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It’s easy to assume nutritionists don’t struggle with food. But it’s often the opposite. At least it has been for me.
There is a reason we got into this space. For me, it wasn’t solely because I wanted to help other people or because health came easy for me. In many ways, it was because I had my own issues with food.
On the surface, I hoped I could find a place where food and health issues were never a problem, never my focus, which is ironic considering I chose this as my career. It’s the majority of my focus. Because of that, I constantly second-guess what I’m teaching.
Truthfully, I wonder if I know what it takes to be well.
Yet, time and time again, I come back to the foundation that none of us really have it figured out. We’re all a work in progress, and forever will be because we’re human. I don’t say that to dismiss the work but to shift the focus.
I’ve had to do this to stay in the health space and thrive within it.
Recently, I took a very unexpected break that happened for a million and one reasons, including some current health struggles (or what I labeled as health struggles based on what I saw on the surface).
Luckily, the space gave me time to reflect.
In this podcast, I share my current health struggles and my wins. As much as it’s easy to miss the wins, I don’t want to discount that regardless of what I see, this is what I know. Listen to the podcast to get my vulnerable conversation about what I’m dealing with.
Learn what is working in my health routines.
No matter how much ‘progress’ one makes, there will always be room for growth. I’ve found that true in every area of my life, including my health. Regardless of my knowledge, I’m still a work in progress.
Truth be told, the best experts are the ones who recognize that growth never ends and that knowledge is always a process. They lean into the lack instead of pretending it doesn’t exist. I find myself here often, struggling just as much as the next person while questioning the best direction.
It’s frustrating, but it can also be enlightening. Upon investigation into my current health struggles (and body issues), I realized my body might be reacting in health internally, even if it felt like the opposite externally.
That’s hard to understand when health has been positioned into a box. It’s hard to recognize that health is not based on human logic, and it’s certainly not linear.
I’ve found that sometimes the path of healing can look (even feel) like two steps backward before it feels like you’re moving forward. For example, you might feel sick in the process of detoxing or gain weight during the process of losing it.
It doesn’t always make sense, but it’s all part of the healing process. You can trust it if you know you’re working to support your body.
How I’m supporting my body.
Even if my body isn’t responding in the way I had hoped, I’m still working to respect it, to trust that it knows what it’s doing, and to understand why it might be responding the way it is.
While I’m not out of ‘the place I don’t want to be,’ I am making strides. I know that the work I’ve done and continue to do is good and healthy.
I attribute that work to the daily disciplines I’ve established over the last few years, which have become a grounding force for my body, mind, and soul. I may struggle, but I don’t fall as hard or fast. Not to mention, it’s certainly easier to climb out of the place I don’t want to be.
Disciplines are not easy, but they are consistent—a constant when life is always changing. Because of that, your body craves them as a form of structure.
They don’t have to be fancy or even complicated. The best disciplines establish relatively basic and simple routines.
My current go-to rhythms I love include:
- Working to get at minimum 10k steps daily with a goal of 15-20k most days
- A hearty breakfast
- Cooking healthy dinners at home
- Taking my supplements daily
- Drinking more water
- Reading at night instead of scrolling
- Taking a hot bath
- One solid walk a day
- Lifting heavier weights 3-4 times a week
- Daily prayer and devotional time
- Nightly oral care
- Getting a minimum of 7 hours of sleep (I prefer 8) as often as possible
- Spending time with the people I love and showing up to be present with them.
How Will You Support Your Body?
Supporting your body is different from changing it. However, it’s not void of it. You can still change your body, but it must come out of supporting it, in a way, trusting that in supporting your body, it will change.
Rather than another system, supporting your body is a series of lifestyle disciplines.
Daily practices you do, regardless of how you feel, because they’re part of you.
At first, they might not come easily, but they become second nature over time. Getting there means staying consistent with simple practices that help support your body, generate energy, and live your life.
If you need help figuring out where to start, use this health snowball I’ve outlined to progress in the right direction.
Dump the all-or-nothing approach and let small wins turn into bigger ones.
The more steps you become disciplined in, the more impactful they will be on your health and the greater the support your body will have to change. Over time, you can continue to build health and wealth within your mind, body, and soul.
Stop following a system and build rhythms.
It’s definitely not perfect, and there aren’t any specific ‘goals’ per se, but I’ve built these foundations that help me stand even when life feels overwhelming or my health feels wavering.
Disciplines and rhythms help you regain balance when life pulls you out. They’re what I go back to, what grounds me, and what keeps me on the path of health.
And it’s not a system.
What rhythms and routines do you need to add to your life? You might also find these five disciplines I’ve developed life-changing in establishing healthy rhythms and working through the health snowball.
FOLLOW ALONG IN HEALTH SCHOOL TO LEARN MORE.
This podcast belongs to a larger series called Health School. A podcast devoted to teaching you health is much easier than you know, but that happens when you understand the foundations of how your body works and its connection to your mind and soul.
Get all of the remaining podcasts in this series here.
Get additional resources from the show below:
- A Health Update: How I’m Moving Forward
- The Best Health Plan For You
- Metabolic Power of Feminine Energy
- 10 Ways to Honor Your Feminine Energy
