Feeling Better in Your Body

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Full Episode Transcript:

Today’s topic is one of my most favorite and I cannot wait to talk with you about it today. Feeling better in your body is of course such an important thing, right? The reason why I love this topic is because it’s important to feel better in your body not just physically, but also mentally/emotionally. Meaning, your thoughts and feelings about your body. And the fun thing is, we get the opportunity to improve all of these, the physical and mental/emotional pieces.

Your body is with you for a very long time, your whole life to be more exact. What else is with you your whole life? Not that many things, but even less tangible things. Maybe the baby blanket your parents brought you home from the hospital in, or your favorite teddy bear that your grandparent gave you as your first stuffed animal. Maybe certain personality traits, but those aren’t tangible of course.

Now your body changes over time, but it’s still with you. You grow taller, even shrink later in life, gain weight, lose weight, gain muscle, lose muscle, experience changes due to pregnancy. These are some simple examples of more visual appearance body changes. Larger ones mostly. You can have smaller ones too, right? Like graying hair, less hair, more hair, skin that darkens, lightens, wrinkles, and sags.

There are also functional changes too, like the way your body moves, digests food, your sleep patterns, stiffness in joints. And of course there are diseases and medical conditions that change your body.

So what exactly is your body? It’s just simply a vessel of sorts (I know vessel is an odd word to describe a body, but that’s really what it kind of is) that allows you to experience life. Your body is required for you as a person, to experience all you get to experience in this world. So your body is an amazing gift for that reason.

It allows you to do different things, such as move around, see, hear, smell, taste, and feel things. It allows you to communicate. It allows you to grow another human being inside of it. These are just some examples of the things that the human body in general is capable of. Some may not be able to see, bear children, move around easily, etc. Some may have a better sense of hearing or better be able to communicate than others.

My point is, that your body is an enabler. It opens up opportunities for you. So, it’s really important to take care of your body, so you can feel better in it physically, but also treat your body well mentally/emotionally, so you have a good relationship with your body. Why is that important? Because your body is with you your whole life, and I don’t know about you, but I would want to have a good relationship with something/someone I’m going to be with for a long time, especially if it were my entire life.

In this episode I’m going to talk about both feeling better in your body physically and mentally/emotionally. That way, you can get the most from your experience of life and this world with your body as your assistant or (vessel), plus have a good relationship with that body that’s with you forever.

Alright, so, what does feeling better in your body physically, mean? It can mean minimizing pain, maximizing cardiovascular health, improving strength, feeling well rested, being hydrated, being well-fed. So, of course there are things you can do like get 7-9 hours of sleep a night, drink 8-10 cups of water a day, exercise. And of course, make sure you’re getting enough calories to provide you the energy you need, plus eat foods with many nutrients, which your body loves, because it needs certain macro and micronutrients.

Macronutrients meaning protein, fat, and carbohydrates. These are the nutrients your body needs for energy (in addition to the calories) and also to maintain the physical structure of your body. Micronutrients refers to vitamins and minerals that your body needs to function well and also help prevent disease and other health conditions.

Luckily, you have control of a lot of how your body feels physically, right? Like if you make sure to drink enough fluids, get the sleep your body needs, move your body, eat nutritious foods. In general, if you do fairly well with each of these, you’ll probably feel pretty well physically in your body. Of course there are exceptions like injuries, disease, medical conditions, illness. Typically though, if you treat your body well, you’ll feel fairly well. If you’re majorly lacking in one or many of these areas though, you may not feel all that well.

For example, you can get all the sleep, exercise, and water you need, but if you have really poor eating habits, you aren’t going to feel great necessarily. Your body may not function well either. For example, you might feel weak, like you have minimal energy, like you can’t focus or think clearly. You may even feel physical symptoms like a headache or stomach pain.

Some examples of eating habits that may cause you to feel physically unwell are overeating to the point of stomach pain, undereating and feeling weak, or maybe even headaches and nausea. Also, eating a lot of refined sugar (meaning, sugar that is added to foods and not found naturally in foods like fruit).

For eating habits like these, feeling better in your body physically would mean overeating less frequently, undereating less frequently, eating less sugar, things like that.

For some people, if they eat certain foods that aren’t necessarily classified as “unhealthy”, they may not feel well physically. Sometimes their stomach bloats or can be really uncomfortable. Gluten and dairy are examples of foods that can cause this. Gluten and dairy aren’t bad. In fact, dairy has many great macro and micronutrients. But for the people who maybe have a dairy allergy or sensitivity, they don’t feel physically well from these foods.

So what do you do to feel better in your body physically when it’s a food that has nutrients you need? You can consider decreasing the amount, making sure you’re getting those nutrients in at least one other food. Using the example of dairy, see how you feel going from eating dairy or twice a day to dairy once a day. Then, maybe once a day down to a couple times a week. Playing around with it to see how you feel physically.

Basically, what you put in your body (or don’t put in your body) food-wise can have an effect on how you feel physically. So if you’re eating foods that make your body feel well, perform well, etc., then that’s ideal, right? If you’re noticing that you don’t feel as well as you’d like to physically, you may want to see if you can figure out if your eating habits or specific foods may be playing a part, especially if you feel like you’re getting enough sleep, water, and movement. And of course, if you continue not feeling great or have other symptoms, it’d be a good idea to rule out any illness or other medical condition.

Now, when you think of your body as the vessel that allow you to experience life, it can really make you want to take care of it, right? That’s why I wanted to start out this episode explaining that for a bit. When you see it as creating the opportunity, enabling, or being your assistant, you tend to be a little more likely to take care of it. You want to make it feel better physically, because you realize the value it provides you. It enables you to have fun in nature, laugh with friends, create art, have a career, connect with family members, enjoy the warmth of the sun and the beauty of the mountains.

When you see your body as something that just grows old and saggy over time, or isn’t the shape or weight you want it to be, you’re missing out on the amazingness that IS your body. You’re so focused on what it “should” be in your mind, instead of what it’s already doing for you and what it’s capable of still doing for you in the future. Even when it’s getting tired too. Even when it’s losing strength and mobility. It’s still working really hard for you, so you can experience life.

Okay, so that transitions nicely into what I want to talk to you about next, which is feeling better in your body mentally/emotionally. So, how you think and feel about your body.

My mentor, Natalie Bacon, who is an Advanced Certified Life Coach, teaches this in such a great way. So she asks, if your body could talk, what would it say about how you speak to it or treat it? Basically, if your body were another person, what would that person say about how you speak to her/him, or how you treat her/him?

Would your body say that you speak kindly of it? Would it say that you sometimes speak kindly, sometimes speak critically? Or maybe mostly unkindly?

What about how you treat it? Would it say that you treat it well as far as taking care of it physically and emotionally? Physically, meaning proper nutrition, not eating foods that make it feel terrible, getting proper sleep, hydrating, moving your body. Emotionally meaning partly how you speak to it, but also if you allow yourself to have and experience emotions? Also, not beating yourself up for feeling certain emotions, thinking certain thoughts, or doing certain behaviors.

What would your body say about how you treat it? Physically and emotionally? Would it want to still have a relationship with you if it were your friend?

For me, my body would say that I treat it well physically/mentally/emotionally for the most part, but the parts I could work on are better sleep, more water, and a little less disappointment if I don’t perform well playing one of my sports or just didn’t have a great running day. I’m a little tough on it with my thoughts when it comes to that. Something I didn’t realize until I specifically thought about it.

So just take a moment right now (you can even put this podcast episode on pause if you’d like) and think about what your body would say about how you treat it.

If you treat your body well physically, then just as you would take care of your body with food, water, sleep, and movement, do you take care of it with kind words? With appreciation, acceptance, and love?

These things are so important, because you’ll feel better in your body mentally/emotionally when you talk kindly to it. When you feel better in this way, you’re more likely to enjoy all it’s offering you. You’re likely to be more focused on your surroundings (people, experiences, nature), rather than being stuck in negative thoughts about your body.

When you think of your body like a being that you have a relationship with, you want to nurture that, right? Especially once you realize that your body is with you forever. You want to have a good relationship with it, so the journey you’re taking with your body is as enjoyable as it can be.

When you don’t treat your body well physically, mentally, or emotionally, it’s going to be a more difficult ride, right? Especially if you get in the habit of not treating it well. Then it’s easy to not treat it well.

It also wears on your body (and mind) after awhile and sometimes the damage is incredibly difficult to repair. It can be difficult to repair medically, if you haven’t been treating it well physically, and difficult to repair emotionally, if you haven’t been kind to it with your thoughts about it.

It’s all “treatable” to some extent though. Like many diseases are treatable, if not completely curable, the mental and emotional “damage” is treatable too.

You just start with identifying when you might be able to improve and pick one thing to improve upon first. If you feel like you could feel better in your body physically, then look at how you’re taking care of it, physically. If you feel like you could feel better in your body as far as emotionally, then look at your thoughts and feelings about your body. What one thing could you improve?

If it’s that you could eat less of a certain food like sugar, then eat a little less sugar today. Start with just today. Also, by the way, I’m hosting a workshop on How to Break Your Sugar Habit on September 22^nd at 7pm ET. September 22^nd is also when doors open officially to Food Freedom, which is by design because I’ll also be answering any questions about the program at the end of the workshop and letting you know about the fun bonuses you’ll receive in the membership.

The workshop is on Zoom and it’s completely free. So come to that if you want to learn more about Food Freedom and also if you want to feel better in your body by breaking your sugar habit (if you have one). That doesn’t mean never eating sugar. It just means getting control of when and how much you eat sugar, so that you feel better physically and mentally, because it no longer has control over you. You have full control.

Alright, so I just want to end with this. Your body does so much for you. Are you reciprocating by treating it well? Are you speaking to it in a way that encourages a long and healthy relationship with it? Are you nourishing it well? Are you moving, stretching, resting? Are you filling your tank with all of the good stuff?

If you’re not, no worries. That just means that things can improve from here, which is such great news right? It’s always better when you know that it can get better. So don’t be down on yourself if you haven’t been treating your body well. The good news is that if you haven’t, you’re aware and can start making some small steps to start feeling better in your body. Just pick on thing to work on first. One small change. That’s what it’s all about, my friend.

Thanks so much for listening today, and I’ll talk with you soon.