Nourish to Flourish

Calories in vs calories out doesn’t always work. Our bodies aren’t machines. When you “burn to earn”, you are setting yourself up for negative body image, guilt around food and exercise, and unhealthy relationships with food and your body. You do not need to earn your food. You deserve to eat whatever you want regardless of if you exercised. And if you hate certain kinds of exercise, don’t do them! Have fun with being active, get out in nature (which has also shown to improve body image), dance around your house, take that gymnastics class that you loved when you were a kid, join a local sports team. When you enjoy what you do for activity, it won’t be a chore and you will be less likely to push it off.

Make sure you give yourself enough food for your exercise. Are you on a low carb diet and noticing you have no energy to even walk a mile? This is because we use carbs to give our muscles energy during exercise. Make sure you have enough energy to support your workout, which will also make you feel better!

Remove the association with weight loss. Exercise instead to be able to run around with your grandkids, to relieve stress from your job, to help lower your blood pressure or blood sugar, because it’s fun. It takes the pressure off you and off exercise when you do it for fun rather than another reason.  Even small bursts, like walking up and down the stairs at work for 5 minutes counts! It doesn’t need to take up a large part of your day and splitting it into smaller quantities can make it easier to fit in as well.

Set yourself up for success, pack walking shoes, bring a jump rope, walk around the airport on a layover. There are so many ways to get a little bit of exercise in, but you need to make sure it works for you. Don’t run if you don’t like running. Take a kickboxing class. Do Zumba. Try spin. Lift some weights. Play soccer with your friends. DO anything other than run!