me. I don't know what made me say yes to it, but I did and I'm so glad that I did. Would you ever do traders? Yeah. You'd be. I want to do traders. I just started it. Oh, it's so good. Did you just start with this current season? Yeah. And so I had no idea what was going on. I literally started it last night. I'm hooked. That's a lot. Yeah. It's so good. And then I recommend you should watch the season right before this one, season three. You could probably get to know it before the next episode comes out. Okay. I like, I want to be a trader so bad. I feel like you'd be really good and that's like a compliment. Like, I feel like, yeah, you would do that. I know. I want to. All my friends are like, I could totally, everyone's like, you got to be a trader. But I wouldn't want to be honored if I wasn't a trader, but I guess you can't pick. I know. Yeah, you can't pick, but I feel either way it would be fun. I mean, I think it would be easy to be a faithful because you're just being truthful. Like, I don't, it's crazy to me how they get voted out. I'd be like, guys, dead ass, look at me, I'm literally not a trader. Like, I think they advocate for themselves harder. I know. But then it's like everyone's saying that I don't know with being a trader, like, I would feel like I'm actually playing a game because like if you're faithful, it's like, bitch, I'm just like in this house. But when you have the power, the trader power, I don't know, in more screen time, it would be fun to sniff them out though and like get them eliminated if you were successful. Oh my God. So exciting. Well, we will keep our eyes peeled for the reality TV. Hopefully eventually you'll be a trader. Yeah. Let's manifest it. Yeah, manifesting that. And it was just so great to chat with you. You're super cool down to earth, like straight forward. I love that. I think it's so important that you are one of the voices that so many girls are tuning in and listening to right now. So it was just awesome to meet you. Thank you so much. This was so fun. It was so nice to talk to you. Yeah, you too, Brianna. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of RealPod. If this hit home or helped you in some way, send it to a friend, a teammate, Rumi, share the love, share the realness, new episodes of RealPod come out every single Wednesday. So make sure you are subscribed to this podcast so you never miss an episode to leave a rating or review of the show, head to iTunes and let me know what you think. I love hearing from you. Not to mention you can stay connected with RealPod throughout the week, seeing behind the scenes info and sneak previews of upcoming guests by following the @RealPod account on Instagram. All information about today's show and guests will be linked in the description of this episode. Thanks again for listening. I love you guys so so much. Let's go dominate the day and as always, keep it real. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. People on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode. We are Erin and Sarah Foster. We have a podcast. We're here to basically ask you to listen to it. We're just trying to help you guys not make the same mistakes that we made in life. We made a lot. Especially me. I really want to say on some dark roads, trying to save you guys from that. Our podcast is called The World First Podcast. We are technically the sisters behind the nobody wants this podcast. It's inspired by us. As you wrote it. Yeah, that's true. But when I write, I am inspired by myself all the time. Right. That would make sense. You inspire you. We're going to wrap this up. Okay. Guys, go check it out.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Brianna La Paglia shares her journey of healing from a toxic, abusive relationship and the emotional and physical toll it took, including an anxiety-induced eating disorder and struggles with body image.
She emphasizes that true closure comes not from seeking apologies or explanations, but from self-acceptance and moving forward without needing external validation.
Brianna prioritizes self-care and self-awareness, setting intentional intentions to focus on her well-being, health, and personal growth rather than external achievements.
Her solo trip to Scotland was a transformative experience that helped her rediscover her confidence, personality, and ability to form authentic connections with strangers.
She highlights the importance of rejecting societal pressures around thinness and body ideals, advocating for self-compassion and the value of being in a healthy, balanced relationship with oneself.
Brianna promotes the idea that being selfish—prioritizing self-care—is actually the most unselfish act, as it creates a solid foundation for healthier relationships and personal fulfillment.
She openly discusses her evolving identity, including her shift from being bisexual to considering herself a lesbian, and reflects on how personal growth reshapes one’s self-perception.
Through her podcast "Planbury Uncut," she aims to create a safe, empowering space for women to share their struggles and healing journeys, fostering community and authenticity.
Summary:
Brianna La Paglia opens up about her journey through a toxic relationship, detailing the emotional trauma, anxiety-induced eating disorder, and deep body image struggles she faced. She emphasizes that true closure isn’t found in apologies or explanations, but in self-acceptance and the courage to move forward. A pivotal moment in her healing was a solo trip to Scotland, which allowed her to reconnect with her authentic self, build confidence, and form genuine connections with strangers.
She champions self-care, body neutrality, and the idea that being selfish—prioritizing one’s well-being—is the most unselfish act. Brianna shares her evolving identity and personal growth, highlighting how self-awareness leads to healthier relationships and a more grounded life. As a prominent voice in women’s empowerment, she uses her platform to create safe spaces for others to heal, challenge societal beauty standards, and embrace their true selves.
Her message of intentional living, self-compassion, and emotional resilience resonates deeply with listeners navigating heartbreak, self-doubt, or personal transformation. This conversation not only offers personal insight but also inspires listeners to prioritize self-love, take risks, and embrace authenticity in all areas of life.
FAQs
Brianna defines closure as letting go of the need for an apology or explanation from someone who hurt her. She emphasizes that no external justification can undo the pain experienced, and true closure comes from accepting that the past cannot be changed and focusing instead on the present and future.
Brianna overcame her eating disorder by gradually reintroducing food, focusing on hunger cues, and prioritizing a healthy relationship with food. She gained 25 pounds over several months and discovered that eating nutritious meals improved her physical and emotional well-being.
Brianna believes solo travel helps her connect with herself without judgment or pressure. It allows her to explore her personality, build confidence, and learn what she truly loves—especially important after a traumatic relationship and emotional healing.
As a naturally thin person, Brianna found it difficult to gain weight due to long-standing habits of avoiding food and anxiety. She had to adopt a mindful, calorie-rich approach—like smoothies and high-protein meals—and slowly build up her weight over time.
She encourages women to reject the toxic trend of being 'skinny' as a standard of beauty and instead focus on health, self-worth, and personal fulfillment. She stresses that the most important thing in life isn't being the prettiest, but being the most interesting and authentic.
Brianna prefers setting intentions—like being healthier or more mindful—over making rigid resolutions. This mindset helps avoid self-criticism when goals aren't met, allowing for more sustainable and realistic personal growth.
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