Nourish With Intent

Good morning, Cadre. Happy Saturday. Welcome to the thick of the holiday season. Hopefully you can't hear my furnace too much. It just kicked on and it's missing a door at the moment. Today we are second to last week of wrapping up my series on intuitive eating and just kind of really scratching the surface of what intuitive eating is and what it means, how you can apply it into your own life. And so today we're going to be talking about principles eight and nine. Principle eight is respect your body, and principle nine is movement.

Feeling the difference. Good morning, Becky. Welcome, welcome. Thanks for joining me this morning. Good morning, Jules. So happy to see everyone popping in. I think I've said this before, but I wish I could actually see your faces and have conversations because would make this. It's already fun. I like talking about this stuff, but would be fun to see for the few of you that are here. I am curious. I know the Midwest has gotten some snow in the last 48 hours. Unfortunately for me, it is, I should say, fortunate and unfortunate.

I'm in Denver. It was 60 degrees yesterday, which is lovely and wonderful and I love the sun. And something about not having a white Christmas feels wrong. And it looks like we are not going to be getting any snow in the next week. So I would love to know your favorite winter snow activity. Someone once told me in order to get through the snow, you have to find ways to enjoy it. So I want to know what your favorite snow activity is or if you're in a place that literally never gets snow. How do you make Christmas without snow feel more festive?

Okay, so jumping into principle eight of intuitive eating, respecting your body. This is. We've reached the point in the principles where it really comes down to learning to recognize and appreciate your inherent worthiness. Because in a world of diet culture and really just social media, we get really caught up in feeling like we're not worthy if we don't xyz. Look this way, eat this way, move this way. And that is essentially like raising the bar for existing as a human. Um, and I don't think that's fair.

So these next couple principles are really about tuning into your body in terms of, like, actual physicality and learning to appreciate your inherent worthiness. Walking at night and looking at lights. I have to do that. We haven't done that yet. I should do that. Impermidable. Running outside in a light snowfall. Bold. I feel like I would fall. I don't trust myself to run on snow that may also contain ice. I feel like I would hurt Myself, but I respect that, Jules. So principle eight, respecting your body.

The creators of intuitive eating paralleled it with you wouldn't expect. It's about accepting your genetic blueprint. Right? So we hear about, oh well, if we all ate the same way or moved the same way, we would all have different bodies. Logically that makes sense. And in practice that can be really challenging. And so they said and related it to you wouldn't expect someone with a size 8 shoe to squeeze into a size 6. Right. That's something that we kind of, for whatever reason, just accept and we buy bigger shoes when our feet grow.

It's the same thought process. And it is much harder when it comes to your whole body. And we live in a society that puts a lot of value on how you look. If this is something that has ever been hard for you, there's a really wonderful video on YouTube called Poodle Science. Poodle like the dog. I'll see if I can share a video into the community tab or a link. I'm not sure if I can. Never tried it. But it's such a wonderful video. It's like two and a half or three minutes long. And it really illustrates this idea that there is beauty and how different we are all genetically.

And that doesn't make someone better than someone else. It just makes us different. So how do we learn to respect our body? Negative self talk is a big one that I see for people picking yourself apart in the mirror. You know, things that have maybe been internalized from parents, grandparents, media, growing up. And one of the ways that I recommend people start with to combat this is body neutrality. You hear a lot about body positivity that can be really hard and honestly is pretty unrealistic for a lot of people, especially if this is something new to you.

So body neutrality and what that looks like is potentially body neutral affirmations of appreciating what your body is doing for you. Your legs helped you get to this point in time. They've walked you through this life. If you are someone who goes running, Jules, your body honestly, so strong, those little tiny muscles, stabilizing muscles, wonderful. So great. Respecting that, amazing. And really focusing on body appreciation. You don't have to like or love your body to respect it. And that will circle back around again in Principle 10, which is gentle nutrition.

But really starting with how do I just speak neutrally about my body? How do I shift away from those intentionally negative thoughts? The second thing I recommend is focusing on things outside of your body that you really like about yourself and appreciate and find value in yourself. And that could be the way that you treat others. That could be being really good at your job. That could be empathy rescuing dogs. I don't know, like finding other things outside of your looks and your body shape and size that you value and find important to yourself and really continue bringing light to those.

So that's typically where I recommend starting on respecting your body. A couple other more maybe tangible things are, like, if you find yourself beating yourself up all day because you weigh yourself every single day and that number has a huge impact on your mood, maybe we're putting the scale away or getting rid of the scale and seeing what impact that does on your mental headspace. Also getting rid of clothes that don't fit or at least taking them out of the closet, packing them up and putting them somewhere else.

I know that for all trying to be less. Less wasteful generally. So just like throwing things away. I don't really love the idea of that, but removing them from, like, the normal rotation could be helpful. Becky. So true. You can appreciate what it does for you practically, not visually. Yes, that was a much more concise way to put it than my long ramblings. But that's principle eight, respecting your body, trying to upcycle. Ooh, I love that. I have a sewing machine that was my grandma's that I think I've had in a closet for like, two years and honestly still have not used yet.

I really like that idea, actually. I have, like, two bags of clothes that I've been, like, removed from my closet and I might look into that. Okay. Principle nine is movement. Feeling the difference. So this kind of goes along with Principle 8 in taking the value out of exercise from being centered around what it's doing for your visual body. And that has, it's. It's really focusing on again. How does exercise make you feel? Does it bring you joy? Looking at. Okay, maybe I've been into weightlifting and I go to the gym five days a week because that's what my plan says I should do, or the people on the Internet say I should do, or my personal trainer, whatever.

But if you find that you are literally dreading every single day that you go to the gym, and I don't just mean I don't really have the motivation. And once I get there, I know that I'm going to feel better. And it makes me more energized. I mean, like, truly dreading it. Like, it's not something you find enjoyable. I think it's really worth looking at alternative forms of movement. Maybe it's yoga. Maybe it's biking, running. When I exercise, I feel like eating better. I think that plays a part too.

Right. Like those endorphins. Feeling good. Feeling like, okay, I'm taking care of my body. I want to continue taking care of my body. That's a very valid thing. Also, appreciating again, what do you like about exercise and why, outside of how it may or may not change your body shape? For me, I really love lifting heavy weights and boxing because if I were ever in a dark alley and a stranger came up to me, I feel really confident in my ability to get out of that situation if I needed to. Another reason I like lifting is just.

It's very applicable to life. We all pick up things and put them down and pull and push. And so I, you know, doing really functional movements. And yeah, swimming is not my jam. I don't love swimming, so I don't swim. I know that it's a really great form of movement. It's low impact. Some people love it. If I had to get up and swim every day, I don't think I could do it. Genuinely, I don't think I could do it. I'm also just really bad at it. I haven't figured out the whole, like, breathing techniques yet.

Yeah, really focusing on what it can do and what it does for you. Really like your empowerment, Becky. Love swimming. I love that for you. I wish I was better at it, and I'm truly terrible. And the other piece with movement is. Movement is great. Rest is needed, and allowing your body to rest and being able to recognize the cues when you're sore or getting a little tinge of an injury coming on or, you know, I spent like eight hours yesterday finishing up. We've been installing a floor and it's been like a month long process, but I spent like the rest of the day yesterday after I got home and in the morning from my workout, actually putting on trim, putting indoor thresholds, painting, caulking, like all of these things.

And today I'm exhausted and my body hurts and I have a free day. I have time to work out. And I know that if I were to work out, I would feel terrible. So relearning rest and your body's cues, telling you when it needs that is another huge piece. So sorry I was a little rambly today. Normally I have my notes and I did not this morning. So I appreciate you guys sticking with me. Becky, I love your upcycle tip. I'm gonna try to look into that. Jules. That's what shoe grippers are for. Are shoe grippers different than.

What are they called? Yak tracks for, like, hiking or are you talking about the same thing? They're like little metal. They're not spikes. They're like rings on a piece of rubber that you put over your shoe. Because I do have those that we use for hiking the snow. So if they're the same thing, maybe I could try out your. I haven't been running in a while. Yeah. Thanks for joining me this morning. I will try to put the poodle science video in the community tab. If I can't figure it out, you guys should go watch it anyway.

Yeah, cracks. Okay. I do have. Yeah, cracks. I'll have to try this while running. I feel like it might take a little adjustment to get used to. Next week is I will be here same time, our final day of Intuitive Eating the series, and we're gonna be Talking about Principle 10, which is gentle nutrition. It's probably the most nice, nuanced principle of intuitive eating. And so I wanted to dedicate it got its own day. So we'll be talking about that. If you've ever had questions about how do I nourish my body and eat foods that I know my body needs and allow myself and enjoy eating foods that taste really good will bring me nostalgia.

How do I balance that? That's kind of what gentle nutrition is. So any questions around that, bring them. I am so glad to see you all. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend. Staying warm if it's cold, staying upright if you're running and not like me and falling down. But have a wonderful rest of your Saturday and I'll see you next time.