The relationship you have with yourself differs in many aspects, from the fitness relationship you have with yourself, to your nutrition relationship, the at home compared to the out and about relationship. There are many relationships with have with ourself.
Think about it this way, when you’re at home alone do you just eat how ever you want and as much as you want, but if you were in the company of someone else would you eat differently? I know that I have caught myself doing this before.
Our fitness relationship is sometimes a really good, tight relationship. You exercise consistently and then there are other times when exercise is non existent. Or if you’re in the gym alone you don’t nearly work out as hard as though someone is watching you in a group class. Am I right?
Even the words we choose to say to ourself in our self love relationship. When you call your self horrible names, or fat, or ugly or anything that doesn’t serve you – this is when your self love drops. I know so many people struggle with this and I have been so guilty of this. If I’m in a bad relationship with myself I’ve said silly things like “oh I’m so chubby at the moment”. We have all been there so it’s a matter of tidying up the language we use towards ourselves.
I understand – there is a lot going on and there’s a lot of relationship building to be done.
Today I am just going to talk about your fitness/wellness relationship. It is so important to strive for a healthy relationship with your fitness + wellness regime.
5 Helpful Tips to Create a Healthy Fitness Relationship
- Chose love. With everything you do. Eat because you love your body. Exercise because you love your body and how exercise makes you feel. Each time you’re thinking whether to go to the gym or not, ask yourself ‘what would I do if I loved my body’ – you’d probably go to the gym right?
It is important that you are exercising from a place of love rather than a place of fear or hate. You don’t want to be exercising from a place of fearing that you’ll gain a kilo and you also don’t want to be exercising because you hate the way your body is. You want to exercise because you love your body and you want to look after her/him. - Schedule in an active recovery day. But not a day where you do nothing (that’s a full rest day). Plan a little recovery walk, a short yoga flow, 20 minutes of foam rolling and stretching or a swim in the pool or ocean. Days like these allow you to stretch out the muscles, relax while actively recovering and these types of movements feel so good when you take the time to schedule it in. Don’t be one of those people that go to the gym 7 times a week – that is not good for you.
Schedule it in + do it. - Don’t be so harsh on yourself. Whether you’re pushing yourself to your limits, beating yourself up when you gain 1 kg, when you had to take another rest day or you just aren’t pumping with energy. We are so quick to tell ourselves what we should have, could have or would have done certain things.
Give yourself a break and let the little things go. If you have to take two rest days, that’s your body telling you that he/she needs a damn rest. If you’ve gained a kilo, go to the toilet. If you’re feeling a bit less energetic, just let it be. Be kind to yourself. With each negative thought immediately tell yourself three positive things to cancel it out – rewire that brain of yours. - Work on your comparison-itis. In a time where our socials are flooded with ‘picture perfect’ (standards set by society) models who are potentially airbrushed and edited – it is hard not to compare ourselves. We have all been there, still go there or always there.
This is something that a lot of people have to work on (even me sometimes). Whether these models are airbrushed or actually just have ‘amazing’ bodies, it’s beside the point. When we compare our body to others, it means that our self worth and self love has dropped. It means we have be littled ourselves into thinking we aren’t good enough. Which is rubbish – complete rubbish. We are all humans, we breath the same air and we all deserve to love ourselves no matter what.
This is something that doesn’t change over night but making small thought changes each day will help you to stop comparing yourself. - Do a social media clean up. I did my first proper clean out about 4 months ago and gee wizz I feel great when I am having a scroll on my socials. We have to remember that it is a high-light reel of people lives so we can’t compare our lives to this. If you are scrolling and someone doesn’t make you feel good about yourself – delete them. Be cut throat with your choices. If you are consistently scrolling bodies that are out of proportion, airbrushed or unhealthy – this feeds your brain and doesn’t do your fitness relationship any good. Only follow accounts that light you up and make you feel good when you look at your socials.
Those are my five top tips with building a strong + healthy fitness relationship with ourselves.
What else have you found that really helps you have a good relationship with your fitness self? Add more tips below – the more the merrier.
Love & Peace
Teags Lee x
