Welcome to How to Love Your Body - today we are talking about movement as UnDieters - we’ve gotten questions that sound like this by many women “I’d really like to start exercising more, but I’m having a hard time not secretly hoping I will lose some weight, so I end up just not doing it. How do I change the intention of exercise?” 

This is a great question because UnDieters have a complete different relationship with movement than we did as dieters - so it’s important to know the difference and really take it on so diet culture doesn’t creep in when wanting to move your body. 

It’s important to first figure out what your actual intention is with movement. Creating your “movement manifesto” - “I move my body in ways that I enjoy because it feels good for me physically and mentally" is a great example of a movement manifesto. 

Here are 5 tips to help:

1- Create movement manifesto - this is your new belief around movement.2-  When you plan to workout check in with your intention/ movement manifesto and ask if there is alignment with wanting to move.

3- Yes, there may be feelings of hope that you are going to lose weight and that’s okay. You can’t let that hold you back. Tell yourself “I acknowledge that I have feelings of wanting to lose weight- and that isn’t my focus right now - is there any other intention to wanting to move my body?” You may find other reasons - feel good, release stress, enjoyment, trying something new etc… 

4- Move or don’t move - you aren’t a wrong or bad person for whatever choice you make- you can rest or you can decide to move- there’s going to be an ebb and flow…. Don’t create rigid rules or schedules - go with the flow with some logical planning (you may need to plan the time/ class etc- makes sense with a busy life etc) 

5- There is no perfection in this- allow yourself to explore and find your groove. You may be into something and then a month later move onto something else. You make the rules! This isn’t diet culture anymore 

We also share both of our experiences and journeys with movement from dieters to UnDieters (tune in to hear our chit chat!) 

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