Ever wondered how societal pressures shape our relationships with food and body image? Join me as I celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast by sharing my journey as both a podcast host and a high school teacher. This episode tackles the toxic culture of thinness and the elusive "summer body" concept. I'll open up about my personal struggles with food and body confidence, shedding light on the importance of prioritizing overall health and movement over mere weight loss. Through heartfelt stories and reflections, let's rethink our narratives around food and exercise for a healthier, more balanced approach to fitness and well-being. Remember to share your thoughts for future episodes and don’t forget to rate and review the podcast to help us grow!
The Pain-Free Podcast is presented solely for general information, education, and entertainment purposes. Any information presented in this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional diagnosis. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. As always, users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition that they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
Ever wondered how societal pressures shape our relationships with food and body image? Join me as I celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast by sharing my journey as both a podcast host and a high school teacher. This episode tackles the toxic culture of thinness and the elusive "summer body" concept. I'll open up about my personal struggles with food and body confidence, shedding light on the importance of prioritizing overall health and movement over mere weight loss. Through heartfelt stories and reflections, let's rethink our narratives around food and exercise for a healthier, more balanced approach to fitness and well-being. Remember to share your thoughts for future episodes and don’t forget to rate and review the podcast to help us grow!
The Pain-Free Podcast is presented solely for general information, education, and entertainment purposes. Any information presented in this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional diagnosis. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. As always, users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition that they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
Welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones. I am a certified personal trainer and I'm here to help you achieve your fitness goals without pain. In each episode, I'll share tips and strategies that will help you stay safe and pain-free while you're working out. I'll also interview experts in the field of fitness and pain management. So if you're ready to learn how to stay active and pain-free, then subscribe to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast today.
Speaker 1:
Hi everyone and welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones, and you know it has been a year since I started this podcast, and that makes me very happy. I started this podcast with the goal of informing people of Dr Sarno's work and my road to recovery and talking about all things fitness and exploring life in the mostly pain-free way that you can, and I'm really excited that it's been a year and that I've stuck with it and I have people who listen and there are people that give me feedback and all the good things, so it's really good that I made it Like I survived something. I think I'm in that mode because, as some of you may know, my other gig is a high school teacher. I mentioned that before and the school year is coming to a close, so we have one more day. Tomorrow is the last day of school and I am toast. This has been a very long year. It's been very exhausting and the year has been challenging but we all made it. And you know kudos to all teachers out there that may be listening, because end of the year is real. It's definitely will be good to have some time off to rest and recuperate before I start off on any new challenges that I choose to take on. So that's kind of my little update.
Speaker 1:
But I wanted to get into today's topic because I was having some thoughts as I was listening to something. And you know I have thoughts. I want to share them with you and it's about the whole idea or the concept of the summer body and this culture of thinness that we have and the possibility of kind of changing our stories and embracing body confidence. And so, quietly I've been working on this because it's been something that's always kind of plagued me. And you know have these little gremlins that are in my head, you know, like hamsters on a wheel or whatever, and when I'm doing things, random things, like thoughts, pop into my head and it's just funny how pervasive these little bastards are and I don't go looking for them, but they just creep in and do their little thing and it's really annoying because I never know when they're going to show up. And you know the concept of like well, here I am. You know I don't want to actively try to lose weight, because that is something that I'm working on right. It's like not putting the focus right, because what you resist persists, right? So if I'm constantly thinking that I need to lose weight, then I'm never going to lose any weight.
Speaker 1:
And I'm also trying to work on my relationship with food and how I see food and whether there's good food or bad food or you know whatever kind of stuff, and I look at it more as like fueling or just enjoying food. You know, maybe not looking at it as fueling is probably a better thing, but I'm just working on that narrative and every once in a while pops up because you know I'll get some stupid bullshit about like, oh, you ate a cookie, so you should probably go run today. You know, which is not what I want it to be Like. Food should not be a reward or punishment, or exercise should not be a punishment, for sure. You know even the silly stuff about like cleaning off your plate. The other day I was eating something and I left food on my plate and I was so proud of myself for doing it. Yes, I know there are people in the world that are starving, but I, you know, I just I overindulged and I didn't get it and I had already, you know, diseased it by putting my germs on it. But I didn't finish it and I was like go me, all right, good job. Because usually I would say, oh, you know, you got the food you have to eat it all. And because I've been finding myself overeating lately and it's really annoying because it's not something I ever did and I don't know why I'm starting to do it now. So I don't know.
Speaker 1:
Anyway, all this stuff is like I was thinking about. I'm like what is it like? And it's like the zit that comes in the middle of your forehead kind of thing. It's like, oh, you could feel it coming, you know it's there, and you're like everybody can see it and it's just a bad thing, and that's kind of how I feel, like these food issues pop up for me sometimes. Everybody knows it's happening because it's right in the middle of my forehead. So, but I was also comparing these kind of thought patterns to pain and that's like my pain story was just really like trying to focus so hard on curing myself or making it better or doing whatever I need to do. And again, the more you focus on things, the more power you give them and the more that they show up everywhere.
Speaker 1:
So I've been attempting to rid myself of my story about how I gained my weight or why I can't lose weight or whatever, like I don't want to discuss any of those things because of the fact that the more I talk about it, the more it's there, and I'd rather not discuss these things and I'm hoping that, you know, by focusing on being healthy and being able to move my body, those are things that I could focus on, as opposed to an actual goal or, you know, body size or pant size or whatever the hell is popping up in my head. But there's something funny that happened. So I'm doing my thing and I'm having the opposite thing happening in my house and my son is trying to gain weight. He is one of those little metabolism fire engines, I mean, he just burns calories as he's looking at things, and so it's always been very difficult for him to gain weight, and so there's at things, and so it's always been very difficult for him to gain weight. And so there's I've had to have a lot of conversations about it and it's really awkward, uh, cause his goal is to gain weight and not be real thin, and cause he wants to be strong for the things that he participates in. And it's just, you know, and it's funny because, like, as I'm thinking about it, I go this is funny, right, like nobody's ever happy with the way their bodies are, right, you know, like I have curly hair and I grew up always wanting straight hair because I thought it'd be, you know, easier to deal with. And then I've always had people with straight hair say, oh, I love your hair so much, right, and it's like, you know, I don't want to gain weight or whatever, and then he can't gain weight, and you know, we're just never happy, like there's always something that goes on, you know, biologically, slash, emotionally. That is always kind of capturing our attention or keeping us distracted from the real things, probably, but anyway. So I was thinking about this and then I had this very funny interaction with my son and I thought it was entertaining, so I went, I had this very funny interaction with my son and I thought it was. It was entertaining, so I'm going to share it with you.
Speaker 1:
Um, but we're, you know, we're eating at my in-laws and I can't remember what we had like a little French toast thing or something like that. Like she made a little French toast out of, like, um, you know, sourdough bread or something like that. So they're little round slices. And so my son's, like how many calories do you think that is? And I was like I don't know, dude, you know, like, why are you bothering me, asking me calories? And I, so the history behind this is that I constantly harass my children about, like, why they ask me questions that are easily Google bull, and I did say that I pulled it off anyway, um, because, anyway, because whenever they'd ask me a question before, I'd just be like Google it, google it. And I know that they were like, oh my God, she's going to tell me to Google it again. And I understand that this is a way for them to engage with me.
Speaker 1:
But there was something that was a little touchy about the whole calorie counting thing and and whatever that I was having a hard time with and I didn't really realize it at the time, but I, just as I was trying to figure out all the stuff, I realized, oh, like this is a thing. So, anyway, I didn't know the answer, cause I don't really give a shit and I. But I realized that like I was perturbed from it because I don't really give a shit. But I realized that I was perturbed from it because I don't pay attention to that stuff anymore, because I've been trying to consciously, like, you know, is this good for my like? Does this feel good? Is this food that I'm taking in aligning with where my body is at the moment? And that's about it. And I don't have the bandwidth anymore to collect that kind of data in my brain in terms of calories and all this other.
Speaker 1:
Historically, what has happened is that, you know, in my pain-free journey, I became involved with several different types of eating practices and programs and that created a lot of disordered eating for me. And I mean I was literally weighing my food using all the apps, the different apps. I was testing my blood sugar and macros. Not macros, I can't think of what it is like my, my fat burning capacity. I'm sure somebody will be like that, dana, I don't remember.
Speaker 1:
Anyway, there was so much focus on the eating and I think it's funny because when I was like doing the most clean eating or whatever, I was on the carnivore diet, I gained the most weight during that time, and it was also during COVID. So there was a lot of stress and you know, and it was very I don't know not balanced eating. You know, when you're eating, eating steak and that's it there's something to be said. My body was definitely not using the fat for fuel, or maybe it's using fuel for later times, I have no idea. Anyway, the whole point is that I just really got into this really weird ass way of eating and I didn't realize how, how much it bothers me, like, having those discussions around it, because it was really fucked up and I didn't like it and it drives me crazy that I went down that road.
Speaker 1:
But you know, this is where I am and I don't know if I'd be here if I didn't have that experience. And that's always a good thing to kind of look back and go. Yeah, you know, it's like I'm kind of you know I'm getting to the point I'm not 100% there that I'm grateful for my pain, because you know it's brought me here and I probably wouldn't be doing certain things or making the choices that I'm making, you know, if I was drugged up laying in my bed and wishing that I was dead because my head hurt so bad. So, you know, there is some gratitude with the growth that has been achieved by me really taking an in-depth look to how my brain works and why things are the way they are for me. But you know, it triggered something.
Speaker 1:
And then I started hearing stuff about like summer bodies and getting ready right, because now you know Instagram and whoever are all doing these things about. Oh, I got to get my beach body, you know, ready to go right. And I was also like thinking like damn, we're so brainwashed. And so I did a little research on the summer body thing and like, what the hell is it? And the definition I found on the interweb was that it is a socially constructed ideal that pressures individuals to conform to unrealistic beauty standards Like go. Whoever wrote that? That's pretty cool, you know. And it says this pressure can lead to unhealthy behaviors, such as extreme dieting, overexercising, which are not sustainable and can harm you both physically and mentally. I'm like, damn, that's good, good stuff. So I like that it's out there because it is stupid and it's you know.
Speaker 1:
But I also, as a history teacher, wanted to dig a little bit and what I realized is that this all started in the 40s because that was the introduction of swimsuits. And so then people got to see you, essentially, like you know, protected but naked, right, because, think about the 40s, not everybody was running around, you know, like this, right. And then you have advertisements, right. You think about comic books of the beach dude, you know kicking sand in people's faces and all this other stuff, right, the whole emergence of bodybuilding, and you know the scrawny nerd versus the you know fit dude. And so things started to really get nutty.
Speaker 1:
And when you get into the 60s and 70s then, and when you get into the 60s and 70s, then fashion and beauty hit all-time crazy highs, where the whole heroin, chic and being thin. And you think about Twiggy, which is somebody who epitomized that idea of that slim. Look, right, I mean, she was nothing when you look back at her, right, like you know, just had no fat, no muscle, nothing, just literally a twig. But that fitness culture started to emerge and people like the idea of that ideal body, you know, whatever the hell it was.
Speaker 1:
And obviously recently, thank goodness, there's been a body positivity movement that's kind of pushed forward and saying like we are literally all shapes and sizes and nobody can be this way and you know we need to stop, you know, perpetuating the stereotype of being super thin, no body fat, you know, whatever, because it's unhealthy and it's damaging our children, and you know we're putting ourselves at risk of not existing right. What is this? The first generation that's not going to live long, right? Or, finally, our age expectancy or life expectancy is going down as a result of a lot of the behaviors that are going on. Plus, it's just, you know, before you die, it's not fun living if you're constantly being, you know, obsessing over these things because of the unrealistic standards that are out there in the world, anyway, so I just really thought, like you know, we need to think about this a little bit, and I'm always going to offer advice, because we know that I'm not an expert, but I love giving advice about this kind of thing, because these are things that I've done and I continually work on.
Speaker 1:
Like there is no one-stop shop for things. There's always going to be ways to evolve. There's always going to be ways that we change. There are new things that are going to come up. They're going to trigger you know ways that we change. There are new things that are going to come up. They're going to trigger you know, old memories, you know, and we're humans so we're messy, so we always have to navigate things, and you know.
Speaker 1:
So I had like three things that I figured that we should you know, just I should send out little reminders and again, you get to do whatever you want to do because it's your life. But the first thing is always like practicing self-compassion. Like I really needed to look at myself after my little reaction and the feelings that were going on in my brain, and I needed to kind of almost go back to little Dana and be like it's okay, you know it's, it is all right for you know your thighs to look this way or whatever the hell's going on. You're okay. As long as your body is functional and you can move and still be able to do the things that you enjoy, you're all right, um. Secondly, you know I realized, like Instagram, I'm able to curve who I follow and do whatever.
Speaker 1:
But Facebook is not very good because, um, they starting to toss in ads and because I'm a fitness coach, the ads that I get are all fitness-related people and it's all that like, oh, we're going to do a challenge for the summer. You know, like, how can you starve yourself so you can fit in your bathing suit, kind of thing. So it's really, you know, so I'm going to have to like pull away from Facebook for a little bit just to kind of keep that stuff from getting in my brain. You know, cause, even if I'm scrolling past the ad, you're still seeing the ad, and you know I. That's why I kind of like Instagram, because I can, you know, decide who I'm going to follow and do whatever, and I monitor who I like so that I don't get more things like something that I may not necessarily agree with, you know, and I try to follow people who are more body positive, and that's good, you know, because then I get to see how the world, like regular people in the world, navigate, and then not just the ones that are never eating and, you know, working out a ton, not just the ones that are never eating and working out a ton.
Speaker 1:
And thirdly, saying is like, again, I am functional, right, I can do squats, I can go for a run, I could go for a hike, I can go swimming, I could play tennis. I could do all the things right. I could practice yoga. I've been running yes, I still am running and I'm able to do those things. And that's what I'm celebrating is the fact that I'm capable of doing things. And for you like I was texting with a girlfriend today and you know she's had some health challenges, and for her, you know, it may be a walk around the block maybe the best thing that she can do, and what I told her is said is, if you can do something for 10 minutes, you're golden and you just build from there. And that's pretty much. My advice to you is that you know, be happy with what you can accomplish and know that it can grow and you can get stronger and you can do the things.
Speaker 1:
And if you're somebody who really does struggle with body image again, like I said, I am not a professional and um, you know, my advice is for your entertainment and not, you know, uh, in the basis of any kind of medical background, and but you should seek professionals. I think there's more people out there now that are providing tools and it's not, um looked at in the way that, um, it was when I was a kid, you know where it was just like, oh, you're stupid, you should still be thin. You know this is something that it's actually. You know there are people out there that are really helping support everyone who's struggling with their body image. And just always remember, too, that body image isn't always about women. I have plenty of young men that I deal with that have some issues around what they see on the internet and trying to live up to unrealistic expectations that society has kind of put on them and how their body should look. So, again, you know, always seek professional help if you're struggling with things, because help if you're struggling with things because, um, oops, I think you can get support for that and, um, I feel like you know, we all, again, we all need a team. Right, we need people who are going to support us with the things that, um, we have our time and, um, having a team is not a bad thing.
Speaker 1:
Anyway, thank you so much for listening and if you have any ideas or any topics that you'd like me to touch on, that would be great. I've got some guests lined up for the summer and I'm kind of excited about it, so we're going to have some different topics that we're going to touch into and I'm I don't know one more day, one more day, and I'll have my sanity back Right one more day. I can do have my sanity back Right one more day. I can do this. Anyway, thank you so much, and don't forget to rate and review. Share this with anybody who you think needs to hear it, and I will catch you later.
