5 Ways to Make Your Health Feel Like Self-Care Again

 

Hey hey beautiful human!

Have you ever noticed how something that started as taking care of yourself slowly turned into something that feels heavy? You still want to work out, you still want to eat well and you still care about your health. But somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling good and started feeling like pressure. Like something you have to keep up with, something you are constantly falling behind on, something that quietly makes you feel like you are not doing enough.

And when it starts to feel like that, it makes sense why it becomes harder to show up. Not because you do not care, but because it no longer feels like something that is actually taking care of you.

In this bonus episode of Embrace Your Real, I’m walking you through what usually causes that shift, and how to bring your health back to something that feels supportive, sustainable, and actually good to show up for again.

What’s Discussed:

  • Why health habits stop feeling like self-care and start feeling like pressure

  • How chasing outcomes like weight or numbers can disconnect you from how you actually feel

  • Why working out from a place of punishment changes your entire relationship with movement

  • How joy plays a bigger role in consistency than most women realize

  • Why routines that do not fit your real life are the fastest way to burn out

  • How small shifts in intention can make your habits feel like something you want to return to

If you loved this episode, you'll also love: Episode 540: Why Beating Yourself Up Isn't Helping You Reach Your Goals. It pairs perfectly with this conversation and helps you approach your goals from a more supportive place.

Ready to have every 30-minute session pre-planned, pre-programmed, and built around exactly this structure? Head to movementwithjulie.com and get started inside the Movement With Julie app. 

If you want more from me, be sure to check out… 

Website: www.juliealedbetter.com

Transcript

(0:00) Hey, hey beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you (0:06) but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter.

(0:13) I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. (0:19) Stay tuned if you're ready to Embrace Your Real. Let's get it, let's go! (0:32) Hello and welcome back to another bonus episode on the Embrace Your Real podcast.

(0:35) I'm really glad that you're here for this one because today we're going to be talking about something I think a lot of women need to hear right now. (0:41) There comes a point where taking care of yourself stops feeling good and starts feeling like another thing on the to-do list. (0:47) Like the workouts feel like a grind, the eating feels like a chore, and instead of feeling like something that you're doing for yourself, (0:52) it starts feeling like something that you're constantly failing at.

And when it feels like that, it's really easy to just stop. (0:58) Like you'll tell yourself, I'll get back to it when I'm later, when life slows down, when I feel more motivated, when something clicks. (1:04) But then later, like never has a way of coming, right? (1:08) So that is what today's episode is all about and I want you to know if any of this sounded familiar, (1:13) you are exactly who I made this episode for.

Here is what you're going to leave this episode with. (1:19) Five practical ways to reconnect with your health in a way that actually feels good again. (1:23) Why the intention behind your habits matters just as much as the habits themselves.

(1:28) And lastly, how to build a routine that fits your real life so that showing up stops feeling like a battle (1:34) Before we dive in, I want to share this review. She gave a five-star review and said, (1:38) Hey there, if you're just like me and get so much joy from exercising and eating healthy, (1:42) but may have found yourself on the border of having an unhealthy transactional relationship (1:47) with food and movement during your journey, I highly recommend listening. I'm so grateful (1:51) I found Julie and Embrace Your Real.

Over the past two days, she has helped me shift my mindset (1:56) and I feel empowered to make small shifts to make sure I'm fueling my body optimally and also (2:01) quiet my inner critic. Thank you so much for creating the content that will change lives (2:05) for the better. I'm so grateful that you sent this in.

Thank you so much for taking time out (2:09) of your day to send in this review. They really do mean the world to me and I'm so grateful that (2:14) these episodes have helped you. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

All right, let's just dive (2:17) right into it. Before I give you the five things I want to say this, the reason your (2:22) health stops feeling like self-care is almost always because the goal has drifted. It has (2:27) moved away from how you feel to really how you look, what the scale says, or whether or not you (2:32) hit the number.

And when the goal is external, the process almost always feels like a grind. (2:39) So what we're doing today is really trying to bring the goal back to you, back to how you feel, (2:43) how you function, and how you show up in your life. And that shift alone is going to change (2:47) everything.

So let's start strong with tip number one. Stop punishing yourself with your workouts. (2:53) This one is so big and I'm putting it first because I think it's one of the most common (2:58) ways that women lose their relationship with movement.

If you are choosing your workouts based (3:02) on how much you ate or how bad you feel about the weekend or because you need to burn something off, (3:07) that is punishment. That is not self-care and your body knows the difference. You might be moving, (3:12) but you're moving from a place of shame and that feeling alone follows you into every session (3:19) until working out starts to feel like something that you dread.

Real self-care through movement (3:24) books and feels like choosing to exercise because it makes you feel strong, because it clears your (3:30) head, because you come out of it feeling more capable than when you went in. It does not have (3:35) to be intense to count. It doesn't have to be an hour.

It just has to come from the right place. (3:40) So I want you to ask yourself, honestly, am I working out because I love my body or because (3:44) I'm punishing it? Because the answer to that question is going to tell you everything about (3:48) why it might not be feeling good right now. Number two, eat enough and eat in a way that (3:53) actually supports you.

So many women I talk to are exhausted, foggy, constantly craving things, (3:58) feeling completely out of control around food. And most of the time, their reason is so much (4:02) simpler than they think. They're just not eating enough.

They're under fueling all day. (4:06) They're white knuckling it through it and they're wondering why food just feels like such a battle. (4:10) Food is what allows you to fully show up.

It gives you the energy for your workouts, (4:15) clarity for your day, the ability to actually be present in your life. But when you start treating (4:20) eating as something you do for yourself rather than something you do to yourself, the whole (4:25) thing starts to feel different. This is where macro counting as a tool changed everything for me.

(4:31) When you start to really understand what your body actually needs and start to see it clearly, (4:36) food stops being so complicated. The guessing goes away and so does the restrict all day, (4:42) then lose control at night cycle. I do have a program called Macrokinamine Simple.

I created (4:47) it because I want women to have a clear, practical way to understand their nutrition without the (4:52) overwhelm. If you're ready to make food feel good again, the link for that is in the show notes. (4:56) Number three, let rest be a part of the plan, not a sign that you failed.

Rest days are not (5:01) off from your goals. They are the days that your body's actually doing the work of getting stronger. (5:07) The adaptation happens in recovery, not in the workout.

And yet so many women still feel (5:12) guilty on rest days like they should be doing something more like stillness means laziness. (5:17) Choosing to rest is a health decision. It's not giving up.

It's not falling behind. It is (5:22) working with your body instead of against it. And when you start treating rest as something (5:26) that you are intentionally giving yourself rather than something that you reluctantly allow, (5:30) it starts to feel like care because that's exactly what it is.

A rest day can look like a walk, (5:36) some stretching, some mobility, a slow morning and early night. It just has to be low enough (5:41) intensity that your body can actually recover. So give yourself that without guilt.

Number four, (5:47) find joy in the process. This one might sound simple, but I think it's the most underrated (5:52) thing on the list. If every single health habit you have feels like a sacrifice, (5:57) you will eventually stop doing them.

That is just human nature. We do not sustain things (6:02) that feel like punishment indefinitely. So the question becomes, where's the enjoyment? (6:06) And if you cannot find it, that is a sign that something needs to change.

(6:10) It could be finding a way that to move that actually is something that you look forward (6:14) to. It could be cooking a meal that hits your macros and genuinely tastes good. Maybe (6:19) it's building a morning routine that feels like it belongs to you or finding a community of (6:23) women who makes showing up feel less lonely.

The point is joy is not a bonus in your healthy (6:29) habits. It is the thing that makes them stick. When you enjoy the process, even a little (6:33) consistency stops being something that you have to force and it just becomes something (6:38) of what you do.

This is one of the things I love most about my Moo and Julie community. (6:43) It's full of women who are genuinely cheering each other on, cheering wins, asking questions, (6:47) making the thing feel a lot less of like a solo grind because showing up for yourself is so much (6:53) easier when you have people doing it alongside of you. And if that sounds like something that (6:57) you need right now, come join us.

We are all doing the same workouts on a weekly basis. (7:01) It is so much fun. Literally all you need is a few pair of dumbbells and a small space.

(7:05) The link for that is in the show notes. And last but not least number five, build consistency (7:09) around what actually fits your life. One of the biggest reasons health stops feeling like (7:14) self-care is that women are trying to maintain routines that were never designed for their real (7:19) life.

They're following a plan that assumes that they have an hour every morning, no kids, (7:23) unlimited energy, and then they just feel like failures when real life gets in the way. (7:27) Consistency in a routine that fits your life will always be perfection in a routine that (7:32) doesn't. Three workouts a week that you can actually do will always be five workouts that (7:37) you attempt and quit.

A way of eating that works with your schedule will always be a (7:42) plan that requires everything to be perfect. When your health habits fit into your real life, (7:47) they stop feeling like a burden and they start feeling like something that belongs to you, (7:51) something you actually look forward to. This is what we are building here.

Not a perfect routine, (7:56) but your routine. The one that shows up for you even when life is full, (8:01) messy, and real. All right, there you have it.

My five tips to make your health (8:05) feel like self-care again. Let's quickly recap what I talked about in today's episode. (8:09) Number one, stop moving your body as punishment and start moving it as something that you do (8:14) for yourself.

This shift in intention changes everything about how it feels. Number two, (8:20) eat enough. Food is not the enemy.

It is the thing that lets you show up for your life, (8:24) your workouts, and the people that you love. Number three, let rest be a part of the plan. (8:28) It is not weakness.

It is how your body actually gets stronger and shows up better every single (8:33) week. Number four, find joy in the process because joy is what makes consistency possible (8:39) and consistency is what makes this sustainable long-term. And last but not least, number five, (8:44) build habits that fit your actual life.

Consistency in something sustainable (8:49) always beats perfection in something that will never be realistic to begin with. (8:54) Your health is not a punishment. It's not a project.

It is the way to take care of the (8:59) one body and the one life that you have. And when you let it feel like care again, (9:04) everything gets easier. If you're ready to take what we talked about today and really (9:08) put it into practice, I have two resources designed to help you and support you.

Number one, (9:13) we have the Macro County Made Simple Online Academy. This is going to take the confusion (9:17) out of fueling your body well. And number two, I have my Movement With Juliet double-only (9:21) workouts.

This is going to make showing up to your workout something that you actually look (9:25) forward to. Both of those links are in the show notes below. And if this episode gave you (9:30) something to think about, I know you will also love episode 415.

What if self-discipline (9:35) has been misunderstood this whole time? It goes hand in hand with everything that we talked about. (9:40) And the link for that is in the show notes as well. If you are not already following the show (9:44) on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please make sure that you do so that you never miss an episode.

(9:49) And if this episode helped you, it would mean the world to me if you left a quick review. (9:52) It just helps us reach more women who need to hear this. All right, that is all that I have (9:57) for today's bonus episode.

Now go make your health feel like something that you actually (10:01) want to show up for. I love you so dang much. I mean it and I'll talk to you in the next one.

(10:14) All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. (10:20) First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so Julie A. Ledbetter.

(10:26) Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, (10:32) and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure (10:36) to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me.

It (10:43) means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful (10:48) women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being (10:54) authentically themselves.

Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. (11:00) So go out there and embrace the real because you're worth it.

 
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