When I look back at all of the work I have done over the years, it all comes back to the lightbulb moment where strength training helped me stop focusing on using exercise solely as a tool to make my body smaller. Strength training was the #1 thing that helped me make a shift in my life to having a better relationship with exercise, and in turn, my body and mind.
Key Takeaways
If You Want To Improve Your Relationship With Exercise Through Strength Training, You Should:
Finding the Freedom To Have Fun With Exercise
Having a free, fun, and filling relationship with movement can be a life-changing topic for some folks. I am feeling a sense in the community of people ready to get started or get started again on moving their body and improving their relationship with exercise.
While the way you relate to your body is a constantly evolving notion, strength training can help heal your dysfunctional relationship with exercise and give you the freedom to shift how you relate to exercise and your body. By giving yourself the space to enjoy exercise, you can stop being preoccupied with the notions diet culture has been feeding you and start breaking down the walls around you.
The Many Benefits of Strength Training
Lots of people view those who are interested in strength training or functional fitness as ‘meatheads’ or bodybuilders. This couldn't be further from the truth, as strength training has so many benefits, including improving your bone mineral density and blood glucose control, increasing your energy and metabolism, giving your more balance and stability, and enhancing your mood while decreasing your anxiety.
In addition to those fact-based benefits, strength training can help you stop viewing your worth as conditional and help you focus on what your body can do rather than how to make it smaller.
Are you ready to have a better relationship with exercise? Have you ever considered or experienced the many benefits of strength training? Share your experience with me in the comments on the episode page.
In This Episode
Quotes
“Functional movement is not just about competing at an elite level. If that’s your jam, that’s cool with me. If it’s not your jam, you might think ‘well functional movement, functional strength training, isn’t for me’. And I am here to tell you that that could be further from the truth.” (6:17)
“For me, exercise for so long was a way to shrink my body, control the size of my body, and try to become smaller. And that was the only thing that I really got out of exercise or the only reason I approached exercise.” (11:35)
“For me, strength training, in general, was the thing, the stepping stone, that allowed me to get on a better path with how I related to exercise, and then by default, my body.” (17:13)
“When I think back to all of the work I have done over the years, it always comes back to that. To that moment or that period of time where I learned to focus for once in my fucking life, on something else other than shrinking my body.” (24:47)
“You don't have to be a bodybuilder, you don't need to be a competitive level lifter to get the benefits of this, and you don't have to squat 400 pounds.” (29:47)
Featured on the Show
The 5 Main Movement Patterns of Functional Movement Reel
Shit That People Say To Women About Strength Training Reel
Check out the full show notes here!
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Society has taught us that emotional eating is bad, and we should punish and restrict ourselves for it. The issue with emotional eating is when we use food as our only tool to cope or celebrate, but it can be part of a normal and healthy way to communicate with our bodies. The truth is, sometimes your body needs to eat emotionally, but it is up to you to distinguish when you are emotionally eating for good and when you are using it as a crutch. Tapping can help you lean into this intuitively so that you can shift your focus away from restriction and towards listening to what your body needs.
Key Takeaways
If You Want To Try Tapping To Resolve Your Emotional Eating You Should:
Emotional Eating Isn’t Always Bad
Jason Winters is a Certified Holistic Health Coach, Intuitive Eating Coach, and Gold-Standard Emotional Freedom Techniques Coach. After overcoming his own battle with disordered eating, Jason pursued his passion to serve women and men still suffering from the emotional eating cycle. Now, Jason is on a mission to help empower and free you from the chains of emotional eating, diet culture, food obsession, and body hatred so that you can live your best life possible.
How To Get Clear on What You Really Want
The path of intuitive eating has changed many lives, including Jason’s, but that doesn't mean it comes without its fair share of struggles. Society has forced us to lose our ability to trust ourselves and what the right path for us is, which is why it is so important to get clear on what you are doing, what is working for you, and what isn't.
The first step is identifying what you really want out of your life. By holding space for your goals and intentions and doing it on your own terms, you can address your unresolved issues, learn how to acknowledge the negativity you are feeling, and most importantly, let it go.
The Beautiful Marriage Between Tapping, Emotional Eating, and Intuitive Eating
EFT, or Emotional Freedom Technique, is a powerful stress-relieving technique that combines Chinese acupuncture with modern psychology to address the fear of rejecting diet culture and guide you towards a more intuitive relationship with food.
Emotional eating, intuitive eating, and tapping come together beautifully because they help you break down the fear, stress, and anxiety you may be feeling and clear out your emotions. Tapping can help you process your energy and help you feel lighter and more equipped to handle the anxiety and negativity plaguing you. By learning how to better understand your emotions, you can take back the control that diet culture has stripped you of and start listening to what your body needs.
Have you ever tried tapping? How has it helped you on your intuitive eating or emotional eating journey? Share which of Jason’s nuggets of wisdom touched you the most with us in the comments on the episode page.
In This Episode
Quotes
“To shift that normal behavior around food, and to then demonize it and to shame people for engaging in it, it is a restriction of something that you want and that you need. And then it just turns emotional eating into a theme.” (7:14)
“What do you really want? I think that's the biggest thing is identifying what you want, and getting quiet enough to hear the answer of what you really want. Because intuitive eating, and intuitive exercise, and having an intuitive lifestyle, it is really about you.” (17:42)
“Tapping allows you to come out of control and more into choice. And the way that that happens is when you are tapping on these specific points, you are breaking down the fear.” (25:18)
“It's not just what we put in our mouth, it is our belief system. We are in choice, our affirmations you chose. So if you use someone else's affirmation, make sure it rings true for you, make sure it is your choice.” (31:40)
“When we are repeating or you are hearing these statements being made, this anxiety, this anxiety, this anxiety, you are addressing your specific anxiety, I am addressing mine, but we are all working together.” (41:52)
Featured on the Show
Food Freedom Tapping Worksheet
EFT: Tapping to End Chronic Emotional Eating Facebook Group
Follow Jason on Instagram | Facebook
Check out the full show notes here!
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Listening to your body doesn't happen through a magic pill or a one-size-fits-all answer. It is about leaning into your self-trust and learning to embrace what makes you uniquely you. But how do we actually do that in a practical, hands-on way? The concept of self-trust is an all-encompassing one that considers a lot of different parts about who you are as a person, which is why it is essential to have the proper framework when diving into these topics.
Key Takeaways
If You Are Looking To Build Self-Trust You Should:
Learn How To Build Self-Trust with Shohreh Davoodi
Shohreh Davoodi is a self-trust coach who created her Three Pillars of Self-Trust Framework to help women overcome fear and self-doubt and become brave by conjuring up the courage inside of them. Her framework combines the three main pillars of self-trust, consciousness practices, care practices, and courage practices so that you can figure out who you are and what you value.
The Three Pillars of Self-Trust
The first step of self-trust is consciousness. This means having the awareness of the things in your life that you want to change, what is working for you in your life and what isn’t, and why. This usually deals with the systems in place in our society that are causing self-doubt, that really has nothing to do with you as an individual.
Next comes care practices. While we all know the importance of self-care, Shohreh takes it a step further and includes principles such as intuitive eating, intentional movement, sleep, and organization all as ways that you can care for yourself and let your body know that it can trust you to listen and take care of it.
The final piece of the puzzle is courage. Engaging with issues such as activism, setting boundaries, and having a more value-driven life are all ways that you can reconnect with your head, heart, and body, to do the things that make you feel good.
It Takes a Village That Stands Together To See Real Change
In order to engage more authentically with your own self-trust, you need to dive deep and look some scary stuff in the eye. We cannot self-trust our way into community liberation. It takes better community care and systemic changes so that everybody can have self-trust and a better relationship to food and their bodies.
There is no one right way to engage with these practices. By being more understanding and compassionate to the people around you, being in a community that lets you know that you are not alone, and dropping into your body in a time-sensitive way that feels good for you are the best ways to take steps to move closer to deeper self-trust.
What is one way that you are going to lean into your courage and let your body know that it can trust you? Share which of Shohreh’s tips you're going to integrate into your routine with me in the comments on the episode page.
In This Episode
Quotes
“My niche is self-trust, but self-trust really encompasses so many different topics and ideas and ways of being in the world. So I can't just talk about self-trust, in talking about self-trust I have to talk about so many other things.” (11:10)
“Each of these pillars are important and can stand on their own, but they are most powerful when they bridge together. And that is the foundation of self-trust for an individual.” (15:01)
“Almost all of us have privileges in some places, even marginalized folks have privileges in some areas. So we can’t look at the marginalization without also looking at the privilege and how we contribute, knowingly or unknowingly, to the advancement of these systems.” (21:03)
“So often when someone is struggling to trust their own body, it is actually because they have gotten messages about bodies like theirs, and what a body like theirs should be or should look like or should feel like.” (32:06)
“For everyone who is interested in building more self-trust, the key to doing that is that you have to get to know you and what you want and what you value.” (35:08)
Featured on the Show
Follow Your Arrow Membership Program
One-On-One Coaching with Shohreh
Follow Shohreh on Instagram | Facebook | TikTok
Check out the full show notes here!
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Recently I was asked about the place that alcohol has when connecting to your inner intuitive eater. Thinking about alcohol use in the context of connecting to your body and healing your relationship with food is intensely personal, which is why I want to share my perspective with you as someone who has been a non-drinker for 5 years and also as an intuitive eating and nutrition counselor.
If you are struggling with substance abuse or are concerned about your relationship with alcohol, please contact 1-800-662-HELP. This episode contains my personal thoughts about alcohol, but at the end of the day, you have the freedom and autonomy to do whatever feels right for you. If you are struggling with substance abuse, please know there is support out there for you, and change is possible.
Key Takeaways
If You Want To Explore Your Relationship With Alcohol and Intuitive Eating You Should:
The Difference Between Food and Alcohol
A common misconception is that food is addictive. In reality, the food ‘addiction’ you may be familiar with is a result of restriction and the binge eating that follows. Alcohol is different from food in this way. Reducing the amount you are drinking will not cause the majority of people to binge drink because alcohol is not required for survival like food is. Often people are reluctant to cut out alcohol because they are worried they will crave it all the time. Binge drinking and binge eating have different mechanisms and experiences, and it is crucial to understand how restriction with food differs from simply choosing not to engage with alcohol.
It’s Your Personal Journey, No One Else’s
A lot of people are concerned about doing intuitive eating ‘right’. Intuitive eating is not a set of yes or no rules, it is a set of personal guidelines, and your relationship with alcohol is included in that. I want you to use intuitive eating principles to ask yourself the tough questions and help you gain clarity on your personal experience with alcohol. Do you have a diet mentality when you are drinking? Are you drinking mindfully? Is alcohol your primary coping strategy?
By noticing your relationship with alcohol and assessing it, you can understand your own unique relationship to alcohol and if it fits into your intuitive eating journey.
Which of the questions I posed to you today got you thinking? How does your relationship with alcohol fit into your version of intuitive eating? Share your thoughts with me in the comments on the episode page.
In This Episode
Quotes
“There are a lot of questions that come up for people with regard to understanding how restricting food works or bingeing on food works, and how restricting alcohol and binge drinking works, and the fact that those aren’t necessarily the same thing.” (8:01)
“A lot of people will notice that if they start to cut down on their drinking, or they stop drinking altogether, they often don't notice an increased desire or preoccupation with drinking.” (13:11)
“You may decide that you are making peace with food over here, but when it comes to alcohol, if you realize that you are not enjoying it, that your relationship with it isn’t super great, you would rather just take it out for a while, its okay to remove it from your environment!” (15:42)
“It’s worth considering how these different principles of intuitive eating can apply to your relationship with alcohol and your drinking habits and know that the answers are going to be different for everybody.” (24:03)
“I hope that this show has given you some questions to ask yourself. I can’t promise that it is perfect, I can’t promise that my thoughts here are going to be exactly applicable to you. But I think it is really important to go through the questions that I raised in this show and to think about things on a really personal level for yourself.” (27:40)
Featured on the Show
Overcome Emotional Eating Workshop
Check out the full show notes here!
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