28: 3 Ways You’re Hurting Your Body Without Realizing It (And How to Stop)

What if the way you’re trying to “take care” of your body is actually creating more stress, disconnection, and self-criticism than support?

In this episode of your body speaks, Dr. Brook unpacks a powerful but often overlooked question: Are you treating your body with honor—or unintentionally harming it through control, pressure, and external rules?

Building on the recent conversation around body image, this episode shifts the focus to how we treat our bodies day to day—through food choices, rest, self-talk, and whose voice we trust when it comes to health.

Rather than another mindset reset, this is about practical, embodied respect—learning how love for your body shows up in real life.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The 3 most common ways women unknowingly dishonor their bodies
  • Moralizing food and vilifying eating
  • Pushing through exhaustion and depletion
  • Outsourcing your body’s wisdom to external voices and data
• Why your body doesn’t function well under fear, control, or rigid rules
• How over-optimization culture quietly erodes trust and creates overwhelm
• The difference between helpful information and giving away authority over your body
• The 3 ways to begin honoring your body today
  • Listening to signals as information—not problems
  • Practicing daily gratitude to create nervous system safety
  • Speaking to your body with respect instead of criticism
• Why trust with your body is built the same way as any relationship—over time, through consistency and kindness

Dr. Brook also shares a simple 7-day practice to help you shift the tone of your inner dialogue and begin rebuilding a healthier, more grounded relationship with your body—without extremes, guilt, or obsession.

This episode is an invitation to move away from self-rejection and into partnership—honoring the wisdom God designed into the body you live in.

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⭐️ If you loved this episode, would you take a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify. It helps more women learn to listen, trust, and transform their health.

Transcript

We see flab. We see cellulite. We see whatever. We see wrinkles, pimples, all of the things. Or our skin looks bumpy. Or we got spots. We beat ourselves up so much. 

Welcome to the body speaks podcast with me, Dr. Brook Sheehan. Join me, on a journey, in discovering how to interpret the subtle signs your body uses to communicate with you - the whispers, the screams, and everything in between. Your body truly holds the answers for your health and wellbeing. It’s time to discover them, together. Let’s dive in. 

Welcome back to another episode of your body speaks. I'm Dr. Brook and I am so excited you are joining me today. If you don't mind, I'm gonna ask you a huge favor in the very beginning. I normally ask this towards the end of the episode, but the podcast is growing so beautifully and so many more women are learning to love themselves, love the bodies that they live inside of. So if you could rate, review, go on your...

podcast platform, whichever one you use and leave a five star rating, it would help more women just like you get exposed to this information because we are going to be going very, very deep into really unraveling this over optimization health culture. We're going to be talking about body signals. Like I mentioned in the episode for new years that I did two weeks ago,

and we're going to be piggybacking off of what Heather said in today's episode, where she spoke about how we see our bodies. We talked a lot about body image issues. And today, I really want to be talking about how we treat our bodies. Are we treating our bodies with dignity and respect? Are we treating them with honor? Or are we abusing and hurting ourselves in ways that we don't even see as abuse and pain?

And that is what I'm gonna get into today because loving ourselves is not just having a good mindset. Like, I see myself a certain way. And yes, I know the scripture that I'm created in God's image and He loves me this way, but really love shows up as a practice. And it really is a practice that we put in place when we learn these ideas. So today we're going to talk about simple and practical ways of doing this. And there's going to be three polar opposites on either extreme. We're going to talk about the three ways we dishonor our bodies, three very big ways that I see. Now there's many, many other ways than just three. And then also three ways that we honor our bodies, three ways that we love and support and how we can stay here. And I'm going to end on the three ways we honor, because that is what I want you to remember from anything in this episode. I want you to remember these three things and I will highlight them as well.

The first way we dishonor our bodies is to vilify food and to moralize eating. When we label foods good or bad, your body becomes a battleground. We say that, nope, we can only eat X, Y, and Z because it fits within the keto diet, or we can only eat X, Y, and Z because it fits within the carnivore or the paleo or Mediterranean. Insert whatever dietary information you are deciding to follow.

I say that we dishonor our bodies this way because our bodies are not built to just be in one lane of thought. God created food for us to use as sustenance, but also food to be used as fuel, as a tool to,

help our body perform. So I want to use this example and it's something I used in the workshop for those of you who weren't able to make it. I will be hosting other ones and I'm going to be taking it online. Quick plug for that in the future. Just stay tuned to what is going on staying connected via email.

So what I talked about during the workshop is how a lot of times we go through the grocery store and we can't get X, Y, and Z. We can't get grapes. We can't get strawberries. We can't get blueberries because those are high in sugar. Those are going to spike our blood sugar. Those are going to X, and Z. Now, while all of that may be true, while they may have high sugar content, well, blueberries a little less than the strawberries and the grapes. But understand the point that I'm trying to make is

We vilify certain foods on the basis that they don't fit within our understanding of whatever fad diet might be out there. Not saying that these diets are bad. I'm not saying that at all. What I'm trying to get people to understand is your body is uniquely different from everybody else. Your body's uniquely different.

So when you say to yourself, I want to lose this many pounds this year, and you're forcing yourself into this box that your body was never intended to follow, that's a way of dishonoring yourself. When you're choosing not to grab the grapes, even though, even though you can feel your body gravitating or pulling towards like, why am I craving grapes?

Why am I craving a tangerine? Why am I craving X, Y, and Z? And so I'm saying X, and Z a lot. Forgive me, but understand I'm just trying to share with you. There's so many different variables. There's so many things that we don't eat for the sake of what somebody else is saying is correct. All the literature, all the books, right? Don't do this. Don't do that. Eat for your blood type. Your body may want something that your friend cannot tolerate.

Your friend's body may want something that you cannot tolerate vice versa. Your body is not a textbook. The information that is out there and we are living in the loudest era of health history ever. And you are going to be seeing a change. I'm going to tell you this right now. This was a little secret I wasn't going to let out of the bag yet, but you are going to see a change in the shift of this podcast, meaning the entire title of the show is going to change.

We are still going to be talking about how the body speaks and all the amazing things. So don't fret on that, but it's going to be able to open up it up to a larger audience because there's so many people living in this place where they're becoming obsessive, where they're idolizing, where they're over optimizing, where they're trying to do so many things and they're starting to stress out about it. What we're talking about here is refraining from

doing so much because really less is more and food is information. It's your body's response to that food is very personal, very, very, very personal. And of course we want to maintain health. We absolutely want to be good stewards of this body that we've been given. However, we want to be a good steward to our body.

not to what somebody says our body should mean. So do not dishonor your body by vilifying certain foods.

When we practice this way of eating where we confine our body to a certain box based on what somebody on the external environment said to us, we're really living out of fear and we're living in a state of control. And that is not a way that your body performs. It does not perform from fear and it does not perform when you try to control it. It will ultimately win. And I've said this to you multiple times.

on previous episodes, will ultimately win. So we do not want to just eat in this confined box. If you are eating in a confined box and you find yourself craving something that is of the earth, meaning I'm not saying craving a Reese's peanut butter cup or a bag of skittles. But what I'm saying is if you find yourself craving celery, for example, or

Apricot or something else that's in season or whatever you're going through the grocery store man That sounds like that produce sounds amazing or a little bit of cheese or something that God made right? Trust that trust that don't not do it because it's not within the confines of your quote-unquote dietary guidelines.

I know I went on a little tangent there. I'm sorry. I'll try to calm down. But you know, this is something that I get really, really passionate about. I lived on the extreme of dishonoring my body for so long, so long. And so now I want to just share with you guys how to get out of this mentality. It's good to hear all the information. It's great to hear all the information, but to get out of the mentality of just pushing, pushing, pushing.

And that leads me to the next one. The way we dishonor our body number two is pushing through depletion.

Our bodies are designed to keep us moving. They're designed to regenerate and have new energy every single day. No different than when you put your cell phone on the charger at night, you're charging it up for the rest of the day. You're making that battery full. You're making it be able to do what it needs to do throughout the day. And that's what our bodies do.

Our bodies are not machines, don't wanna give off that idea. They're definitely not machines, they're masterpieces. I've said that a lot. But making your body perform when it's clearly asking for recovery is one way, 100 % across the board that you dishonor yourself. I understand that there are things that we have to do in our day-to-day lives that may have to happen even though we didn't get a good night's sleep, even though it was a horrible night.

with our kids up all night or somebody was sick or things happened. I get that there are things. The issue here though is when we get in this obsessive mindset where not only do we not have a good night's sleep and we still have to go to our job every single morning, but we don't get a good night's sleep. We go to the job and we have to go to the gym and we got to do this and we got to do this and we got to do this. Something has got to go. On the nights where your body does not get good sleep,

where something's going on with the family or the kids or whatever, you need to honor your body, yourself and say, okay, I'm gonna do what I can, but I'm not gonna hold myself to a hard rigid rule of I gotta get this workout in. Maybe you come home from work after a really long night that you didn't get good sleep and you take a brisk walk around the neighborhood after you're done with dinner or maybe you simply just work on getting more water throughout your day because water can be a very good thing to help you recover

Being hydrated in these moments where you did not rest well and you're still having to go do your job and do different things, make dinner for the family, staying hydrated is vitally important.

Also understanding that your body may be just fatigued even if you do get a good night rest, right? Cause I know some of you might be listening and saying, well, I didn't not sleep bad last night. It wasn't that bad, but I don't know why I'm so tired. That can be signs of your immune system kicking up. Those could be signs of a deeper burnout cycle beginning. There are different things that are happening that you have to pay attention to.

Again, reiterating, we're gonna go deep into body signals. I'm gonna break some of this down for you nitty gritty, but for the bigger picture here, overarching principle is honoring the rhythms that your body is giving you. If it's feeling like it's sluggish and it's not moving, this is not the time to try to override it with caffeine or energy drinks or all the things, or just try to push through. Again, your body will ultimately win.

Rest is not a reward. It's actually a requirement for your body to do what it needs to do. And the third way we dishonor our bodies is by outsourcing your body's wisdom, listening to everybody else's advice more than you listen to your own body's cues.

This one is kind of included in the first and second one that I mentioned earlier. It goes there, it can live there. However, I just wanna harp on this a little bit more because the optimization culture, this culture that's telling you you need to do more, you need to do more, you need to track, you need this, you need to that, blah, blah. It can get very, very sticky. And it sounds like empowerment, but it really becomes a lot of pressure.

So you feel like you're able to see your body in a whole different way because you're tracking HRV and you're tracking all the different sleep cycles and you're tracking your menstrual cycles and you're monitoring your blood sugar, all beautiful things, but not when it becomes so rigid and crazy that you are literally losing your mind because you're trying to figure out why your sleep number was so low one night versus another night. Again,

hidden things behind the scenes that you may not even know because our immune systems a lot of times are kicking into gear, fighting off infections before we even know they are there. In medical literature, it's called subclinical infections. Those are sub, meaning under the clinical presentation. You don't have any presentation of actual symptomatology, but these things are showing up. So allow yourself to.

feel at ease and calm despite the fact that certain numbers aren't the way that they are. Because sometimes things are not a problem to fix. Sometimes things are just allowing your body to recalibrate and do its thing. This goes with gut issues. I didn't have a bowel movement. I had too much of a bowel movement. Oh my gosh. Yes, there could be underlying things. I'm not dismissing that. This is not medical advice. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying to you

is begin to learn to have this relationship with your body

and understand that advice can be helpful, but it's not authority over your body. It's not authority over your body. so if Andrew Huberman or Dave Asprey say certain things or talking about different supplements or all these kinds of things, you need to start to build that relationship with your body so you'll be able to.

understand what it's asking for. And I want to go into on that note, the three ways that we honor our body and the first way that we honor our body and I know I was kind of weaving these in and out of those last section because it's hard for me just to talk about the dishonor without talking about the honor in the same sentence. But the first way we honor our bodies is to learn to listen to its cues. The signals our body gives us is merely information.

We're just collecting data on ourselves. We don't need to necessarily collect data with all this wearable technology. I'll tell you that for right now. 100%, you do not have to have wearable technology to collect data on yourself. I know some people have all these very expensive gadgets and they're doing all this stuff and it's great. But again, just like I mentioned, it can create actual more pressure, more obsession, more crazy, just to try to figure out all this stuff.

That's not what we're doing here. We are simply collecting data. If our body is giving us a certain signal or if it's craving a certain food, like really wanting a certain food that was created by God from nature, not the labs, but craving a certain food from nature and we're not eating it, we're not giving into that craving because we are at our calorie limit for the day or it doesn't fit within our food plan. That's not.

honoring our body. We are not treating these signals like problems. We're not. Signals are information. So we're just going to simply learn. We're going to ask our body, instead of saying, what's wrong with me, ask your body, what's my body asking for? And a simple thing here, I'm going to use the grape analogy because I've continued it all the way through this. If your body is seeking grapes,

If you are absolutely gravitating towards grapes, what I would say to you is go and buy the grapes. Heed that cue that you are being given and then use technology like ChatGPT and say ChatGPT, what are the benefits of grapes? And learn all the beautiful things that grapes have going on with them. You can do this with anything, whether it be raspberries or tangerines or a bell pepper or whatever, right?

understand you have tools at your disposal that you can actually see how these things might be benefiting you. You may not know it on first glance. Like, I don't know why my body is asking for a grape, but then you can see or hey, ChatGPT why might my body be asking for grapes? And it will give you a beautiful breakdown of that. So some of the cues that we miss in our body

Well, so many cues that we miss in our body, but these are the main ones that we just dismiss on the backs of push, push, push, are hunger, fullness, tension in our body where we feel tight muscles places, sleepiness, that fatigue I talked about, energy dips throughout the day, digestion changes, whether you're not feeling hungry at all or feeling super hungry, just monitor these certain cravings.

As you learn to listen to your body this becomes a easier and easier way of doing things. This is a skill you learn. Now honoring your body number two. Practicing gratitude daily. I actually probably should have had this as number one, but gratitude is so impactful for how we show up, how we present ourselves, how we take care of ourselves, and simply showing your body gratitude.

Thank you God that I woke up this morning and thank you body for doing all that you did in the background to keep me alive the rest of today. Thank you so much. Isn't that so beautiful? It creates safety in your nervous system. It softens that inner fight

Gratitude changes the tone of the relationship with your body. And I know a lot of us women tend to talk negatively about our bodies. We look at it in a certain way. We see it in the mirror certain way. We see flab. We see cellulite. We see whatever. We see wrinkles, pimples, all of the things. Or our skin looks bumpy. Or we got spots. We.

beat ourselves up so much. We are so critical of ourselves. And the third way to honor a body is to speak to it with respect. Speak to it, yes, having gratitude. Thank you for doing everything that you've done to keep me going all day long. Thank you for bringing life into this world if you're a mama, right? But speaking to the body with respect. If you wouldn't speak to your daughter,

or your best friend, the way you speak about yourself, stop, stop. Don't speak about it, don't say it, don't do it. You would not say all those critical things to your best friend. You wouldn't say those critical things to your daughter. At least I hope not. Your words create an internal environment of either safety or stress. And respectful language doesn't mean pretending.

that the cellulite is gone or the spots on your skin are gone or the pimples aren't there or whatever it is, it just means staying kind while you learn different things that your body is trying to communicate with you. One thing I said a lot at the workshop this weekend is as you begin to build trust in your body, you begin to listen to it and heed its voice, then you start to trust it and it starts to trust you. So it's this.

trust bubble begins to form.

So when you think that your body is hating you, when you think that your body is not loving you, when you think that your body is working against you, I will challenge you to think about it in a way of my body is protecting me, my body loves me, my body is so wise and so smart and God built it this way and I am a masterpiece and I am not a machine and I am.

beautifully, fearfully and wonderfully made.

So in wrapping up for today, just want to encourage you to make it a seven day practice from this episode when you're listening to it for the next seven days. What I want you to do is just practice speaking to your body with love, having intentionality when you say things to yourself, showing yourself gratitude, even if it's picking out one part of you, one piece of you and saying, you know what?

thank you legs, thank you thighs for keeping me stable today. Thank you for allowing me to walk. Thank you hands for allowing me to knit or to be crafty and creative. Thank you eyes for allowing me to see the beautiful sunset. Thank you ears for allowing me to hear the birds sing. Whatever you do, and you can pick a different part of yourself every single day, but just show yourself some gratitude.

speak kindly to yourself and understand that building a relationship with your body isn't a one-time decision. It's a daily relationship. No different than when you build a relationship with a spouse or a best friend or a coworker. It is built over time. This year, we are going to be doing health through.

This year we are going to be doing health through partnership and not self-rejection. On that note, have a beautiful rest of your week, and I will see you next week.