Latest / Fit for Hiking / A Candid Dive Into Why I Don't Pursue Visible Abs
Transcript
- Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a longtime fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female. Wellness, trail talk and adventure hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel, and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the Fit for Hiking podcast. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Fit for Hiking podcast. I'm honestly kind of flying by the seat of my pants with this episode. It's just been on my mind and I thought, what the heck? I want to have a candid conversation about this topic. And really what I want to talk about today is why as a fitness professional, I don't pursue being my skinniest or leanest self all the time and why having a six pack isn't necessarily a goal of mine. And I think it's tough because we kind of tend to, I guess, size people up a little bit, just naturally. If you look at someone and they are really lean, like super skinny, a toned look is often what we look for as women or someone has visible ABS, really cut arms or really toned legs, we see these things and we think, wow, they are the picture of health. And that's like my dream body, right? We often tend to compare ourselves to these types of figures and we equate that to goals of fitness and health. And the reality is, this is not always the case that leanness or being toned or having visible ABS equates to health. 1s So I wanted to talk about that today, and this will probably just be a quick episode, but I think that that's just a really big misconception that kind of gets perpetuated through social media and just media in general that really glorifies the skinny, toned female body 2s at the expense of health. And the reality is, is that the two are not mutually exclusive. So I want to talk about why that is and why it's going to be a little bit different for everybody and why I don't really believe in pursuing being our skinniest self as the healthiest self. So really what it comes down to is when you're looking at health, oftentimes thinness and low body fat, yes, to a certain degree, you're going to have better health markers if you're not considered obese or if you aren't extremely overweight, if you don't have a ton of extra adipose tissue, fat tissue. However, we can kind of take things to an extreme in the pursuit of a certain look. And the reality is, for women, we require more body fat simply to keep our vital organs functioning, keep our sex hormones in check, our reproductive systems functioning. And oftentimes when we're trying to pursue an extremely low body fat percentage, we can jeopardize some of these things. And it's important to note that the threshold is different for some people. So I'm not saying that anyone that you've ever seen on social media or even in real life with visible ABS as a female is unhealthy, but I think that this is not achievable while maintaining health for all women. Okay? So for instance. 2s I know about myself that I have kind of a low stress threshold. I'm a very type A, kind of tend to be more highly stressed out as a person. And when I compound mental stress, emotional stress, lifestyle stress, with a ton of high intensity workouts or undereating or just getting too lean in general, this really throws my body off. And I lost my cycle for years. I didn't have a period in my early 20s, which is very abnormal. And that's a sign your body's trying to communicate something to you. And usually when there's too much stress or you're too low body fat percentage or whatever it may be, that's the first thing to go. You start to notice irregularities in your cycle. Some women notice hair loss. They're cold all the time. Brittle hair and nails, 1s loss of sex drive. 2s Issues with fertility. These are the first signs that our body starts to show us that things are getting a bit unhealthy. And so I know for a lot of women, 1s a journey towards gaining some weight back is necessary to regain the cycle or lowering amount of intense exercise. For me, I had to really cut back on the intensity of my exercise size. I had to start prioritizing slower movement, hiking, walking, slow strength training, not rushing between movements, not doing everything as a circuit and adding hit in between and lowering my rest. I've really had to change the way I approached exercise. So 1s having this pursuit of super low body fat percentage, for a lot of women, it can actually create a myriad of health issues. Instead of giving you what you want, yes, you might have really visible ABS, but you might not have a cycle. You might struggle with infertility. You might notice that your thyroid function goes down or that your progesterone is tanked or your hormone levels are off. And so you have to kind of weigh what is the cost? 1s Is this worth the cost? Is it worth it for me to be a size zero or a size two? Honestly, it will vary for people. Some people might even be a size four. And it's too much. So when we just measure someone's fitness or health based on their appearance, how toned they are, their low body fat, we're really missing the mark because there's so much more to health than our body fat percentage. And another thing that is worth mentioning is that. 1s Oftentimes we are actually a bit healthier when we might weigh a little bit more. I know for myself, I I got into my lowest body weight that I've been since high school postpartum, which might sound backwards, but I was really struggling to keep on weight while breastfeeding and I was dealing with a lot of postpartum anxiety and for whatever reason, you know, I think I had some muscle loss as well. I was really low in my weight and it was really interesting because I got so many comments of people saying wow, you look amazing, you look so good. And I was really unhealthy. I wasn't eating enough. I was struggling mentally, big time. I had lost a ton of muscle. I wasn't able to go for even a couple of mile run because I was having pelvic floor issues. I wasn't lifting nearly as much as I used to. I wasn't feeling my best, but I was really thin. And so I think it's important to say sometimes you gain your health back if you gain a little bit of weight because you're going to be able to perform better. If you're eating more, just naturally, you're going to have more energy. You're probably going to be able to gain some muscle and. 1s You might just need that extra boost of body weight and calories in order to get to that healthy place for yourself. And again, it's different for everyone. That might totally not be the case for you. You know, you might be able to be like your leanest, leanest self and feel like your healthiest self, but for me, that was the skinniest I've been, you know, like I said, since I was 18 years old. And it wasn't the healthiest I've been, it wasn't the fittest I've been, it wasn't the strongest I've been, definitely wasn't the mentally healthiest I've been. And so I think we need to stop pairing leanness, thinness and health as one, because that may not be the case. And I see this with a lot of my mountain metabolic clients. In the business that I run, sometimes some weight gain is necessary if stress is too high. If your body is just really stressed out, you may need to gain a little bit of weight to feel better or just to gain some muscle which is going to help you so much in so many health markers long term. But you might see a bump on the scale. And so using the scale as our metric for health, our metric of success, our metric of progress is really flawed. And so I know I'm kind of rambling a bit here, but I just want to encourage the woman out there listening to this, that if you are seeing your scale weight go up, but you are feeling better, you're performing in the gym, you are consistently able to eat a little bit more, you're fueling your body properly. Maybe you're just feeling more vibrant. You're having regular cycles, you're having a stable mood, you're sleeping well, all of these things. You might need to be willing to look beyond the scale because there's such a bigger story there, and there's so many other avenues of health that are so much more important than just what the weight on the scale is. I've gained probably like eight pounds back since that really low weight time that I was in those first few months postpartum. 1s And probably a lot of people won't be able to tell. I can tell. And if I let that be my metric of, you know, success, I would feel like I was taking backward steps. I'd feel like I was failing when in reality, I've gained so much muscle back, I'm getting prepared to run a half marathon, which I really didn't think I was going to be capable of doing, compared to, you know, a few months ago, how running felt for me versus now. Now the strength that's happened there has been amazing. I'm eating way more. I'm more myself mentally, I'm less anxious. There's so many wins. But if I was purely looking at the scale, I would be really berating myself. And I think in another time period, I really would have done that. And it's tempting sometimes. Sometimes I see that number on the scale that's up and I think, wow, what the heck? I'm working out really hard. I'm eating healthfully. Why is the scale up? But I am stepping into a healthier, more full version of myself that's not afraid to put on muscle, that's not afraid to eat for performance, and that's a really awesome place to be. So I think sometimes we need to detach from the scale as our one main piece of measuring that progress. It just is not ever going to be on your side. And mentally, it's tough, but we got to separate ourselves. Ladies, 1s your health is so much more than that number can possibly reflect. So all of this to, say, having visible ABS or being super lean year round, one isn't realistic for most people. A lot of the pictures or things that you're seeing on social media might have been when they were doing some sort of bikini competition prep, or they were really highlighting their leanest time, and it's not showing them 365 days out of the year or when they're on their period feeling bloated. So we really have got to stop comparing. I mean, even when you factor in all of the ways that people can edit their bodies and videos and photos, now, that's a whole nother topic of conversation. But you can't compare, like. 1s Yourself on a random day to somebody's absolute best angle lighting leanest physique photo that they're throwing online and feel horrible about yourself. One, there's a genetic component. Some people can genetically become and maintain a little bit of a leaner physique more easily. They might lose fat in their belly a little bit easier, whatever it may be. But they also might might not be very healthy, they might not be their healthiest self, they might really struggle with orthorexic tendencies over, exercise, undereating, binge eating. There's so many things that we don't know about someone's health from simply looking at a photo. Even if they look healthy, there could be so much more to the story that you don't know. And so using that as our form of goals or comparison is a really slippery slope. So all of this to say ABS, skinniness leanness is not going to equate to health in every single circumstance. Yes, you might see weight loss and it might be a really healthy thing for you, but there also are times when weight loss is not necessarily the healthiest thing. And so we can't just lump it all into the same category and say that because someone's super toned, that they're really healthy, they're really fit, they're really strong, that might not be the case. So I hope that this has been encouraging to you. If you struggle with the comparison game or feeling like in order to be your healthiest self, you have to have visible ABS year round or be as skinny as you were in high school or some sort of really tough comparison, it's just not the case. And you might need to gain a little bit of weight and be okay with that and change your standard of beauty a little bit for yourself and just in general to step into your healthiest self, your Fittest self, your most vibrant self. And that's a really cool thing. So that is all for today. It's a really quick one, but hopefully this encourages you if you are kind of on this health journey and maybe your weight is a mental battle for you. All right, that's all. I will see you in the next episode. If you want more episodes like this of just kind of real talk about a certain fitness or health wellness topic, let me know. 1s Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Fit for Hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Pony 2s that's Ponytail Underscore on a Trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for Hiking and find more free resources@ponytailonatrail.com. Happy and healthy trails.