Do you find yourself thinking “easy for you to __,” fill in the blank with workout regularly, lose weight, take up flying lessons, whatever, “you haven’t had my challenges?” How do we honestly assess how much of that feeling is truth and how much of it is a self-sabotaging personal belief? We all have challenges, even the most privileged amongst us, and it’s true that some of us have more barriers to success than others do. AND I firmly believe everyone has some agency to make things at least incrementally better for ourselves. Where we end up at the end of the journey may be different, but we can all take a step in the right direction.
This episode of Revolutionary You is about those journeys for Jason and for his guest Kate Galliett, a personal trainer who has gone through resetting her mindset and life practices away from diet culture and restriction towards finding a more healthful approach to eating and exercise in her own life. And I have to say, I really love it!
What rings especially true for me is how Kate describes the process of slowly learning how to feed herself a more healthful diet and to exercise in a way that isn’t punishing. She describes taking the risks of buying vegetables she didn’t know how to cook, trying each week to better know what to buy and how much, and learning through trial and error what works for her.
I also love that Jason and Kate both share examples of learning how to not react to impulses and cravings towards less healthful choices, to make it more about self-awareness and listening to the wisdom our bodies are telling us. Jason is careful to note that it’s not just about food but about training, sleep, and other decisions we make day to day that impact how well we’re serving our own needs. Kate refers to this as a skillset. It’s something we learn and have to practice to do well. I think that’s right. We all have an inner wise self, a voice telling us what we actually need and how we will feel when we make decisions that work against those needs. We can learn to listen to that voice and to more often make decisions based upon that voice. Pausing before we respond is a huge and important step.
I can echo so much of what Kate talks about here–the slow process of changing how she eats and relates to her body really resonates with me. For me, it has been ultimately a fat loss story, although it didn’t start out with that intention. Over five years, I slowly learned and changed how I ate and moved my body, with my only guide being that inner wisdom–asking myself what I really needed, what would really feel good. It is absolutely a skill, and even now, I am not always as tuned into myself as I would like to be, but each time I notice I’m reacting rather than intentionally choosing, I start with reconnecting with that pause Jason and Kate discuss, and sooner than someone might expect, I’m getting back into choices that align with my values and help me take better care of myself.
We can begin to take agency into living a healthier, more comfortable life by learning to listen to our own inner wisdom. Kate is right to point out that this can be a very difficult skill to recognize when we’re neck-deep in diet culture and restriction, which is all about denying ourselves. But it can happen, and we can all grow and incrementally improve if we decide to take on the project. Kate and Jason share a lot of insights into these mindset shifts away from self-sabotage in this episode, and I really appreciate the conversation. I’m looking forward to hearing where it goes from here!
https://revolutionaryyou.libsyn.com/podcast/337-kate-galliett-the-caretaker-of-your-body-1-of-4
When I searched Kate Galliett, I found this video on Youtube. It’s clearly the most popular video she’s posted with nearly 40K views! Enjoy!
Progressive Strength 