Remember When You Loved to Play? Movement and Aging with Body Liberation

My number one rule for movement is I want you to think, “Ooh, I get to ____!” instead of “Ugh, I HAVE TO _____!”

We know how essential movement is to age well; that is abundantly clear!

AND your relationship with movement may be complicated!

• Has calculating your movement based on your eating, and vice versa, been going on for so long that you only see moving your body as “damage control”?

• Does finally dropping out of toxic diet culture (aka recovering from disordered eating) have you afraid to start being active again? Part of you may fear this will trigger a relapse into your previous disordered thoughts.

• Does the “all or nothing” thinking you developed in diet/wellness land have you feeling stuck?

• Are you feeling overwhelmed by the rules and recommendations from “experts” on social media?

I get it!

As a 65-year-old woman, I get hooked by the fear-mongering in the messages about aging well and movement. I'm grateful that I can check myself and walk myself out of the oppressive, dark side of these messages. This is a significant part of my work with clients, too. Let's get into it:

Tangled Up: How movement gets tangled up with seeing your body as a project.

If you have a history of dieting or disordered eating, you likely learned the old messages about calories in and calories out along the way. Looking at your body as a project you were trying to get right or control probably included "burning" and "earning" calories through exercise. 

Moving your body got all tangled up with controlling your body's size and shape. Does it feel automatic for you to think about managing your weight when you engage in physical activity? You are not alone; this is a very common side effect of dieting and disordered eating. 

When you try to un-diet yourself and shift into a healthier way of relating to your body and eating, you may find that adding activity back to your life is more complicated than you expected. You may experience what is known as exercise resistance. 

There may be a part of you that wants to protect you from your previous harmful relationship with exercise. You may have a perfectionistic streak that makes you feel like only certain types of movement "count." Diet culture contributes to "all or nothing" thinking, so you may feel stuck in the all of over-exercising or the nothing that speaks for itself. 

If you relate, I hope you can give yourself some grace!

Mending your relationship with your body and movement means: 

• aligning with your whole-person well-being (including your mental health)

• protects you from triggering disordered eating thoughts and behaviors

• focuses on your body's function and energy rather than your body's size and shape

• honors your body with a respectful and caring attitude

Mending your relationship with movement is crucial to your Aging with Body Liberation journey!