Find Your Strong Podcast
Encouraging people to find what FEELS good in terms of food, movement and their bodies. Let's challenge the wellness w*nkery and start a new conversation.
In each episode, Christine and Ela discuss their thoughts on diet and fitness fads, speak with fabulous guests about their experiences with finding peace with food and movement, and interview experts so that they can share their insights and knowledge with you.
The hope is that together we can change the narrative around nutrition and exercise and help you find YOUR strong!
Find Your Strong Podcast
Exercise is Not Therapy. A Bonus Episode.
I'm flying solo this week and am talking about a subject VERY close to my heart.
I have struggled with anxiety and depression for as long as I can remember and I am not one to pretend 'everything is ok', rather I am sharing my own story in the hope that it will resonate with some of you and help you realise you are not alone.
Movement has been part of my mental health 'toolkit' for a long time but my relationship with it has shifted quite considerably.
I used to GO GO GO because I literally needed the distraction and was living in survival mode or fight or flight from morning to night. During the pandemic I trained as a Pilates teacher and slowed the feck down. WOW! That was not and is not easy for me to do but boy, was it a revelation.
So many folks are pushing themselves in the guise of 'movement is so good for my mental health' but when is too much, too much and why does excessive exercise start to take it's toll on our mental health.
Please let me know your thoughts and lots of love and strength to you all.
xxxx
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Christine Chessman: Welcome to another episode of the find your strong Podcast I am flying solo this week, which is kind of exciting, and I tend to not do very many solo episodes. But come the New Year that is going to change, and you know I'm a great believer in wearing my heart on my sleeve, and just sort of saying as it is. And
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Christine Chessman: today I just wanted to talk about movement and mental health and my story, and in the hope that it would resonate with some of you.
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Christine Chessman: And you know, as I said, I have been very open in the past about struggles that I've had with my own mental health. I've struggled with anxiety and depression most of my life.
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Christine Chessman: and as long as I can remember to be honest. and I also have had had anorexia as a teenager which morphed into various other eating disorders and
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Christine Chessman: and to sort of relationship with food, movement, body, dysmorphia. You know, the list goes on. I've never really been comfortable on my own skin until very recently.
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Christine Chessman: and although things have changed dramatically for myself in the last 5 years. It's still a struggle, you know. Those thoughts, those beliefs are still there, and they do not go away overnight. You know we have to work hard to push them away.
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Christine Chessman: but luckily, the more we pushed them away
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Christine Chessman: the easier gets. So that's definitely what I've been finding. But today kind of wanted to focus on how much is too much. You know we we hear it everywhere. That movement is so good for mental health and feeling the endorphins. And if you're really feeling down, just, you know, do some yoga go for run.
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Christine Chessman: and you're feeling so much better now that is not the case for everybody. Actually, you know, everybody's brains are completely different. And exercise is a stressor on the body
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Christine Chessman: and too much of a good thing. You can have too much of a good thing. And I just wanted to talk about that today. Actually. so for me, movement is a
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Christine Chessman: is a lifeline. I've always moved and I've always find it incredibly helpful. It's you know. It's a big part of my toolkit in coping with my own mental health struggles.
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Christine Chessman: In the earlier days. So I used to run. So running would have been my my main exercise of choice. And you know I love to the community of running that's so strong here in the South, East and Brighton and hove.
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Christine Chessman: But to say I pushed myself was a bit of an understatement. You know I had to run every day.
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Christine Chessman: I was training for first of all, 10 K's, then half marathons, and then full marathons. Just always running. and I always say that I ran through my dad's death.
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Christine Chessman: which you know I did in the morning that he died. I had got up and done a 10 mile run, and I just kept running because I just didn't know what to do with all the emotion that I had.
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Christine Chessman: and that was incredibly helpful. But I got to a stage. Maybe I don't know
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Christine Chessman: a few years ago that I began to realize that it wasn't serving me in the way that it used to, or that I felt
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Christine Chessman: it used to. You know I was running. I was literally running away.
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Christine Chessman: running away from my problems. And
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Christine Chessman: you know, just keeping that sympathetic nervous system just on high, alert, like staying in that flight or flight all the time running away, literally running away from things.
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Christine Chessman: And there was never a time for the parasympathetic to kick in. There was never calm, there was never quiet, there was never softness or stillness. and that has something which
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Christine Chessman: over the last 4 or 5 years I have built into my life in a big way. I trained as a Pilates teacher, and I learned the art of slowing down and connecting to my breath, which has been incredible.
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Christine Chessman: And you know I wanted to talk about movement, and how I now kind of think about movement. I. When I get up in the morning I feel the need to move.
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Christine Chessman: so that sort of just sets me up for the day. But now it's different. I don't have to go for a 10 mile run. I don't have to do strenuous strength work. I, even though I do schedule losing a couple of times a week.
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Christine Chessman: I would be happy on the days I'm really busy. I can do a 10 min, Yoga session, or I can do a a 5 min mobility for neck and shoulders.
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Christine Chessman: like. My focus now is actually on taking care of my body. So I prioritize mobility and the health of my joints absolutely prioritize that.
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Christine Chessman: But I also know that my body needs
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Christine Chessman: rest, relaxation, and just calming down. You know I'm very much. There's a lot of tension in my muscles.
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Christine Chessman: and even though II struggled to relax and really be quiet and find that calm place. I know that it's an absolute must for me if I'm gonna you know, stay in this planet as long as I intend to. It's just quite a long time as I keep telling my kids I keep telling them that until they are old. I'm not gonna leave. So gonna watch them get old, and then I'll pop off.
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Christine Chessman: But you know my priority is not taken care of my body, so that it will. You know I will have that longevity as much as I.
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Christine Chessman: You know, as you can control that personally which none of us can. And but you know II want that independence for as long as possible. and that is my why, for movement
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Christine Chessman: taken care of my body rather than sort of punishing it or slamming it because I need to work something out in my head.
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Christine Chessman: and you know I still love running, but I now run with friends and meet friends for a run, and then always make sure I have a good coffee a lot day afterwards.
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Christine Chessman: You know we I tend to run to and from cafes just for that reason. And I make it more fun. You know II try and go to classes with friends. and you know, if I'm working out on my own.
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Christine Chessman: If if I know the movement pattern. And obviously, if I'm
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Christine Chessman: if my focus doesn't have to be so intense, you know I make. If I put music on in the background. I'll maybe watch a show that I've watched before. Make it comfortable for myself.
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Christine Chessman: and try to take that intensity out of it. You know. We don't always have to go full blast all the time, and we can have huge benefits for our mental health if
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Christine Chessman: we're really caring for ourselves and seeing movement in a way that is taken care of our bodies rather than
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Christine Chessman: pushing them to the the ultimate degree.
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Christine Chessman: And you know that's not to say that I don't love a challenge, and I don't love challenging my body because I absolutely do.
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Christine Chessman: But I also want to make sure it's taken care of, it's nourished, it's well fed, and if I do do those crazy work outs which I still love, I make sure to nourish my body well and fuel my body.
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Christine Chessman: So just to summarize. I just want you to sit and think for a little while about how you use movement.
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Christine Chessman: If you find movement an incredible tool for mental health, fantastic.
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Christine Chessman: But just have a look at your schedule. Are you doing too much. you know. Are you feeling irritable. Are you feeling tired? Are is it not giving you the same feeling as it used to do you kinda just feeling too exhausted to work out? But do it anyway. Are your muscles sore for a longer period of time than they used to be? Do you just be a bit achy and stiff, and
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Christine Chessman: just not a lot of joy.
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Christine Chessman: That could be a sign that you're maybe just doing too much, and you would benefit from just slowing down a little a little. So I'm gonna leave that there with you. But thank you for joining me today, and let me muse and let my thoughts go all over the place.
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Christine Chessman: But yeah, what my parting thought is a quote which I just posted on Instagram today
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Christine Chessman: from Audrey Hepburn, which is. I believe, in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong.
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So for me.
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Christine Chessman: feeling strong in my body makes me feel a bit more resilient
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Christine Chessman: in the world, and especially if I'm I'm having a difficult time. But being strong on my body also means taking care of it. I'm gonna leave that there with you and have a lovely rest of your wake. Bye.
