When it comes to leaving diet-culture, there are a few similarities in the roadblocks that we all face. Not like it's an exact science, but there are some common themes among those of us who are recovering from eating disorders and diet-culture.

One of those themes is figuring out how much exercise is 'enough', and coming to terms with a shorter length of time, or a less intense practice.

When I ask you right now, what comes to mind? What does a 'valid' yoga practice look like? Or a 'valid' workout? Hit reply and let me know.

Would you believe me if I told you that any length of practice is enough? That doing a childs pose for a minute counts as yoga? That going for a walk counts as a valid movement practice, and you don't have to work out at 100% intensity for it to be valid either.

Things might come up for you hearing that, a lot of 'if's or buts', but the baseline is true. Does this mean you should never do a movement practice longer than a minute, or at a high intensity? No. It does mean that your movement practice can look a lot different than what you've been taught it should look like.

Let's give some examples with fake names, and altered stories for anonymity.

My friend Anne always did pretty intense movement, lots of long runs, and bike rides. They'd been doing this for years and years, never really questioning it. Anne and I started working together in the Rebel Movement Club and through our discussions, and movement classes had started taking a second look at her perspective on movement. She'd never really thought that movement could be enjoyable, supportive and beneficial. One day she got on her bike ready to do an intense cardio session and a few minutes in came to the realization that she actually hates biking. So she went home, and did yoga instead.

My friend Bart has a history with disordered approaches to movement. For most of their life movement was a punishment, and they've really struggled to have any kind of practice at all. Before we started working together they always felt like maybe they were just 'bad at' exercise, and that they were 'lazy' and 'just couldn't find the motivation'. We started working together 1:1 and after acknowledging their difficult history had a new empathy for themselves and could totally see how and why movement might be difficult. They weren't lazy, or bad at anything, they just had some healing to do, feeling to feel and perspectives to challenge. They came to realize that there actually is some movement that they love, and find really fun and could start to move for those reasons rather than punishment.

My friend Trip hates movement, but knows that they feel better after. We did some work to find some of the ways that movement helps them: less stress, better sleep, less anxiety. He decided these were pretty good reasons, and started to add some movement in, and just let himself be grumpy about it for the first bit of the practice. He always found he felt better by the end, and found this approach really felt supportive and helpful.

Not real people, but real things that real people have been through. These examples are a combination of a few people's stories as well as my own to demonstrate one important point:

Everyone's version of 'enough' is different. Everyone's approach to their movement practice will be different, and every single one of those approaches is valid.

Let's work together to figure out your approach. Book a 30 minute free consult with me to chat about how 1:1 coaching will help you.

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What you missed...

Last week on Rebel Movement Podcast we caught up! Did a little chit-chat and talked about what was new with me! Head over here to listen

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