Listening To Your Body
If you are on social media at all, your algorithm has probably presented content on fitness where someone has said, “listen to your body.”
The thing is, to some people that means whether or not to exercise and that simply isn’t the case.
Why?
Because your body is a toddler and not a full grown adult.
Tormund is a wonderful kid. But, if I let him have his way doing what he wanted to everyday and just let him plan the day…we would be sitting at home in rain boots and mismatched pajamas until the Monster Truck and Auto Show came to town. We would eat Cheetos non stop. We would watch tv and jump on the dogs heads.
The way it really goes is we have a plan for what we think a good childhood is for Tormund and balance it with how he’s doing that day.
If he’s doing great and having a good time, we do all the things. Play games, go to the park, head to the gym, watch some tv, read books. The whole lot.
When he’s having a bad day where he’s throwing tantrums and extra sleepy, we will go out on an adventure, just we limit how long we are out because we need to recover and take a longer nap today.
And when he gets sick? We stay home and have that little day he craves because that’s a great sick day. Full recovery and bumming out.
Your body is the same freakin’ way guys.
Your body, if it had its way, would sit around all day and doom scroll until you go hungry. Then, when you got hungry, you would order something you crave from door dash and resume. (Except a toddler does this to learn boundaries and create autonomy, your body does this to prepare for a future without this abundance of time and food).
You have a plan for your body and what you believe will give it a good life.
Sleeping 8-9 hours per day, moving every day, lifting 3x per week, stretching daily, eating enough to support daily life + exercise, eating a colorful plate, and all the other things the fitness community tells you are what make your body an asset.
On a good day, you do all of those things and feel so rewarded for doing so.
On a bad day, we stick to trying to do those thing but we just give a phoned in effort to just keep the inertia going.
Then when we are sick or anything bad happens, our bodies are pulling from a bank account of health and you can better weather the storm.
Some days it feels like we are pulling out bodies kicking and screaming into the gym and others it’s like getting to go to our favorite place on earth. It’s the consistent drive towards what we believe will be a better future that makes for the healthiest possible outcomes.
(And to finish the toddler analogy: maybe all the good memories and habits means he will visit us in the retirement home and he makes positive impacts in the lives in as many people as possible)
To talk with a coach today, click the link found HERE to schedule your No Sweat Intro