"Good Health" recommendations are always changing and remain not only tiresome to keep up with but also contradictory in nature. It really depends on who you ask, right? Current health recommendations and practices aren't necessarily backed by good science either so, if you're like me, you pick and choose from myriad sources what resonates with your own world views and then you apply it to your life in ways that work for you.
This week let's not get bogged down with what's "right" for our health, but instead turn inward to listen to what our bodies need and want for food, movement, and mental clarity.
Let's look to nature to ground ourselves. Let's look to the seasons to inspire the way we feed ourselves; the way we choose to move our bodies; how and what we seek for self care.
I had a year of Self Love therapy the year we moved back to Richmond. The boys were two under two and I had just left my DC job on the verge of launching MamaBorn.
"So what do you do for yourself outside of the gym and taking care of the kids?" my therapist asked. I sat there staring at her, unsure what she meant.
While listening to and trusting my body and the natural process of birth had always made so much sense to me, and Attachment Parenting's philosophy of listening to my mother intuition and trusting my baby had come very naturally to me, I realized then in the context of this new role and these new relationships that I had learned to power through instead of taking care. In lack of sleep, emotional stresses, and the very physical relationship that is mothering babies and toddlers, I had all but tuned out my own needs as a person—for hunger, for fullness, for movement, for rest, for solitude, for sleep—and it wasn't working for me anymore.
Adopting the Intuitive Eating* philosophy in particular changed my life and helped me over the course of a year to redefine my relationship with food but I couldn't stop there and have since expanded the concepts to encompass exercise and other aspects of my self care routine. Sometimes it feels indulgent, yes, but being in tune and able to provide myself with what I want and need to be a sane healthy human mother with plenty to give back to the people who matter most to me, well, justification isn't necessary.
This week the weather turned to the cool 60s and we wanted to be out in it so I'm focusing on the ways I moved my body this week.
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| The Sears Brothers in their signature embrace. Post dinner walk at dusk on a warmish winter night and the river is high. |
My sister and I made it out on Sunday for an hour hike around the marshland near our house.
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| We went for what turned out to be a muddy marshland schlep this morning but the sunshine and cool air felt too good. As Spring nears I have renewed energy for what the rest of the year may bring. |
Another morning the weather demanded a change in plans from what I had penciled in as a treadmill run.
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| I drove to the gym this morning and hopped on the treadmill to run but then decided three minutes later to leave and drive all the way back to my neighborhood and down to the river for a nice long nature walk because it's 53 degress outside, my body is so sore and tired from my workout last night, and the James is just what I needed. I've been on a couple year journey relearning how to trust my body's need for things like food, and rest, and sleep. I think I'm getting pretty good at it. |
I workout Monday-Friday with a long outdoor walk or hike on Saturdays with my sister. (M/W mornings cardio and weights, T/R/F evenings personal training and long steady cardio.)
Now that the weather is warming up I'll be heading back to SealTeamPT, an outdoor fitness program I've enjoyed for the last year and a half. I took the winter off and hired a personal trainer instead, but I cannot wait to get back outside with the group. Rain or shine. It's a snapshot of nature every day of the year and it's a great workout. Spring is almost here and I'm done hibernating!
Does your current health routine serve you in the ways you need and want it to?
In what ways can you look to the weather, the season, and the natural world to further inspire and guide your routine for fuel, movement, and self care?
*To eat intuitively is to eat only what you truly want, when you are truly hungry, and stop when you are physically full. For more reading: The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating. Through intuitive eating I have found my happy place where food is both fuel and pleasure, freely and shamelessly.
Intuitive eating resources:
Are You an Intuitive Eater? Quiz
Intuitive Eating Primer
Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole (book)
The Emotional Eater's Repair Manual by Julie Simon (book)
If you want to check out the 12 weeks to Homespun Seasonal Living workbook that I'm using for these weekly prompts, check out Kathie's blog at Homespun Seasonal Living.
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