Taking My Own Advice

Today I was invited to be on a Podcast, I will share it in due course. It prompted to go in search for a few of the other Podcasts I have been part of over the few years.

Do you remember when I did Destination Well Being?

That was before Podcasts were even really a thing.

The timing today couldn't have been more perfect I came across a Podcast I did with the amazing Michelle Major 6 years ago and while I didn't realise when I went in search of it that the time it was exactly what I needed to listen to today. Reminding myself of what I know and believe.

Over the past couple of years my body size has changed even though how and what I eat hasn't changed very much and I am probably more physically active than I have ever been.

I am grateful to be in a position where I can be really gentle with myself and my changing body, I know it is a combination of hormonal changes. PCOS and Peri Menopause can be a challenging combination if only my younger self had known this I might have felt different about my body as I navigating a similar changes during puberty.

That said, I am human and with the constant bombardment of diet culture messaging and more recently the amount of mainstream conversation and every day acceptance of weight loss injections, I can see how easy it would be to slip into old beliefs, beliefs that I am aware don't serve me, as I say I am grateful that I have done the training and work that I have and have the knowledge and understanding that I do and so I share this mostly because I know that many people don't and are navigating similar territory and finding it difficult.

Here's what I am doing:

• I am being gentle with myself. Recognising that the past 5 months have been challenging and my body is navigating that in the best way it can.

  
  

• I am nourishing my body, ensuring I am eating food that supports my overall health and well being.

  
  

• I am spending time in nature.

  
  

• I am spending time with people who love and support me.

  
  

• I am having reflexology, acupuncture, seaweed baths, infrared saunas, sea swims

  
  

• I am using affirmations, meditation.

  
  

• I am exercising and moving my body in ways that I know will support me now and in the future.

  
  

• I am focusing on my long term overall health.

• I am being as kind and gentle with myself as possible and practising deep gratitude for a body that supports me in the ways that I need it to. I am trusting my body.

If you would like to listen in to the Podcast you can click the link below. It came at a great time for me and served as a powerful reminder of how I want to support my body.

Here is Michelle's Summary of the Podcast.

I’ve had a full week to digest (pardon the pun) my interview with the wonderful Joanne Callan on our relationship to food.  

Before our chat I felt I had a pretty healthy relationship to food.  Now I realise that I do in fact have some conditioned thinking around certain foods.

Not long after our interview I was at a soft play area with my son and some friends.  The kids played whilst us mums enjoyed a coffee and catch up!  One of my mummy friends offered me some chocolate.  I replied with an automatic & unconscious – “No thanks, I’m trying to be good”  As soon as the words were out of my mouth I realised what I had said and quickly changed my response to a a simple two word answer – “No thanks”.  

Why do we always feel we need to justify our answers to others too?   

Why do we associate being ‘good’ and ‘bad’ with food?

Since then I’ve definitely been more conscious with my language around food and when I notice old conditioned thoughts or words I put my 3 C’s technique to good use.  I share this a lot in my courses.  

For anyone new to this – the 3 C’s stand for:

C – Catch

C – Control

C – Change 

You can use the 3 C’s technique for any unhelpful or stressful thoughts you are trying to change.  I just love the fact that even though I’ve been on this journey of self-awareness for almost 15-years now there are always deeper layers to peel away.  The learning, growing, evolving and healing is an ongoing, exciting process!

It really is unreal how much conditioning there is around food.  How we are conditioned to believe we are either being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ when it comes to certain foods.  Even certain diet plans feeds into the idea that certain foods are ‘sins’ which again is making us feel ‘bad’ about eating certain food.  As Joanne pointed out – if we eat food feeling guilty we release cortisol (the stress hormone) which will make metabolising the food more difficult than if we were in a relaxed state, fully present & enjoying our food guilt free.  This really resonated with me as I often say to the ladies in my groups/courses to enjoy food guilt free, even the chocolate cake!  Now I have the science part to back it up.

The other very significant part of our conversation was the culture/obsession with our weight as women.  Almost every diet or exercise plan focuses on our weight.  There is just no escaping it.  It’s everywhere.

Thankfully growing up I never heard my mother talk about diet or her weight.  In fact, we didn’t own a set of scales in our house.  My mother never weighed herself.  She still doesn’t.  “I know from the fit of my clothes whether I’ve put on weight” my mum would say when she felt the nip!

Joanne talks about this during our interview – that we should know by our clothes whether we’ve lost or put on weight.

After our conversation I realised that I too very rarely weigh myself.  Like my mum, I know from how my clothes feel whether my weight has changed.  There’s no doubt her attitude towards her weight and food has had a positive influence on me.  

When I do feel like I’ve put on some weight, (which to be fair doesn’t fluctuate that much – maybe 5 to 7lbs here and there), I do like to weigh myself as I find it a good motivator to making positive changes to my diet.  I guess if it becomes a compulsion or affects how you feel then perhaps it’s best not to weigh yourself.  Plus as women our weight can change so much throughout the day/week/month depending on our menstrual cycle, water retention, time of day, whether we’ve poo’d or not (yes, this is a thing), etc.

Finally, we spoke about the whole wellness culture we’re currently living.  Whilst Joanne and I are advocates of this, we also recognise  that some of the messages can be unhealthy and unhelpful, for example, the ‘free-from’ range of foods usually contain chemicals so they aren’t necessarily the healthiest choice. 

As Joanne says – “count chemicals, not calories” 

Hope you enjoy our Mind, Body, Food conversation!  

You can find out more about Michelle here https://thesunshineproject.uk/ and other more recent episodes of her Podcast here https://thesunshineproject.uk/podcast/ including this one I also did on Menstrual Health. https://open.spotify.com/episode/3FuiJ9A2BLb7Sd1IWLsUZF

If you have found this helpful I would love to hear from you.