So helpful. Literally EXACTLY what I have been thinking lately. I’ve been working out alot more as of late. Trying to manage my PCOS flare ups and just feel better in my skin. I live in the Bible Belt where pageant culture is the standard of beauty. So my mother thinks it’s ok to constantly comment on my weight. She keeps constantly telling me “well if you just ate less and worked out more” maybe if you “downloaded this calorie tracker” the list goes on and on. I was diagnosed with PCOS this year after my 4th miscarriage and a BUNCH of testing. I’m really not even a big girl. I’m just constantly struggling with inflammation. I’ve found some herbal teas that help tremendously. And I’ve found for me that daily long walks and stretching are far more beneficial for my body then super strenuous workouts that only increase the inflammation. I refuse to do a calorie deficient diet. One because I’ve always struggled with body dysmorphia and that just sounds like a terrible idea that could become addictive and toxic. So instead I’ve been thinking of food as medicine. I’ve been allowing myself to eat as much of the food that is actually beneficial for me and healthy for me as I want. In the last 4 months I’ve dropped 15 pounds. My skin is clearing up. My periods are becoming less painful and more regular and I have a lot less inflammation. So I’d say it’s been a great success
I LOVE that for you!!! 💚 I had a similar experience when I first stopped going to the gym and weighing all my food (I used to work out 5x/week at 5am for yeaaaars lol). It was right after I read the books Health at every size and Eat what you love, love what you eat. I had this epiphany and realized that I had zero idea what the feeling of hunger or satiety was. So I simply started listening to my body without any rules whatsoever. My weight dropped effortlessly. I also got myself out of a 9-year unhealthy relationship that year. So to me, emotional health + psychological health > any sort of diet/workout regimen you could ever implement.
It is but I’ve come a long way when it comes to finding my worth from within. So it dosnt bother me quite as much as it used to to. Def have my good days and my bad
When your mom is saying things like that, keep in mind that it’s all projection. She was taught to feel that way about her own body :( you are breaking the cycle!!!
Oh I know that. She grew up in an in incredibly toxic and abusive household….. I speak to my daughters in a very different way….. I build them up instead of tearing them down. The cycle definitely ends with me
I used to live in the US and have a pretty sedentary job. To make up for the lack of movement, I would go to the gym five days a week and I ate a lot of sugar because ‘I was a good girl and spent two hours at the gym’. I now live in Spain (life is not perfect here and I do miss the US but that’s another story)… I walk about 10 miles every day, I quit the gym and I stopped eating ultra processed and sugary food. I do kettlebell exercises at home and all that keeps me in much better shape than when I lived in Washington DC.
I studied abroad in Spain and our group of Americans (myself included) were shocked we didn’t have access to any nearby gyms. We found a couple close by but ended never going as we were always walking everywhere.
I miss having so much people-centric infrastructure and being able to walk everywhere. I drive to work now and I would give anything to have a nice walk instead..
It made me think about my own relationship with exercise and how I’d not lose any weight despite running regular 5/10Ks, and waking up early for spin classes. Compare that to when I started rock climbing and the weight fell off me ~ although that wasn’t the biggest benefit, it was enjoying the exercise itself, that fuelled me with joy and purpose.
I’m walking away from reading this feeling very inspired! Thank you.
I have a very similar experience: I’m never as jacked/lean as I am when I’m not trying and I’m just doing the things I enjoy. It’s a lesson I have to learn over and over again lol
Having gone through the hormonal shift of menopause and the changes it brings...I feel like my routine was like trying to punch my way out of a paper bag....My takeaway from your post is to move more like a child....on the floor or ground....playing and dancing....
It all comes down to just moving to get stuff done and to enjoy, instead of planning movements for the "most benefits". When everything becomes a list or a routine, we suck the joy, and benefits, out of it. Just move!!!!
This article touches on something that I find very interesting. As someone with health issues, I've never been good at the HIIT style exercises. They make me crash. After a recent experience with post-viral illness, I saw a lot of people in the disability community lamenting about doctors forcing exercise on us that we couldn't do. I now understand how some (not all) of this problem is rooted in this modern cultural context you're writing about. Whether it's the doctors or the patients, many of us have a concept of what exercise should be that isn't actually "humane" (or something). It wasn't until a doctor told me that by exercise, he meant walking one block per day for weeks until I could build up to two... that I realized I had been harming myself because I had the concept of physical "exercise" all wrong. No wonder I couldn't do what I thought other doctors were suggesting I do for recovery!
Very interesting, one of the things most seem bamboozled about when it comes to exercise is attitude. It's mostly done as grim duty and as path to future goal instead of enjoyed for its own sake right now. The amount of pleasure any physical activity can bring when done without compulsion is huge. Simple stretching even in the morning or during the day can be enough to see this, provided it's not being done with the intent of getting better or whatever nonsense, just for the sake of it.
Been saying for a while now that the old paradigm of “calories in minus calories out…” has been completely debunked. It ignores the fact that all calories are not created equal AND that your body has at least TWO powerful ways of metabolizing them. Ketosis being almost completely ignored and yet being the KEY to a healthy body, particularly when combined with intermittent fasting and occasional multi-day water fasts.
Your article about the burning of calories and how it is best done is EXACTLY what I have observed in my own experience. Nothing will kill you faster than a sedentary lifestyle, but you don’t have to go to a gym to avoid being sedentary! Just stop sitting around on the couch! Get out and do stuff! Go pull weeds in the garden, feed the chickens and refill their water! Walk down to the store, and back. And, as you say, dance!
Right, right. I particularly liked your point about how if a person exercises a lot, their body just adjusts to that and they don’t really burn more calories. That is an insight that has been completely overlooked!
Swimming for sure! I actually go back and forth on whether or not it’s a base-level human movement nutrient or something that we just happen to be able to do. It might also depend on the geolocation of where someone’s lineage adapted? I’m not sure! I just learned how to swim (like, actually swim, not just float around) and it does not come naturally for me lol
I walk a lot, by choice, and a walking lifestyle ended the depression I had in my 20s. Obviously more complex than that but I do think we are meant to walk, not drive, throughout our days.
That's fascinating! And it matches with my experience as a mother, having recently given birth to my fifth child. I think hanging out on the floor with the little ones does wonders for my health; it feels like I'm constantly up and down with diaper changes, playing, tidying,etc.
After my lie-in period following the birth of my new baby, I started a post-partum exercise program, which is designed to restore the pelvic floor and ab muscles and focuses on functional movements. I expected to drop the remaining "baby weight" once I started exercising, but the scale hasn't moved a bit! Perhaps it's because I'm breastfeeding?
The element of being barefoot too is important not just for building muscles in the feet that stabilize us, but studies show that wherever our bodies touch earth or other conductive surfaces, our cells right themselves and inflammation goes down to basically zero over time. (The documentary The Earthing Movie describes it better.)
I’ve been swimming in a lake a few times this summer and absolutely loving using my body that way. I suspect this is up there with dancing.
And gratefully come from a family who has always danced together, though I do a lot more of that in my living room than I do at weddings these days.
I’m interested in how to incorporate the squatting and crawling as I’ve been building strength the last six months or so.
To incorporate more squatting and crawling, you might see if there's an Animal Flow gym near you. It does a lot of exactly that - good primal movement that is really good for mobility. You can also find videos online if you wanted to try it in a park or your backyard or something. I've been doing it for about a year and a half and I love it! It's made a big difference in my mobility.
Nice. I got an earthing sheet for Christmas just to really bring it home. And I swear it’s been the greatest factor in shifting some serious pain issues I’d been having for awhile. As well as going out barefoot whenever I can. Minnesota winter and sensitive skin limits the regularity of this!
And I’ve used zero drop shoes since 2015. I’m certain I’d topple over now in even a regular sneaker. So much padding! Very unstable.
This is great! I just turned 52 and am feeeeeeling it. Now I am clear - more moving, squatting, kneeling, and way more practice getting up and down from the ground. Ooof!
Agreed. love working out / learning new things in the exercise space/intense challenges, but i think there is real joy in doing or performing a movement with a certain mobility that reminds you of being a child again. Adultism/culture at large scorns certain ways of moving as silly, but certain range of motion movements and types of mobility can really bring a specific essential joy back to our collective experience
Yeah. I teach PE to elementary school kids and the teachers I work with often made fun of me/snide comments about me stretching, doing things perceived as odd like calf stretching, range of motion stuff lol, but ironically, it's the thing I teach to kindergarteners to 5th graders – this strange pipeline from being a student learning how important it is to really enjoy being in your own body to adults who lose that and then talk about "things they can't do anymore because their body won't let them" is so real. It's like we've lost the plot somehow... bring back the childlike wonder 2025
So helpful. Literally EXACTLY what I have been thinking lately. I’ve been working out alot more as of late. Trying to manage my PCOS flare ups and just feel better in my skin. I live in the Bible Belt where pageant culture is the standard of beauty. So my mother thinks it’s ok to constantly comment on my weight. She keeps constantly telling me “well if you just ate less and worked out more” maybe if you “downloaded this calorie tracker” the list goes on and on. I was diagnosed with PCOS this year after my 4th miscarriage and a BUNCH of testing. I’m really not even a big girl. I’m just constantly struggling with inflammation. I’ve found some herbal teas that help tremendously. And I’ve found for me that daily long walks and stretching are far more beneficial for my body then super strenuous workouts that only increase the inflammation. I refuse to do a calorie deficient diet. One because I’ve always struggled with body dysmorphia and that just sounds like a terrible idea that could become addictive and toxic. So instead I’ve been thinking of food as medicine. I’ve been allowing myself to eat as much of the food that is actually beneficial for me and healthy for me as I want. In the last 4 months I’ve dropped 15 pounds. My skin is clearing up. My periods are becoming less painful and more regular and I have a lot less inflammation. So I’d say it’s been a great success
I LOVE that for you!!! 💚 I had a similar experience when I first stopped going to the gym and weighing all my food (I used to work out 5x/week at 5am for yeaaaars lol). It was right after I read the books Health at every size and Eat what you love, love what you eat. I had this epiphany and realized that I had zero idea what the feeling of hunger or satiety was. So I simply started listening to my body without any rules whatsoever. My weight dropped effortlessly. I also got myself out of a 9-year unhealthy relationship that year. So to me, emotional health + psychological health > any sort of diet/workout regimen you could ever implement.
👏👏👏👏👏🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 yaaaAAAaaaaassss babe! I’m so proud of you. That’s amazing
Sounds like a huge success! Must be hard to constantly hear comments on your weight.
It is but I’ve come a long way when it comes to finding my worth from within. So it dosnt bother me quite as much as it used to to. Def have my good days and my bad
When your mom is saying things like that, keep in mind that it’s all projection. She was taught to feel that way about her own body :( you are breaking the cycle!!!
Oh I know that. She grew up in an in incredibly toxic and abusive household….. I speak to my daughters in a very different way….. I build them up instead of tearing them down. The cycle definitely ends with me
That must have taken some work and courage. I admire that.
I used to live in the US and have a pretty sedentary job. To make up for the lack of movement, I would go to the gym five days a week and I ate a lot of sugar because ‘I was a good girl and spent two hours at the gym’. I now live in Spain (life is not perfect here and I do miss the US but that’s another story)… I walk about 10 miles every day, I quit the gym and I stopped eating ultra processed and sugary food. I do kettlebell exercises at home and all that keeps me in much better shape than when I lived in Washington DC.
I'm surprised you didn't walk much in DC considering how walkable much of the city is
It is very walkable, but the weather could be a problem part of the year (too hot or way too cold) not to mention crazy work schedules
I studied abroad in Spain and our group of Americans (myself included) were shocked we didn’t have access to any nearby gyms. We found a couple close by but ended never going as we were always walking everywhere.
I miss having so much people-centric infrastructure and being able to walk everywhere. I drive to work now and I would give anything to have a nice walk instead..
Loved this piece so so much, Erin. 🫶
It made me think about my own relationship with exercise and how I’d not lose any weight despite running regular 5/10Ks, and waking up early for spin classes. Compare that to when I started rock climbing and the weight fell off me ~ although that wasn’t the biggest benefit, it was enjoying the exercise itself, that fuelled me with joy and purpose.
I’m walking away from reading this feeling very inspired! Thank you.
Thanks for reading, Hannah!
I have a very similar experience: I’m never as jacked/lean as I am when I’m not trying and I’m just doing the things I enjoy. It’s a lesson I have to learn over and over again lol
Having gone through the hormonal shift of menopause and the changes it brings...I feel like my routine was like trying to punch my way out of a paper bag....My takeaway from your post is to move more like a child....on the floor or ground....playing and dancing....
YES. 100%
Fantastic article!
It all comes down to just moving to get stuff done and to enjoy, instead of planning movements for the "most benefits". When everything becomes a list or a routine, we suck the joy, and benefits, out of it. Just move!!!!
This article touches on something that I find very interesting. As someone with health issues, I've never been good at the HIIT style exercises. They make me crash. After a recent experience with post-viral illness, I saw a lot of people in the disability community lamenting about doctors forcing exercise on us that we couldn't do. I now understand how some (not all) of this problem is rooted in this modern cultural context you're writing about. Whether it's the doctors or the patients, many of us have a concept of what exercise should be that isn't actually "humane" (or something). It wasn't until a doctor told me that by exercise, he meant walking one block per day for weeks until I could build up to two... that I realized I had been harming myself because I had the concept of physical "exercise" all wrong. No wonder I couldn't do what I thought other doctors were suggesting I do for recovery!
Very interesting, one of the things most seem bamboozled about when it comes to exercise is attitude. It's mostly done as grim duty and as path to future goal instead of enjoyed for its own sake right now. The amount of pleasure any physical activity can bring when done without compulsion is huge. Simple stretching even in the morning or during the day can be enough to see this, provided it's not being done with the intent of getting better or whatever nonsense, just for the sake of it.
Been saying for a while now that the old paradigm of “calories in minus calories out…” has been completely debunked. It ignores the fact that all calories are not created equal AND that your body has at least TWO powerful ways of metabolizing them. Ketosis being almost completely ignored and yet being the KEY to a healthy body, particularly when combined with intermittent fasting and occasional multi-day water fasts.
Your article about the burning of calories and how it is best done is EXACTLY what I have observed in my own experience. Nothing will kill you faster than a sedentary lifestyle, but you don’t have to go to a gym to avoid being sedentary! Just stop sitting around on the couch! Get out and do stuff! Go pull weeds in the garden, feed the chickens and refill their water! Walk down to the store, and back. And, as you say, dance!
Thanks, Devin! To be clear, this really isn’t about “burning calories”. Just the lens with which most of us were taught to view exercise.
Right, right. I particularly liked your point about how if a person exercises a lot, their body just adjusts to that and they don’t really burn more calories. That is an insight that has been completely overlooked!
What about swimming! I always feel best when i swim every day
Swimming for sure! I actually go back and forth on whether or not it’s a base-level human movement nutrient or something that we just happen to be able to do. It might also depend on the geolocation of where someone’s lineage adapted? I’m not sure! I just learned how to swim (like, actually swim, not just float around) and it does not come naturally for me lol
ahh yes I see. on the mediterranean (in the summer) it feels really engrained to my daily life...been swimming like 1.5 hours a day. never felt better
OMG if I lived on the Mediterranean I would be a fish
https://substack.com/@spuggywritings/note/c-135502708?r=1si1y&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
I walk a lot, by choice, and a walking lifestyle ended the depression I had in my 20s. Obviously more complex than that but I do think we are meant to walk, not drive, throughout our days.
That's fascinating! And it matches with my experience as a mother, having recently given birth to my fifth child. I think hanging out on the floor with the little ones does wonders for my health; it feels like I'm constantly up and down with diaper changes, playing, tidying,etc.
After my lie-in period following the birth of my new baby, I started a post-partum exercise program, which is designed to restore the pelvic floor and ab muscles and focuses on functional movements. I expected to drop the remaining "baby weight" once I started exercising, but the scale hasn't moved a bit! Perhaps it's because I'm breastfeeding?
The element of being barefoot too is important not just for building muscles in the feet that stabilize us, but studies show that wherever our bodies touch earth or other conductive surfaces, our cells right themselves and inflammation goes down to basically zero over time. (The documentary The Earthing Movie describes it better.)
I’ve been swimming in a lake a few times this summer and absolutely loving using my body that way. I suspect this is up there with dancing.
And gratefully come from a family who has always danced together, though I do a lot more of that in my living room than I do at weddings these days.
I’m interested in how to incorporate the squatting and crawling as I’ve been building strength the last six months or so.
Great article.
Big barefoot gal 🙋🏻♀️
To incorporate more squatting and crawling, you might see if there's an Animal Flow gym near you. It does a lot of exactly that - good primal movement that is really good for mobility. You can also find videos online if you wanted to try it in a park or your backyard or something. I've been doing it for about a year and a half and I love it! It's made a big difference in my mobility.
Nice. I got an earthing sheet for Christmas just to really bring it home. And I swear it’s been the greatest factor in shifting some serious pain issues I’d been having for awhile. As well as going out barefoot whenever I can. Minnesota winter and sensitive skin limits the regularity of this!
And I’ve used zero drop shoes since 2015. I’m certain I’d topple over now in even a regular sneaker. So much padding! Very unstable.
This is great! I just turned 52 and am feeeeeeling it. Now I am clear - more moving, squatting, kneeling, and way more practice getting up and down from the ground. Ooof!
Thanks! Movement nutrients for the win!
Sounds a lot like the work of Katy Bowman!
She’s definitely had an influence on me!
Agreed. love working out / learning new things in the exercise space/intense challenges, but i think there is real joy in doing or performing a movement with a certain mobility that reminds you of being a child again. Adultism/culture at large scorns certain ways of moving as silly, but certain range of motion movements and types of mobility can really bring a specific essential joy back to our collective experience
I love that—“adultism”. That’s exactly what it is!
Yeah. I teach PE to elementary school kids and the teachers I work with often made fun of me/snide comments about me stretching, doing things perceived as odd like calf stretching, range of motion stuff lol, but ironically, it's the thing I teach to kindergarteners to 5th graders – this strange pipeline from being a student learning how important it is to really enjoy being in your own body to adults who lose that and then talk about "things they can't do anymore because their body won't let them" is so real. It's like we've lost the plot somehow... bring back the childlike wonder 2025