[Intuitive Eating Series] Principle 9: Movement – Feel the Difference

Melissa Landry  0:04  
Hi there, we are experts in intuitive eating for on again off again chronic dieters and we are here to help you take the guilt and stress out of eating so you can become the first in your family to break the diet cycle just like we are in our families. We want you to be who you are without food guilt. Be sure to follow us on Instagram. No more guilt for Melissa and your Latina nutritionist for dalina

Dalina Soto  0:29  
Are you ready? Let's break the diet cycle. Well that's your lap. It's me Dalina. Before we start, I want to let you know that this episode is brought to you by your Latina nutrition you're about to listen to is not a professional coaching or counseling session. Each episode is a one time conversation meant for educational purposes. We are dieticians. But we're not your dietician. Remember that podcasts don't constitute treatment. If you have concerns about your diet and behaviors, seek out guidance from a medical or mental health professional. And if you're looking for a community tools to ditch the diet, help with finding authentic health and keeping your culture alive. Join my membership brought to you by today's sponsor me. 

Hey, Melissa we are here and we are like almost at the end of our Intuitive Eatin series. 

Melissa Landry  1:30  
We've gone through quite a bit. I'm hoping folks that have been following on along each week have that some ideas going about how they can improve their intuitive eating, what principle we got going today. 

Dalina Soto  1:46  
Oh, so today we're going to be talking about movement, joyful movement, fun movement, hard movement, all kinds of movement. Right? I think that oftentimes, when I talked to the two allies about joyful exercise, or joyful movement, there's this idea of like, has to be fun. The word joy was in Yeah. And it's like, well, it could be fun, if that's what you're into. But if you're like really into tossing tires, and like getting down to the nitty gritty and sweating, is that joyful for you then like, you should also do that. So I think it's kind of like about this when we did the episode with Lauren. And we talked like we touched upon that. But I think today I really want to discuss kind of like what how our relationship with movement has changed. I know for sure that I didn't have any relationship with movement prior to the pandemic.

Melissa Landry  2:42  
You were abstinent.

Dalina Soto  2:44  
And if you listen to our episode with the physical therapist, Danny, you, we talked about my knees cracking a lot. I was not someone who exercise very much prior to the pandemic. And I did get a peloton before like right before the pandemic hit like that, that November right before and that's when my relationship with movement started because I had never found anything that I truly enjoyed. Right? Like, I would go to the gym. I never really liked group fitness classes. I wasn't into the boot camps and you know, throwing tires, and my movement was always just like walking right? Like my movement was like being in the city and going office office and just like moving a lot but never like actual recreational exercise like never I usually fast. So peloton changed that for me, because you know how much I love Cody

Melissa Landry  3:44  
and not this is not sponsored, she just loves me love you.

Dalina Soto  3:51  
And I will be voting for you on Dancing with the Stars,

Melissa Landry  3:54  
I saw that oh my gosh, she's just exploding.

Dalina Soto  3:58  
But up until I found that I really didn't have a relationship with movement and exercise to me was just not like, whatever, I didn't care for it. And now I see how much better I feel and just how enjoyable It is to be because I actually found something that is enjoyable and that that can take time. And that takes time. As opposed to forcing myself which I never did. But people do go into the gym or doing boot camps which y'all know I'm not about that

Melissa Landry  4:29  
if you want Yeah, the other thing that's come up a couple times.

Dalina Soto  4:32  
I mean, I just gotta put it out there like it is not for delina Alright, but anyway, um, what about you, Melissa? How's your relationship with movement change?

Melissa Landry  4:40  
So it's like it's evolved, like when I was a kid, we were definitely quote indoor cat children. My mother was like, very concerned that we would get dirty and we were just like, burnt outside all the time. She was very like, my little girl, my girl like it was you know, so I never I did like dance class. And I liked that, but I never really had a spontaneous relationship to it sometimes with play. Then I did like field hockey through high school, I really enjoyed the sport. I was on a track team, which Me and my friends did not take seriously and would actually run to our local Dunkin Donuts, hide during the runs and like eat donuts, and then we would run back and pretend like we finished the workout. So I did not take it seriously and even had this identity around like, Look, Rose sweat. Yeah, this changed a little bit. Whenever I graduated college, where I was like, I think I would like to see if I can run a half marathon. Oh my gosh, this is the kind of personality and this was mine. I got really obsessed with running like doing programs to get stronger. And there was a part of me that really liked it. I liked like the meditation of it. I like challenging myself. But over the years, I could see it start to become more of a burden where I was like, Oh, my hips and knees, knees and feet hurt. Oh, why do I keep procrastinating? I don't want to do it. And then guilting myself. And so I have come such a long way around that now where I'm very much like okay, what is this serve? mate? What do I need to do to feel mentally healthy to not have creaky knees, but I have gone through like all the many different relationships to movement and I resonate so much with clients who have used to be like, I was like, the plan and the rigid and the structure where they are not doing that they feel like it's not good enough. And it's it's nothing. I work a lot with clients on that because I know what that feels like.

Dalina Soto  6:35  
So I wonder if this has to do with like, how are different how we're different in like our types of personalities, how I'm just like, very like go with the flow, whatever you're ever like,

Melissa Landry  6:47  
you need to have perfectionist. You need to write everything we got it? Well, our listeners like the show. our listeners, like the links, you know, the brains behind this year to Yap, and talena is the fun in the heart. So without this collaboration, you would have a very robotic podcast, which really like I think that's a really great point for all of us to think about. Like, you might have a more type a relationship with movement, and you don't even start because if it's not perfect, or it's not like how it used to be in the quote, good old days, why bother? That's all or nothing thinking we talked about a few episodes back. Or maybe you have this sort of relationship to it, where like, whatever, who cares, but you're maybe missing out on some of the mental health benefits of it or joy that can come from it. So it's worth thinking about as we start this, like, where do you find yourself today?

Dalina Soto  7:49  
and reflecting on to also like, how is this going to serve you? Right? Like how is movement going to help you because I think if you're only going to focus on this like burn mentality, which is what a lot of the fisco like, I G personal trainer, kind of like icky around movement to me, like what I see is a lot of the time is you have to earn your food, you have to burn your food, you have to do X, Y, Z in order to reach this number of like burn or like splatter or splash around for people are using now. Yeah, no, you know, I was trying not to cry. those metrics, right? Or, you know, just like in order for you to like allow yourself to be okay and happy or like the no rest days, like rest is important, y'all like your body needs to recover. So there's a lot of like, super icky talk about that burn mentality that we can get like sucked into Yeah, super duper, duper quickly. And I think that like, what I want to discuss here is just how to detach ourselves from that burn mentality. Especially because it feels like anytime you go to a gym, even the peloton is guilty of this. There's all of these like metrics that have nothing to do with feeling and like the mental health aspect of it. And more of like this quantitative, like, you have to hit these numbers, right?

Melissa Landry  9:29  
You can lose yourself around that, particularly if you're the kind of personality where these numbers introduce perfectionism or shame or guilt. Absolutely something to think about. One of the things that I started to label and notice is that a much much of the exercise were prescribed or promoted is performance training. And what I mean by that is like, Where am I at now and what do I got to do to exceed or push my physical ability, and if you always approach movement like that, it's kind of like Capitalism productive make more do more mindset that's driving it if that's the only way you think about activity as a performance training, then you're never going to have the opportunity to value Oh, rest Oh, taking a walk Lena I think that's wonderful. You had that in saw this movement earlier in your when you were like working Oh, city and all coasts,

Dalina Soto  10:23  
you know, on Type B. We all like that. When people were like, what are you doing for movement, I'm like, I walk around with understanding in heels. That's what I do. I have, you know, car seats that I like, chug around everywhere. Oh, and this is something that I was talking to Lauren about the other day, I was like, I have no upper arm strength anymore. Because I'm no longer carrying carseats. Like, I'm no longer carrying kids either. Like prior to having kids. I worked at this public health nonprofit where I was teaching kids nutrition. So I was carrying around boxes. I was lugging around like proper parts and props, like all the educational stuff, like I would come to the schools with like bins and like food and refrigerators like those little cooler things, I would carry so much like three different book bags. And then before that I was a server. So I was the odd Hey, listing trays and like walking. So like I was always very much. Yeah. And I had upper body strength, because I was carrying shit all day. Yeah.

Melissa Landry  11:33  
And I noticed that too, like, since starting, like we both own our practices, we look work largely from home, I just started a co working space, which gets me walking as part of my day more. But that's something that I do miss a little bit with the commute was that I had that built in movement that I think I took for granted. It's really hard when you're going from like bed to desk to then learn the skill of like, how do I carve out the time now because it used to just like happen. I think that's a really hard transition.

Dalina Soto  12:03  
Yeah. So I think that we often fall into if I'm not at the gym, then I'm not moving. If I'm not taking a workout class, I'm not moving. And I think we need to kind of like zoom out and see everything that we're doing in the day that is moving our body, right? Because that's what's important, really for our mental health and our physical health is that movement of our joints movement of our body, that burn mentality is just going to cause more guilt and shame and it's not going to make things enjoyable. Right? So one thing is loving to you know, flip tires I constantly talk about this right? It's like my favorite like little analogy. But like if you truly love to like go to these like workouts places and it makes you feel frickin amazing to be able to like throw a tire or like you know, do strength training. That's different than forcing yourself to do these things. Because you want to learn more Yeah, not making sense.

Melissa Landry  13:04  
Yeah, I think too like getting okay with the fact that you might not love movement isn't a thing you know, functionally movement does so many things for our physical and mental health. You can have a relationship to movement the same way you have a relationship to brushing your teeth like sometimes it's kind of a pain in the ass like I'm watching TV I want to jump straight to bed I don't want to brush my teeth you know like it's not like the most whoo I'm having a blast Okay, we this is where we differ again again we have a break how do we make this work I just love you for you that's what it is we're just it's spirit social soulmate kind of thing. But like sometimes it's it's not sexy or exciting to brush your teeth but you do it because you like them afterwards you like when you go to the dentist and you don't have to have expensive painful work and so I don't know sometimes when clients are really it's like body image like I don't think I'll ever love my body can I be neutral about it? I if you are right now going lol I have never loved movement and I don't think I can't What if he became a little more neutral and practical around that

Dalina Soto  14:07  
that's okay, you know what, that's the kind of cynicism I had before where like I was like I don't like the gym I hate the gym I don't need to work out like I feel like I was definitely in that space for a very long time because I had jobs that were like labor right? And you know, I was tired all the time from like working lifting shit. So I think that of course as things have shifted, I did have to like find other ways I had to write because my knees were cracking I was feeling sluggish like movement to me became in my mental you know health was suffering because I was just like so sedentary and just like stressed from the pandemic that I think that that peloton are just being able to go for that bike ride with my Latin music that is worse here.

Melissa Landry  14:57  
corys rides in the EM It's my faves. Oh, we got that electronic music.

Dalina Soto  15:04  
Oh no. I've 90 RMB Wait, I

Melissa Landry  15:10  
wanted to tell you that Bunny, aventura collaboration vol via the song that you pointed my way that I am obsessed with. I'm not kidding you everywhere I go in Boston there are people are blasting it out their windows and I'm like, on the corner like yeah, it's so bad dancing dancing.

Dalina Soto  15:29  
What we like that, but I had to definitely stop being so cynic about about movement and Is that the right word? So Nikki, and Nikki? Oh, yeah, my language. beginner must know, parents. Um, I had to. Isn't there a word? finicky?

Melissa Landry  15:46  
Yeah. You said I thought you said Finnick.

Dalina Soto  15:48  
No, I thought it's finicky. Whatever,

Melissa Landry  15:50  
rewind playback,

Dalina Soto  15:52  
I have to stop being so finicky. And really focus on like, what I had to do differently to move my body more because I was definitely feeling it. Right. And so that bike definitely helped me and it's never been about the burn mentality and more about not being so sedentary. So I think it's important to talk about sedentary lifestyles, and you know, how they might impact our physical health and mental health and why we want to focus on not going to the gym, but really moving our bodies. Yeah, in ways that feel good to us. Right. That's where that joyful exercise joyful movement phrase comes from, it's about moving our bodies in ways that feels good for us. And that we can do movement that we can do, right and not like forcing ourselves to run, you know, a marathon, you have to train for that. You can just like get up and do that. Right? Like, I think that we need to remember that as well as we're hopefully getting out of this pandemic, soon. That you can expect to like, run, before you walk like you have that we've been living pretty well. At least true. Living pretty sedentary lifestyles working from home. And so now we can't expect our bodies to just like, get up and do it all. at once. The sequencing.

Melissa Landry  17:13  
Yeah, and setting those small goals is life changing for people. And look, you may never run I want to make that. So so clearly. That's okay. Hey, in fact, a lot of the merging research in the public health messaging is looking at two things. One, walking is actually the, quote, best exercise because of the longevity. People have in doing it, it's easier on the joints. There. There are psychosocial benefits to walking. You know, if you're in nature, if you're having a conversation with a friend, there's so many benefits. But the other thing that research is looking at is the sitting less, that is a separate independent risk factor. People who sit more are more likely to have health events. And so if that's where you have to start sitting less starting there is totally overhead that's gonna help your health.

Dalina Soto  18:05  
Yes, yes. And I think that again, this idea that you have to go to the gym for an hour or do a class. That's not what this is about. It's about moving your body, moving your joints, getting the blood flowing, getting fresh air, connecting to nature, you know, connecting to people. Yeah, there's so many benefits of movement connected to your body is a big one, right? Like, learning, you know, the movement that feels good for you and your body and, and how it makes you feel right. And also, you know, one of the biggest gripes I have with a lot of the fitness world is that there's not enough modifications, they expect everyone to do the same thing. It's okay for you to modify. It's okay. I can't touch my toes. I feel like we've talked about this a million times on here, like I am not flexible. And that's okay. I am just a stiff person. And I don't have to be hard on myself about that. Right. Right.

Melissa Landry  19:09  
So having these small goals being okay with like, if right now you're not ready to schedule up movement, what can you do to sit less ultimately, it's about consistency. If someone has a sit less mindset, and they're able to do that everyday for the rest of their life, that's better than the person who does boot camp for a week and then says, Oh my god, I'm so traumatized. Nothing for three more years.

Dalina Soto  19:34  
There's an NPR article that I usually share in the last club and when I talk about this in my modules, where there was a researcher who kind of like wanted to see if untouched people from like people that weren't touched by technology, so like you went to very remote places where there's a lot of phones, TVs, blah blah, if they there was a difference in the amount of time that they set versus like countries like the United States or just like Europe. And what he found is that they sit roughly the same amount of time as we do. Difference in both is the quality of the sitting. So we slouch a lot. And that's a lot of where the sedentary lifestyle research comes from. It's like that slouching, the like, spinal cord not being like up all the time, the core not being engaged like us kind of like just like cars like love. People in these places actually squat to sit their cores engaged, their spinal cord is straight all the time. Or they sit with like, chairs that don't have backs to them. So they don't have the ability to like slouch. And the quality of sitting was more important. Interesting. Isn't that interesting. And they also looked at sleep. And again, they sleep about the same time, but the quality is better, because there's no lights, or like, their rhythm is all connected, all connected. So when we talk about this, it's quality, we can write your quality of life, right? quality of life is important. And if your quality of life is you know about getting a good chair that's going to help you sit better, that's going to help you posture, it's going to make you feel comfortable while you're sitting in your court if that's where you got to start. That's better than like my

Melissa Landry  21:41  
dope joyful movement goal. And that's an invitation of this is to say, like, when you come into this podcast, you're probably like, okay, Dalina and Melissa gonna motivate me to finally be a runner up spoiler alert, we ain't doing that. Instead, maybe thinking about one small behavior, like, Okay, you know what, my chair is awful? Is it time to invest, or I sit for eight hours straight, maybe I'll get up and have lunch at the table. Something that just invites a little shake up here, if done consistently can totally change the trajectory of health. And when it feels good, I want to do it more, which is the best part.

Dalina Soto  22:16  
Yes, it's like or like, you know, maybe I'm gonna get up and like, go to the printer, instead of like waiting to pick up every day. Like there's so many different little things that we can do throughout the day. Break that cemetery, or, say saved your life that but really that was that right? There's a

Melissa Landry  22:36  
sedentary time sitting.

Dalina Soto  22:39  
Like I send everyone I work with like desk stretches that you can do where you can just like leave it on your desktop and like take five minutes and just like stretch, right? Like if you do that pomodoro style of working where you like, work for 20 minutes, and then take a five minute break. I get that going? Really,

Melissa Landry  22:59  
I've been trying it out. It's a it's an aspiration.

Dalina Soto  23:03  
Yeah, but like even like, but it doesn't matter. Just like getting up and stretching your body for five minutes at your desk at your cubicle. Like these are desk structures. So you're not actually standing up. So you can Google that you can google things that you can do, again, to get the blood flowing to get your your, you know, spinal cord straight again. They definitely have it in a different way of like, how can you find movement that's going to benefit you? That's the goal. For sure. good points. Yeah. Yeah, I think that to kind of like round this all up. The goal is to find exercise that's going to benefit you movement that's going to benefit you. The goal is to let go of that burden mentality and focus more on the joy and that type of movement that's going to serve you and your body right now. And really trying to focus on sitting less like that is the main point. Like we want you to sit less and we want you to live more,

Melissa Landry  24:08  
for sure, more intentionality, more mindfulness, which when you're not worried about food and body image all the time, that and that's why these principles really do all work together. A lot of clients when they go to make goals around this, they really start because they're just so tired. So if this is one that you're like, Huh, those other principles I should be focusing on first based on me and what I know of myself, I can put this one on the shelf for right now. But if you're feeling ready, I love the takeaways day. Perfect.

Dalina Soto  24:38  
Yes. So do what you got to do for you. That is the main point of it. Well, thank you for being here with me, Melissa and listening to my shenanigans.

Melissa Landry  24:51  
I love it. I love the takeaways from this. I learned a little something about that sitting thing I had known that before. So bye, you Put it in the show. If you think of it, we'll put it in there. And I guess that's a wrap on today. And so we want to thank you for supporting us and our mission to break the diet cycle. If you know someone who had benefit from the pod, hey, share this episode. Maybe you want to talk about it with your friends, your family, get everybody connected on this mission. Really excited to be here. Yes.

Dalina Soto  25:22  
Thank you for being here. Peace, love and break the diet cycle.