How can you get to know your body more?
There are three different stages you go through when taking the step to transforming your body and life.
First stage is: ‘I Got This’
The common thought process is, “What’s so hard? Eat salads and exercise. There is nothing more to it. I can do this on my own.”
Yes, you are right. Living a healthy life is eating healthy and doing exercise.
But it is going to take discipline to do it.
And that is easier said than done.
The next stage is: ‘I Just Need A Guide’
A nutritionist that is going to create a plan that will give you exactly what you need to eat; sounds like a great idea. This takes away all the guesswork.
You’re crushing it!
10 pounds lost in just the first two weeks
But then, things start to slow down.
The perfect plan doesn’t seem so perfect.
Not seeing results can become extremely demotivating.
If by yourself it did not work and with a nutritionist it didn’t work then it must mean that you aren’t doing exercise.
The next logical step: ‘Let it Burn’
You sign up for a gym. I can join a class!
They put you through a workout you are impressed you were able to finish.
The next day
You.. Can..Not.. Move…
Getting out of bed used to be a mental game, now it has become physically impossible. But hey… no pain no gain. Am I right?!
A couple of weeks pass and a (insert holiday/event/birthday) outing comes up.
Things get busy. Life happens. You push your training off one class. Just one week.
Then another and another until… well that is reality..
The only thing left for you to do is maybe get a treadmill/drying/clothing rack, another nutritionist, maybe a juice machine or another diet.
The amount of times people have tried to lose weight is inspiring.
It shows real resilience.
But is this what your life is doomed to be?
Jumping from one weight loss program to another?
One of the big reasons we have such a hard time isn’t because there is something wrong with us, it is more about the type of intervention we are choosing.
The problem is rarely the problem. The problem is the way you view the problem. (Read that again)
What most of us perceive to be healthy and what is truly healthy is not the same.
Many of us have this idea that in order to be a healthy human you need to be eating a certain way and doing intense exercise routines.
How should we eat?
Atkins? Paleo? Keto? Vegan? Low carb? High Fat? Intermittent Fasting? Eating every 3 hours?
The answer will depend on who you talk to or the latest fad.
But when it comes to exercising, that’s an easy one, right?
We know what needs to be done.
Cardio! Cardio burns fat.
The reality is, the way we are eating at the moment is probably killing us and the amount of activity we do is nowhere near the recommended minimum.
It isn’t healthy to restrict your eating to a way of living that isn’t right for your body or performing exercises with the sole intention of ‘burning fat.’
(Just to put it into perspective, an average workout session burns 400 – 500 calories..
3,500 calories = 1 lb)
This is especially true if these additions to your lifestyle make you miserable, stress you out, take you away from the things that are important to you.
Being healthy is all about knowing and giving your body exactly what it needs physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
This simply means being active daily.
Besides exercise, it is important to eat the right foods.. at the right time.. in the right amount – FOR YOU.
>Give the body an adequate amount of sleep (⬅️this!)
>Arm yourself with stress management techniques
When we look at what people are doing in the name of health we are trying to fit ourselves in a box focusing on one aspect either sugar, ketosis, vegan foods, carb etc)
Some of us do think that we need to do exercise but the intentions behind exercise is to lose weight. We know based off our math equation above, exercise alone is an ineffective strategy for weight loss.
It is clear to see that the solution we are using to fix the problem is missing the mark completely.
Instead of trying to follow someone else’s idea of what a healthy life should look like, you want to be learning what health looks like for you.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a book that showed you exactly what you need to do so you can just follow along?
The good news is that there is a guide and you have it.
God with His beautiful designs has created the body with intuition that allows it to know what you need.
At the beginning the body first starts off by giving small signals. Day to day. Moment to moment.
But seeing as we live stressful lives we have unintentionally chosen to ignore the signals. Yet another missed opportunity to get to know our body.
Consequently, as we ignore our body and go on with life as if everything is going great, the body has no choice but to shout louder. This is where health problems start to appear.
The good news is you don’t have to wait until you are forced to go to the doc to take action.
You can learn how to listen and get to knowing your body from moment to moment.
You can learn how to interpret those feelings into messages so you can take the right action for your needs. You can get to know YOU.
For a lot of people this idea of getting to know our bodies – that your body knows what it wants and needs, sounds like a fairy tale. “I don’t feel thirsty,” “I feel hungry when I just ate,” “I don’t feel anything.”
The reason why you don’t feel anything is because you have never been taught how to listen. You don’t know what you are looking for.
This isn’t something that you are going to learn from a diet/nutritionist/personal trainer.
Diets teach you what is “good” food according to the latest “unbiased” research.
And because of these unbiased biases, we often see things being disproved based off another research they are trying to prove..
Modern nutritional science is surprisingly young, especially when factoring in half a century on discovery of single nutrients alone. We are learning new things each and every day.
This is the byproduct of so many confusing statements.
Don’t get me wrong. Science is not something that should be ignored. Science is important and without it we would be in a bigger mess than we are today.
What I am saying is that you don’t have to rely on science alone. You can learn how to interpret your internal cues and live an optimal healthy life that is right for you. Today. And hey! Isn’t that science?!
If you want to start making changes today to your lifestyle and get to know your body, give me a call and I will be happy to set up a free consultation at your convenience.