06/23/2023
Let’s talk body trust, movement, and caloric beverages.
Our culture and healthcare system relies on this belief that we have 100% control over our bodies. This taints our relationship with them though… which in turn ruins our relationship with food and movement.
Being able to trust what we want and need can feel foreign. Diet culture and healthism do a realllll good job at burying our intuition and trust with our bodies. Think of just how long you’ve had this perspective of food, movement, and your overall self for. It can start as young as 3 years old. (Harriger, Calogero, Witherington, & Smith, 2010). When I was a pediatric dietitian, I saw it as young as five.
To rediscover our trust with our bodies we need to listen to them! What are they asking for? Are you judging yourself for wanting certain things? Maybe that’s what our bodies need. And if we continue listening as we give our bodies these foods, forms of rest, movement, and other experiences then we begin to feel more intuition.
The other day this looked like a walk with my girl around our neighborhood. We checked in, laughed a lot, and even talked about finances. And mid-way we both really wanted a root beer. So we ended our walk at the corner store to grab some which ended up feeling super satisfying. It all just felt really nice.
There were no moral ties to the movement, no demonization in the soda. The soda was not “earned” and the soda did not “cancel out the walk.” This language totally skews the reality of our bodies systems. The more we view movement as a chore the less we’ll want to do it. The more we criticize and shame sugar sweetened beverages the more enticing they feel.
I encourage you to sit with yourself and ask your body what it may need. What do YOU want? What do you need? A check in, fresh air, and a rootbeer felt pretty solid to me.
