Deep Dive: Staying the Course to Prime Wellness

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So you're just going to have to try it for yourself. So go to the show notes and hit the link Laura 20 is the code for 20% off. Herbal face food. I love it. I love it. I want to share it with you all. I'm Laura Hyman and welcome to Redefining Movement, a lit podcast designed to investigate all aspects of movement from my background in physical therapy and neuroscience. My mission is to help everyone find freedom through smarter movement patterns and compassion for ourselves and others. So together we can live our most uplifted lives benefiting all beings. Welcome to our monthly deep dive. I am joined as always by my unbelievably gorgeous co-host Kristen Williams. Hey Laura, everybody. I have so many other things to say but we have a lot to say here but I'll give you all the props yeah it's so all to always do this together. We're really going to deep dive into our theme of the month which is about staying the course and this is how to maintain prime health and wellness really how to do it no matter what time of year it is because we know that there is a lot going on in the world. It seems like it's only increasing the pace and all the challenges that are happening and with that it can be really hard to maintain our own healthy lifestyle. All of us are juggling work perhaps family, social obligations and sometimes that can lead to neglecting our own well-being but we need to stay the course in terms of our health and wellness because that is truly as we say all the time the key to living a long fulfilling joyful life. We know that journey isn't always easy we might have some speed bumps but really staying aware of how we treat our body how we optimize our habits and our mindset that these can all help us keep aligned with our goals. So we're offering some tips that are important during any season whether it's a season of your the year or a season of your life so if with whether you're young or you're more in the middle-aged years it's never too late to course correct and we have provided a nice little guide for you to stay on track with your health journey but also we're giving some signs that are important to watch out for when you might be going off course because if we can catch ourselves by knowing those signs we can again course correct and stay on course. Yeah and so I think first and foremost one of the most important steps in maintaining this you know kind of health and wellness perspective is to set clear sustainable goals you know you want to have a clear sense of purpose so whether it's losing weight building muscle improving your mental health or how you're feeling each day increasing your energy levels or sitting a more specific goal maybe running a marathon you know working out three times a week no you you need to make them number one specific but also achievable um I think it's quite easy to set a lofty goal that is then harder to attain so it's a lot easier to get off course when you haven't set a clear sustainable and achievable goal you know so for example instead of trying to lose 10 pounds or instead of trying to run a marathon start trying to lose one to two pounds and maybe just run a 5k there's you know couch to 5k was the rage 20 years ago because it really did it was easy achievable for people to get off the couch and run a 5k which is 3.1 miles which run walk whatever and I mean there's the the studies you're showing right now that just walking 15 minutes after you eat after every meal dramatically improves your not only your energy level but also just to get that metabolism going and you know keep people from just packing on unnecessary pounds so you know having that long-term vision for your health helps you stay grounded and make better daily decisions because I think you know when you know you have to get up the next day and meet a friend for a walk or you're going to your new fitness center you're less likely to make poor decisions drinking too much eating too much going to bed too late you know when you have a long-term vision you you make better daily decisions so when your goal is aligned with your lifestyle it's a lot easier to stay the course absolutely and as we always talk about number two is to be consistent and that consistency might take time and like you were mentioning don't bite off too much so to speak at the beginning it's better to start a habit with you know smaller doses so that you are successful and that success kind of breeds the confidence that we need to be more consistent so being consistent with our exercise and movement is huge and it's the foundation to maintaining our prime wellness and I always say pick what you enjoy I think walking is really easy because we all are walkers like we are bipedal we're made to walk but maybe you're not a big fan of Lara of taking long walks but include more walking maybe you love swimming I know a lot of people who love swimming I'm not a big fan of swimming so I wouldn't choose that because I probably wouldn't be successful at doing it consistently but it's fun to try and implement some things when you have other elements that are really consistent of course practicing yoga practicing lit we know how that amazing that feels and how the consistency of that again just renews our energy and renews our inspiration to continue to stay the course weightlifting a lot of us have started adding more weights this is another thing that you can choose in being consistent in because that'll help strengthen your body and it helps improve your mood and boost your energy so all these things will help you feel better and it's important to listen to your body and just continue to try and be consistent so here are some signs that you should know that might be taking you off course so if you skip workouts kind of regularly due to lack of motivation or feeling too fatigue that could be a sign that you're going off course you know sometimes it could be like oh I you know what's going to do something like a big hike on Saturday but I slept in that's one thing but if it's kind of a consistent escaping workouts check in and get yourself back on course because that can always lead I was talking about Newton's law like things that rest like to stay at rest and things in motion want to stay in motion so we kind of need to course correct to get that the wheels going again another sign is if you're feeling achy or injured regularly that might indicate you're overtraining or you're not training with the best form now at lit we are so tuned in to biomechanics and we hear over and over again how much that has helped people create this consistency because they don't end up you know tweaking something or being injured so if that might be the case higher somebody or go somewhere or try a late class whatever it is and get the education about form because if you are not if you're overtraining or you're overtraining with not the best form you can really burn out either way and that's not going to help you stay on course also if you have decreased energy levels even after exercising that could just me that you're pushing too hard and you aren't giving yourself enough recovery so we're all about movement we're all about exercise but with that there's the balance of making sure that you rest and restore well and that you know people can go on either into the scale they can under you know under move and they can over move or or do too much and add too much load and not give themselves enough recovery so just know these signs and catch them so that it doesn't lead you to just burning out yeah well i love that you point that out because so often we think of going off course as meaning not doing what we set out to do but it can absolutely mean just like you said overdoing which then you get hurt and you have to go off course sometimes to rest and recover when if we just make those better daily choices and and i love that you mentioned choosing something that you like to do really is a is a good way to just set yourself up for success and you know number three is prioritizing quality nutrition you know we need our bodies need fuel i used to when i was in pt school i had several jobs and one of them was working at a raps and smoothie place it was called polani drive i went back when we went back to visit richmond this this last summer i went in i was like polani drive it's still open let's go and it was just 20 years ago 20 plus years ago 20 how 25 years ago i was there walk in still there still had my favorite things but it was it was it was run it was started by a and an iron man triathlete and why i bring this up is like literally recall he used to call it beating not eating because fueling his body he was literally feeding what he was depleting and we need to do that by the way i saw him he's still working there it's just it was crazy he recognized me and it was it was a really fun little fun reunion but you know eating that balanced diet of of you know foods that are rich in vegetables lean proteins healthy fats they're that fuel that we need to to properly maintain our inner our energy level and we exercise you know avoiding restrictive diets that leave you feeling deprived and so i think we have to be very careful when we set the goals of weight loss and we're adding exercise that we're still appropriately fueling we see this happen a lot to girls and men but especially women who are in and endurance sports track and cross country runners where they become so focused on that lean body type that they are not fueling to meet what they are doing and they start to lose their menstrual cycle you know we want to make positive health choices so you know making sure that you're not restricting your diet too much in order to meet your goal embrace a mindful eating where you focus on how the food makes you feel so if you eat it and you feel tired afterwards maybe that's not the best thing for your body we're not all wearing blood glucose monitors but your body will tell you you know you usually can feel when you eat something and you feel energized when you eat something and go into the food coma so some signs that you might be going off course with your diet would be a constant craving especially for sugary or processed foods when you eat sugar it's got especially the process the refined sugar really has an addictive type of feeling where you start to crave more so if you're craving that sugary stuff it could be an instance that you're eating too much of it we're going through all of our birthdays right now I've had more cakes and cookies in this house that oh my gosh and so going away for the weekend and not eating that stuff was so good because I was eating it every single day and it was like oh I don't really need that feeling sluggish or bloated after meals you know can really get you to go off course because you're gonna feel you know you're gonna create an imbalance and feel that imbalance in your body you know our body does respond to what we're putting in it and then also emotional eating is a very common way that people will go off course where you're sad you eat too much emotional eating can also be when you're stressed you eat less I've definitely I'm a I'm a stress weight loser a lot of people are stress weight gainers so you know really watching that you're not just eating when you're bored or when you're you know have nothing better to do so making sure that when you're trying to stay on course that your nutrition is serving a purpose and it's serving the purpose to fuel your body in the best way possible as you may already know not all movement practices are designed equally in the lit yoga method we help you retrain your brain and body to move better for everyday life our online platform the lit daily is designed for easy convenience with the robust offering of class types so you can boost your energy while getting stress relief when we move better we feel better so sign up for our free one week trial and see how getting lit can help you feel your best today and for years to come oh and I love how you said it is you know you're feeding you're not eating because that really changes the perspective I mean this food is a huge part of our wellness because it is what when we feed ourselves we're feeling ourselves we're helping our energy and conversely when we're not eating the best we our bodies tell us that by all the things that you were talking about whether we feel bloated or lacking energy and so I think it is even though we're not nutritionists this is a huge part of staying on course is making sure that you're you know adequately eating you're eating all the you know great balanced whole foods primarily diet and also drinking a lot of water right that's hydration super important and addition to that another tip is on mental health and mindfulness and we know true wellness always encompasses mental health and emotional health and many of these things are intertwined twine to like when you are moving and you're eating well you it inevitably you tend to have a brighter outlook because you you have more energy you're just more vibrant but additional things you can do is you know practice some stress relieving type of classes deep breathing journaling if that's your jam a meditative movement walking in the woods anything that will help you calm your nervous system but also help you increase your focus and your overall mood is going to be really helpful the things that might be signs that you're going off course feeling overwhelmed feeling anxious or just chronically stressed we've all been there and certainly there's different seasons of life that makes that much more possible and and that's we should just robustly be prepared for that you know some things we can't be prepared for I'm a big change a death in the family you know a loss of a job that you didn't expect there's there's things that can really put you in the position of being burdened with stress or anxiety but the more we prime ourselves on a daily basis it'll help us come back to being on course so it doesn't mean you're not going to be off it's just again coming back the other thing that is a sign is is it that tendency to avoid self-care practices because of time or perceived lack of energy I think this is a huge one the amount of time we hear from people in the platform people we teach in person people we might meet our friends all of us can think of examples where people feel too busy to take care of themselves and that never has made sense to me and I'm just grateful that was never an issue for me because for my young age I knew that when I took care of myself I was just a better human and then you know once I got married I was a better partner and then once I had kids I was a way better parent if I first took care of myself but that isn't always the the you know messaging we get whether it's culturally socially within the family that we need to take care of ourselves and it isn't selfish it's absolutely imperative so if you find yourself that you are avoiding that because of this perceived lack of energy or time everybody has the same amount of time and you deserve to dedicate some of that time during the day to you and what's crazy is you will get more perceived time to do things when you've taken care of yourself right we've all had those days where we didn't really exercise or move and the day just kind of flies by even though you do don't do a lot when you have some productivity in the form of movement or self-care it's like you gain hours of the day because you have more energy another sign might be difficulty sleeping or you're constantly irritable which is just this kind of on the same lines if you're not resting recovering if you're not kind of decompressing it really puts you in a state of irritability so that's just to sign to get back on course start moving start taking care of yourself and start doing some of these practices for self-care yeah because I mean goodness gracious number five quality sleep I mean sleep is the cornerstone of wellness I mean a restful night sleep really helps your body to recover your brain function you know is at its best when you have a good night sleep and it really also helps regulate our hormones and so I can't tell you the number of times even this weekend I heard someone say oh sleep when I'm dead and I just I I've never prescribed to that I'm one of those call lucky or not lucky I'm very I'm I was laughing with somebody I'm like a rooster you know when it gets dark my butt wants to be in bed but why do I wake so but that's gonna if if we really prescribe you know the rooster's got it right yeah rooster is getting you see it in your dogs even your cats they they're getting their quality sleep because they aren't in a in a asleep when I die mentality you know we want aim for seven to nine hours of quality sleep I am notoriously so I've always you guys everybody knows that I struggle with sleeping I'm a for me it's more I'm a I'm a really aggressive dreamer but I still stay in bed for seven to nine hours so even if I'm not sleeping I am resting so I'm not getting up and getting on my phone I'm not getting up and doing work I might be lying there with my eyes closed fuming but I'm still I feel like I'm still resting and I think the amount of energy I have throughout a day is evidence of that so you know some signs that you might be going off course with your sleep hygiene is you know struggling to fall asleep or stay asleep um I really work on what I drink before I go to bed you know I do not have any caffeine I I try not to have it after one p.m my husband can drink a diet coke or whatever dinner he can have iced tea my kids can have a cup of coffee not me that is going to I know my body it will keep me up I'm extremely sensitive to caffeine and on the flip side relying on caffeine or other stimulants to get through the day is going to send your sleep hygiene off course and this quality sleep really is a big big part of being able to maintain this healthy lifestyle that we're kind of talking about this this getting that course correction can start with your sleep so if you find that you're struggling to fall asleep or stay asleep you're lying on caffeine to stay awake you might be going off course also if you wake up feeling tired despite a full night's rest you know that's why I even though I'm not a great sleeper I feel like I have good sleep hygiene because I'm rarely fatigued you know I do not and I rarely nap because it's another thing taking naps will mess up my sleep hygiene so I would rather get if I feel tired I'll get up I'll go take a walk and I'll do something to wake me up um you know so really monitoring what you're doing and how you're responding to the signals that your body's giving you and some people can take a nap and still go back to bed I'm lucky for them you know but I know my own hygiene and so I think getting to know your body what it needs when it comes to sleep when it comes to nutrition all the things we're talking about is really so important you know for this staying the course yes and I I love that you you know mentioned when you're feeling tired you'll get up and move um because even if you have had a you know not a good night's sleep or several nights I'm not sleeping that well um and it might seem like the last thing you want to do is start moving but actually that's like that inserting that little medicine that you need to then get back on track because otherwise it can just become this big blur of fatigue and so even if you are feeling a little tired because of lack of sleep or not sleeping well or whatever reason just try and get up and move a little bit and that will actually help your sleep I was just talking to somebody the other day about this um who has sleep issues and I'm like how much are you getting up during the day and moving are you getting some sunlight during the day because all these signals like the rooster um we need them they're moving around they're getting that daylight sun height you know at the highest point of the day is really good to get some sunlight in your eyes so that your um bio rhythms are going to be back on track the other thing that's going to help is just tracking your progress but being really gentle and flexible it's some people are really they love spreadsheets they love tracking on data and all of that and that's awesome if that's you everybody knows who you know what is your appealing thing um and I like to track my sleep and my aura ring but I I have probably you know we can track our progress but we also want to be flexible because if we're if we're not flexible that that can sometime if we're too caught up in numbers um that can that can work against us so we want the tracking of data or progress however way you when do it we want it to be motivating but also not get too lost in it so whether you're tracking you know number of steps or um how you slept or tracking weight loss or muscle gain or even mental health progress we we need to be flexible and gentle on ourselves because we know something that life will get in the way um things will come up and that's all okay because that's part of life it's just when we're on this course it's not a straight line it's more like a spectrum and we just want to be on it um and stay on it as much as possible and then quickly be able to of course correct when not so some signs you might be off course in this tracking of your progress is when you feel discouraged easily by um small setbacks you know so that then you just kind of abandon your healthy habits and this this circles back to that whole idea of taking small bites you don't get into any kind of negative cycle you know this is why so many news resolutions don't work and they have such a negative connotation attached to them because people make these lofty goals they're added they're added they join a gym in January and then they you know come may they look at maybe like how many times they've gone and they haven't gone that much at all they did a lot at first and then they just lot kind of petered out and so you don't want to peter out there's going to be setbacks but try not abandon the healthy habits that's like don't abandon yourself ever and when you wait band and healthy habits you are in an essence abandon yourself so be okay with that there's going to be some setbacks sometimes people are training for something and they have you know an overuse injury and it's a bummer it doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to be able to do that that performance that they were training for but they can still keep moving and and also think okay when i'm healthier i'll get back on track for this bigger event i'm also if you're really overly rigid you can you can tend to burn out as well there so have a plan but your plan is always subject to change so you know there's people out there who if you know they had friends visiting they're going to still do that 12 mile run no matter what and that's okay but it's also nice if you if you have friends visiting you're like i'm not going to do that 12 mile run today or i'll i'll do it in two days or something having a little bit of adaptability to circumstances because then you're you're going to feel more excited and motivated to continue and then the other sign that you might be going off course is if you start to lose the joy in the activities that used to motivate you and that might be just assigned to shake things up to not abandon your effort but to just shake things up so that's one reason again on lit we try and you know you're not doing the same routine every single time you're not always doing the same sequence every single time because we need that stimulation and excitement it's good for our brain it's good for our body and that does keep us on on track so whatever you in whenever you do go off course just try and use these tips to come back and you know be gentle on yourself i'll be mentioned that you know about the rigidity with routines and when you have something come up and we're you and i are leaving for Greece yay in a few days and i'm actually believe it or not running a half marathon the weekend after we get back and so you know when i signed up for this i was sort of not really thinking about well that might affect my training and you know you could literally look at that go oh my gosh i need to bring my running shoes i need to run a long run while i'm there guess what i'm not gonna i'm gonna bring my shoes i might get on the beach once or twice but you know i just was like hmm today for my long run i went a little further so i knowing i'm not gonna do that for the weekend that that's how i'm staying on course it's not stressing me out it's you know your husband mark did a an an ultra run he had an injury didn't stress him out just like you know what i'm gonna take that week off i'm gonna change my taper so that's really that you know not being rigid and a lot of it you know is the this this this final point is checking in with a support system you know having a community to help you meet these goals is important so if something goes wrong if you have an injury i had a friend who was running a half marathon a couple weeks ago right leading up to it she her hip was bothering her i right away said do this class do this class i gave her three classes on lit daily she treated herself and was able to run that with with with no issue so you know checking in whether it's friends family a health care professional having someone to not only hold you accountable so doing stuff with friends but also encourage you to stay consistent to treat your body if you get injury you know injured can go a long way so some signs that you might be going off course with a community is if you're isolating yourself from people who might support your healthy habits so let's say you have a friend who you know does like you guys run every week and then you're like you know what i've got something else to do if you find that you're avoiding that hopefully that friend will hold you accountable but that's kind of a sign that you might be going off course doing stuff with friends goes a long way to keep you on course because you're accountable to them neglecting your regular check ins with your fitness trainer um a therapist nutritionist whatever you know these are signs that you're going off course you are you're you're not showing up for whatever reason i say always say be compassionate to yourself for whatever reason that is because it's real but once you recognize that you're straying that's your sign to start to make your way back on course and then also relying on maybe some unhealthy social influences that may encourage poor lifestyle choices i mean you know if you're hanging out with someone that's you know not an exercise or not a good eater not a healthy drinker um we're creatures of community and we tend to do what what we surround ourselves with so you know maybe making better choices there unless you are someone who happens to have a really strong um ability to withstand peer pressure which you know again i i'm all about being compassionate and so you know kind of our final thoughts on this is be compassionate with yourself on staying the course because it really is about balance and balance like i love that you said Laura it's not a straight line you know you're walking that balance beam you're gonna wiggle you might fall off get back on it is not about perfection you know it's a practice it's about making intentional choices that contribute to your long-term health and wellness your well-being listening to your body learn to know what it's telling you and then being compassionate to yourself if you strayed being compassionate to yourself if you get injured that it's maybe not anything you did wrong it's just that life happens you know i get injured and i'm like Kristen you knew better but i'm like okay i knew better but i'm not gonna beat myself up about it i'm just gonna move on um you know and adjust as as necessary because when you recognize these signs of of going off course earlier it's a heck of a lot easier to get back on the balance beam if you fall off you get right back on so stay flexible stay consistent and most importantly stay kind to yourself yes amen stay kind to yourself and i think in summary it's like prioritize yourself without burdening yourself right you should be the priority because you are the only one ultimately in charge of you you have support systems around you family friends maybe you're tracking your progress and all these kind of ways but at the end of the day it's really in your hands and so be gentle but also create that consistency because you're the one that's going you're the one leading your life you're the one living your life um and you deserve those self-care routines that are going to keep you vibrant and thriving and staying on course and as always you know that we are pulling you thank you for joining us on this episode of redefining movement if you like what you've heard please like and subscribe wherever you get your podcast feel free to leave us a rating and review or share with someone you know check us out at www.litmethod.com