Are You Feeling Exercise Resistant?
The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating were created to give structure and goals for those on the intuitive eating journey. The ninth principle is “Movement -- Feel the Difference” and is defined as follows:
Forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie-burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm.
It is not a coincidence that this principle is 9 out of 10. That is because many who develop a disordered relationship with food and their body also develop a disordered relationship with exercise. Exercise is approached as a ‘have to’ and it is part of a regiment aimed at achieving a weight goal. When exercise is framed as a militant to-do it becomes an exhausting battle to complete on the day to day. When someone becomes disenchanted with it the prescription is to find a trainer, wake up earlier, find an accountability partner, and so on. These prescriptions perpetuate a negative cycle of feeling bad about yourself when the exercise never gets completed or does not get completed to the degree that it was intended.
When this cycle develops we need to get back to the basics of our relationship with our body’s and with movement. You are more likely to enjoy being active if you find something you enjoy. This can mean many different things to many different people. Perhaps you like improving at a skill like tennis, or the unstructured-ness of dance, or the community aspect of a yoga class -- the key is to explore and keep exploring until you find something that suits your interests.
For those who are recovering from an eating disorder and are seeking eating disorder therapy, it is not uncommon to take a break from movement entirely.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is take the prospect of movement off the table entirely.
This is a really important step for those in the earlier stages of eating disorder recovery.
There is nothing wrong with taking time off of activity so that you can realign your relationship with movement. In fact, this can be a really necessary step to rediscover the positive and healthy relationship that you can have with your body and with movement.
You deserve to not only enjoy what you do with your body but you also deserve to enjoy how you feel in it.
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If you are interested in learning more about how I work with individuals through eating disorder treatment, please feel free to read more here or reach out to set up a free 20 minute consultation. I look forward to hearing from you!
-Ellie