Movement is not a way to pay for what you’ve eaten or shrink your body. It’s a way to care for your body and feel how you want to feel in it. If we reframe our thinking, moving away from focusing on what we want our bodies to look like and toward what we want them to do, it becomes easier to treat ourselves with kindness and respect.

You can’t control your health just by eating a certain way and exercising. There’s so much more to overall health, and you can’t measure it on your bathroom scale. Instead, by setting goals that are meaningful to your life and experiences, like improving your sleep or increasing your mobility, you can shift focus to where it matters most and will have the biggest positive impact on your life.

Today, Tami is joined by size-inclusive fitness specialist Kim Hagle to talk about diet culture and movement as self-care. Kim was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia just six months ago, and her work and fitness routine has had to shift as a result. If you’ve ever felt hesitant to exercise because of the pain or you feel like your self-image is holding you back, this one is for you.

In this conversation, Tami and Kim discuss Kim’s journey to becoming a size-inclusive fitness specialist, her recent fibromyalgia diagnosis, how her symptoms impacted her physical activity and mental health, the importance of rest and listening to your body's needs, conquering the fears of weight gain, muscle loss, and pain from exercising, Kim’s “all or something” approach to movement, changing how we think about exercise, recognizing movement as a form of self-care, honoring where your body is today, shifting body image and finding self-acceptance, practicing gratitude for your body, how diet culture impacts our beliefs, recognizing that we can’t measure health on the bathroom scale, personal responsibiltiy in health, creating your own definition of health, measuring health improvements based on outcomes that matter to you, practical steps to define your health goals and take small actions to improve your health, benefits of working with a coach, when to work with a physical therapist, the importance of self-compassion, embracing a slower pace, and more.

You are worthy of feeling good and being treated with kindness and respect, especially by yourself. It starts by meeting yourself where you're at, being compassionate, and taking one step at a time.

Note: This episode is not meant to be medical advice. Every person and every situation is unique. The information you learn in this episode should be shared and discussed with your own healthcare providers.

To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.

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