Health Coach | Speaker | Writer | Welcome to my digital diary! I'm here to help you blend life & fitness to find your health & happy! Thank you for being part of my family & allowing me to add value to your journey!
If there’s one thing I want you guys to focus on before starting this new week it’s cultivating a better relationship with yourself. Body image issues can stunt & affect any kind of progress or growth in every facet of your life. I can tell you after losing almost 50lbs over my 38 yrs on this earth, the weight loss doesn’t magically make you love yourself more or fix any problems. 10 Ways To Improve Body Image Issues Source: Myself & The National Eating Disorder Awareness 1️⃣ Stop comparing yourself to others. Love & appreciate your body for what it is & what it is becoming as you live a healthier life. 2️⃣ Remember that beauty is not just about appearance. 3️⃣ Question the media & things you consume. Especially social media. Most of what you see is photo shopped & the highlight reels. 4️⃣ Dress in clothes that make you feel your best! Wear literally whatever the hell you want. You wear your clothes they don’t wear you. 5️⃣ When you see yourself in a mirror or in your mind, choose not to focus on specific body parts. You are a beautiful sum of all your imperfections. 6️⃣ LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. What do you NEED? A walk? Yoga? A bath?! Listening help so much! 7️⃣ Use the time and energy you might have spent worrying about food, calories, and your weight to do something to help others. Sometimes helping out other people can help you feel better about yourself and can make a positive change in our world. 8️⃣ Shut down those voices in your head that tell you your body is not “right” or that you are a “bad” person. 9️⃣ “I am” affirmations! Say them, write them, believe them! 🔟 Don’t rely on others for confidence boosts! Your worth comes from within. Also, seek help. Therapy does wonders❤️
A while back, someone slid into my DM‘s & commented I had no boobs, no butt, & my eyebrows were too thick…
💁🏼♀️Apparently they drank the Hater-aid.
Years ago I would’ve been crushed. Most likely starved myself for weeks later because it was something I could control. Or tried to find the next work out that would change my body. Maybe different hair color. A bandaid. A drug. A high.
It happens to us all the time. What you have to realize is when people lash out at you like this, that is a reflection of how they view themselves. It really has nothing to do with you.
Love them anyways. Wish them healing.
I posted these beautiful words on my Instagram stories almost a year ago:
“Every day, she falls in love -
She falls in love just a little bit more.
She falls in love just a little bit more, with who she is, and with who she isn’t.
She falls in love just a little bit more, with her flaws, her fears, and her insecurities.
With her smile, her her laugh, her voice, and her body.
With her passions, her goals, her dreams and her future.
Every day, she falls in love -
She falls in love just a little bit more, with exactly who God created her to be -
This unique, intelligent, independent, kind, caring, funny, creative, talented woman with a beautiful mind, a loving heart, and an incredibly deep soul.” @allthings_possible
What we really have is a happiness & lack of self-awareness problem.
It’s not just because you’re overweight or underweight or struggling financially, relationally, or however this relates in your life.
=> you dig. Go deep.
=> you spend time alone. You ache from lonely.
=> you acknowledge. You heal.
=> you empower. Yourself & others.
=> you look in the mirror & see God.
I am grateful for this little body & life of mine. It is strong, resilient, & every wrinkle, scar, cellulite, stretch mark — is the mark of life I lived.
Can I just wrap up in a warm blanket & eat Texas Roadhouse rolls all day???
Quarantine hit. My workout routine was ripped from my life. Anxiety hit. The thoughts of past self sabotaging behavior started to creep up.
Should I restrict?
How many more steps do I need?
Fugggg I can’t sweat.😩 I’m gonna pack on 20lbs, better cut food.
What if my “safe” foods are taken away?
When I began specializing in gut issues & primarly women’s relationship with food & body image, I saw a pattern. I LIVED the pattern — basically an obsession about control over food & exercise.
We deny we have an eating or behavioral disorder — we DO, sister. But you don’t have to stay there.❤️
Signs include:
Feeling panicked when sick, injured, or vacation jacks up our workout routine
Feeling like walking “isn’t enough”
Restricting or allowing food based on exercise that day.
Feeling we have to “earn” food.
Fear about gaining weight
Feeling worthless if any weight gain occurs, obsession with the scale & letting it dictate our attitude for the day
One client said, “I feel like I MUST control & workout everyday. If I don’t, I feel worthless & obsess about it until I do workout.”
We talked about how that disordered need for control is taking over our ability to intuitively listen to our body’s cues to rest. It also affects our energy, hunger, sleep, digestion, hormones, & bluntly— our ability to give a shit.
This relationship with food & exercise tends to make us miserable. Paralyzing us from enjoying the important things in life.
Here’s how I help clients (& myself) establish a better relationship with our food & exercise:
Disconnect the connection of “perfection” with food & exercise to our worth & obsession with having to earn food.
I used to count every calorie I consumed, down to the gum I excessively chewed. I only ate the calories I burned that day. I only ate diet food, hoping to save calories & carbs. I was chained to numbers. My macros were shackles. My mindset & perception of my methods & myself were the enemy. It wasn’t the food or exercise.
When we were young, we knew when we were hungry & we stopped when we were full. Because of environmental & emotional factors, getting stuck in cycles, many of us lose touch with our true hunger cues.
This is where I find intermittent fasting & or setting a meal schedule or eating window is helpful, teaching us when we’re actually hungry & preventing mindless/emotional eating.
Also viewing food as fuel for our day & workouts instead of a reward is a helpful way to rewire our brains from earning to nourishing.
2. Focus on simply moving your body.
Workouts should be enjoyed. Walking IS ENOUGH. Shoot for 10k steps per day or simply increasing your steps by 1k each week till you reach your goal. If you have a good relationship with food, there is no need to kill yourself in the gym 7 days per week. Spend adequate time eating at your true maintenance calories. You should not be dieting more than 1-2 times per year.
Before quarantine, I would walk, CrossFit &/or bodybuilding 5 times per week with one rest day and one active recovery day. I love the community & push of a group Wod.
Intra quarantine, I don’t have access to the equipment or facilities for specific workouts. I’ve worked out at home 3 days per week with minimal equipment and walked.
Haven’t gained, inflammation is actually down, & I’ve become more in tune with my body, hunger cues, & how to adjust my food & eating schedule based upon what my body is craving.
3. Surrender to the seasons. We aren’t meant to look the same.
Binges, disordered eating & body image, cravings, & anxiety for control flare up when we’re living in a chronic deficit &/or chasing a size we’re not meant to naturally be.
Your hunger &/or lack of are signs your body is simply trying to survive. Lack of resources trigger our bodies to down regulate systems, cycles, & hormones. Wonder why you lost your period or you’re cold all the time, you plateau on 1200 calories & gain when you eat anything above 1600? BINGO. Don’t be afraid to Reverse Diet. Invest in a coach!
We’re really chasing a feeling, not a number. We want to feel worthy, loved, significant, safe, heard, seen, & happy.
These are all a state of being my loves.
It didn’t matter if I was 100lbs or 160lbs, happy was a state I FELT about my life at whatever season. If you don’t do the inner work & address the root cause, it’s like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound.
You’re afraid to surrender because you don’t want to give up control. Especially for my fellow Type A’s.
Guess what?
You never had control, you became you’re own prisoner.
Educate yourself. Self love is a skill we sharpen. Surround yourself with people & environment full of positivity. Everything you consume, down to social media makes an impact on your perspective.
Cut the toxicity & self sabotage.
Food & body freedom are just one decision away.
The decision to choose YOU. ❤️
Whether you’re struggling with gut issues, trying to learn macros, fuel for your workouts, or fighting for your food & body freedom, I’m here for you.
I feel what the world needs right now isn’t another post about losing weight or body fat loss.
Right now, for most of us, we should be focusing on feeling our best — not shrinking our bodies because we think we’ll be happier taking up less space.
What we really need is S E L F LOVE
Beautiful design by my fav: @positivelypresent 💕
Cred: @positivelypresent
Ever wonder where negative talk comes from?
They’re rooted from experiences & traumas you’ve had in your past, often childhood. The more you focus on the familiar past, the more the predictable future repeats itself.
Just because something negative happened to you in the past, maybe someone called you ugly or stupid or pathetic or whatever — doesn’t mean that’s what you are.
Remember, what people do or say to you comes from how they view themselves &/or the product of their environment. Hurt people hurt people. As we like to say, “Haters gonna hate.”
On the other hand, if you believe you are unworthy/unloveable you may have biased expectations & reactions when approaching situations with others.
Thoughts become things. These thoughts contribute to your cycle of black cloud emotions & habits.
To cultivate more self-love you must break the cycle & challenge yourself away from negative thoughts, start enforcing boundaries with yourself & others, practice self-care, and distance yourself from toxicity (environment, people, food, social media, etc).
I talk about how habits make you a lot.
That it’s not exactly about picking the right foods or the right diets or the right workouts or the right macros.
Your habits will directly drive how successful you are in anything & everything you do.
Remember that Marshmallow Experiment done by Stanford professor Walter Mischel?
I had to Google that again actually🤓
Basically it found that children who had more willpower & delayed eating the marshmallow to receive a bigger treat later on were more successful in many areas of their lives than the children who couldn’t resist & chose temporary pleasure over long-term gain.
This experiment relates to our routine habit choices. We can choose habits that will serve us more later or ones that will not.
When working with clients one of the first things we work on is self & food awareness. Which includes creating healthier habits.
These can be as simple as eating more protein with each meal or reducing drinking from three days a week to one.
Change your habits, change your thoughts — change you.
A lil bit wolf, a lil bit woman — it’s the wild that made her beautiful. @lil_bit_of_fit
She finally started to love the pieces of herself she used to hide & run from.
The scars, the imperfections, the things that made her different — like her Indiana twang, the way a strategically placed cuss word just rolls off her tongue a little bit sweeter, & the way she loves selflessly without abandon.
The scars physical & mental.
The ones on her shin missing a box jump.
The ones on her chest from falling off a tractor in childhood.
The ones from having her gallbladder removed, cervical cancer, Crohn’s, umpteendozen farm injuries.
The ones on her heart from self loathing, disordered eating, overtraining, periods of debt, failed relationships, food fear, fear of failure, fear of fucking up societal timelines & wondering if she’ll ever have her shit figured out.
Livin life somewhere among boots, scrubs, & lessons…
She stared at her picture & out the window, always something on her mind, & finally felt the peace & acceptance of her past, present, & future, all the knowns & unknowns, & realized the experiences & pieces that made her beautiful…
…a lil bit wolf, a lil bit woman — it’s the wild that made her beautiful. – @lil_bit_of_fit
And with that…I finally got my shit together this morning & launched my website, my little writing space to hopefully add value, laughs, mentoring, coaching, & shine some light in this world.
It’s official — lilbitoffit.com
Working on a blog for y’all later, stay tuned: 10 HABITS HAPPY & SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE DO DIFFERENTLY.
