Christa 0:00
All right, you guys today we have Olivia Chadwick. She has a master's in Science in Kinesiology and she is a mental performance coach. She's just a master of so many amazing things. She's also certified in exercise physiology. She has an amazing podcast herself. She's also a speaker and founder of movement is medicine, the first of its kind, coaching practice that really helps world class leaders apply exercise science. She is also the co founder of Rise and shine consulting, and offers workshops and coaching to improve gender equity in sports and movement spaces. She hosts the wellness compass podcast, and her goal in life is really to reshape the landscape of health and wellness culture, and highlight holistic health topics, through interviews with health professionals, which is why we are so excited for her to be here. She is living in Canada, and she's going to have a chat with us today all around health and fitness and how and her passion really for movement being medicine. So I hope you all enjoy this conversation today. All right, Olivia, we are so happy that you're here. And, you know, I want you to share a little bit about how you got to where you are and why didn't you go back to school at age 37 to complete your master's degree in the area of self compassion. And and really also along with that question, how did you kind of enter into and kind of create that conviction that much like movement is medicine? Hmm,
Speaker 1 1:38
yeah. Great question. Thanks. I'm gonna have to take you through multiple decades to help you understand how I arrived at this particular place in my in my practice at this time. So I went to school and did a Kinesiology degree. And out coming out of that degree, I started a personal training practice. And I was working for almost 20 years within the industry 20 years in that same industry. And my business evolved many, many times trying to respond to what I learned in school and the market that I was being presented with, you got to imagine that when I first came out of school and was going into a personal training practice, this was at a time when personal training was even like a thing people had disposable income, and that they could hire somebody to help support them in some sort of lifestyle change specifically related to exercise in school, everything that relates to sport, movement and exercise, what you're learning are fundamentals right exercise physiology, learning about the body understanding anatomy, understanding the movement of McCann mechanics of movement, you have some coaching training, you have some, it's my point being it's kind of biomedical in its approach, right? You're really thinking about how the body works, but not necessarily how a human works, you do a little bit of psychology, but at that time, it was very, very little. And then you go out into the world, and now you're dealing with like a real human body. They're way more complicated than just their anatomy. And I'm also not even though I learned about movement in the purview of health, I'm not part of a healthcare system. I'm not considered an allied health professional, I really am a business owner. And that means that I feel full within the fitness industry. And so that people weren't coming to me necessarily, even as it related to their health at that time. So 20 years ago, they were really coming to me because they were pursuing some sort of fitness goal. My point being is that their motives were typically socio culturally driven, right, then, basically, the culture that they lived in was telling them something about their body that was making them feel a certain way. And they saw exercise because they had been trained to see exercise in a certain way as a vehicle with which they could become more comfortable in their own skin. Now, I don't know why that it took me a while to get that there was a disconnect between the way I had been trained, and the way that I was required to work in my practice, I think it was just that I was also living in the culture. So it wasn't like shocking to me, this wasn't a surprise. But I really felt for the longest time, I was trying to figure out how to take my training and make it apply with what people actually felt like they needed in an ethical way. Now, the other thing you need to understand about all of those is my own personal lens. So as a young girl, I had an eating disorder, I have mental illnesses pertained to my body. So when people were struggling with their body, I totally understood this. This was very much almost the entire part of my world for a period of time, right those struggles. And so I'd gone on a on a journey myself of healing my relationship with my body, working with my mental health, but at a time, I feel like I'm dating myself so much was I narrowed the story at a time when there wasn't mental health support right? We didn't actually know what an eating disorder was in the 90s. If we did, we felt like it's something that somebody should just be able to fix on their own. Because all you have to do is do a certain set of behaviors. And therefore, if you do those behaviors, you're considered, well, if your body is a certain weight, it's considered well, but that there's so much more to healing than just, you know, falling outside the category categorization of the DSM. So I had done a lot of work in becoming, you know, having a better relationship with my body, a better relationship with food and movement. And what I realized this was pivotal, you guys was I realized that the people that I was working with, was struggling in such similar ways in which I had struggled with their body, but they weren't necessarily struggling with mental illness. So I thought that the challenges that I had were part of my pathology. But when I worked with people I was I realized, oh, my gosh, actually all have these sorts of feelings that I have. They're not necessarily pathological. This is how we feel when we live in this culture, you know, and if I continue to have work with people, and not name, the challenges that they're facing as not their problem, or if I continue to offer weight loss transformation programs, which was super typical, you know, still typical, but it was really highly promoted in terms of having a successful practice, even up to I would say, six or seven years ago. But if I continue to say that I was operating in that way that I was becoming part of a system that was actually set up and designed to harm people. And when I had that realization, I, I couldn't continue to practice in the same way. But I didn't know how else to practice in terms of how I would work with people, not just because I don't know how you have a business in this industry without operating in that way. But that was certainly one. But the second was, people their thoughts and beliefs were indoctrinated into by the culture. So at first I thought, Well, okay, I just won't collude. Right, if people say they want to work on weight loss, I will say, Well, I don't that's not really something I do. But I understand that's one of your goals. And if you want to track that, I understand that, you know, I wouldn't conspire in offering nutrition counseling, I would often refer out but it's really common for personal trainers to offer quite a bit of their thoughts and feelings about food and nutrition. I was just trying to not collude, you know, not doing a lot of body measurement type techniques using BMI trying to not collude. But it honestly was just like really not enough, because people still had a lot of body shame. They still, you know, even if their body did change in some way that that was on in a direction that they wanted, it was never enough, it didn't matter. They really chastised themselves heavily if they weren't able to follow a program that was supposed to give them exactly the results that they wanted. I don't think I have to name this any further. I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. So I said, Okay, enough, I need to completely turn this system on its head, I need to offer something completely different. And something countercultural probably at the same time, all of this is happening, as I'm delivering my practice, I'm still on a healing journey, y'all like getting to a healthy place, internally, with your body. As a woman in this culture, I don't think the work is ever really done. So I was continuing to do the work. And for me, it was a lot of engaging with socio cultural theories like understanding Well, why do we feel the way that we feel about our bodies like what has been happening to us, as women that helped make us feel this way, like going deep understanding emotion, our experiences, trauma, and ultimately, for me, personally, one of the most pivotal shifts that I had above and beyond that sort of heavy cognitive approach to understanding those influences for me was self compassion. When I was invited into this new way of relating to myself, that became this really profound alternative alternative lens of relating to myself, that shifted everything for me, because at the end of the day, it was really about my own relationship with myself that I projected onto my body. That's not entirely up, but a large part of it, at that stage of my healing journey was that and it really made a significant difference. So that brings us sorted for present day. That movement medicine for me, is giving people a space to engage with movement that is about health, but is about a holistic lens to health. So recognizing that your mental health is as important as your physical health from my point of view, in some for many people, it might need to be the highest priority as it pertains to their health. And movement can be a vehicle for that in many, many ways and movement medicine speaks to those ways
Sheree 10:02
All right. So powerful, I resonate on so many levels as a personal trainer, as someone who went through eating disorder. So I totally get it. And I think you brought up such a beautiful point around this, this whole culture in the fitness industry that's not necessarily in the health industry, but it kind of is. And I honestly think it's so so present around this weight loss and this attachment to weight loss, and then the mental and emotional component that really comes with that. And I just want to say like, I honor how much of the depth of the work that you've done and the depth of the work, you obviously get to do and have done over the years with your clients to support them through that transition. And in New Zealand, mental health like is one of the biggest issues we have here we have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Zealand seriously would be surprised at considering our country. But I think what a lot of people don't seem to understand, like you said is how, how medicinal, we talk about food being medicine, but how medicinal movement is, and you know, we know the endorphins that can create, we know how much better you feel like the quotes that pop around on Instagram and the only book out you regret as the one you didn't do, like you always feel really good after but can you talk a little bit more to that movement as medicine or movement is medicine because it's something I took, I strongly strongly support as well. And it's just a beautiful, beautiful thing you integrate?
Speaker 1 11:27
Thank you. You know, I think it really obviously depends on the person, some people struggle a lot more than other people in their body. And so how you might apply movement as it pertains to your mental health is going to vary very much based on the individual. But so for me, it was one of the primary things is agency. So the ability to be comfortable in your own skin to move your body in ways that feel invigorating. And of course, it can change your mood can help you feel that you're most present with yourself in a moment can empower you in that day. And if you can offer yourself that gift on a more regular basis, than days get packaged together, which turned to weeks, which turns into your life. Ultimately, I think that there's many layers. So one layer would be objectification, right. So if you're only used to seeing the lens of your body through other people's gaze, then what happens is you get interoceptive deficits, right? You literally cannot experience your body by actually being inside your body because your entire body image concept is a projection of other people seeing you. So you now no longer can feel hunger and satiety in the same way. You cannot walk past a mirror without thinking about your form in a mirror versus where you're going in that moment. We know this means that our minds are now more present in how our body is being consumed by others than being in the presence of our own mind. What movement can do is it can help restore a lot of those interoceptive deficits. Because you learn embodiment, or you have an opportunity Learn to Learn embodiment, you get to learn to feel well in your body from feeling your body from the inside. And this can happen through mind body practices. I personally teach Pilates, some people teach yoga, we know there's great clinical evidence to show that they can help increase embodiment, which means that you are restoring some of that felt sense of being in a body. And there's many ways in which that can help build health within a human being, you learned how to appreciate your body, which is a whole positive psychology lens of the body of body image. So when we think of body image, it has two alternate perspectives, we can be trying to mitigate negative body image. So mitigate, you know body shame, body dissatisfaction, but we also have this positive psychological lens, which is body appreciation. And this is about body functionality, about being appreciative of what a body can do. And of course, movement is one of those really tangible ways in which we can say, my body can do this. And I feel good in my body when it does this. If I train my body, it can do more. My body is available for adaptation. If I ask it to adapt, it will because it's highly trainable. So we can actually work white in an action oriented way on positive body image through movement as a vehicle. Again, when we think about a human being being a complex layer many things movement is this habit that can meet a multiple practice of things so so you can be struggling being in your body, but you might also be challenged with anxiety. And somehow those two things interconnect in a way that's really difficult for you personally. Well, movement can be a way that you work on being comfortable in your body, but it can also help you in some ways potentially manage your anxiety. Be, and therefore you're helping to overall work on the different aspects that you're struggling with in the into, like the painful intersections of those things. What but it's really working in different ways on the different things that are happening here. But I think I did a really poor job of explaining that.
Christa 15:15
But hopefully somebody who's listening gets it. Now know, I think it's great I, I also believe strongly in the mind body spirit connection and trusting our body to heal, trusting our body, like even just shedding weight, right part of it is, I believe a belief system and trusting that your body is capable of doing it and maybe working underneath the unconscious reasons why we thrive in a state of being overweight. Maybe it's because you don't want attention unconsciously. And so you're afraid to lose the weight. I mean, there's all sorts of unconscious reasons why sometimes dis ease shows up in our body, holding that trauma, how that kind of can be held in the body. And then we have GI issues. That's a very common one, right? I mean, everyone can relate to the fact that when you're anxious, you have diarrhea, right? Like we all we all can, at some point relate. I'm like, no facility, I can't really. And so that that, like that's the most tangible, if I have a thought it affects my body, or even thinking about sexual things, how it affects your body. So there's definitely ways that our thoughts affect a physiological response in our body. And so those are some of the common ways that I can tell people and they're like, oh, yeah, I guess I do, I do understand that a thought creates a symptom in our physiological response. So I love that you go there with people, because I think it's not touched on a lot. I don't think you're right. I think that most personal trainers, most people who are in the industry of helping physique is solely focused on getting that result, but not really understand that not doing it gently. And I know that you describe yourself as a mental performance coach. And I think that that can be really confusing to some people like, what is that? And if you could take a moment to just kind of share what it is that you I mean, I know that you've kind of described what you do. But in terms of mental performance, it's not just that you're because the first thing that comes to my mind is, oh, you're just going to help me run faster, because you're going to help me mentally deal with it. But you're going deeper than that. Can you share a little bit about what that means? Yeah,
Speaker 1 17:35
yeah. Thanks for asking that question. That's great. So I'm a mental performance coach, because I have a master's in Kinesiology. So my, my specific area of specialization is sports psychology, you can think of this, again, it falls within the purview of positive psychology. So we don't necessarily always see persons in terms of our mental development, because we are suffering from mental illness, or we're going through a circumstantial crisis, right, like a divorce, or those would be typical reasons. But sometimes we can tell that we are not flourishing in some way. Because we're getting in our own way. Like we're trying to move in a direction of growth. And it's not happening. We're sabotaging ourselves, we really want to do something, maybe even something as simple as motivating ourselves to exercise. And we really want it, we really want it for ourselves. And yet we can't get ourselves to do it. How frustrating is that. And we often blame and shame ourselves that we're just lazy, or we don't have the motivation. But my belief is, is that there's always a reason, but it might it's not in your awareness yet. So with positive psychology, what we do is we say that, we're helping people move towards a greater vision for themselves. And all human beings want that we're all wired for growth. And what the framework we're using is a mindset type framework, we're looking at, ultimately using the framework of cognitive behavior therapy using this idea that thoughts create emotions that lead to actual behavior. And so if action of behavior is or is not occurring in a direction that you want it to, we go back to well, what is what are your beliefs that are informing your thoughts? What are the thoughts that you're having? And how can we gain gain better self awareness? How can we understand where those beliefs come from? What are the tools and devices that we have to help reshape new beliefs moving forward, as well as have new thoughts for ourselves moving forward? That's a very basic idea of what mindset ultimately is trying to do. Ultimately, you also are thinking about helping that person create a greater vision for themselves. If a person is operating from a certain set of beliefs, sometimes they cannot even imagine this sounds wild, but we know that trauma actually causes deficits in our imagination. So sometimes people really actually cannot imagine a greater future for themselves and get really stuck. If any If they can't imagine a greater vision for themselves, they get stuck on trying to figure out how based on their current physical reality. And if the current physical reality gives them no evidence that a greater vision is possible, then you can get stuck before you even have exited out the front door. So what we what I try to do with persons, is help them create the vision, and then help them get out of their own way, essentially, by using different psychological devices to help them move forward.
Sheree 20:31
I love the way you explained that the thoughts that create beliefs which create our actions, it's something that I think more and more people are becoming familiar with. And it's such a powerful realization and understanding even like what Crystal was saying before understanding that your body is connected with your mind and how our bodies responds, physiologically. It's such a beautiful process and to have someone there to support you, and they're to guide you through and actually hold space for that vision and understand, you know, why you may be getting in your own way. And I know we both the Christian I see it time and time again with clients who will come in with this self sabotage behavior, or, you know, for those, those listeners right now who are going oh my gosh, that's so me, I really struggle to show up for myself every single day like not that you have to be training daily, or going and exercising or moving your body daily. But the thought of overcoming that initial step of okay, I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna go to the gym, or I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna go for a walk, I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna go to Pilates, whatever it is for them. You know, I'm super curious what advice like what starting point if someone could just take one little tidbit away from today, to start moving themselves out of that limitation out of that mindset? Block that actually no, this is not possible for me? How would you encourage them to get daily movement into their lives? Because I see time and time again, people are standing in their own way. And this is the biggest pushback is like, Oh, I don't have time. I don't have this. I don't have that. There's a million excuses under the sun.
Speaker 1 22:03
I love the question. And I hate the question all at the same time. Because i i You know, I still want to encourage people. That's why I love the question. You know, I want to have somebody have a takeaway that feels really meaningful to them, and helps feel like they've moved forward in some way in their relationship with themselves and the direction that they want to go. And yet I hate the question because I, I hate to overly simplify what is ultimately complex human behavior, and giving that space that it is complicated, and it's going to take some time for you to self reflect, and to get new information that might be the exact information that you need it because there's some alchemy to like the right thing set up just the right time that you needed it that moves the needle for you personally. But over overarching Lee, I my approach initially is is the self compassionate approach. It's that ability to say not what's the first thing you need to do. But what is causing you to feel suffering in this moment that makes you want to take action that's different from where you are currently. And can you be with that? Can you be with that space with yourself where it's really hard for you right now, and you really want it to look different. Because in my experience, what people will typically do, if they try to engage in exercise, they are trying to feel better, because because they feel bad. But if we act too soon to feel better, as soon as we feel better for a period of time. Because we're not really fully connected, why we felt bad in the first place. Because it was actually too painful to stay with that moment. We'll feel better for a little bit. And as soon as we feel better, we're like, Well, I feel better. I don't need to keep doing that anymore. We like forget that we were moving in a direction that was really about taking care of ourselves in a different way. If you can't really be with the suffering that's present there, you won't be able to stay with yourself, even when it's feeling good. That sounded really deep and maybe a little bit too much of a podcast. I really do believe.
Christa 24:15
Yeah. I think it goes along with if we trust life, and we believe that everything is always working in your favor, then that gives some peace of mind that it's okay to not always feel happy and satisfied. And I think you're right. I think we can look back on most of the things that caused pain. There was probably something good that came out of it somewhere somehow right there. And I think sitting with it, most of us It is human nature don't want to run from discomfort you just just make me skinny and everything will be fine. Whatever, whatever it is. But the truth of the matter is being thin does not solve the underlying problem. It doesn't It doesn't solve other issues. And I always use it as a reminder to myself, when I see somebody in Hollywood, let's say who arguably has all the looks, all the money, all the fame, all the things, and yet they still kill themselves, right? We still see them. Yeah, overdosing, you know, let's say the ones that are on purpose. And it serves as a reminder to me that that's not the answer. Having all of those things that you think will make you happy. There's a lot of evidence that tells us that it's just it's not enough. And there's, there's plenty of people who don't look ideal or don't live in the ideal home who aren't insanely happy. We look around the world in different countries and different groups of people where different body shapes are more accepted, and they're perfectly fine with it. And so I love that you've kind of dug a little bit deeper into that shifting gears a little bit, because I think people are going to have this question. Do you have a particular type of Moon movement that you really believe in like, lifting heavy weights? Or do you believe it's Pilates? And then on top of that question, is there a particular kind of nutrition that you feel? Because I'm hearing you say that you support people on both you support them in their goals of let's say, wanting to increase muscle mass and wanting to physically look better? But what makes you beautiful practitioner is that you dive deeper along that, but what what do you kind of leave in there? As far as what do you prescribe to as far as Have you found a particular diet that that most people feel comfortable with? They're not starving themselves, but they're also able to get the composition that they want along the way?
Speaker 1 26:38
Again, really great question, because ultimately, we're, I love all the deep stuff, but you still gotta get up in the morning, and you just gonna go and do a workout, it's just the intention behind it has changed drastically if you're doing the inner work, but if you're gonna go do a workout, it's probably because there is an outcome from that workout that is helping you envision your life to be a certain way. So for instance, I in my 40s, is become really important after having my children to decide to do more strength training. And I had to set up certain ways in which that made sense to me, because historically, I've been a runner. And I found that really easy to do at times people find that hard to be motivated to do that was easy, but actually deciding to push myself in strength training was not something that I found that easy to do. So I solicited support for that particular endeavor, even though I consciously knew how to do it. I didn't know how to push myself in those environments consistently. And I felt like I really needed to, because my body was telling me that it needed to be stronger. I didn't feel comfortable running, it just things didn't feel together. Anyways, I went on that journey for about a year. And then I had also reengaged, in equestrian, I had a fall, and I broke my arm and my two places in my leg in two places. And then, but I was so strong, you guys, that with one arm and one leg, I didn't take a single day off work. And I had crutch. And I had a cane. And I did my day. I couldn't pick up my baby at that time, who was only a year and a half old. But I could pretty much do everything else because I was really functional in my body. And so to me, what what that what came out of that was, well, this is what I need to do right now, this is affirmation, because because I was strong, I could have an injury and I'm in a high risk sport equestrian. So this, this is going to be a great long term thing for me to do in case I ever have this again. And it made me realize actually the, you know, the body can be quite as we age susceptible to foals and you know, functional impediments and strength is probably gonna help me more than any other modality is. So strength became important to me, I get all of my in terms of movement, all of my mental health needs met by running. I love being in nature. I love that time to myself, I love how running makes me feel. So that's still a part of my program. So the point my point being is my life is telling me what I need to do. So the perfect program for me is that because as I move through the journey of doing these things, I know that it's teaching me something about how it's going to support me moving forward in my life as well as helped me have a really great day. And that's how I would encourage everyone to pursue movement. Yes, I teach Pilates because Pilates taught me how to be in my body when I had no interoceptive feedback from my body because of my mental illness. And Pilates was so important for me in that regard. And because I was an athlete in my 20s and in athletics, you learn how to push yourself really well. You learn how to be really strong and really powerful. You do not learn how to move well. You do not learn how to be really aware of your body and space and to slow down and give your body time to recover and restore and Pilates taught me a lot of those really important practices that a part of that movement. So yes, I believe in strength training, of course we understand the the benefits of cardiovasc everything is about cardiovascular health, you guys in terms of mortality, if you're doing it for longevity, which is While people say they do movement for but I really don't believe that they do is like a small part of their motivation. But just so you know it, but it does help you with your mood. Lots of people will say that, and we need to get outside to move to just feel like we have a normal brain, y'all, you have to do it. So I like to miss early on to your question. But yeah, I teach. Yeah, I
Christa 30:25
think bringing in nutrition as well was, was the final part of that question of just, you know, people, keto, carnivore, I personally kind of come to have kind of come to terms with it's just needs to be whole food, ultimately. But I'm curious what your take is, and what you find has been helpful for most people to reach some of these goals, on average.
Speaker 1 30:46
So my framework when it comes to I mean, my framework when it comes to eating is eating as the behavior. That's where I began, because, you know, I'm coming from that lens of people divesting from diet culture, primarily. So Intuitive Eating is my most primary is the primary framework I use, we get so much messaging about food that I don't think most people know, am I really pursuing health and what feels best right now, or am I pursuing eating perfectly, or this the fat phobia, ultimately, they're being very, very manipulated by fat phobia. There's just so much information that's gone in that I think it's really hard for people to unpack and we end up eating out of eating out of cognition and losing the fact that food is supposed to be pleasurable, it's supposed to be enjoyable, it's supposed to be about reconnecting with, you know, what tastes yummy to you, and what makes you feel satisfied. So giving people unconditional permission to eat whatever they want, I think ultimately allows people to turn back eventually, and eat broccoli, just because they like it, it doesn't matter, like the health benefits, it doesn't matter, you know how many calories it has, it just is what the body eating, eating what you know, what makes you feel good, ultimately, will mean you eat lots of plants eat whole foods, it a level that feels manageable and sustainable for you at any one time given, you know, the demands on your time, your opportunity to access food, all of these other things. So for me, it's about returning to nourishing yourself, well, it comes back to that framework of self care, which doesn't always mean that Free For All right, sometimes you recognize that sometimes it takes work. And it's like, and you would prefer not to put effort into preparing a quality meal for yourself. But you ultimately will do the things that will help you operate at the highest level that you want to operate and serve both yourself and the world. And that requires an inner coach that requires fierce self compassion, as much as it requires a kind approach to oneself. So
Christa 32:58
I really do. Yeah, the the idea that you love yourself enough to nourish your body, helps you make that choice between an Oreo. And something that's not an Oreo.
Sheree 33:10
I'm really hearing too. And with both your answers to both the exercise and the nutrition, is it's really making that intuitive choice and trusting your body's internal wisdom. And obviously, we do have to work through those inner blocks, those inner thoughts, beliefs, you know, things that are popping up in our day to day lives that we might not even be consciously aware of, that might be altering our choices, or making us choose unconsciously, the lack of movement or overdoing the movement or the lack of nourishment, or under nourishing ourselves. And so, I think, to really drive home, what you're saying it's very, very powerful for us to come home to ourselves and tune in, okay, yes, we, our bodies need nature, I feel good when I'm outside, and I'm inhaling fresh air, and I've got the sunshine shining on my face. And I do feel good when I get a great sweat on and I'm going through a hit workout or I'm doing some strength training, or I feel more connected in my body. Like for me a huge, huge part of the mental well being with movement was when I got back to dancing, like I was a dancer when I was younger. So when I bring that into my week, when I have a dance class through my week, I am a whole nother level of happy. But that's what lights up my soul. I'm not there just like oh, we had some cardio that doesn't fit. I didn't look at it as training. And so I think when we start to bring those sorts of elements in like you're saying, It's so, so profound, and the same thing goes with food. One of the questions I always get my clients to ask himself is, is this going to serve Me? In this moment? You know, we all have some level of disordered eating, like you say, because of how we've been exposed to things from society. And so that question I find allows people to go, Well, yeah, I'm at a birthday party. I really want a slice of cake, or I'm out with the girls and I want to enjoy a spicy Margarita or glass of wine. But it also allows the freedom to be like, well, you know what, I'm really choosing me in this moment. And what's going to serve me right now is that nourishing salad is that beautiful smoothie is that protein rich meal. And so I love how you've really integrated both. And you're giving you're, you're helping people to move out of what I typically tell them that all or nothing mindset, right? We win in that extremist approach. So, so, so powerful, and I just Yeah, I love I love what you're doing in the world.
Speaker 1 35:34
Well, apparently, I love what you're doing in the world, because it sounds like we're very aligned in the way that we see these things.
Sheree 35:44
Stories, it really does. A lot. I'm sure a lot of your clients too. If you've got that history of eating disorder, and you've gone down that path, you start to really see the the impact that physical health and food has on your mental health. Yeah, sure.
Christa 36:01
I'm curious, when you have a new patient, do most of your clients understand that you're gonna go deep with them at some point? Or do most of your clients come to you, hey, I want to look better, I want to get in better shape. And then you kind of weave this in? Do most people coming to you already know that they're going to be doing a whole whole the whole mind body spirit work?
Speaker 1 36:24
That is such a great question. That sounds like a marketing question. That idea? Or the answer question is? I don't I really don't know the answer to that question. I feel that I am really clear in my philosophy, and my methodology, and how I want to support people. How I help the, you know, a prospect arrive ready for the journey that I want to take them on, is still something I'm grappling with, you know, marketing can be educative. But I don't quite always know how to help somebody arrive, ready for my journey. And so what more recently I've done is just operated from the lenses, movement medicine, just saying that I'm in the purview of health. And hopefully people get this sense of, Well, this feels slightly different than maybe from the fitness industry. And they can sort of get on board with the idea that they're taking care of their health, and that feels accessible to them. And then I might nurture that prospect along and find out where they're at in terms of how they relate to food movement in their body. Sometimes I might market a program specifically from this is the work this is the program. And this is the work we're doing. We're using a self compassionate lens to help you become more comfortable in your own skin. Build Confidence. But this is a countercultural narrative, and it's not for everyone. So be warned. And I'm so I'm dabbling. I'm trying different things and seeing what lands in what audience and I don't really know the best way to do it yet.
Christa 38:08
Well, I think it's amazing that you have beautiful intuition to kind of know, and I think just like anything else is personalized, it's kind of that approach is personalized, everybody's going to need a different level, a different different input, different coaching around depending on where they're coming from, right.
Speaker 1 38:22
Mm hmm. Yes, that is true. The challenge that I have is I find the most successful model is when women can gather together. So a lot of the work that I do is baked in feminist theory and part of feminist theory states that women being able to hear other people's stories, be able to realize that their own pain and suffering about their own experiences, their bodies is exactly the same as the other women in the room. Yes, their lives have been completely different. But I totally know what she's talking about. Great Healing can come from that. And then we can collectively say, actually, we want it to be different. And we as a collective are going to move forward and do this differently. That is way more powerful than one person doing on their own. I've had women say to me, thank you for facilitating, but really, it was the other women that helped me so much on this journey, which I know, part of my ego was like, Well, what about me? And the other part of me was like, yes, because I created this experience. And I got everyone here at the same level of readiness to go on this journey together. So we did this collectively. The reason why I'm saying that is because it is personalized, and it's not at the same time. And the part of it that isn't personalized is because if we can gather in a group that's actually more powerful than even a personalized approach, so I do do personalize I absolutely do. But what I'd really love to do is start a movement right that's what I'm really trying to do is start a movement I'm not there yet, but I'm that's my vision,
Sheree 39:58
the power of community right and to an uplifting other woman. And I think, like, you've touched on so many times this narrative that we have just been fed from a young girl, and it's still present, it's changed for him. It's been magazines. I don't know what maybe it was newspapers back in our grandparents time, like, how we were exposed to it. Now, it's social media, you know, you've got these young woman that are comparing themselves to these influences. They're comparing themselves to these, you know, for me, it was Victoria's Secrets models, like now it's like, oh, the the young girls are exposed to a woman with filters on their face all the time. And you know, I'm guilty of using Wonka's you like sweetener to do my makeup. Yeah, but I like gloss over my face. But I try not to do anything that actually alters my physical appearance. And I think I think it's really beautiful that that's the direction that you're heading in. Because it's, it's so desperately needed. And it's needed on all levels. And I wonder if you can touch on that a little bit? Like, do you see this across age ranges, because we've got the youth that are growing up with the social media, we've got our past, you know, how younger selves will may be conditioned through magazines through what we see on TV through, like, Krista was saying, the Hollywood stars. So you know, so much of growing up was like, look at these celebrities and what they're doing and what they're wearing and how they're showing up in the world. And it's really, from that mental component. It really shapes how we perceive ourselves a lot of the time. Yeah.
Speaker 1 41:27
Oh, this Oh, gods, again, such a great question. So predominantly, the work that I do right now is with 40 Plus, so women who might have been dieting for decades, you know, or pursuing exercise routines. And so a lot of that work is divestment from saying that, okay, you've been duped for a really long time, it's gonna be really painful to hear. But you've been duped for a super long time, and all the things that you think you've learned about how this works, that just don't seem to be working for you, because you haven't quite applied it in exactly the same way, you haven't been quite disciplined enough in quite the right way for it to work for you. But if you just get a grip on that, it will work for you, that have invested so much in that idea, you have to do a lot of the painful work of realizing that, you know, there's been a lot of harm that's done for you, which is the healing journey work, right. But that's not what young young youth need to do. Right, they are in the trenches, absorbing the information. So I do work with younger persons in the purview of sport. So that's just a context specifically of that age group that I work with, which is really interesting, because most people like to believe that sport is a protective factor for a lot of those things, because they're developing function and agency in their body, and they see their body is strong and powerful, which is actually true. And at the same time, because we are actually able to have two parallel experiences is exactly the same time, sport also presents lots of challenges. You know, there's the aesthetic sports, like track and synchronized swimming and dance and whatnot, that actually put a heavy emphasis on the performance and appearance of your body. So the challenge is actually can be more significant. There is a reason why we have different eating disorder diagnosis that are specifically related just to the context of sport, because the challenges that are presented in sport are really unique. All this to say that, within that context, what we're trying to what I am trying to do is understand my I want to show up and say what are the challenges that you're facing being in your body in these specific spaces? And what is it that's part of culture that is translating into a sport environment? And what is just specifically unique to the sport environment? I believe in that context, right now, we're at a place where we don't really know the influence that technology is having, you know, moms are often asking me, like, what can I do? And my answer to that as well, I get it that you're you're really afraid because you've actually lived it. And you know how difficult it is to be in a body and you're thinking to yourself, it's going to be getting worse because of the influence of technology. So you really want to be mitigating the harm that you think has been caused. But we don't know what the answer to that is yet. But regardless that we don't know, you can still work on your relationship with your body because as a role model of being in a body with your young daughter, typically, there's a lot of things that you can be doing so you do your work, right. First. However, when it comes to our youth, we need to be having more open conversations. And I do think that that is something that we're slightly getting better at doing that we're having persons like myself, come into those spaces, and inquire and create safe spaces for in in my work young young girls, to ask them what are the challenges that they're facing, so we have better understanding. Ultimately, you know, shame breeds in silence. A lot of the challenges that we're facing with our bodies are rooted in shame and trauma, but If we can talk about them, or we can share our stories we at least are stepping in at a time. healing can occur earlier if we're starting to have these more open conversations. So that's the work in younger people.
Christa 45:14
I think it's amazing though, that women, it doesn't stop just because you're out of your 20s, or 30s doesn't mean that the body shaming and the disordered eating stops, I think we oftentimes put eating disorders onto the younger generations. And you know, I think it's also great that most of your clients right now are 40. And above, because those women are probably still struggling on some level with that. And I think it becomes more and more shameful, the older that you get, because people want to uphold their their facade of who they are and how they function. And yeah, I was born this way. It's easy, you know, they don't, they're not as open. Right. And so I think that that's a really powerful position that you have to create that openness and that conversation amongst women who are still struggling with it, even though they're out of their teens, and they're out in middle school, and they're out of all that right.
Speaker 1 46:05
Yeah, well, yeah. Thanks for naming that. You're right. I think a lot of people might believe in themselves, that it's just them that are continuing to still struggle, I think we like to say, well, you know, as you get older, it becomes less of an issue because you know, you're more focused on health, or, but honestly, I just think it's so normalized, that you can not go into any space these days with the women and not have fat talk, and fat talk, you know, can look many ways. But now that, you know, diet, culture has infiltrated wellness, culture and health culture so much, we sort of fool ourselves into saying, we're talking about health, and we're talking about something else. But we're still talking about comparing our health behaviors, we're still doing all of these things to make us feel like we have value worth value and worth that's ultimately at the end of the day, what we're trying to do in the social relationships that we're that we're in, and so it's really at the root the same thing, right is feeling like we have value and that we can be accepted in some way.
Christa 47:07
Mm hmm. I love it. I love everything that you stand for. And I'm so honored to have you take some time to be with us and to share this with our audience. What are ways that people can get in and work with you I know that you mentioned group do you do online groups right now or you just in person groups?
Speaker 1 47:26
I do I do all of the above i People can hang out with me on my podcast, the wellness, the wellness compass, so that's one way they can just maybe get to know a little bit more about me that is more of a health facing with other allied health professionals conversations. That's just where you're at. They can connect with me through my website movement, das met movement dash medicine.com Or just check me up on movement is our medicine handle on Instagram.
Christa 47:51
I love them. Thanks again for this beautiful conversation. I think
Speaker 1 47:54
I'm so grateful you guys have given me so much space to talk. So I really appreciate it because I do Oh, it's
Christa 48:00
so good. I am very enthusiastic to share my message. So we are to and I hope everyone got every one of our listeners got more than they bargained for in a good way with this conversation because I think that you just offered so much insight and depth and being real and I really appreciate your authenticity for sure.
Unknown Speaker 48:17
Thanks, Krista.
Sheree 48:17
So much for your time here. It's a beautiful conversation. Beautiful mission you
Christa 48:21
have Thank you. Thanks for being here guys. Till next time
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
