March 23, 2025 • 29 mins
Is your workout helping or hurting your stress levels? FIT(ish) Host Phoebe Parsons chats to naturopath Jennifer Ward to break down the great cortisol debate —does Pilates or cardio keep stress in check, or could your favorite workout be making it worse? Get the science-backed truth, plus tips to balance your training for better energy, recovery, and results.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Apodge Production.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to Fit Dish. I'm Phoebe Parsons and this is
the podcast that proves that you don't have to choose
between staying fit and having fun. Welcome back to the podcast,
Jennifer Ward, my favorite natural path. Always love having you
on the show, and this is actually the first time
we've discussed something that's not nutrition or food related.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Thank you for having me. Yes, I'm very excited to
talk about movement. And what we sometimes forget is that
health is more than just what we eat, and no
tropathy encompasses so much more than just nutrition. So movement
plays such an integral role and we'll talk about all
the ins and outs of that today.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Exactly so as the title of this episode suggests, and
I want to chat to you about exercise versus movement
because this is something that I've noticed, even within my
own circle of friends and women in my life. So
many women talk about feeling guilty, and I hate the
word guilt if they do something lower impact, like I
(01:10):
only went for a walk, or I only did a
pilates class, or I only did a yoga class. And
I think that we've just got this mentality ingrained in
us that the more intense the exercise, the better it
is for this. Why do you think this is so
ingrained in millennials? Because when I really deep dive this,
I look back to my mum, who was a boomer,
(01:31):
and she's got such a healthy relationship with exercise, but
probably more movement, and ever since I can remember, she's
walked ten kilometers a day purely because she loves it,
and she looks great. She's got a great mindset around exercise.
So why do you think millennial women in particular have
this affinity with feeling guilt around.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Not doing something high intensity.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
It's such a great area to explore because it affects
us all, but we don't stop and think about it.
And I think we were caught up in this wave
where gyms were becoming a thing, studios were becoming a thing,
Yoga studios were coming to think hot yoga was becoming
a thing, and so we started to associate movement or
(02:14):
exercise with going to somewhere and doing something hard, or
signing up to a marathon and doing something hard, And
along the way, I think we have lost this of movement,
preferencing this idea of exercise and what that's done for
a lot of women. Is places unnecessary layer of guilt
(02:35):
around the idea of enjoyment of movement, which should be
based around enjoyment. So I think we've just been caught
up in this wave really of all these amazing resources
that we now have around us, but not really knowing
how to interact with them. It shouldn't be his interaction
of I have to go there all the time, or
I didn't move my body. If I don't do that,
(02:57):
then I'm not actually training. It's they're a great resource
and they're there for us, but we don't actually have
to go to that level and literally go to that
place every time just to move our body.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
So then, just to start us off nice and clear,
what is your definition of the difference between say, structured
exercise versus movement.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yes, so movement is literally movement, like you can either
be still or you can be moving, and there's a
whole spectrum of what that looks like, and that incorporates
exercises we'll call it today, whereas exercise and we'll all
resonate with this is the way we view movement, but
(03:39):
it has all these layers of I think guilt and
expectation around it so I've got to exercise five days
a week, or I've got to exercise to lose weight,
or I've got to exercise to not feel depressed. And
so that relationship with movement changes when we frame it
is exercise, because there's all these layers on top, and
(04:03):
we sometimes forget to listen to our body and go, well, actually,
can I just ask it first and foremost how it
wants to move based on how I'm feeling. And so
it's this distinction in between kind of I would even
say the have tos versus the movement for enjoyment.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Do you know what I actually think is a perfect
analogy for this or a perfect way to describe the difference,
And you just articulated it so perfectly.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
In a way that made me just think of this.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Just then, when you are out with your girlfriends and
you're on a dance floor, I would describe that as
movement where you are moving purely because it feels too good,
not too and in that moment, you are not caught
up being like, oh my god, what's my heart rate doing?
What that burning zone am my in? You are moving
purely because it feels good to move.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
It's such a good one because you're not even thinking
about it being exercised. It's just a form of expression,
a form of movement. And I think when we start
to reframe our relationship with movement, we can really open
the door to a more fluid relationship with let's call
it exercise and start to really navigate a more individualized
(05:12):
path because so many people, like we do with diets,
jumping on certain bandwagons because they think able it will
be if I do this, I'll lose weight, If I
do this, I'll feel mentally better. Where we know with
health it's never one size fits all and there has
to be an individual approach.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And would you say that a lot of people undervalue
movement daily as opposed to a lot of people make
the time, for example, to prioritize, say a forty minute
gym session in the morning, but then they'll just sit
at their desk for nine hours during the day and
not do anything else for the rest of the day.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean movement opens the door to a
whole range of expressions throughout a whole range of times
within the day. So as an example, someone might go
to the gym in the morning and then as you say,
sit down at the desk, accumulating all of this stress
within their body or this tension within their body. But
the go it's okay, I exercised in the morning. Where
(06:10):
if we reframe it, we go, you know what, I'm
going to be sitting at a desk all day, So
I'm going to go for a walk in the morning,
and then maybe I'm going to take breaks through the
day to do some stretching. Maybe I'll do fifteen minute
little workout in my lunch break. Just thinking of it
in the context of your life, the outcome at the
end of the day can be so much better if
we're matching it to what our needs are. So I
(06:31):
think reframing can really help us to get more specific
with well, what's the outcome, what are we trying to
achieve here? And am I getting to that point versus oh,
I'm ticking that box I exercised to the day. Hey wait,
why aren't I losing weight? Or why aren't I feeling better?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
And I think that's where wearables can really come in handy,
because you know, when you've been sitting for too long,
you'll get an apple notification that's like stand up for
a second or shake it out, and I think, like
you just said, there's so much merit in stress relief
and all of those little things that have nothing to
do with fat burning all weight loss, but they're good
for us.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Absolutely. It's just getting the body back to a place
of balance or homeostasis as much as possible through the
day through the tools we have. So through food, we
might go, oh, I'm hungry, so we eat, and then
the body goes more toward balance, and then we might go, oh,
I feel really stressed in tent and my cortosol's going up. Okay, well,
I'm just going to shake it out. As you said,
my watch reminded me too. And if we can just
(07:30):
be making all these little micro adjustments, sometimes they're macros,
sometimes they're big adjustments. Because we've got time, it's the weekend,
we want to we might be heading towards ovulation, which
plays into it as well, but for the most part,
all the body wants to do to be regulated and
healthy is to come back to this place of homeostasis
or balance. So it's really movement about listening to the
(07:52):
body and going, well, how do I feel, and how
do I want to feel, and what can I do
about it? To get from A to B.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Now, there are two particular movements that I want to
chat to you about that I think are very popular
and they're very rife on social media, and this is
tapping into one particular hormone, cortisol, which is where you
are an absolute expert. Now I want to talk about
HIT versus pilates and kind of the cortisole connection and
the cortisol debate. So to preface, I love both and
(08:19):
I do both throughout the week, but as I mentioned before,
it always comes back to cortisol, and there is a
big kind of misconception of the moment that HIT makes
you fat, and I hate this narrative. I am so
for a balance workout routine in the same way that
I'm for a balanced diet, and I feel like at
some point HIT went from being like the ultimate form
(08:41):
of exercise that everyone was doing to all of a
sudden being demonized for making women store belly fat and
giving them cortisole face. Can you set the record straight
about where this comes from and if there's any truth
to it.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
It's a bit of fear mangerine, I think. But there
is a time and place for HIT, and there's a
time and place for gentle, low intensity exercise as well,
and it's really individualized. You could have one person who
is very low in stress. They are eating a whole
food diet, they're eating enough carbohydrates, eating enough food, They've
(09:13):
got lots of energy reserves. They can go and do
HIT with not a problem. They'll probably be at a
healthy weight range. They'll feel better afterwards, and that's probably
the majority. Now, if you are under a lot of stress,
you're under eating, maybe you've got a previous history of
losing your menstrual cycle when you do high intensity exercise.
(09:37):
Then if you go and do it, it might not
suit your body and you might end up triggering cortisol
because it's putting that stress within the body, and then
that can lead to a whole range of other symptoms
like perhaps being a bit puffy. It affects our reproductive hormones,
how we store them, how we clear them, etc. And
this is why movement's so important, because it comes back
(09:57):
to this principle of listening to your body first and foremost,
not looking at the outcome and trying to find the big,
best and quickest way to get get there. So before
we get you know, what, I'm actually really tired. I
feel like I'm not eating well enough, and I'm not
sleeping well, and my cycles a little being a little
bit out of the place. But I want to lose weight.
For those people, it might actually be a better idea
(10:19):
for them to slow down initially and then work towards
hit versus if they just go in there and smash
their body and they feel horrible afterwards, they're getting fluey afterwards,
they're not refueling afterwards, then yet it can do some
damage for them. But if they're listening to their body
and going that doesn't really feel right, maybe some gentle
yoga would suit today, then that's a good starting place
(10:40):
to then work up too. So it's really first and
foremost asking ourselves, well, where am I at and what
actually feels right for my body now? Because we think
we don't know, but we do. If we ask that
question on a daily basis, and I did this with
my patients all the time, they will give me the
most accurate answer, But it's just because I've asked the question,
(11:01):
they seek the answer. If you don't ask the question directly,
you just kind of put that to the sign and
go no, no, that's fine, it's fine, I'll be well,
all right, I'll be okay, and kind of in this
more denial state around it. So along winded answers to
say that it's never one size fits all, and you've
really got to check in across a whole range of
health markers and first and foremost checking in on how
(11:22):
you feel before you make a decision about what movement
is going to be right for you.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And I think, like you said before, like exercise is
going to put stress on the body, so if you
are stressed in other forms of your life, that's just
adding fuel to the fire.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
But I guess people love.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
To find something to blame whatever you're dealing with on,
and I think that that is a bit of a
kind of a quick fix thing. You can be like, oh, yeah,
you know, I'm storing all this belly fat. It's got
to be the hat workout. It's not my toxic workplace,
or it's not my you know, the ten million other
stresses that you have in your life. And I think
that because some people have taken to social media and
(11:59):
you know, they're yelling from their soapbox about how they
had cortusole face from doing their hitt workouts and now
they just do pilates and they've lost forty kilos. Blah
blah blah. It's very easy to get sucked into that narrative.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Absolutely, and it's such an individual, one case scenario that
does not apply to the masses, and that just goes
to show how unique we all are. For that one
particular person, they were doing the wrong thing for their
body and now they're doing the right thing for their body.
But you know, you, as an example, can go out
(12:31):
and do high intensity and feel at your best and
feel regulated. And why would you change that when your
body is giving you the feedback to say, hey, this
feels amazing, this really suits my body. Certainly you don't
have cortisol face. So it's a lot of it becomes,
unfortunately a bit of scare mongering, and it's not really
necessary for us to go to external look at all
(12:52):
this stuff. Just ask ourselves, well, actually, what do I
need right now? And it doesn't even have to be movements.
Sometimes it's just need asleep, you wake up, you feel amazing,
and you might go, oh, now I feel like movement,
so it should be forced. That's the difference as well.
Movement comes a bit more organically from a place of
listening to our body, whereas exercise is almost a little
(13:13):
bit of a punishment because we ate that cake or
we did that thing. Our generation is very much skewed
by body image, unfortunately, and so a lot of us,
myself included in my twenties, I would exercise for weight
management as opposed to feeling good honoring my body. And
it does take some time to shed that layer of
(13:36):
thought around the way we approach movement. And I have
these conversations with my patients daily and they get it,
but they're working through it to get to a place
where they have a better relationship with movement.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I think it's just being more intentional and the way
that you know, people are becoming a lot more aware
of tuning into intuitive eating, but I think people need
to be a lot more intuitive with the way that
they're moving as well, so you don't have to be
so rigid. So sometimes I do wake up and I'm like,
I'm not going to that hit class, go for a walk,
or I'm going to sleep in, And it's just like
you said, listen to what your body is telling you
(14:09):
on that day. Be just stay consistent and anything you
do in life and you'll be.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Fine, absolutely, and watch the feedback. So those days where
you go, I'm going to go for a walk, I'm
not going to go to hit, there might be a
thought in your mind going, oh, come on, you should
have gone. You know it was booked in, all of
our friends are going, et cetera. But if you then
go for that walk and you get back and you
feel a million bucks, then you can set to yourself,
oh my gosh, I made the right decision because I
did the type of movement that suit of my body
(14:36):
and I feel fantastic versus going and going oh well,
I ticked that off. I did hit even though I
didn't want to, and then filling my crap for the
rest of the day. So we have to listen to
that feedback and we have to go, okay, well, what's
my body calling for. I'm going to give it to it,
and then how do I feel afterwards? And we're not
always going to be perfect at this, but if we
just give it a go, if we just feel our
(14:58):
body out before going straight to that end goal of
I've got a book in that class, I've got to
go for that run and go, well, actually, I really
feel like dancing today, and it's okay to instead of
going to Plarate's, put on your favorite album and just
literally dance around the living room Like that is movement
and there is so much benefit beyond the physical movement
(15:21):
for us to do things like that a little bit
more fluidly, not so rigid.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And I highly recommend either the Barbie soundtrack or the
Wicked soundtrack if you are intending on doing that, because
you will be shaken. I feel like also, we started
our social media journeys in our late teens to early
twenties when there was all those gym quotes going around,
like the only workout you've regrett is the one you
didn't do. That is false, because I can tell you
(15:47):
the workout that I did regret doing was the workout
that I went to on the first day of my
period when I felt like shit, but I forced myself there. Anyway,
I didn't feel better after I felt worse.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yeah. Yeah, that's messaging to men and put it perfectly there.
You were on day one of your cycle. You shouldn't
have gone. Our cycle can help us to understand when
we should be moving in how and we get this
beautiful energy peak preovulation, so we're thinking after you bleed
for the next day, week or two, that's where you're
(16:17):
going to actually be able to build more muscle. You
are more social, you're more confident, you are stronger. And
then in the lead up to your period, so that
pre menstrual week you cannot gain muscle as well. You
are not as social, you are not as strong. And
so if we really listen to our body and maybe
just track what day of our cycle we're on, we
(16:39):
can make better and more informed decisions to say, hey,
I'm actually going to do that high intensity workout because
I'm day ten, versus if you're day twenty seven, don't
even think about it. It's okay to go for a walk,
it's okay to go for a swim. So we can
get clues along the way as to what we should
(17:00):
do or when, if we have some really basic understanding
of our cycle and where we're at within our cycle.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I love that, and I think women especially need that
reminder because we are so hard on ourselves, especially when
it comes from that body image perspective, because when you
are on day one or day two of your cycle,
you're probably puffier, you're a bit more blow dead. You're
probably not feeling as happy and comfortable in your body
as you normally would be, and so they're the days
that you can get sucked into that kind of punishment mentality,
(17:29):
but they're the days you need to be so much
kinder to yourself. Just on the cortisol exercise aside, what
other things in our life produce that high cortisol spike
that people should look out for instead of just blaming
something straight on the form of movement that they're doing.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
So many things can boost our cortisol. And what we're
going to remember is cortisol isn't bad. Cortisol is what
gets you up in the morning. Now, some of us
might think it doesn't do a great job, but it does.
So cortisole starts to rise at around eight o'clock. It
gets us up, It gets us going within the day,
and it has its own rhythms, just like melotonin does
at night. But we put stress on our body, and
(18:06):
there's many ways which I'll go through that we can
put stress on our body. There's some unnatural spikes that
occur during the day, so we think of under eating
as one of them. That's a big stressor for our body.
So if we're getting up and not having breakfast or
not having adequate breakfast and then going to our workday,
going to exercise, whatever it might be, then we're more
(18:27):
prone to prolonged cortisol spikes. If we're getting up not
eating breakfast, let's add on another layer and having a coffee,
that's going to cause cordosol spikes as well. So we
really go back to those simple adages, eat breakfast in
the morning, nourish yourself, and we all know to have
coffee after breakfast. That's often a work in progress for many.
(18:48):
And then we think of okay, well, people are going
into a nine to five space and they walk into
the office and they see someone that they don't like
and it triggers them and they get a cordosol spike,
and then they get an email triggers them, they get
a crdosot spike. So what can happen is it can
be accumulative. They get up, they don't eat breakfast, they
have a coffee, they're going to the office, they're getting
emails that stress them out. Then they're having maybe some
(19:12):
lunch in the office as opposed to going outside and
having a bit of a circuit breaker as well, and
so it can be all these little mundane things through
the day where you think, well, that's just life, this
is just how I live. I'm healthy, I'm happy. You know,
I don't have cordozo spikes, But all these little cumulations
through the day can lead to us having higher than
normal cortisol over a prolonged period. And they're the ones
(19:35):
that you've got to watch out for because everyone knows
what a big cordosol spike looks like. If there's some
tragedy or trauma, we know we're in a cordsole spike there.
It's very obvious. So what we're going to look at
is all these little threads through the day, and it
goes through until night, because around about eight nine o'clock
in the evening is where our melatonin should be naturally rising,
and melotonin is our sleep hormone. It does more than that,
(19:58):
but it will help to get us to sleep. So
if we're on our phone at the end of the day,
we're blocking melotone and cortisoles staying up because it's going
We've got stuff to do. This day is still going,
the sun still out. I can see this bright light,
so going to bed at a reasonable hour, putting the
devices to the side. And I'm going to sound like
a broken regular because this is all the stuff we
know we should be doing, but it's hard to do.
(20:21):
But it's all just about making little shifts and changes
through the day. And then what you might notice is
once we start getting this cortisol and melatonin more regulated,
then you can go and do a hit class if
that's what your body's calling for, and feel fantastic afterwards.
So really just watching out for those little threads through
the day and making sure that we're checking in with
(20:41):
our body and going, well, hey, hang on, I didn't
eat breakfast. Care, let's just go eat before I answer
that email. Little check ins help.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I love that it's so much more nuanced than just
the exercise or just the coffee or just the stressful email.
It's like the sum of so many little things. Now,
on the flip side, I want to talk about pilates,
which seems to be at the moment the lean Girl
magic pill. And this is going to probably sound controversial
coming from me. Give and then I do teach Polartes
multiple times a week, but we've all of a sudden
seen a bombardment of very lean influences on social media
(21:13):
talking about how when they cut out all their cardio,
when their hit training and all that stuff, and just
started doing pilates, they all of a sudden got leaner
than they've ever been, etc.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Etc.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
As I mentioned as a polate's instructor, this makes me
very skeptical. Is there something behind this or is it
more about what else might have changed in their life?
For example, if they switched to a lower impact form
of activity, then their hunger probably wouldn't have been as
big as it was if they were doing hit or
running or something in conjunction with it.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I'm going to put a bit of stereotype around this
certain person and say that they were doing way too
much exercise before, maybe every day not eating enough, so
they were in an extreme. All they've really done is
gone to a pretty moderate place. So if they example,
went from doing hit to just daily walking, they would
(22:09):
have gotten the same response, because it's probably that they
were in this place of doing lots of hit for
the wrong reasons and it was putting stress on the body.
So it's just they've relieved some They've given themselves a
bit of a stress reduction. By reducing the intensity of
their exercise. I think of pilate's as the most moderate
(22:32):
intensity type of exercise you could do, and that's what
most women need. Sometimes we need to go down to low,
sometimes we push it up to high, depending on the individual,
depending on their situation. So it's not a magic pill.
It's just sensible, moderate exercise that will suit most people.
But it doesn't mean you can't go up to hip
and it doesn't mean you can't go down to low intensity.
(22:55):
It's just a nice platform if you are safe stepping
into exercise, or you've had enough of going too hard
for too long, then it's just this very good mid
point for us all. So, I mean, it's all common sense.
If you go too hard heavy, then it's going to
have its repercussions, and then just coming down to this
kind of water intensity style of exercise is probably going
(23:17):
to do most of those people wonders.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I love it, and I'm just curious to know what
does your movement look like throughout a week.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
I'm a mom, so that's going to frame out.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
That's a lot of movement.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yeah, Well, this is a whole conversation for another time.
But there's intentional and unintentional movement, and women need intentional movement.
I'm a mom, I carry kids around. That's not true
movement to me. That is me looking after my kids.
Intentional movement is me going I'm going to go for
a solo walk, and that feels so much better and
(23:47):
has many other benefits. But I tend at the moment
to do a lot of yoga, and that's always been
a way for me. But it gives me more than
just the movement. It's that calming, spiritual side of who
I am and what I do. And I slick between
different exercises because in some I might want to swim
more in winter, I might want to do more hot yoga.
(24:08):
I always go through my plates phases. I'm not at
a stage in my life where my body can handle
high intensity. I used to do triathlons. My body right
now not handle it. So it's listening to your body
and going well. At this stage of my life. I've
got a two and four year old, there's no need
for me to do high intensity. I will in my
(24:29):
forties and fifties, but right now my body suits moderate
to low intensity, and if I honor that, I'm going
to get the best results for me and I'm feeling
pretty regulated within my body. Whereas if I was smashing
myself at six am at a hit class, I would
not be a functioning human I would It would absolutely
have the opposite effect. So really thinking about well where
(24:52):
am I at, what's my capacity? You know, what are
my goals, and absolutely checking in with body and going well, actually,
what do I want to do right now? And sometimes
for me that isn't going to yoga. Sometimes that's walk
my dog or doing some stretching on the floor while
I watch TV. It's all movement and it doesn't have
to fit into a framework.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I love that that's such a healthy approach to it.
And like I said before, that really intentional like intentional eating.
It's like that intuitive form of movement. And I think
the season analogy is so perfect because also we evolve.
It's not just life seasons. We evolve as people. It's
not normal to do the same thing, rinse and repeat
every day every week for twenty years. Like it's normal
(25:36):
to ebb and flow and move on from things and
challenge yourself and then strip it back. So then, just
to round out this episode, what is one piece of
advice you would give for women who are listening who
are confused or feel guilty about what they are or
aren't doing.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I will always ask my patients to strip back the layers,
because there's lots of layers, and we're trying to navigate
our path and we want to forget about the gym
down the road. We want to forget about the platy
studio that our friends are going to, and we want
to go down to this base layer of what is movement.
We can do strong movement, we can do fluid movement,
(26:13):
we can do really fast, really slow. And if we
think about movement from this base base level, then we
can grow from there up. And we say, well, how
does my body right now feel like moving? We might say, oh,
I just feel so rigid. I'm always at a desk.
(26:35):
I want to be flip flopping, you know. I want
to be flexible. I want to be moving, And so
we might go, oh, my god, I really feel like dancing,
and then we go, okay, what are my options? And
we might go to a dance studio and we might
dance in our living room, where what most of us
are doing is looking at the options first and not
(26:56):
considering what we need. So I really encourage people to
get rid of all those layers. Just sit with self
and ask, how do I want to move my body
that I'm so lucky to have that is able, and
what ways can I approach it? That I'm absolutely in
(27:17):
love with my routine, that I'm honoring where I'm at,
and that I can change it any time. That's the
advice I would give. I could go on foundations up
for everything totally.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I always set an intention before I teach every single class,
and I just have my class members just take thirty
seconds just to set themselves an attention for either something
they want to achieve in the class or even if
it's just the way they want to show up on
them that day.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
That's completely fun.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And I think for me, especially when you're exercising, it's
the one time in your life where you're not contactable
or you're not being sworn with notifications. Enjoy it, Get
out of your head, get into your body and just
feel it.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, and if you're not enjoying it, do not do it.
That is the key. You shouldn't be eating anything you
don't want to eat. You shouldn't be exercising if you
don't want to be doing it. If it all comes
from a place of good intention and something we absolutely love,
then we're going to be more consistent with it and
to have less guilt around it, and we'll do it
(28:16):
for longer.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Like Christina Yangs has on grays Anatomy, Just dance it out.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It's going viral on TikTok at the moment. I love it.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Jennifer Ward, thank you so much for joining us today.
Can you just let everyone know where they can find
a little bit more about you?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
You can follow me on Instagram Jennifer Ward Underscore Naturopath.
I'm in Sydney, but I offer online sessions and also
workshops as well. I would love to hear from you
DM if you have any questions, and I hope to
speak with you again soon. Phoebe. I absolutely love chatting
health with you.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
I could chat to you for days about this and
I'll pop all of those links in the show notes
Ie people can easily find them. Thank you so much,
Thank you, thank you so much for listening. Guys. I
really hope you enjoyed the episode, and don't forget to
help a sister out by following the podcast on Apple,
on Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts, rate it,
write me a review, and if you want more Finish
(29:08):
We do have a private Facebook group. There is going
to be exclusive Q and A is happening with my
guests in that group. That's going to be events going
life first, so much fun stuff happening. Just look up
fit ish in brackets on Facebook and you can be
part of the Finish online community.
Apodge Production.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to Fit Dish. I'm Phoebe Parsons and this is
the podcast that proves that you don't have to choose
between staying fit and having fun. Welcome back to the podcast,
Jennifer Ward, my favorite natural path. Always love having you
on the show, and this is actually the first time
we've discussed something that's not nutrition or food related.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Thank you for having me. Yes, I'm very excited to
talk about movement. And what we sometimes forget is that
health is more than just what we eat, and no
tropathy encompasses so much more than just nutrition. So movement
plays such an integral role and we'll talk about all
the ins and outs of that today.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Exactly so as the title of this episode suggests, and
I want to chat to you about exercise versus movement
because this is something that I've noticed, even within my
own circle of friends and women in my life. So
many women talk about feeling guilty, and I hate the
word guilt if they do something lower impact, like I
(01:10):
only went for a walk, or I only did a
pilates class, or I only did a yoga class. And
I think that we've just got this mentality ingrained in
us that the more intense the exercise, the better it
is for this. Why do you think this is so
ingrained in millennials? Because when I really deep dive this,
I look back to my mum, who was a boomer,
(01:31):
and she's got such a healthy relationship with exercise, but
probably more movement, and ever since I can remember, she's
walked ten kilometers a day purely because she loves it,
and she looks great. She's got a great mindset around exercise.
So why do you think millennial women in particular have
this affinity with feeling guilt around.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Not doing something high intensity.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
It's such a great area to explore because it affects
us all, but we don't stop and think about it.
And I think we were caught up in this wave
where gyms were becoming a thing, studios were becoming a thing,
Yoga studios were coming to think hot yoga was becoming
a thing, and so we started to associate movement or
(02:14):
exercise with going to somewhere and doing something hard, or
signing up to a marathon and doing something hard, And
along the way, I think we have lost this of movement,
preferencing this idea of exercise and what that's done for
a lot of women. Is places unnecessary layer of guilt
(02:35):
around the idea of enjoyment of movement, which should be
based around enjoyment. So I think we've just been caught
up in this wave really of all these amazing resources
that we now have around us, but not really knowing
how to interact with them. It shouldn't be his interaction
of I have to go there all the time, or
I didn't move my body. If I don't do that,
(02:57):
then I'm not actually training. It's they're a great resource
and they're there for us, but we don't actually have
to go to that level and literally go to that
place every time just to move our body.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
So then, just to start us off nice and clear,
what is your definition of the difference between say, structured
exercise versus movement.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yes, so movement is literally movement, like you can either
be still or you can be moving, and there's a
whole spectrum of what that looks like, and that incorporates
exercises we'll call it today, whereas exercise and we'll all
resonate with this is the way we view movement, but
(03:39):
it has all these layers of I think guilt and
expectation around it so I've got to exercise five days
a week, or I've got to exercise to lose weight,
or I've got to exercise to not feel depressed. And
so that relationship with movement changes when we frame it
is exercise, because there's all these layers on top, and
(04:03):
we sometimes forget to listen to our body and go, well, actually,
can I just ask it first and foremost how it
wants to move based on how I'm feeling. And so
it's this distinction in between kind of I would even
say the have tos versus the movement for enjoyment.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Do you know what I actually think is a perfect
analogy for this or a perfect way to describe the difference,
And you just articulated it so perfectly.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
In a way that made me just think of this.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Just then, when you are out with your girlfriends and
you're on a dance floor, I would describe that as
movement where you are moving purely because it feels too good,
not too and in that moment, you are not caught
up being like, oh my god, what's my heart rate doing?
What that burning zone am my in? You are moving
purely because it feels good to move.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
It's such a good one because you're not even thinking
about it being exercised. It's just a form of expression,
a form of movement. And I think when we start
to reframe our relationship with movement, we can really open
the door to a more fluid relationship with let's call
it exercise and start to really navigate a more individualized
(05:12):
path because so many people, like we do with diets,
jumping on certain bandwagons because they think able it will
be if I do this, I'll lose weight, If I
do this, I'll feel mentally better. Where we know with
health it's never one size fits all and there has
to be an individual approach.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And would you say that a lot of people undervalue
movement daily as opposed to a lot of people make
the time, for example, to prioritize, say a forty minute
gym session in the morning, but then they'll just sit
at their desk for nine hours during the day and
not do anything else for the rest of the day.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean movement opens the door to a
whole range of expressions throughout a whole range of times
within the day. So as an example, someone might go
to the gym in the morning and then as you say,
sit down at the desk, accumulating all of this stress
within their body or this tension within their body. But
the go it's okay, I exercised in the morning. Where
(06:10):
if we reframe it, we go, you know what, I'm
going to be sitting at a desk all day, So
I'm going to go for a walk in the morning,
and then maybe I'm going to take breaks through the
day to do some stretching. Maybe I'll do fifteen minute
little workout in my lunch break. Just thinking of it
in the context of your life, the outcome at the
end of the day can be so much better if
we're matching it to what our needs are. So I
(06:31):
think reframing can really help us to get more specific
with well, what's the outcome, what are we trying to
achieve here? And am I getting to that point versus oh,
I'm ticking that box I exercised to the day. Hey wait,
why aren't I losing weight? Or why aren't I feeling better?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
And I think that's where wearables can really come in handy,
because you know, when you've been sitting for too long,
you'll get an apple notification that's like stand up for
a second or shake it out, and I think, like
you just said, there's so much merit in stress relief
and all of those little things that have nothing to
do with fat burning all weight loss, but they're good
for us.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Absolutely. It's just getting the body back to a place
of balance or homeostasis as much as possible through the
day through the tools we have. So through food, we
might go, oh, I'm hungry, so we eat, and then
the body goes more toward balance, and then we might go, oh,
I feel really stressed in tent and my cortosol's going up. Okay, well,
I'm just going to shake it out. As you said,
my watch reminded me too. And if we can just
(07:30):
be making all these little micro adjustments, sometimes they're macros,
sometimes they're big adjustments. Because we've got time, it's the weekend,
we want to we might be heading towards ovulation, which
plays into it as well, but for the most part,
all the body wants to do to be regulated and
healthy is to come back to this place of homeostasis
or balance. So it's really movement about listening to the
(07:52):
body and going, well, how do I feel, and how
do I want to feel, and what can I do
about it? To get from A to B.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Now, there are two particular movements that I want to
chat to you about that I think are very popular
and they're very rife on social media, and this is
tapping into one particular hormone, cortisol, which is where you
are an absolute expert. Now I want to talk about
HIT versus pilates and kind of the cortisole connection and
the cortisol debate. So to preface, I love both and
(08:19):
I do both throughout the week, but as I mentioned before,
it always comes back to cortisol, and there is a
big kind of misconception of the moment that HIT makes
you fat, and I hate this narrative. I am so
for a balance workout routine in the same way that
I'm for a balanced diet, and I feel like at
some point HIT went from being like the ultimate form
(08:41):
of exercise that everyone was doing to all of a
sudden being demonized for making women store belly fat and
giving them cortisole face. Can you set the record straight
about where this comes from and if there's any truth
to it.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
It's a bit of fear mangerine, I think. But there
is a time and place for HIT, and there's a
time and place for gentle, low intensity exercise as well,
and it's really individualized. You could have one person who
is very low in stress. They are eating a whole
food diet, they're eating enough carbohydrates, eating enough food, They've
(09:13):
got lots of energy reserves. They can go and do
HIT with not a problem. They'll probably be at a
healthy weight range. They'll feel better afterwards, and that's probably
the majority. Now, if you are under a lot of stress,
you're under eating, maybe you've got a previous history of
losing your menstrual cycle when you do high intensity exercise.
(09:37):
Then if you go and do it, it might not
suit your body and you might end up triggering cortisol
because it's putting that stress within the body, and then
that can lead to a whole range of other symptoms
like perhaps being a bit puffy. It affects our reproductive hormones,
how we store them, how we clear them, etc. And
this is why movement's so important, because it comes back
(09:57):
to this principle of listening to your body first and foremost,
not looking at the outcome and trying to find the big,
best and quickest way to get get there. So before
we get you know, what, I'm actually really tired. I
feel like I'm not eating well enough, and I'm not
sleeping well, and my cycles a little being a little
bit out of the place. But I want to lose weight.
For those people, it might actually be a better idea
(10:19):
for them to slow down initially and then work towards
hit versus if they just go in there and smash
their body and they feel horrible afterwards, they're getting fluey afterwards,
they're not refueling afterwards, then yet it can do some
damage for them. But if they're listening to their body
and going that doesn't really feel right, maybe some gentle
yoga would suit today, then that's a good starting place
(10:40):
to then work up too. So it's really first and
foremost asking ourselves, well, where am I at and what
actually feels right for my body now? Because we think
we don't know, but we do. If we ask that
question on a daily basis, and I did this with
my patients all the time, they will give me the
most accurate answer, But it's just because I've asked the question,
(11:01):
they seek the answer. If you don't ask the question directly,
you just kind of put that to the sign and
go no, no, that's fine, it's fine, I'll be well,
all right, I'll be okay, and kind of in this
more denial state around it. So along winded answers to
say that it's never one size fits all, and you've
really got to check in across a whole range of
health markers and first and foremost checking in on how
(11:22):
you feel before you make a decision about what movement
is going to be right for you.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And I think, like you said before, like exercise is
going to put stress on the body, so if you
are stressed in other forms of your life, that's just
adding fuel to the fire.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
But I guess people love.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
To find something to blame whatever you're dealing with on,
and I think that that is a bit of a
kind of a quick fix thing. You can be like, oh, yeah,
you know, I'm storing all this belly fat. It's got
to be the hat workout. It's not my toxic workplace,
or it's not my you know, the ten million other
stresses that you have in your life. And I think
that because some people have taken to social media and
(11:59):
you know, they're yelling from their soapbox about how they
had cortusole face from doing their hitt workouts and now
they just do pilates and they've lost forty kilos. Blah
blah blah. It's very easy to get sucked into that narrative.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Absolutely, and it's such an individual, one case scenario that
does not apply to the masses, and that just goes
to show how unique we all are. For that one
particular person, they were doing the wrong thing for their
body and now they're doing the right thing for their body.
But you know, you, as an example, can go out
(12:31):
and do high intensity and feel at your best and
feel regulated. And why would you change that when your
body is giving you the feedback to say, hey, this
feels amazing, this really suits my body. Certainly you don't
have cortisol face. So it's a lot of it becomes,
unfortunately a bit of scare mongering, and it's not really
necessary for us to go to external look at all
(12:52):
this stuff. Just ask ourselves, well, actually, what do I
need right now? And it doesn't even have to be movements.
Sometimes it's just need asleep, you wake up, you feel amazing,
and you might go, oh, now I feel like movement,
so it should be forced. That's the difference as well.
Movement comes a bit more organically from a place of
listening to our body, whereas exercise is almost a little
(13:13):
bit of a punishment because we ate that cake or
we did that thing. Our generation is very much skewed
by body image, unfortunately, and so a lot of us,
myself included in my twenties, I would exercise for weight
management as opposed to feeling good honoring my body. And
it does take some time to shed that layer of
(13:36):
thought around the way we approach movement. And I have
these conversations with my patients daily and they get it,
but they're working through it to get to a place
where they have a better relationship with movement.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I think it's just being more intentional and the way
that you know, people are becoming a lot more aware
of tuning into intuitive eating, but I think people need
to be a lot more intuitive with the way that
they're moving as well, so you don't have to be
so rigid. So sometimes I do wake up and I'm like,
I'm not going to that hit class, go for a walk,
or I'm going to sleep in, And it's just like
you said, listen to what your body is telling you
(14:09):
on that day. Be just stay consistent and anything you
do in life and you'll be.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Fine, absolutely, and watch the feedback. So those days where
you go, I'm going to go for a walk, I'm
not going to go to hit, there might be a
thought in your mind going, oh, come on, you should
have gone. You know it was booked in, all of
our friends are going, et cetera. But if you then
go for that walk and you get back and you
feel a million bucks, then you can set to yourself,
oh my gosh, I made the right decision because I
did the type of movement that suit of my body
(14:36):
and I feel fantastic versus going and going oh well,
I ticked that off. I did hit even though I
didn't want to, and then filling my crap for the
rest of the day. So we have to listen to
that feedback and we have to go, okay, well, what's
my body calling for. I'm going to give it to it,
and then how do I feel afterwards? And we're not
always going to be perfect at this, but if we
just give it a go, if we just feel our
(14:58):
body out before going straight to that end goal of
I've got a book in that class, I've got to
go for that run and go, well, actually, I really
feel like dancing today, and it's okay to instead of
going to Plarate's, put on your favorite album and just
literally dance around the living room Like that is movement
and there is so much benefit beyond the physical movement
(15:21):
for us to do things like that a little bit
more fluidly, not so rigid.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And I highly recommend either the Barbie soundtrack or the
Wicked soundtrack if you are intending on doing that, because
you will be shaken. I feel like also, we started
our social media journeys in our late teens to early
twenties when there was all those gym quotes going around,
like the only workout you've regrett is the one you
didn't do. That is false, because I can tell you
(15:47):
the workout that I did regret doing was the workout
that I went to on the first day of my
period when I felt like shit, but I forced myself there. Anyway,
I didn't feel better after I felt worse.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yeah. Yeah, that's messaging to men and put it perfectly there.
You were on day one of your cycle. You shouldn't
have gone. Our cycle can help us to understand when
we should be moving in how and we get this
beautiful energy peak preovulation, so we're thinking after you bleed
for the next day, week or two, that's where you're
(16:17):
going to actually be able to build more muscle. You
are more social, you're more confident, you are stronger. And
then in the lead up to your period, so that
pre menstrual week you cannot gain muscle as well. You
are not as social, you are not as strong. And
so if we really listen to our body and maybe
just track what day of our cycle we're on, we
(16:39):
can make better and more informed decisions to say, hey,
I'm actually going to do that high intensity workout because
I'm day ten, versus if you're day twenty seven, don't
even think about it. It's okay to go for a walk,
it's okay to go for a swim. So we can
get clues along the way as to what we should
(17:00):
do or when, if we have some really basic understanding
of our cycle and where we're at within our cycle.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I love that, and I think women especially need that
reminder because we are so hard on ourselves, especially when
it comes from that body image perspective, because when you
are on day one or day two of your cycle,
you're probably puffier, you're a bit more blow dead. You're
probably not feeling as happy and comfortable in your body
as you normally would be, and so they're the days
that you can get sucked into that kind of punishment mentality,
(17:29):
but they're the days you need to be so much
kinder to yourself. Just on the cortisol exercise aside, what
other things in our life produce that high cortisol spike
that people should look out for instead of just blaming
something straight on the form of movement that they're doing.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
So many things can boost our cortisol. And what we're
going to remember is cortisol isn't bad. Cortisol is what
gets you up in the morning. Now, some of us
might think it doesn't do a great job, but it does.
So cortisole starts to rise at around eight o'clock. It
gets us up, It gets us going within the day,
and it has its own rhythms, just like melotonin does
at night. But we put stress on our body, and
(18:06):
there's many ways which I'll go through that we can
put stress on our body. There's some unnatural spikes that
occur during the day, so we think of under eating
as one of them. That's a big stressor for our body.
So if we're getting up and not having breakfast or
not having adequate breakfast and then going to our workday,
going to exercise, whatever it might be, then we're more
(18:27):
prone to prolonged cortisol spikes. If we're getting up not
eating breakfast, let's add on another layer and having a coffee,
that's going to cause cordosol spikes as well. So we
really go back to those simple adages, eat breakfast in
the morning, nourish yourself, and we all know to have
coffee after breakfast. That's often a work in progress for many.
(18:48):
And then we think of okay, well, people are going
into a nine to five space and they walk into
the office and they see someone that they don't like
and it triggers them and they get a cordosol spike,
and then they get an email triggers them, they get
a crdosot spike. So what can happen is it can
be accumulative. They get up, they don't eat breakfast, they
have a coffee, they're going to the office, they're getting
emails that stress them out. Then they're having maybe some
(19:12):
lunch in the office as opposed to going outside and
having a bit of a circuit breaker as well, and
so it can be all these little mundane things through
the day where you think, well, that's just life, this
is just how I live. I'm healthy, I'm happy. You know,
I don't have cordozo spikes, But all these little cumulations
through the day can lead to us having higher than
normal cortisol over a prolonged period. And they're the ones
(19:35):
that you've got to watch out for because everyone knows
what a big cordosol spike looks like. If there's some
tragedy or trauma, we know we're in a cordsole spike there.
It's very obvious. So what we're going to look at
is all these little threads through the day, and it
goes through until night, because around about eight nine o'clock
in the evening is where our melatonin should be naturally rising,
and melotonin is our sleep hormone. It does more than that,
(19:58):
but it will help to get us to sleep. So
if we're on our phone at the end of the day,
we're blocking melotone and cortisoles staying up because it's going
We've got stuff to do. This day is still going,
the sun still out. I can see this bright light,
so going to bed at a reasonable hour, putting the
devices to the side. And I'm going to sound like
a broken regular because this is all the stuff we
know we should be doing, but it's hard to do.
(20:21):
But it's all just about making little shifts and changes
through the day. And then what you might notice is
once we start getting this cortisol and melatonin more regulated,
then you can go and do a hit class if
that's what your body's calling for, and feel fantastic afterwards.
So really just watching out for those little threads through
the day and making sure that we're checking in with
(20:41):
our body and going, well, hey, hang on, I didn't
eat breakfast. Care, let's just go eat before I answer
that email. Little check ins help.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I love that it's so much more nuanced than just
the exercise or just the coffee or just the stressful email.
It's like the sum of so many little things. Now,
on the flip side, I want to talk about pilates,
which seems to be at the moment the lean Girl
magic pill. And this is going to probably sound controversial
coming from me. Give and then I do teach Polartes
multiple times a week, but we've all of a sudden
seen a bombardment of very lean influences on social media
(21:13):
talking about how when they cut out all their cardio,
when their hit training and all that stuff, and just
started doing pilates, they all of a sudden got leaner
than they've ever been, etc.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Etc.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
As I mentioned as a polate's instructor, this makes me
very skeptical. Is there something behind this or is it
more about what else might have changed in their life?
For example, if they switched to a lower impact form
of activity, then their hunger probably wouldn't have been as
big as it was if they were doing hit or
running or something in conjunction with it.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I'm going to put a bit of stereotype around this
certain person and say that they were doing way too
much exercise before, maybe every day not eating enough, so
they were in an extreme. All they've really done is
gone to a pretty moderate place. So if they example,
went from doing hit to just daily walking, they would
(22:09):
have gotten the same response, because it's probably that they
were in this place of doing lots of hit for
the wrong reasons and it was putting stress on the body.
So it's just they've relieved some They've given themselves a
bit of a stress reduction. By reducing the intensity of
their exercise. I think of pilate's as the most moderate
(22:32):
intensity type of exercise you could do, and that's what
most women need. Sometimes we need to go down to low,
sometimes we push it up to high, depending on the individual,
depending on their situation. So it's not a magic pill.
It's just sensible, moderate exercise that will suit most people.
But it doesn't mean you can't go up to hip
and it doesn't mean you can't go down to low intensity.
(22:55):
It's just a nice platform if you are safe stepping
into exercise, or you've had enough of going too hard
for too long, then it's just this very good mid
point for us all. So, I mean, it's all common sense.
If you go too hard heavy, then it's going to
have its repercussions, and then just coming down to this
kind of water intensity style of exercise is probably going
(23:17):
to do most of those people wonders.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I love it, and I'm just curious to know what
does your movement look like throughout a week.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
I'm a mom, so that's going to frame out.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
That's a lot of movement.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yeah, Well, this is a whole conversation for another time.
But there's intentional and unintentional movement, and women need intentional movement.
I'm a mom, I carry kids around. That's not true
movement to me. That is me looking after my kids.
Intentional movement is me going I'm going to go for
a solo walk, and that feels so much better and
(23:47):
has many other benefits. But I tend at the moment
to do a lot of yoga, and that's always been
a way for me. But it gives me more than
just the movement. It's that calming, spiritual side of who
I am and what I do. And I slick between
different exercises because in some I might want to swim
more in winter, I might want to do more hot yoga.
(24:08):
I always go through my plates phases. I'm not at
a stage in my life where my body can handle
high intensity. I used to do triathlons. My body right
now not handle it. So it's listening to your body
and going well. At this stage of my life. I've
got a two and four year old, there's no need
for me to do high intensity. I will in my
(24:29):
forties and fifties, but right now my body suits moderate
to low intensity, and if I honor that, I'm going
to get the best results for me and I'm feeling
pretty regulated within my body. Whereas if I was smashing
myself at six am at a hit class, I would
not be a functioning human I would It would absolutely
have the opposite effect. So really thinking about well where
(24:52):
am I at, what's my capacity? You know, what are
my goals, and absolutely checking in with body and going well, actually,
what do I want to do right now? And sometimes
for me that isn't going to yoga. Sometimes that's walk
my dog or doing some stretching on the floor while
I watch TV. It's all movement and it doesn't have
to fit into a framework.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I love that that's such a healthy approach to it.
And like I said before, that really intentional like intentional eating.
It's like that intuitive form of movement. And I think
the season analogy is so perfect because also we evolve.
It's not just life seasons. We evolve as people. It's
not normal to do the same thing, rinse and repeat
every day every week for twenty years. Like it's normal
(25:36):
to ebb and flow and move on from things and
challenge yourself and then strip it back. So then, just
to round out this episode, what is one piece of
advice you would give for women who are listening who
are confused or feel guilty about what they are or
aren't doing.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I will always ask my patients to strip back the layers,
because there's lots of layers, and we're trying to navigate
our path and we want to forget about the gym
down the road. We want to forget about the platy
studio that our friends are going to, and we want
to go down to this base layer of what is movement.
We can do strong movement, we can do fluid movement,
(26:13):
we can do really fast, really slow. And if we
think about movement from this base base level, then we
can grow from there up. And we say, well, how
does my body right now feel like moving? We might say, oh,
I just feel so rigid. I'm always at a desk.
(26:35):
I want to be flip flopping, you know. I want
to be flexible. I want to be moving, And so
we might go, oh, my god, I really feel like dancing,
and then we go, okay, what are my options? And
we might go to a dance studio and we might
dance in our living room, where what most of us
are doing is looking at the options first and not
(26:56):
considering what we need. So I really encourage people to
get rid of all those layers. Just sit with self
and ask, how do I want to move my body
that I'm so lucky to have that is able, and
what ways can I approach it? That I'm absolutely in
(27:17):
love with my routine, that I'm honoring where I'm at,
and that I can change it any time. That's the
advice I would give. I could go on foundations up
for everything totally.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I always set an intention before I teach every single class,
and I just have my class members just take thirty
seconds just to set themselves an attention for either something
they want to achieve in the class or even if
it's just the way they want to show up on
them that day.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
That's completely fun.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And I think for me, especially when you're exercising, it's
the one time in your life where you're not contactable
or you're not being sworn with notifications. Enjoy it, Get
out of your head, get into your body and just
feel it.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, and if you're not enjoying it, do not do it.
That is the key. You shouldn't be eating anything you
don't want to eat. You shouldn't be exercising if you
don't want to be doing it. If it all comes
from a place of good intention and something we absolutely love,
then we're going to be more consistent with it and
to have less guilt around it, and we'll do it
(28:16):
for longer.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Like Christina Yangs has on grays Anatomy, Just dance it out.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It's going viral on TikTok at the moment. I love it.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Jennifer Ward, thank you so much for joining us today.
Can you just let everyone know where they can find
a little bit more about you?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
You can follow me on Instagram Jennifer Ward Underscore Naturopath.
I'm in Sydney, but I offer online sessions and also
workshops as well. I would love to hear from you
DM if you have any questions, and I hope to
speak with you again soon. Phoebe. I absolutely love chatting
health with you.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
I could chat to you for days about this and
I'll pop all of those links in the show notes
Ie people can easily find them. Thank you so much,
Thank you, thank you so much for listening. Guys. I
really hope you enjoyed the episode, and don't forget to
help a sister out by following the podcast on Apple,
on Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts, rate it,
write me a review, and if you want more Finish
(29:08):
We do have a private Facebook group. There is going
to be exclusive Q and A is happening with my
guests in that group. That's going to be events going
life first, so much fun stuff happening. Just look up
fit ish in brackets on Facebook and you can be
part of the Finish online community.
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