Good Bo(d)y

Good morning! Today, we are going to give ourselves some body love.

I have a Good Body. So many people are searching for a good body without even knowing that they already have one!!

But I guess that depends on what you classify as a good body... so I'm going to go through some pretty basic guidelines for having a good body.

First, a good body is a working body.

If you are alive, you have a good body. Take a minute to realize that you are living in the BEST TIME to be alive. Now, let’s take a real look at our working bodies! Let’s look at our fingers and toes and how we can move them individually. Let’s look at our arms and legs and see how many directions they can move. Let’s look at how our body works together to get us places or overcome obstacles.

It’s time we stop putting labels on aesthetics, at least here and at least now. If we constantly obsess about our physical appearance and long for this “good body”, we are constantly undercutting the blessings we have and the challenges we have overcame. The more we put weight (no pun intended... yes it is) in what we look like, the more unhealthy we can become, ironically.

Do you have a “good body” if you have no body fat but your kidneys start failing?

Second, a good body responds to stimulus.

I recently had a colleague tell me that he was trying to lose weight. He has been not eating on weekends to make up for some excess caloric intake he has during the week. When I asked him how long he’s been doing that, he told me about two years. And this story isn’t the first time I’ve heard this. The concept that you’ve been doing the same thing for two years and not yielding the desired results should be a direct indication that you will not achieve those results with that method. Do you honestly think that all of a sudden after two years of the same behavior that now, on this day or one soon, you will finally reach those goals?

Many people are giving their bodies the same stimulus and wondering why they are getting the same results. Your body is simply responding to what YOU are giving it. If you with hold food from your body, it will hang on to the food that is currently in it so that you don’t starve and die. Stimulus. Response.

If you continue to only do cardio, you will not gain muscle. Lack of stimulus. Lack of Response.

The truth is many of our bodies function and respond with a high degree of similarity. However, not all bodies respond and function the same. Those of us with Type I Diabetes will not respond to food the same as everyone else. In more common circumstances, most bodies prefer carbohydrates for quick energy, but of course, not all bodies.

If you pay attention to the stimulus that YOU are implementing on your body as well as the body’s response, you might be surprised to find that changing your body composition is not as challenging as it may first appear.

Third, a good body sends signals.

When I was in college, I went through a very stressful period of time. Not unfamiliar to many. Then I caught a cold, which made things more stressful. On the most stressful of days, I woke up with a mouthful (literally) of sores. I had more than 25 painful sores in my mouth and on my lips. It was terrible. First, they hurt. Second, they were disgusting. Now, I was stressed, sick and embarrassed.

Long story short, I had to rest and recover for all that to heal and get better.

Now that I’m older (and hopefully wiser), I can recognize symptoms of a stressful workload more quickly. What I’ve noticed is that my body literally sends me signs of this. In this very stressful time of my life, my body gave me huge warnings that I wasn’t recovering. Should I assume that a cold at the most stressful point of the year (and my life) was coincidential? It was bound to happen? No. I wasn’t sleeping or recovering well. I can guarantee I wasn’t eating well and my mental state was in shambles. Thus, my body responded to that. However, I still didn’t listen. I continued to stay fixed on my stress and my body responded to that as well. It gave me a more alarming signal. And let me tell you, these sores were alarming.

The only time I get cold sores is when I’m very stressed. As soon as I feel one coming on, I think to myself “What’s happening in the big picture? I need to take a step back and relax.” I take some time to breath and just be mindful. I stop focusing on the sh*t that’s out of my control and start focusing on what I am grateful for and usually, it’s gone within a couple hours.

The cold sores are a bit extreme.

Another really common indicator that your body is going through distress is your digestive system.

DISCLAIMER: If you are drinking dairy and getting terrible stomachs and having unbearable bathroom episodes, maybe it’s time to stop consuming dairy… for all those denying lactose intolerant people! We can't blame everything on stress;)

I used to work with a client at 6am two days of the week. This particular client was very negative, condescending, and disrespectful. On every morning that I would train this person, I would get a stomach ache from 5:15am to 5:45am. I stopped drinking coffee before the session. Stomach pains persisted. I stopped eating before this session. Stomach pains ensued.

Finally, after enough pain, I decided to listen. I stopped training this person, and voila- no more stomach pain. Talk about a sign.

I had so much stress working with this person first thing in the morning that I actually manifested physical pain. And now, after letting that person go, I realized that my good body was just trying to help me live better. My body obviously doesn’t know who this person is by their hair or their height or any other physical quality, but it knows because of the stress that that atmosphere causes to my body and responds to it by trying to indicate that I need to stop putting myself in that position.

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If you’re body does all of these three things, you have a great body. And if you won’t tell yourself that (yet), I’ll do it. You have a good body. YOU HAVE A GREAT BODY!!

If your body functions, responds to stimulus and sends signals, you have a great body and you are so lucky to have that body you have.

Understanding this can change your perspective on how you treat your body, which might help you achieve those aesthetic goals faster and easier. Have you ever heard the phrase “You catch more flys with honey”? Or how about the old rice experiment first tested by Japanese scientist Maseru Emote?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehlw-9PJkIE

I believe in these. And I believe whole heartedly that they apply to your body and your life quality.

Now of course, I’m not saying to just give your body anything it wants. Right? If I tried meth, my body would probably want more of it but would that be good for it? "Eh better not." But having the understanding that you have a good body might make you want to take care of it a little better. Even writing this makes me want to get a massage…. slash, I just want a massage. hahahah! But for real, even writing this makes me so grateful for my good body.

It functions much better than it should for how I treated it most of my life. When I eat well, I feel better and that’s how I know it responds to stimulus (along with the stories I already told). My body sends me signals on a regular basis and instead of feeling some kind of way about them, I am just grateful that my body wants me to make good choices so that I can feel good.

Take some time to understand your body. Chances are that your physiology probably functions similarly (at the very least) to most humans so don’t get crazy and start thinking that your body performs all these magic tricks. But it could be useful to LISTEN to your body and the signals its trying to give back to you.

Let me know what you notice with your body and how it signals you! Have a great week everyone, and take time to care for yourself!