No Pain. No Gain

I am a swimmer. It's been my whole life since I was a kid. 

This is based off the Tao 66 quote. You can find that here.

Swimming is sort of a masochistic sport. The joy comes from hard work, seeing how hard you can push yourself. And when it comes to competition, it's all about swimming faster and better. It's taught me to compare. 

When my competitive career finished by college, I started to play with yoga.

I was drawn into yoga by cool inversions that showed off how strong my upper body was, like crow-to-headstand. It was like gymnastics with breathing. 

In the poverty of post-grad life, I found the cheapest exercises were running and donation yoga. I hated running and when my shin splints got worse, I went to yoga. 

Let me tell you, in comparison to 5000 yards of swimming, 1 hour of yoga feels like nothing. I'd be down on myself because it wasn't so demanding cardiovascularly. However, each day I went, the instructors would remind me to focus on my breath and my practice. 

"Don't pay attention to what those around you are doing.Focus on your body. How does it feel in YOUR body?" 

"Try not to judge today against yesterday. Some days the same poses are not available to you."

"Whenever you lose your breath, child's pose is a space where you can always resume your breath." 

"Yoga is a moving meditation." 

"Savasana is the most important pose."

Inhale. Exhale. They reminded me to focus on me, close my eyes, and listen to my body. 

Making the transition from someone who always had her eye on the next lane to somebody who closed her eyes and listened was amazing. 

I found myself enjoying yoga. Doing regular exercise felt good. And the best part: nothing came crashing down. I'm still strong. I can still walk up stairs two-at-a-time. My blood work is within range. 

Yoga has taught me that exercise doesn't have to be about pain and suffering. A yoga practice isn't "No pain, no gain." It's about getting to know your body and listening to it. 

This was a crucial step for me in believing in intuitive eating. Dieting culture teaches us that we must be hungry. We must be left wanting. You cannot achieve what you most want by "taking it easy." (I blame capitalism, the American Dream, and Jillian Michaels). 

Yoga is not about hurting and punishing the body. It's about listening to this amazing creation that manages to never miss a heartbeat. 

And, rumor has it, yoga shouldn't stop on your mat. 

Work it out

Exercise. Well, that's a loaded word. 

The 9th Principle of Intuitive Eating is "Exercise--Feel the Difference."

At the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, we were instructed to try "movement" instead when talking to clients because people have a lot of thoughts and feelings about exercise. Many people are perfectionists about it. 

Before I changed my relationship with exercise, here's something I might've said: 

"Well, I was supposed to get up at 5 am starting on Monday but then I didn't. Now, to make up for it, I have to run at least 40 minutes on Friday and then next week do Jillian Michaels 2x/wk and my diet really needs to be on point. Oh and also, I should probably swim after running because I'm planning on eating pasta for dinner on Thursday."

 I used to see intense exercise as a prerequisite for adequacy in my own life. I needed to exercise exorbitantly to feel good about myself. When I couldn't meet this unrealistic requirement, I use to amp up the quantity of exercise as a penance for my "bad behavior" around food and exercise. Eventually I worked myself up into such a tizzy, that exercise started to feel like a term paper that I procrastinated all semester on. 

Changing your relationship with food means also changing your relationship to exercise.

When shows like NBC's Biggest Loser exist, many Americans tend to believe that exercise is synonymous with weight loss. This idea is a whole other blog post. Exercise does not equal weight loss. 

The simple way to explain this whole idea is through my own story about exercise. I've been through enough ups and downs with exercise that I know this: 

When you hate your body, it's hard to exercise. When you're exercising to take care of yourself, exercise feels easy. 

Exercise is GOOD for you and it can be an enormous part of your self-care routine.  Exercise can also HURT you. It can mess up your hormones, joints, tendons, and muscles if you overdo it. 

 Exercise has felt very difficult for me when I'm motivated from a place of self-destruction. If I'm exercising because I'm trying to achieve some ideal weight or I'm working out for a "bikini body," it just doesn't happen. Sometimes, even unrelated to body image, I would feel like I "should" work out because I ate too much or I needed to achieve some kind of external validation. This immediately took all the joy out of it for me. 

Exercise needs to be a joyful and immediately gratifying experience in order for you to want to do it. That's just science or human nature or whatever. 

When I've been in "good shape" or exercising regularly, here are some reasons why: 

• I'm working inside a dark windowless room all day. I'd like to get up early to see the sun and yoga is easy to do early in the morning. 
• It's summer and swimming is fun. I'm going to get up early to swim at the local outdoor pool. Also, I can get some Vitamin D. 
• I'm super motivated to go below a 1:06 in my 100 butterfly this season.
• Doing yoga with my friends is a great way to catch up.
• It's nice that I get to spend quality time with my mom early in the morning doing weight training.
• I'm so excited to be on this beach. What are all the possible ways that I could explore it? 
• Exercise is an escape from this really busy and intense schedule. It's nice to not have to think for a little while. 
• I really enjoy playing water polo
• My summer club swim team is really fun. I love the community and the fun workouts my coach gives.
• Getting up early and exercising makes me more productive and calm at work. 
• Going for walks with my loved ones is quite enjoyable. Also, it's nice outside. 

I'm sure you savvy individuals reading this blog post know that exercise is good for you. 

So, here's the action item for this week:

In the comments on this blog post, tell me: What motivates you to get "moving?" When you've been consistently active, what do you notice about yourself? 

Like a Cop Car

Wee-ooh Wee-ooh Weee. Wee-ooh Wee-ooh wee. 

This week the 4th principle in the "10 principles of Intuitive Eating" is Challenge the Food Police. 

(For my thoughts on the 1st principle, 2nd principle, and 3rd principle, click on the corresponding links here)

Don't worry. You don't have to get out your umbrella for this one, go on a hunger strike or fly to Ferguson. Listening to Lil' Wayne, however, is strongly encouraged. 

1. Think of all of your food beliefs. Identify them. Write them down if you have to. 

The first step in challenging the food police is identifying where he or she lurks in your psyche. What are your beliefs around food? Is kale good? Are hamburgers bad? Think about all your "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts" when it comes to food and exercise.

A helpful way to start this process is to think of all the diets you've been on. For example, I once just didn't eat french fries for 40 days. I used to believe french fries were the worst. 

Feel like the list is too short or can't shake a feeling of the complex religion in your head of food and diet? 

What foods make you feel GUILTY? Those are likely to lead you down the rabbit hole of what you believe about food. 

2. Let it go! Let it go! That perfect girl/boy is gone!

Frozen lyrics aside, (have I mentioned I teach 3 year olds how to swim?), just drop those beliefs like a hot potato or like you're getting down on the dance floor. 

To do this DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy) style, take that list that you just made and destroy it. If there's a safe way to do it, burn it. Cross out all those beliefs with a pen. Crumple it up. Shred it. Laugh maniacally while you rip it up into tiny little pieces. Flush it down the toilet. 

That's all for this week. Just allow yourself the freedom of an agnostic relationship to food. 

Please don't resolve to start another diet

Happy New Year's Eve!

If you're anything like me, you're waking up from the past few days feeling a little groggy, a little bloated, and with a little anxiety about the holidays being over. Maybe you're feeling a little guilty for eating too much, drinking too much, or spending too much. If not, you're prepared to have your last hurrah tonight. ; )

The way many of us rationalize our way out of the holiday guilt is anticipating the penance of January 1. This means that everybody and their brother will likely resolve to lose 30 pounds, stop eating wheat, or hit the gym hard 6 days a week.

This year I am calling for an end to this paradigm. 

Why? 

1. Diets don't work.

Studies have shown that 95% diets don't work. That means even if you lose 25 pounds, you're likely to gain more back. In fact, weight gain is "significantly related" to dieting. This means independent of genetics, dieting has been shown to actually CAUSE weight gain. Here's a great video with lots more juicy info on this topic. 

2. We have more important things to do! 

Like watch this video!

This AWESOME video from Melissa A. Fabello, writer for Everyday Feminism, is one of my inspirations for this particular call to action.

In this video, Fabello notes that women spend 21 minutes a day body shaming and thinking about dieting. That's two hours a week! 

I encourage you to invest your time and money this year in causes and goals that really matter, like existentially matter. 

3. Participating in the diet industrial complex solidifies structural inequality. 

Fabello talks about this in her video, too. Obsessing about food and spending money on our bodies is one way in which females experience inequality. Make-up is expensive and so are diet pills. Women spend a lot of time and money on their "body projects" as Fabello calls them. That's time and money that could be spent closing the pay gap. 

Also, what lies behind our desire to be thinner? Who are the beautiful people? Many times beautiful people are white and upper middle class. In learning to love all bodies, we can learn to love a more pluralistic society. 

So, unless you'd like to gain weight,waste your time, and contribute to the patriarchy, please don't resolve to lose weight.      

 

Rocky Mountain High

 I returned to the place of my birth and my childhood this past weekend. I spent the 5 days wondering why I ever left. 

Denver had highs in the 60s last week and up in the mountains it's dumping powder like the sky is a white gold manufacturing plant. It's the most beautiful and awesome place to be. I'm going to need a memo from my fellow New Yorkers on why I pay so much to be there especially since Denver is so much cheaper. Can you say $3 drinks?

But that's not even the best part. Colorado is one of the healthiest states in the Union and it's not because everybody is on juice cleanses and diets constantly. It's because Coloradans incorporate fitness and healthy living into their lifestyles. 

Coloradans love the mountains which means they love the outdoors. Mother Nature is a really wonderful trainer. And the smartest part about it is that Coloradans don't even have to think about it. 

I will admit that in my days in Colorado I just naturally weighed less. Sure, I was swimming competitively but also, every weekend, I spent 8 hours a day playing around in the snow or going on hikes, ridings bikes or swimming outdoors. In Colorado, fitness is a way of life. 

This is what makes me sad about most people's weight loss efforts in most other places in the world. Just like the emergence of processed food, we have removed ourselves from lifestyles that provide us with natural healthy food and natural exercise. Guess what? If you ride your bike to work and play with your friends outside, you probably don't need to hit the gym. 

In my homesickness, I challenge you all to incorporate fitness as part of your regular routine. Get off the subway a stop early, go for a walk with your friends, ride your bike to work. 

The healthy choice can be the easy and fun choice. And when it is, that's when it will stick. 

or just move to Colorado. ; )