Latest / Your Strongest Body / You Already Have A Summer Body, Now Let's Help You Actually Enjoy It!

Transcript

You Already Have A Summer Body, Now Let's Help You Actually Enjoy It! · Your Strongest Body

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: You are listening to your Strongest Body.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Betsy Foster, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and certified nutrition coach.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I've worked as a personal trainer for over a decade, helping people build strength, speed, muscles, as well as a deep appreciation for their bodies and confidence that helps them live their life to the fullest.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness, nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Hello, hello, welcome back to another episode of your Strongest Body.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I am fresh back from vacation and so excited to record this episode because if you were to ask me, like, what is your business all about, what your life is all about, I think it's this.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I think it really is about living most fully in your body not in spite of your body, but in your body.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: So that really is what this topic for today ends up being about.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: So quick.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Thank you for staying with me.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I know I took a few episodes off.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I was planning to record a bunch and get them ahead, but sometimes that's unrealistic.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So we're back today.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: If you got a chance to binge some old ones, great.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I went to Southern California.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I went to LA for work.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: So I work with a business group, two business coaches who help women with their online health and fitness businesses, and it's just like an incredible experience.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Every time I go out there because, since I work independently and since I have a job that's very different than most of my friends and family, it is a moment for me to really get to have this camaraderie in a way that I don't normally have.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: And then we're super productive, the ideas are flowing, you have people who just really understand what you're going through, offering their advice.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: It is a 10 out of 10 experience.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I have a great time every time, and this was after, like a culmination of sort, of the six month program we were working on, and it's just incredible.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Can't say enough great things about it.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: And then my husband came out to California.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: We spent a little time in LA and then we went to San Diego and we haven't had a trip by ourselves like that since before my first daughter was born, so over six years ago and it was amazing, absolutely amazing.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: One I love California.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Two loved getting to spend time together.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: We had great food, great rest, great coffee, great like, such fun drinks, such fun desserts.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I mean the whole experience.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: We surfed for the first time so I've never surfed and I've always said like I really want to try, and so my husband set it up for us and it was so much fun.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: We both crushed it, which was great.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Erin really crushed it and I stood up on the very first time that we got out in the water.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: So that was like super cool.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: So it was all over like such a great experience.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: And then, if you follow me on Instagram, I'm like constantly a great experience.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: And then, if you follow me on Instagram, I'm like constantly sharing my outfits.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: One of the things that I have found as I'm getting older is like okay, I like fashion and clothes as a hobby.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: You would never have guessed that for me if you knew me as a middle schooler, but we evolve and it's really fun.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: I think part of what I like about that is I feel like really confident in my body, I feel great in my body, and so wearing clothes are like fun for me, wearing bathing suits are fun for me, and that is what brought me to the topic today.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: You've seen, I am sure, this sort of marketing around your summer body, your summer body.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Summer bodies are made in the winter and I've always given a huge eye roll for that kind of thing.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: But there's something that we can take away from our summer bodies.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: So follow me here.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: You already have your summer body, any body that you are in right now.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: This is important.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: This is important before we go on any further.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: You already have your summer body.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Your body is perfect as it is right now.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: You're here and now.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Body is enough.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Now, how do we feel our best in our body?
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Sometimes, feeling our best in our body is most of the time it has to do with the actions we take, the care we show our body.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I think that is inextricably linked to how we feel about our body, but we also have all these societal and cultural pressures, and then how we feel about our body is how we think it looks.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: So one of the challenges I face as a fitness professional is that I believe two things.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I believe that your body is perfect right now.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: You have a summer body.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: That's without question.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I also think it's okay if you want to change it.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: If you think you would feel better in some other way, that is also okay.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I think those things can be true.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I think you can want to feel fitter or tighter or stronger or more muscular or leaner.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: I think it's okay.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I think it's okay if we start from the place, that we're enough already.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I also think so.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I think that what it tends to be is that it's very black and white, and that's part of online marketing is that you have to take a strong, strong stance.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: My strong stance is that I think muscles are gorgeous, I think being confident in your body is gorgeous, and so if that means you want to change it a little bit, go off.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Go off, change it.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: And because one of the things that I struggle with is that there's and I've said it before on this show, I am sure is that there's this idea that like your body is the least interesting thing about you, and I understand that sentiment, and that sentiment is saying that your personality, your intellect, your dreams, your aspirations, who you are as a person, are all more interesting than your body.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I just don't like the hierarchy of it, because you can also like your body in the same way that you like all those other traits about yourself, and, yes, I think there are probably things about you that are deeply more important and interesting than your body, but if your body is one of them, is one element, because we live in our bodies.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Whether or not we like it, we live in our physical bodies and embodiment.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Being in your body is such an important thing to strive for because it helps you live your life more fully, and that's what gets to this topic today.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: You already have your summer body.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: It's perfect as it is.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: How do we live more fully in it?
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: If that means changing it, fine.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: If that means just working on the sort of psychological aspects, the mental, emotional aspects, then fine.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: But I think it's probably a little bit of everything.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: You deserve to go on vacation and enjoy food and drink and activities, and also your body, your body, is one of those things that you should be able to enjoy, and summer is great for that.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: You're in the sun, you're outside, you're doing things.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: There's like longer daylight.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Longer daylight means, you know, no sleeve summer.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: No sleeve summer is my hashtag for this summer.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: No sleeve summer.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I've worked hard on these arms.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: I have built strong, strong shoulders, and so they are going to be out all summer long, and that's what I mean.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I mean there is a way for you to both be intellectual and kind and caring and a contributor to society at large and to other people and also enjoy the way you look, and you know that's sort of my motto.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about how you can have a great summer body experience.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: You already have a perfect summer body.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: How are ways we enhance that experience One?
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: We strength train.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: We strength train because it will help us feel better in our body.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: We will be able to do things we like.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: More.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: We will be able to achieve things.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: We show ourselves resiliency and determination Not termination determination we show ourselves what we're capable of.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: With strength training, it also builds muscle.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Muscle is incredible for your health, incredible for longevity, incredible for activities of daily living and incredible for the way you look at yourself in the mirror.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: You don't have to be above it, you can be among it.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: You get to like your body.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Strength training is going to help you do that.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Strength training is going to help you do that.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Building muscle is going to help you do that.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Now we all have our own sort of ideas of beauty and how that's shaped in our mind and we need a whole other episode and then a few books that have already been written about unpacking that.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: But strength training is going to help you feel stronger and more confident in your physical body, which is going to make you feel great this summer.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Next number two is eating nourishing foods.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: When you eat nourishing foods, you feel better, you have more energy, you sleep better, you have less aches and pains, you are getting your macronutrients and your micronutrients.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Now I'm not saying you have to eat 100% nourishing foods that have nothing else to them.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I'm saying you need to eat nourishing foods.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: You can eat them along with all the delicious desserts and some of those desserts are nourishing.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Eat them along with all the fun snacks.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Some of those snacks are nourishing too, and some of these things are nourishing our bodies and some of them are nourishing our souls.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: So don't forget that, but we're going to eat a mix of them.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Now I can tell you, as someone who was just on vacation, I ate a lot of food that I don't normally eat and I enjoyed every single bite of it and I also feel really good getting back to my routine, not really interested in eating a lot more of what I ate, because it wasn't, you know, it tasted good, but it doesn't like fill me up.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Even while I was gone, there were a few times where I opted for like oh, that looks good, but I actually think I need a little bit of this fruit or vegetable, or I need a little more protein so that I can enjoy the rest of this time.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Same thing I don't drink that much alcohol.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: We had more than I normally would have.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed it.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: I never felt sick or anything, but I had drinks that I wouldn't have because they sounded good and they were ones that were funky and fun off the menu.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: When I get back into my daily routine, I'm not craving that and that is because of who I am, but I'm not craving it.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I can get back to the routine and I feel better.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: When I am, there is time to really enjoy and relish things, and that will run out.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: That is why, if you're going on a three-week vacation, you're not going to eat and drink.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: In the same way, if you go on a four-day vacation and if you are not feeling good when you're away or you're not feeling good at a certain time, it might be worthwhile checking in on.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe I need to eat some more nourishing foods or maybe I need to move my body more activity-wise and then it's starting to like warp my own self-image or I don't feel good about the way I look.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: It might be time to check in on those things and see if there's any way you can shift your behavior to help you feel better.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Which is where this next tip comes in, and this is for like both in regular life and then in the summer and vacation.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Have your anchor actions, and I know I've talked about that, but your anchor actions are things that you make sure happen all the time.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Do you go on a walk all the time?
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Do you do 30 minutes of exercise every day?
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Do you whatever?
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: These are the things that are most important to you and they make you feel most like you.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I know that when I exercise, no matter what, if it's a hard one or an easy one, it helps me feel better about myself, in the same way that when I eat some nourishing foods, when I prioritize water, whether or not I actually look different.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: So, like I go up to a mirror or I took a picture, I might not look different in two pictures on a day where I didn't work out and I didn't have nourishing foods and I took another picture on the day where I did, I might look exactly the same.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: The way I see myself is better on the days where I prioritize those things, so why wouldn't I make some room for them?
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Now, that's not going to be for every trip, but if I'm going on a trip and I still want to feel good, I will figure out a way to prioritize my anchor actions.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I will get my steps in, I will get some protein in, prioritize that protein, and I will move in some way, whether that's just the steps or whether that's a quick workout or whether that's finding an activity to participate in, what I see most with people, especially when I'm working with clients.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Your physical transformation is going to happen six weeks to 12 weeks in, and those are going to be just the earliest part of physical transformation.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: It's only going to get more and more the longer we give it.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: In the first six weeks, a lot of the transformation you experience is from adopting new habits, adopting new behaviors that transform the way you see yourself, and so if you want a quick way to feel good about the way you look, do the behaviors, the behaviors themselves, whether or not they're making huge progress, they are helping you feel better about yourself, and when you are out of that routine, that is when you start to feel not great about yourself, and so you ask yourself.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Oh, do I hate the way I look?
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Or is it that I have been the last week unable to get these things in?
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: We underestimate the power of our mind in perceiving how our body looks, and when we take the actions that best suit our health and that we feel best suit our health, we start to see ourselves differently.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Not to say that you still don't want a real physical change.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that it's all in your mind.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: I'm saying that those things complement each other.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Taking the actions to make a transformation are not only going to actually transform your body, but they're going to help you perceive yourself in a different way.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: All right, just two more, and these are kinds of silly ones, but I want you to save them.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: I want you to think about it.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: One I want you to stand normal.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Stand normal all summer.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: So if you're wearing clothes that are smaller or like less coverage than you normally do and you are constantly standing funny because you are self-conscious, that's fine.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Your body's going to feel like crap.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: You sucking in your tummy all the time is terrible for your pelvic floor.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: It's terrible for your diaphragm, it's terrible for all the guts that you have.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Let your guts breathe.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Try your best.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: If you want to take a picture and you want to stand, funny, fine, but be yourself, be your relaxed body self.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: You are perfect right now.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Body self.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: You are perfect right now.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: And the more you are not standing the way you normally do, tense because of your body, all of that, the worse it's going to feel.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: So I want you to commit to buying clothes, to buying bathing suits, to buying all that where you can stand normally and feel fine.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Now there are a lot of those Instagram posts where they're like look at me in this picture and then look at me in this picture and you look different.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: And that's true, you do.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Some of those are very tiny people just leaning forward and I think I like the idea.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: But in some ways it's not great coming from you because you don't probably experience a lot of self-consciousness in your body.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Everybody does, but we have to acknowledge that societally there is fat phobia that actually makes people treat people in larger bodies differently.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: So if you're smaller, you just don't have that.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I have body self-consciousness.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it is not like anybody who is experiencing oppression because of their body size and I've worked very hard to not feel that way very often because I check in with these things and I ask myself am I doing these things?
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: And I go through that body image practice that I had in the other episode.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I'll link it on the bottom.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: And lastly, so you're going to stand normal, you're going to be your normal self, regardless of the clothes, regardless of the weather.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: And then, lastly, and this is most important, take pictures in good lighting.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, we are a society where we share images.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: You might share your stuff on Facebook or Instagram or with your friends.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: One, don't be embarrassed to take pictures.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Life is short.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Live in your body.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: One day you might look back and you might go.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I wish I appreciated that body more, because I have this experience now of where I am today.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: So cherish it now.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Take the pictures.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: If you want to take the pictures, don't be embarrassed about taking the pictures.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: If you want a picture that you like, prioritize good lighting, prioritize somebody who knows how to take it.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with that.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Be unabashedly proud of yourself and then take all the steps to make it work best.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, like, I can take 17 pictures and one of them looks great.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: That's okay.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I took them all so that I have that great picture.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Delete the other ones.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about altering them.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about finding a space where the sunlight is facing you.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Take it or take a bunch of pictures now.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Don't stress about the lighting and then appreciate it later, but I'm just saying, if you want to relish who you are and what you are and where you are today, don't be afraid to take a picture, a video, to commemorate it, and then don't be embarrassed.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: If you want to find the right picture or the right post or the right spot.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: You are incredible.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: You have a summer body right now and some lighting looks better than others.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: So you want to have the memories of the best lighting?
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: As always, this is like one of my absolute favorite topics and something that is like the whole reason behind resistance training and building muscle to me.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: So if you have anything you want to say about it, questions or just somebody to chat with, I am here.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: If this episode or any other episode really makes a mark for you or is important or you find something helpful, if you can share it, that's great.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: You can share on social media or you can just send a text with the episode to a friend that might be interested.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: And, as always.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Those ratings and reviews on the podcast are always good too.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: All right, until next time, I want you to go build your strongest body, and I'll talk to you later.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Bye.