9/13/2023

Coach Jen

How do you talk to yourself about yourself? In spite of being the ones who know our deepest selves the most fully, we often are our most harsh critics. Do you talk to yourself like a friend or foe?

Despite having healed the relationship with my body years ago, I was always curious how I would handle changes to my body whenever I got pregnant. Would I resort back to old restrictive habits or begin to view myself negatively?

One of the key ways I healed my mindset around body image was by becoming involved in a sport that required so much of my body. In running, your strongest, healthiest body is your fastest most endurance capable body-not necessarily (in fact, rarely) your lightest. I was forced to change my lens of what does my body look like to what is my body capable of. That shift in mindset was pivotal in the way I view all my choices around fueling, nutrition, and self care.

Walking into pregnancy, I was curious if that mindset would shift and for the first five months my self love held strong until one day I was on a run and things felt different. I felt slow & sluggish, with what felt like altered running form, and thought to myself, “Oh no, things are changing-my body is changing-I’m changing.”That entire run I couldn’t get the word “changing” out of my mind. My body is changing and maybe I don’t want it to. After a handful of miles processing through these emotions and negative self talk, the word “becoming” popped into my mind. Maybe I’m not changing, but rather becoming something. Something more complex, empathetic, caring, stronger…I’m becoming something I’ve never been before to do something I’ve never done before. The same me I was before this journey is still there, but now I’m simply expanding the depths of who I am.

Whether we want change to occur or not, it can feel overwhelming. Maybe you feel the desire to change and feel pressure for results. Maybe you’ve underfed your body for so long and the changes that first have to occur feel foreign to you. Instead of feeling overwhelmed or fearful with the pressures to change I encourage you to swap that small yet powerful word for “becoming”. What are you becoming? Are you becoming more grounded or strong? Maybe more patient and focused, or even more caring, inquisitive and compassionate with yourself?

The next time you find yourself frustrated with slow change, overwhelming change, or negative self talk about change, simply ask yourself…but what am I becoming? The goal should never be to change who you are but to become something you didn’t know you had in you. Keep going. You got this!