Thursday, December 1, 2016

Honour Your Body, Your Life, Your Self.


Dr Karl is on Triple J this week with a guest, talking about the science of weight loss & this is a topic close to my heart.

You may not know this but I used to have an eating disorder & probably a fair bit of associated body dysmorphia (when you have a distorted view of how your body looks).

When I was in high school, I learned to be bulimic; other girls showed me how you could throw up after eating to not gain weight. I thought it was a magical formula until I found myself living a miserable life. Then I started to make the changes that made the difference to save my life.

This, combined with my Mum being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes around the age I am now (early 40’s) made me sit up & take note of my health.

I did not want to follow in my Mum’s health-footsteps.

It didn’t happen immediately, but I started on the path that has led me to become a Fitness Trainer & Health Educator.

I know how it feels to not want to exercise, to complain about working out, and when I was training to be a trainer, I still remember the time where I actually started to enjoy working out.

That feeling of “yeah!” after a workout has stayed with me and once you get that, you don’t want to give it up.

Now I’m glad I went through that process because I empathise with clients who do the same. Although now I allow them to bring their ‘don’t want to’s’ and complaints, (they can even swear a lot), but they still do the workouts.
And they feel so much better at the end.

I also remember the point in my life where I realised I was choosing exactly what I wanted, so why couldn’t I choose what was good for me.
So I did.

I started eating better and actually enjoying it, moving more & feeling great for it.

When I had my son 11 years ago, I put on 40kg. Four Zero.

It was no mystery, I ate EVERYTHING, and then I ate theirs. When I had a 3.6kg baby, I had to take stock and decide; did I want to keep these extra kilos that made me feel so uncomfortable?
Was this related to my eating disorder so many years ago?

I made a conscious decision to love my body, to fuel it well & to exercise. If my body never returned to its previous state then so be it, but I was damn sure I would do everything possible to treat myself well & be happy with the outcome.

A lot changes in a woman’s body after children & we are so exposed to unrealistic images in the media (celebrities don’t even look like they do in the magazines!!).

So what if our bodies aren’t the same as pre-kids?
Are we going to be miserable for the rest of our lives?
Missing out on all the joy & richness in our lives?

A flat stomach is not an achievement.
A life well-lived, full of love, adventure, curiosity & laughter, sure is.

I want that for you.
If you have never exercised or unsure about how to start, please get in touch.
I'm here to help.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Wisdom of the Elders


I attended a beautiful funeral service this week to honour a man who spent his 90 years on this planet creating a wonderful legacy; his family.
He was my partner’s grandfather and although I had only known him in the last couple of years of his life, he welcomed me & my son into the family as though we had been there forever.
Despite his deteriorating health, he still loved coming out to family dinner every Sunday night and was always interested in what the kids (his great-grandchildren) had been up to and what was new in his (now adult) grandchildren’s lives.
I had more than a few opportunities to chat with this lovely man about his past and I recall him telling me how he built the house he & his wife lived in for over 50 years. He was 25 at the time.
I was super-impressed by this and told him so. With modesty typical of his generation, he was a little surprised that I considered this a notable achievement.
“But Pa”, I said, “some 25 years old these days can barely function as adults in the world, let alone build their own house!” He considered this and quietly acknowledged that perhaps it was an achievement, but certainly not one to brag about.
(Can I tell you, if I BUILT MY OWN HOUSE, I would be writing that in fairy lights across the front of the building!!!)
I never knew my grandparents & am acutely aware of the power, wisdom & love they can have in our lives & the lives of future generations.
There are so many lessons & much wisdom from the elders in our families & wider circles, even if some of it is never spoken aloud. Look for the lessons, then do your very best to live them.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Imagine a Woman in Love with Herself


I came across the work of Patricia Lynn Reilly many years ago & her poem, Imagine A Woman In Love With Herself, resonated so deeply with me that I return to both the poem & the meditations when I need a reminder of unconditional self-regard, to embrace wholeness rather than perfection.


I shared this poem several years ago and found it resonated with women (and men) who had never heard it before and over the coming weeks, I will re-share it with you.


I especially love reading this poem out loud because the stanzas that hold the most meaning can be the most difficult to speak aloud, but the process of doing this is powerful & working through the accompanying meditations is transformative.


Patricia Lynn Reilly writes in her Introduction, “our beloved planet is in desperate need of women who have moved from self-loathing to self-love, from self-criticism to self-celebration. Women who design woman-affirming solutions to the challenges confronting human kind as it enters the 21st century. Women who use their personal and communal resources to give birth to images of inclusion, poems of truth, rituals of healing, experiences of transformation, relationships of equality and households of compassion. Women full of themselves!”

Isn’t that wonderful?
J

For the next month, enjoy this fabulous poem, delight in each stanza & if you find one that especially resonates with you, get in touch & I’ll send you the accompanying meditation.

I’m putting together a workshop based on the poem; if you’re interested, please get in touch.

Be full of your Self!

Big love,
Kim

Friday, May 20, 2016

Beautiful Reality




I went to Wanderlust last weekend with a brilliant bunch of great people, including some big people in small bodies, (which is how I usually refer to children).

It’s a Mindfulness Triathlon which, instead of the usual swim/bike/run, was  5kms walk or run, just over an hour of yoga and meditation to finish.

Melbourne turned on a spectacular day and the walk along Beaconsfield Parade was a great opportunity to catch up on news & share stories. The big people in small bodies also enjoyed playing peek-a-boo from inside their prams.

Doing yoga with 2700 other people, all on our mats, ready to move in a conscious & joyful way had a profound impact on me. When the instructor pointed out that we were all here for a purpose, that we were all connected at that moment, I felt tears in my eyes.

Connection is more than just being with people, to feel connection even with yourself, you really need to pay attention.

I felt part of the bigger whole, I felt connected to each of the people around me, and it felt beautiful. There were people of all shapes, sizes and levels of flexibility who were doing their thing in the sunshine. This got me thinking later about what we think of as real, in terms of our health, fitness and body image.

What we see in the media isn’t real.
Hollywood & celebrities exist to pretend; their job is to
sell stories, images and ideas that aren’t real for the purpose of marketing.
One way they do this is by marketing a sense of dissatisfaction with our own, not always glamourous, non-photo-shopped, messy, real lives.  There’s even a marketing term for this, called a ‘pain point’. Hit someone’s ‘pain point’, the theory goes, and they’ll buy what you’re selling as the solution to their problem.

The problem with this is when the marketing convinces you that you have the problem in the first place. Hands up who had heard of a thigh-gap in 2000? Hands down if you understand that it’s not an achievement.

I’m all for feeling your best and looking your best but not at the expense of your sense of self, not when your happiness depends on a number on a scale or on the tag of your clothing.

What about the sass in your step, the fire in your eyes, the spark in your soul? These are all so much more important that the size of your dress.

Tying self-worth to body image can be dangerous. If you’re eating fresh, healthy food, exercising 3-4 times a week, are active enough to keep up with your kids and live your great life, then your body is perfect as it is. 

You are amazing.

“It is only through extensive and continual conditioning that an intelligent human being comes to see herself as an ornament, whose first priority is the attainment of a slender body, rather than as a complete human being who has myriad other concerns and unlimited potential”