Stop Punishing Your Body
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This podcast episode is going to be a little different because today I want to share some words from an Embrace Your Real follower that I believe you will relate to and that will resonate with you…
Her name is Chandler and the journey she has been on is so relatable…and I pray every single day that you all have the same realization as her. When I saw what she posted the other day, the second I read it I knew I needed to share it with you all.
If working out feels like PUNISHMENT, I highly recommend joining the Movement With Julie ladies inside the app. Plus, we connect every single day inside the private Facebook group to talk about our struggles AND our accomplishments and we have fun together along the way. It’s literally only 66 cents a day, so why not give it a try?! Go get access to it now, here!
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, Hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you but I promise I'll be really quick.
You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real, with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it. Lets go.
Hello and welcome back to another bonus episode of The Embrace Your Real Podcast. This specific episode is going to be a little different because I wanted to share some words from an Embrace Real follower that I believe you will really relate to and resonate with you. It brought tears to my eyes. Her name is Chandler and the journey that she's been on has been so relatable and I pray every single day that you all will have the same realization as her. When I saw that she posted this the other day, the second I read it, I knew I needed to share with you all.
But before I do, I have to share this super sweet review. It comes from Shelly 982. She says, "Godsend. I'm not sure how I came across this podcast but I want you to know Julie, you are doing what God has called you to do. It's not a coincidence I found your podcast. Not only are you giving great advice, but you lift this woman's spirit and I'm sure that many more women agree. You reflect his love." Thank you so much for the review. If you haven't already rated and [inaudible 00:02:15] the podcast, all you got to do is scoot you over to Apple podcasts. Click that rate and review. It really does help us out in the mission of reaching more women.
So back to sharing Chandler's inspiring word. She starts off by saying, "For so long, I have struggled with my body image and my relationship with food; working out way too much, not eating enough, negative self-talk, not allowing myself to enjoy the food I love. When trying to rectify it all, I continued to pursue old habits thinking that this time around it would produce different results."
I'm going to pause right here. How many of you guys just listened to that and can relate to it so much? For so long, you've struggled with body image or your relationship with food, working out way too much, not eating enough, negative self-talk, not allowing yourself to enjoy the food that you love and continue to pursue old habits, thinking that this time around would produce different results.
How long have you been trying to lose weight doing this same thing over and over again, expecting different results. You know that that is the definition of insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.
Okay, back to Chandler. "I have been so depressed. I have been so desperate to lose 10 pounds. The closer I got to my goal, the more the next statement resonated. I was changing 95% of my lifestyle to look 5% better. In effort to lose weight, performance took the back seat. When trying to do hard physical activities, I couldn't get my heart rate down, recovery was terrible and I couldn't give a hundred percent effort. I started to realize that 95% wasn't worth it. My actions were not serving me. We aren't dogs, so we shouldn't reward ourselves with food. We also can't outwork a bad diet either. We don't need to be working out a million hours a day and we don't need to deprive ourselves from food either."
"So here's what I realized. Why not change 5% to make that lifestyle easier to follow 95% of the time? It's simple, actually. We just make it so much harder. So now I eat the foods that I love. I give my body the rest that it needs. Get enough sleep, drink enough water, take the time to write my gratitude list more frequently. Do the activities that my soul craves, spend time with people who support me being the best version of myself and since changing how I approach my health and fitness, I am so much happier and so much more confident in my body."
Y'all I shared this with you because I want you to know that it is possible to go from where you are right now to where you want to be. You guys have heard me for 119 episodes sharing my own journey of embracing my real but I think it's time you realize that other women are doing it as well and if they can do it, then you can do it too. All it takes is one shift in your mindset and that one shift can ultimately change your entire life.
So I want to repeat what she said. "I was changing 95% of my lifestyle to look 5% better. But why not change 5% to make that lifestyle easier to follow 95% of the time?"
The more we focus on losing weight and the more we allow ourselves and our lives to revolve around it, the harder losing weight or reaching your goals will actually become. The key to it instead is to find the things that you actually enjoy, that you actually want to do daily.
So here's my challenge to you. I want you to look at what you're doing and ask yourself if it feels like a punishment or if it feels like enjoyment? If it feels like a punishment, it is time to change up what you're doing as soon as possible; aka, today. Today sister. We are here to create lasting change in our life, through creating longterm lifestyle habits and that means that punishment is not included.
Point blank, punishment should not be included in that. This is truly why I created my Movement With Julie app. I was tired of my workouts feeling like punishment. I was so sick of not staying consistent because I was putting such a high standard on myself and I had to find a solution. So once I started to change up the way that I was working out, I truly started to enjoy it and I knew that if I could experience that, that I could help other women experience it as well.
So if working out feels like a punishment, I want to encourage you to join the Movement With Julie app or at least check it out. We connect every single day in the private Facebook group. There are hundreds of women, all around the world doing the same workouts. But the beautiful thing is that these workouts are for every single fitness level. There's video demonstrations for every movement and there's alternate movements for about 95% of every single movement, meaning that if you can't do, for example a high impact movement, there's always a low impact option.
If you feel like you can't do this exercise because it seems a little bit more advanced, I always have an easier option for you. But also the beautiful thing about it is that you can always push yourself by increasing the volume of your weight. There are women from all different backgrounds. There are all fitness levels in my app and they are all getting results while having fun and not seeing movement as punishment. That is why I always talk about honoring your body with movement. It should be an honor. It should be a celebration.And that is exactly what we do, every single day, inside this Facebook group.
We share our struggles and we share our accomplishments and we have fun together doing it. It is literally only 67 cents a day, so I encourage you to give it a try, if you haven't already. I will link it in the show notes, or you can easily go to movementwithjulie.com/info. Again, that's movementwithjulie.com/info.
I want you to remember this. Stop trying to change 95% of your lifestyle to look 5% better. Instead, try shifting and changing that 5% to make the lifestyle easier so that you can follow it at 95% of the time.
I hope that you enjoyed this episode. If you did ,feel free to screenshot it, post up on your story. Thank you again, Chandler, for your aha moment. I really feel like so many women can relate to this and I appreciate you. I love hearing all of your aha moments. Who knows, if you send me an aha moment, you post it up on your story or you DMS your aha moment, you could be featured next on this podcast.
Thank you so, so much for tuning in and I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, Julie A Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle, for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.
The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcasts, to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface, so go out there and embrace your real because your worth it.