LU 034: Anne Poirier – No more compulsive exercise: How to break the chains of "being the fit one".

Download Episode! Hey, lovely radicals... it's podcast time! In today's episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I’m talking to Anne Poirier. Anne is the new program director at Green Mountain At Fox Run in Ludlow, Vermont. Green Mountain is a non-diet mind and body wellness center that offers retreats for women who want to start the journey back from years of dieting, body shame, weight-obsession and food fears. They re-learn to enjoy food again, and re-learn to move in a way that brings joy, and has nothing to do with food, calories or punishment. Anne was a fitness trainer for 30 years, battling her own body-shame-demons, and she came to the realization that the fitness industry is - sadly! - making many people less healthy, instead of more. She saw, time and time again, that the same people she had been helping to lose weight through diet and exercise, were coming back to her, after they had gained the weight back, feeling frustrated, depressed and convinced that they had failed. At the same time - unbeknownst to her clients - this same cycle was happening to her as well. Even though she did everything to look like the usual fitness professional, even though she tried modeling a "good way of eating", and "exercising harder" than others, she finally came to see that this was no way of living, as it really leaves everyone trapped in a vicious, painful cycle, and that it is time to think about sustainability and enjoyment again. Listen to Anne tell us: – How her mother related to food – How early she internalized the idea that her body was something to be fixed – How quickly this idea led her to anorexia – Why she resisted to be treated – How her anorexia eventually morphed into exercise bulimia – How her eating disorder made influenced her decision to go into exercise science in college – How she managed to hide her eating disorder in her athleticism for years – How she - for years - tried to find her identity behind labels like "fit", "strong" or "skinny" – Why her two pregnancies were the only time she remembers feeling free around food – How the disorder popped right back up after she gave birth – How her profession kept feeding her eating disorder, and why she wasn’t even really aware of it – How exercise is a legit addiction like any other – What kind of issues and pain we are numbing out from by exercising compulsively – What the biggest hurdle is for many people when they are tackling their exercise obsession – How we can reframe how we think about our bodies towards a more realistic, grateful body image – How painful it is to realize that she lived like that until she was almost 50 years old, too afraid to let go – Why it was that only when her body started to break down that she started waking up – How a forced break from exercise turned out to be the first step towards real healing – How suddenly she discovered a life beyond fitness and training and weight-suppressing – How she dealt with her changing weight – Why "Drums Alive" turned out to be a real game-changer for her in terms of exercise – Why it’s never wise to compare our insides to other people’s outsides – Why some people have to hit rock bottom before they start to see that they don’t really want to live life presenting a facade that isn’t even them – How she now sees clearly how she was desperately trying to "be someone special" all her life and how she lost herself in that for a long time – How she describes her life from, say, five years ago, compared to her life now – What her focus is in her work as program director at Green Mountain At Fox Run... ... And so much more! Check out the wonderful Green Mountain website: www.greenmountainatfoxrun.com Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid; ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We’re right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join