Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #231| Comparison Is Sabotaging Your Health Goals—Here's How to Break Free

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#231| Comparison Is Sabotaging Your Health Goals—Here's How to Break Free · Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing

• 0:00
  Elizabeth Dall: True happy change has to come from a place of self-acceptance.
• 0:10
  Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
• 0:18
  Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
• 0:23
  Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's Working Woman experiences.
• 0:28
  Michelle Gauthier: And in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease, and relaxation to your life.
• 0:35
  Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend.
• 0:39
  Michelle Gauthier: Thanks for joining.
• 0:40
  Michelle Gauthier: Today we have a guest, Elizabeth Dall.
• 0:43
  Michelle Gauthier: And I asked her to be on the podcast today because I think what she's talking about in terms of our bodies and food freedom and accepting the bodies that we have today is a realistic and kind and empowering approach that I was really attracted to.
• 0:57
  Michelle Gauthier: Elizabeth is a nutritionist and a personal trainer and the host of the Woman of Wellness podcast.
• 1:03
  Michelle Gauthier: When you listen today, you'll learn why true change in your body starts with acceptance instead of restriction and what that looks like in action, how comparing yourself to others and even including your past self, like saying, Oh, when I was in high school or when I got married, sabotages your progress and keeps you stuck.
• 1:21
  Michelle Gauthier: What to do instead of falling into that cycle of shame and starting over and giving up again and again.
• 1:27
  Michelle Gauthier: So if you've ever thought, I know what I should be doing, but I just don't do it, this conversation will help you understand why and show you how to start from a place of self-compassion instead of punishing yourself.
• 1:39
  Michelle Gauthier: So thank you so much, Elizabeth, for being with us today.
• 1:42
  Michelle Gauthier: Welcome to the Overwhelmed Working Woman Podcast.
• 1:45
  Elizabeth Dall: Thanks for having me.
• 1:46
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm excited for this conversation.
• 1:48
  Michelle Gauthier: Yes.
• 1:48
  Michelle Gauthier: Tell us, please, why are you even working in this industry?
• 1:52
  Michelle Gauthier: Tell us your backstory for how you got here.
• 1:54
  Elizabeth Dall: Long ago, I was headed toward to nursing school, actually.
• 1:57
  Elizabeth Dall: I always wanted to help people.
• 1:59
  Elizabeth Dall: I knew that I wanted to help people.
• 2:00
  Elizabeth Dall: And I got a particular assignment on a floor where it was like preventative care could have helped many of these people.
• 2:06
  Elizabeth Dall: And long story short, I decided that I wanted to be on the preventative end.
• 2:10
  Elizabeth Dall: I wanted to help prevent some of these diseases and these struggles that people had.
• 2:15
  Elizabeth Dall: And so I decided to go down the route of like exercise and sports science, nutrition, all of that.
• 2:20
  Elizabeth Dall: And I became a personal trainer.
• 2:22
  Elizabeth Dall: And I thought, this is it.
• 2:23
  Elizabeth Dall: This is it.
• 2:23
  Elizabeth Dall: This is what I'm gonna do.
• 2:24
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm gonna be a personal trainer.
• 2:26
  Elizabeth Dall: And so I would give my clients these textbook perfect plans, right?
• 2:30
  Elizabeth Dall: The plans they tell you to follow, you'll get the results.
• 2:33
  Elizabeth Dall: And what happened very quickly is I realized my clients were coming back not following the plan.
• 2:38
  Elizabeth Dall: I was seeing a couple days a week in the gym.
• 2:41
  Elizabeth Dall: And then the rest of the week it was like life got in the way.
• 2:44
  Elizabeth Dall: I got busy.
• 2:44
  Elizabeth Dall: I got overwhelmed.
• 2:45
  Elizabeth Dall: I emotionally ate all of that.
• 2:46
  Elizabeth Dall: And what really led me to where I am right now is realizing that health is not a cookie cutter plan.
• 2:54
  Elizabeth Dall: We have to learn how to incorporate health into our own lives and create what that looks like for us so that we can show up for our best life.
• 3:03
  Elizabeth Dall: And we have to learn how to navigate health in an imperfect life, a busy life, an overwhelmed life, and all of that because that's what we have to work with.
• 3:13
  Michelle Gauthier: Yes.
• 3:13
  Michelle Gauthier: Oh my gosh, I totally agree.
• 3:15
  Michelle Gauthier: I can't wait to hear what your magic is for this because I think I can speak for almost everybody who's listening, because obviously everybody's an overwhelmed working woman if they're listening to the podcast.
• 3:24
  Michelle Gauthier: Most of the time when I get a new client and I ask them about all the different areas of their life, the one that I can say consistently that doesn't get a great score is usually their health.
• 3:34
  Michelle Gauthier: And they say things like, I just can't get it together to do like meal prepping every week and work out five times a week and all of these specific things that they're unable to do for themselves, even taking a walk, etc.
• 3:48
  Michelle Gauthier: And there are lots of things I know to unpack about why that is and why women aren't willing to take care of themselves in that way.
• 3:55
  Michelle Gauthier: But what I also see is that they're fighting a lot against the body that they have, meaning they're unhappy with the body that they have.
• 4:02
  Michelle Gauthier: Is that very common for you to hear as well?
• 4:05
  Michelle Gauthier: And then how do you approach that?
• 4:07
  Elizabeth Dall: Very common.
• 4:08
  Elizabeth Dall: I think anyone listening might have those feelings.
• 4:11
  Elizabeth Dall: And it usually stems from comparison.
• 4:14
  Elizabeth Dall: And it's three different areas of comparison that we typically struggle with.
• 4:18
  Elizabeth Dall: It's comparison to others, right?
• 4:20
  Elizabeth Dall: You see someone on social media, sister, whatever, comparison to an ideal or a standard.
• 4:25
  Elizabeth Dall: This is what you're supposed to look like.
• 4:27
  Elizabeth Dall: And then this one that people don't think about a lot, but it's very common is comparison to what you used to be.
• 4:33
  Elizabeth Dall: So your 40-year-old body compared to your 20-year-old body is going to look very different.
• 4:38
  Elizabeth Dall: It's going to function differently.
• 4:40
  Elizabeth Dall: But we get in our heads that I was better here, even though lots of women say I didn't love my body anymore here versus there.
• 4:46
  Elizabeth Dall: It stems from that comparison.
• 4:49
  Elizabeth Dall: And we create the story from there that our body is less than hers, less than the ideal, less than what it used to be.
• 4:58
  Elizabeth Dall: And that's really the root of it for women is that they start in comparison before we even get anywhere.
• 5:06
  Elizabeth Dall: It's like I'm already comparing myself to potentially something that's unrealistic or even just unworthy to compare to.
• 5:15
  Michelle Gauthier: Yes.
• 5:15
  Michelle Gauthier: Oh my gosh, I love this.
• 5:16
  Michelle Gauthier: I'm sure you're gonna go on, but I want to pause right now and just say a couple things based on what you talked about.
• 5:21
  Michelle Gauthier: I think the one that I had never thought about in terms of comparison is the comparison to self.
• 5:27
  Michelle Gauthier: It feels like right now the standard of beauty is changing, is a little bit different and wider than it used to be, as far as you don't have to be stick skinny or super ripped or whatever.
• 5:38
  Michelle Gauthier: It feels like there's a wider, socially acceptable.
• 5:42
  Michelle Gauthier: I mean, it should be anybody as acceptable, but you know what I'm saying in comparison to how it was, at least when I was growing up.
• 5:48
  Michelle Gauthier: But I think always looking back on ourselves and saying that is how I used to look.
• 5:54
  Michelle Gauthier: And why don't I weigh what is it about the wedding day?
• 5:57
  Michelle Gauthier: On my wedding day, I weighed X, Y, Z.
• 6:00
  Michelle Gauthier: Why is that always the time that we choose?
• 6:02
  Michelle Gauthier: It's such a big event.
• 6:04
  Michelle Gauthier: And I just think it's funny that we do that anyway without even considering it.
• 6:09
  Michelle Gauthier: Like I just texted my best friend from high school.
• 6:11
  Michelle Gauthier: I found some pictures from our senior year spring break, and I texted her some silly pictures of us and we're wearing our bikinis, and I was like, that was such a fun time.
• 6:19
  Michelle Gauthier: And also, we probably thought we didn't look good in these bikinis.
• 6:22
  Michelle Gauthier: And now when I'm looking back at it, I was like, dang, I should have been appreciating that.
• 6:29
  Michelle Gauthier: Okay, so once we realize that we're doing this comparison, that was a real eye-opener to me, the self one.
• 6:35
  Michelle Gauthier: But if we're comparing to our sister, the media, whatever it is, and somehow that gives us the message of what I am is not right.
• 6:45
  Michelle Gauthier: Like there's something wrong with me.
• 6:47
  Michelle Gauthier: And then it makes us mad towards our body.
• 6:49
  Michelle Gauthier: So what do we do with that?
• 6:50
  Michelle Gauthier: I'm sure realizing it is one step in the right direction, but what else should we do?
• 6:54
  Elizabeth Dall: What I like to tell women is that true happy change has to come from a place of self-acceptance.
• 7:02
  Elizabeth Dall: I have worked with numerous women who have changed their bodies, they've lost weight from a shame-based perspective, a restrictive place.
• 7:11
  Elizabeth Dall: And when they get to their goal weight, they tell me I don't feel any better in my body than I did before, even though I've lost the weight.
• 7:18
  Elizabeth Dall: And we think, wait, I thought I would feel better.
• 7:20
  Elizabeth Dall: I thought I would look better, I thought I would have more love for my body.
• 7:23
  Elizabeth Dall: And it's really important that we start there and recognize that change can be good, body change can be good, but it has to come from a place of body acceptance.
• 7:32
  Elizabeth Dall: This is the body that you have right now.
• 7:35
  Elizabeth Dall: And we can recognize that it's gone through some war, maybe, right?
• 7:39
  Elizabeth Dall: Maybe we've been through babies and maybe we've been through medical things, and our body maybe has let us down sometimes.
• 7:46
  Elizabeth Dall: Those things happen, but we can look at it and say, it's also gotten me to this place, right?
• 7:51
  Elizabeth Dall: I am where I am right now, and this is what I have.
• 7:55
  Elizabeth Dall: And I like to relate it like a significant other or romantic relationship.
• 8:00
  Elizabeth Dall: If you're just getting started with a relationship with someone, if you, you know, are sweet to them and communicate with them and spend time with them, and that relationship grows and it gets stronger.
• 8:11
  Elizabeth Dall: It's not perfect, but you're committed to growing it and improving it and working with it.
• 8:17
  Elizabeth Dall: If you ignore the relationship, ignore the person, if you're unkind to them or don't build them up, that relationship is going to crumble.
• 8:24
  Elizabeth Dall: It's going to struggle always.
• 8:26
  Elizabeth Dall: And it's the same thing with our bodies.
• 8:28
  Elizabeth Dall: We don't realize it, but we're in a relationship with our bodies because our bodies are what give us the signals for everything in our lives.
• 8:37
  Elizabeth Dall: Our bodies say, Hey, you're stressed, do something about it.
• 8:40
  Elizabeth Dall: Hey, you're hungry, do something about it.
• 8:41
  Elizabeth Dall: Hey, you're feeling good.
• 8:43
  Elizabeth Dall: It really does give us everything we need.
• 8:46
  Elizabeth Dall: And I always tell women, you have the ability to know and meet the needs of your own body.
• 8:50
  Elizabeth Dall: So we have to start there by saying, you know what?
• 8:53
  Elizabeth Dall: I have to be committed to a positive relationship with this body in order for me to create any sort of significant happy change.
• 9:02
  Michelle Gauthier: Okay, that makes so much sense.
• 9:04
  Michelle Gauthier: So, what does it look like to accept your body as is?
• 9:08
  Elizabeth Dall: Good question.
• 9:09
  Elizabeth Dall: That is like a question I think a lot of people struggle with.
• 9:12
  Elizabeth Dall: And I like to answer it by saying that body acceptance is not a noun.
• 9:16
  Elizabeth Dall: It's not a I just love you as you are.
• 9:18
  Elizabeth Dall: Body acceptance is I appreciate this.
• 9:20
  Elizabeth Dall: We don't even have to use the word love.
• 9:22
  Elizabeth Dall: Everyone's on a different level of their relationship with their body.
• 9:25
  Elizabeth Dall: And I recognize that we can be at love, we can be acceptance, we can be at neutrality.
• 9:29
  Elizabeth Dall: Hey, my body does things for me.
• 9:31
  Elizabeth Dall: That's great.
• 9:32
  Elizabeth Dall: But in order for us to create that change, we have to recognize that acceptance is about doing something.
• 9:40
  Elizabeth Dall: So body acceptance is not, I can do whatever I want because I love my body.
• 9:46
  Elizabeth Dall: And I think there's a little bit of a message sometimes you can get from the body love movement that it's whatever I want to do, I can still love my body.
• 9:53
  Elizabeth Dall: And of course, I think there's some truth, like we want you to love your body, but being able to serve your body and give it what it needs, that is true body acceptance.
• 10:04
  Elizabeth Dall: A lot of women go from a place of body shame and disgust, right?
• 10:08
  Elizabeth Dall: I want to escape my body.
• 10:10
  Elizabeth Dall: So I enter a diet, I restrict, I punish my body in order to escape it.
• 10:17
  Elizabeth Dall: But body acceptance is a place of I nurture and nourish my body to change.
• 10:24
  Elizabeth Dall: So I make different choices when I choose acceptance as this verb, as something that I do.
• 10:31
  Michelle Gauthier: I love that.
• 10:32
  Michelle Gauthier: That's such a great answer.
• 10:33
  Michelle Gauthier: And that seems so clear and actionable.
• 10:36
  Michelle Gauthier: I love if you tie that in with your example of thinking about it, like being in relationship with someone.
• 10:42
  Michelle Gauthier: And if you wanted to help someone else change, you would encourage them, ask, what do you need?
• 10:49
  Michelle Gauthier: What can I do for you to help you do this change?
• 10:52
  Michelle Gauthier: But we're so much meaner to ourselves than we are to other people.
• 10:57
  Michelle Gauthier: So that's a great tip too, to think about it like a relationship and that you're doing the things that you need to do out of love in order to help make that change possible.
• 11:07
  Michelle Gauthier: That's awesome.
• 11:09
  Michelle Gauthier: Okay, so once we accept our body as it is today and we're actively doing that and giving it the things that we need, then what?
• 11:16
  Michelle Gauthier: Is it okay to want our body to look different than it does?
• 11:21
  Elizabeth Dall: Absolutely.
• 11:22
  Elizabeth Dall: I like to tell women our your body will match your habits.
• 11:25
  Elizabeth Dall: If we're mad at our bodies, I usually say, let's shift the blame a little bit and not get mad at our bodies.
• 11:30
  Elizabeth Dall: Let's get mad at our habit for a minute, or at least let's take a good look at them.
• 11:35
  Elizabeth Dall: Are we nourishing our body with movement and nutrition and maybe some stress management techniques?
• 11:44
  Elizabeth Dall: Are we doing nurturing exercises or are we looking for that escape method?
• 11:51
  Elizabeth Dall: Are we looking to punish?
• 11:52
  Elizabeth Dall: Um, and a lot of women say the only way I've ever been able to do it is by restriction.
• 11:57
  Elizabeth Dall: And it's a hard mindset shift, but it's a necessary mindset shift to say, okay, I can now recognize that it's my habits that are going to create the body that I want.
• 12:09
  Elizabeth Dall: And I have to go deep here and say, what life do I want to live?
• 12:13
  Elizabeth Dall: It goes into the vision of the woman of wellness that you want to become.
• 12:19
  Elizabeth Dall: What does that look like?
• 12:20
  Elizabeth Dall: I have a woman in my membership who wants to water ski in a moo moo when she's 80.
• 12:26
  Elizabeth Dall: And she said, And she's, I don't even care what my body looks like in the moo moo.
• 12:29
  Elizabeth Dall: She doesn't even care about the weight loss.
• 12:30
  Elizabeth Dall: She's I want to be able to do those things.
• 12:32
  Elizabeth Dall: Do it, yes.
• 12:33
  Elizabeth Dall: And I love that visual because everybody thinks that health is a size.
• 12:38
  Elizabeth Dall: Health is not a size, it's a lifestyle.
• 12:41
  Elizabeth Dall: And we have to look at our habits and say, where are my habits not in alignment with the lifestyle that I want to live?
• 12:48
  Elizabeth Dall: And as soon as you start to realign that, your body naturally begins to change as well.
• 12:53
  Michelle Gauthier: Yes, I love that.
• 12:54
  Michelle Gauthier: Oh my gosh.
• 12:55
  Michelle Gauthier: P.S.
• 12:55
  Michelle Gauthier: My mom is 76 and she waterskied last year on our family vacation.
• 12:59
  Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, she's getting there.
• 13:01
  Michelle Gauthier: I know.
• 13:02
  Michelle Gauthier: I hope I have those good jeans.
• 13:03
  Michelle Gauthier: I love that.
• 13:04
  Michelle Gauthier: And just thinking about the bigger why or what are those big goals.
• 13:09
  Michelle Gauthier: But I also think that sometimes it can be shaming, like that whole idea of so you just want to look good in a pair of jeans.
• 13:16
  Michelle Gauthier: And is it okay just to want that?
• 13:18
  Michelle Gauthier: Absolutely.
• 13:20
  Elizabeth Dall: When you look good, you feel good, right?
• 13:22
  Elizabeth Dall: And so I feel good when I put on a little bit of makeup.
• 13:26
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm not crazy about my makeup, but I do feel more presentable.
• 13:30
  Elizabeth Dall: And I have a six-year-old daughter, and I'm trying to teach this concept to her.
• 13:33
  Elizabeth Dall: When you go out, we want to make sure that you look respectful.
• 13:37
  Elizabeth Dall: And I think that's important.
• 13:39
  Elizabeth Dall: And so it's okay.
• 13:40
  Elizabeth Dall: And on the flip side, it's also okay to not feel like the goal is to look in a mirror and love everything about yourself.
• 13:48
  Elizabeth Dall: We're looking at a body that's been through a lot.
• 13:51
  Elizabeth Dall: There's some flaws, there's some things that are different and things that have changed.
• 13:54
  Elizabeth Dall: And it's okay to also say, yeah, maybe that's not my favorite part of my body.
• 13:59
  Elizabeth Dall: Or I don't necessarily have to look at my body in the mirror and be like, I love everything about this.
• 14:04
  Elizabeth Dall: It's okay to say, yeah, my body's here and it's good and it does good things.
• 14:08
  Elizabeth Dall: And I can present it well.
• 14:09
  Elizabeth Dall: I can dress the body that I have, the shape that I have, and I can still look good in whatever size clothing.
• 14:16
  Elizabeth Dall: Being able to say, I look good makes me feel good.
• 14:20
  Elizabeth Dall: But often looking good goes back to the comparison and we set a standard for ourselves.
• 14:25
  Elizabeth Dall: We've got to get away from the standard and say, looking good for me, what does that look like right now?
• 14:32
  Michelle Gauthier: Yes, that's so great.
• 14:33
  Michelle Gauthier: Okay.
• 14:34
  Michelle Gauthier: So if we want to take one small step, what would you recommend?
• 14:39
  Elizabeth Dall: Commitment.
• 14:40
  Elizabeth Dall: I would say let's commit to that positive, nurturing relationship with your body.
• 14:46
  Elizabeth Dall: That's where it all starts.
• 14:47
  Elizabeth Dall: That's where any relationship thrives.
• 14:50
  Elizabeth Dall: Saying, I'm committed to this.
• 14:52
  Elizabeth Dall: I am committed to a really good outcome.
• 14:54
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm committed to going through the bumps and the bruises.
• 14:56
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm committed to the good times.
• 14:57
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm committed to the hard times.
• 14:58
  Elizabeth Dall: And when I say I'm committed, that's a verb, right?
• 15:01
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm committed.
• 15:02
  Elizabeth Dall: That means I do things.
• 15:03
  Elizabeth Dall: I spend time on my body.
• 15:05
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm worthy of that time.
• 15:07
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm also worthy of it taking time.
• 15:09
  Elizabeth Dall: This stuff takes time.
• 15:11
  Elizabeth Dall: It's not going to come overnight, but knowing that I can commit to that positive outcome and positive relationship helps it changes your choices.
• 15:20
  Elizabeth Dall: And if someone hasn't been in that mindset before, it can feel a little foreign.
• 15:25
  Elizabeth Dall: But I want to challenge you to try it to say, if I'm nurturing this body today, what does it look like versus punishing this body?
• 15:32
  Michelle Gauthier: Most of the clients who I work with are feeling so overwhelmed and they are in a habit of shaming themselves about getting more done and being more productive.
• 15:40
  Michelle Gauthier: And it's a really similar attitude of in order to push myself, I have to be unkind to myself.
• 15:47
  Michelle Gauthier: I have to talk in a mean tone to myself.
• 15:49
  Michelle Gauthier: So I feel like that is a message that people who are listening to this podcast are familiar with being kinder to yourself.
• 15:56
  Michelle Gauthier: And I love applying that to the body.
• 15:59
  Michelle Gauthier: Shame is never a great emotion to get us to do anything.
• 16:03
  Michelle Gauthier: Just makes us feel stuck and alone and isolated.
• 16:07
  Michelle Gauthier: And once you move into acceptance and kindness and commitment, it sounds like what you're saying is that we can get there.
• 16:13
  Michelle Gauthier: We can get where we want to be with our body.
• 16:16
  Elizabeth Dall: Yeah, I have a unique definition of sabotage, actually.
• 16:19
  Elizabeth Dall: And I think shame could be paralleled with this the expectation of perfection.
• 16:24
  Elizabeth Dall: Especially women that are ambitious, we have in our mind that it needs to look perfect.
• 16:29
  Elizabeth Dall: And so when it doesn't, we sabotage.
• 16:32
  Elizabeth Dall: We stop doing it.
• 16:33
  Elizabeth Dall: If we can't fit it in, if it's too much, if we miss a day, if we can't perform perfectly, we sabotage.
• 16:40
  Michelle Gauthier: And what does sabotage look like in that example?
• 16:43
  Michelle Gauthier: Like from for your clients?
• 16:45
  Elizabeth Dall: It's a typical kind of diet cycle scenario where someone says, I want to escape my body.
• 16:50
  Elizabeth Dall: I don't like my body.
• 16:51
  Elizabeth Dall: I want to lose weight.
• 16:52
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm ready to lose the weight.
• 16:53
  Elizabeth Dall: And we enter some plan program diet of restriction.
• 16:58
  Elizabeth Dall: I eliminate this food group.
• 17:00
  Elizabeth Dall: I eliminate that.
• 17:01
  Elizabeth Dall: And it depends, everybody's different on how long they last.
• 17:05
  Elizabeth Dall: But eventually life gets in the way.
• 17:07
  Elizabeth Dall: And when we can't figure out how to fit the perfect plan into our imperfect life, we get stressed, we get overwhelmed, we emotionally eat, and then we just say, screw it.
• 17:16
  Elizabeth Dall: I've already lost control.
• 17:17
  Elizabeth Dall: I might as well keep going until the next time I get desperate enough to lose the weight.
• 17:22
  Elizabeth Dall: We sabotage and we repeat that cycle over and over again.
• 17:27
  Michelle Gauthier: I love that definition of sabotage of being basically anything less than perfect, and I'm out.
• 17:32
  Michelle Gauthier: I can't do this anymore.
• 17:34
  Michelle Gauthier: Okay.
• 17:34
  Michelle Gauthier: Okay, great.
• 17:35
  Michelle Gauthier: I want to ask you the two questions that I ask everybody who's on the podcast.
• 17:40
  Michelle Gauthier: And the first is what's something you do when you feel overwhelmed to make yourself feel better?
• 17:45
  Elizabeth Dall: I love this question.
• 17:46
  Elizabeth Dall: A few years ago, I was in a place where I was just overwhelmed.
• 17:49
  Elizabeth Dall: And I was needing a nap almost every day.
• 17:51
  Elizabeth Dall: I was feeling like my body was just so worn out.
• 17:53
  Elizabeth Dall: And I discovered this little meditation.
• 17:56
  Elizabeth Dall: It's called Yoga Nidra.
• 17:57
  Elizabeth Dall: I had never heard of it before, but it guides you through awareness of your body.
• 18:02
  Elizabeth Dall: And whenever I feel like I need to reset, I do that.
• 18:06
  Elizabeth Dall: Sometimes I'll fall asleep with it.
• 18:08
  Elizabeth Dall: Other times it just resets my body, but it's magic for me when I can just calm my body down.
• 18:14
  Elizabeth Dall: It's 20 minutes long, so it's not a long time, but it helps me release that overwhelm.
• 18:20
  Michelle Gauthier: I absolutely love that suggestion.
• 18:22
  Michelle Gauthier: And me too.
• 18:23
  Michelle Gauthier: I love Yoga Nidra.
• 18:24
  Michelle Gauthier: I read about it in the book Do Less by Kate Northrop.
• 18:27
  Michelle Gauthier: And she talks about doing Yoga Nidra at her most exhausted, overwhelmed point.
• 18:32
  Michelle Gauthier: And she said, I felt like I slept for four hours from doing this 45 minutes of Yoga Nidra.
• 18:38
  Michelle Gauthier: I was like, I don't know what this is, but I'm gonna try it.
• 18:40
  Michelle Gauthier: And I do it all the time too.
• 18:42
  Michelle Gauthier: The one I do, I think is 21 minutes and it wakes you up, brings you back to consciousness at the end.
• 18:48
  Michelle Gauthier: And I often think, did I fall asleep or did I don't know what exactly just happened, but it feels amazing.
• 18:55
  Michelle Gauthier: So I second that.
• 18:56
  Michelle Gauthier: I love it.
• 18:56
  Michelle Gauthier: I've never shared that on the podcast before.
• 18:58
  Michelle Gauthier: So thank you.
• 18:59
  Michelle Gauthier: And then what is something you do to save time or do less?
• 19:03
  Elizabeth Dall: Oh, this is a really good question.
• 19:05
  Elizabeth Dall: You know what I do is I just erase things off the to-do list.
• 19:10
  Elizabeth Dall: And I'm practicing this.
• 19:12
  Elizabeth Dall: So I am not gonna say I'm the best at this.
• 19:14
  Elizabeth Dall: I love a good to-do list.
• 19:16
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm a type A personality.
• 19:17
  Elizabeth Dall: I've always been someone that's gotta get as much done as I can.
• 19:20
  Elizabeth Dall: That's just how my brain works.
• 19:22
  Elizabeth Dall: And so I have been practicing over the last little bit to say this just doesn't need to be on the list.
• 19:27
  Elizabeth Dall: It doesn't need to be here, or it can be done later, or it can be done by someone else.
• 19:31
  Elizabeth Dall: And it's really freeing for me to realize I don't have to have a huge list.
• 19:36
  Michelle Gauthier: Get out your erasers, everybody, and just start erasing your stuff off the to-do list.
• 19:41
  Michelle Gauthier: I love that.
• 19:41
  Michelle Gauthier: That's great.
• 19:42
  Michelle Gauthier: Okay.
• 19:42
  Michelle Gauthier: Is there any question that I didn't ask you or anything that you want to say that I didn't give you a chance to talk about?
• 19:49
  Elizabeth Dall: Gosh, I think we covered it, but I guess I just want to remind anyone here, anyone listening, that you really are capable of knowing and meeting the needs of your own body.
• 19:57
  Elizabeth Dall: And if you've existed in a place of body shame and body disgust for a long time, it might feel very foreign because we've disconnected.
• 20:05
  Elizabeth Dall: We've disconnected with our body being able to tell us what it needs because we've been taught to ignore, to suppress, to follow their plan.
• 20:13
  Elizabeth Dall: And so I just want to invite you to know that you have that gift inside of you.
• 20:17
  Elizabeth Dall: We were all born with it.
• 20:18
  Elizabeth Dall: I have a toddler who will like stop eating when she's full and eat when she's hungry.
• 20:22
  Elizabeth Dall: And it's just like really simple.
• 20:24
  Elizabeth Dall: She listens to her body and everybody has that.
• 20:27
  Elizabeth Dall: We just have to create that reconnection again.
• 20:30
  Elizabeth Dall: What's within you?
• 20:31
  Elizabeth Dall: Your body will give you the signals that you need, but start with that nourishing connection.
• 20:37
  Michelle Gauthier: I love that.
• 20:38
  Michelle Gauthier: That is so great and so hopeful and optimistic.
• 20:40
  Michelle Gauthier: And where can people find you if they're interested in learning more about you or your work?
• 20:45
  Elizabeth Dall: So I also have a podcast.
• 20:46
  Elizabeth Dall: It's called the Woman of Wellness Podcast.
• 20:48
  Elizabeth Dall: We talk a lot about relationship with food, relationship with body, how to create those healthy habits that fit into your lifestyle and the life of health that you want to live.
• 20:59
  Elizabeth Dall: And I am semi-active on Instagram.
• 21:03
  Elizabeth Dall: I'm working on it, but I'm at a woman of wellness over there.
• 21:06
  Elizabeth Dall: And just my website is a woman of wellness as well.
• 21:08
  Michelle Gauthier: Okay, wonderful.
• 21:09
  Michelle Gauthier: Thank you so much for being here.
• 21:11
  Michelle Gauthier: I really appreciate it.
• 21:12
  Michelle Gauthier: I learned so much, which is the best when you have a podcast and you get to interview someone where you're like, I just benefited a lot from that myself.
• 21:19
  Michelle Gauthier: So I hope everybody else does too.
• 21:21
  Michelle Gauthier: I know they will.
• 21:22
  Michelle Gauthier: So thank you so much.
• 21:23
  Michelle Gauthier: Thank you.
• 21:24
  Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
• 21:32
  Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at MichelleGauthier.com.
• 21:38
  Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.