Creating a healthy relationship with food, movement, and your body

It turns out diet culture tells us we need to exercise more than is healthy (shocking…). So, I am telling you to challenge yourself this week and skip a workout. If you find yourself feeling guilty or compulsively wanting to work out to manage your weight or body size you actually need to do the opposite and just rest. Learn to sit with the discomfort of not exercising, talk back to those obsessive thoughts and reframe them. These internalized diet culture thoughts make us believe that we are not enough, and that’s why we must challenge them because your weight and body size mean nothing about who you are as a person. I sadly used to believe that in order to be a personal trainer / fitness professional I needed to look ‘strong’ and lean and have a muscular booty. Well it turns out I am much stronger now- mentally and physically and maintaining a lean body mass was not healthy and caused amenorrhea and long list of negative health effects, also my booty is just fine the way it is, in fact I prefer the extra fat. Some days I still struggle with internalized diet culture telling me that I need to exercise, but then I challenge that little voice in my head and I do something more productive with my time like homework, research for my clients, or listening to audio books/ podcast (mainly Food-Psych by Christy Harrison).

It’s important to understand that those compulsive exercise thoughts are trying to help you survive in this fat-phobic world, but they are not going to help you live the life you want. Exercise may be hindering you from doing things you enjoy like grabbing a coffee with friends, studying for an exam, or your choice of self-care. Exercise may be preventing you from having a flexible relationship with movement and a healthy relationship with food.

Ask yourself before your next workout: why am I really going to do this? If weight manipulation is the answer, TAKE A REST DAY. There is a choice, and research shows that people who exercise with weight-loss motives have a worse relationship with food. Healing one’s relationship with food and body size must start with challenging exercise motives to control and manage weight.