The Nourished CEO Podcast Befriending Your Body with Alyssa Chang
Being fed and fearless is more than just nourishing and healing your body, it’s about learning to listen to and trust it. Alyssa Chang joins me to talk about how we can all learn to befriend our bodies in order to have a better, healthier relationship with it. Because sometimes, we have to think of our body as not a part of ourselves, but a separate entity that’s connected to us, that we can speak to, listen to, and learn from.
BEFRIENDING YOUR BODY
Alyssa explains how over the years she has trained herself to check-in with her body. Coming from a very athletic background, competitive volleyball followed by shape competitions, she quite literally put her body through the mill. After so long restricting and restraining her eating habits, spending obsessive hours at the gym, and ignoring what her body actually wants and needs, it was a process that didn’t take place overnight.
When Alyssa first stopped her intensive regime, she, and actually many of my private clients, felt overwhelmed and exhausted in her rest. At first, she thought this was because she had more energy training, but she’s learned it was actually because her body was living in a state of fight or flight, and when she finally let it rest, the constant adrenaline had a chance to relax.
Alyssa now works with her clients to define their values before they embark on any new health and fitness journey. If your regimen doesn’t align with your true core values, then why are you doing it?
Another point Alyssa makes sure to emphasize when it comes to befriending your body is learning how to breathe properly. When you’re breathing deeply and regularly, incorporating an appropriate movement therapy, your body will feel more in alignment. And more than this, your body won’t crave comfort foods the way it does when you’re in a constant state of stress.
If you find that you’re binging on a box of cookies at night time, it’s easy to fall into a cycle where you’ll be “good” all day the next day. But being “good” all day usually leads to undereating. Your body will then demand you make up the calories you’ve lost throughout the day, and that’s where the cookies come in. You need to break this cycle by nourishing your body properly throughout the entire day.
What are you saying no to so that you can say yes to your health and fitness goals? How do you check-in with your body on a daily basis? When’s the last time you’ve noticed the way you’re breathing? Let us know on the comments on the episode page!
Got a question you’d love to hear me answer on the show? Leave me a voice message here!
In This Episode
- Why you need to listen to and trust your body
- How you can train yourself to check-in with your body on how it’s feeling
- Why you might feel overwhelmed and exhausted after doing some intense self-work
- How defining your values has a big impact on your fitness and health journey
- What your breathing should actually look like for optimal health
- How breathing and movement therapy can change what foods you’re craving
- How restrictive eating can lead to a cyclical pattern of overeating or binging
Quotes
“It always comes down to, ‘well does it really align to what matters to you and does this provide your life meaning?’” (22:44)
“You want to think about breathing fully, deeply, efficient breaths as like actually giving your internal organs a little massage.” (29:10)
“I honestly feel like there will be intuitive responses that we will do as a deeply rooted need to keep us alive. So sometimes being on a very restrictive plan and falling off every so often is our body reaching a certain threshold of not being able to function anymore.” (37:15)
Links
Follow Alyssa Chang on Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest | YouTube
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Got a question you’d love to hear me answer on the show? Leave me a voice message here!
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