Are Your Fitness Habits Becoming Obsessive?

A lot of people start the new year off working out hard, and sometimes this can lead to obsessive behaviors. This week Bree is giving you five signs to know that your fitness habits are becoming obsessive, and how to keep that from happening.

Learn more about Bree and her programs at www.bodybybree.com or follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodybybreefitness/

Want more? Find and follow Bree on
www.bodybybree.com
Instagram
Pinterest
YouTube
Blog

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Are you looking for a space where you will learn to improve your mental strength, emotional health, and heal your insecurities from the inside out? Take the first step to living a more meaningful life with the Better Me with Body by Bree Podcast. I'm your host, Free. I'm a certified personal trainer, entrepreneur, and mother of three. I've helped empower thousands of women to take action through fitness, nutrition, meditation, personal development, and aligning thoughts with action. This podcast is for those who are ready to feel inspired and motivated to live a more purposeful life. Let's grow together. When it comes to fitness, it can be a fine line between health and obsession. I have been in the fitness industry for over 12 years, and I can tell you firsthand, there are a lot of people who preach health and fitness, but actually are some of the most unhealthy people mentally and physically. In this podcast, we are going to address the five ways fitness can become obsessive and how to avoid falling into this trap yourself. Let's get started. Hello, friends. I am actually currently in Logan, Utah, shooting fitness videos for iFit. And this podcast topic is actually perfect for the moment that I'm in right now. The pressure that some of these trainers feel to be the epitome of fitness is intense. I have seen fitness professionals fall into the trap of cleanses, water pills, fat burners, and hours of cardio just to look the part. But behind the scenes, they're actually exhausted, they have adrenal fatigue, they can't sleep at night because their body fat is so low. They can't recover after their workouts because they aren't eating enough. And they have low energy levels. It's actually a really sad cycle to see. And I also saw this a lot in the competition world. So I actually feel really bad when people get stuck in obsessive behaviors because their nice body literally becomes golden handcuffs. Like you have to maintain a level of leanness or you feel puffy. It's almost like body dysmorphia. And I'm not saying that I'm not guilty of pushing a little too hard when I had a goal and I like lost myself in the pursuit of becoming leaner and leaner. Like it's happened to the best of us. So, but I will say that the hardest I ever tried to lose weight, ironically, was after Mila. And I still couldn't lose the weight because my hormones were off from having the baby. But it literally consumed me. I didn't feel like myself. And so I had set unrealistic expectations. And then when my expectations weren't being met, it was really frustrating. And so remember, the root of all frustration is unmet expectation. So I hit a wall. I had to give myself a break and my body and my mentality a break and just live in maintenance for almost a year to heal my hormones. And that's what I did. And guess what? Life went on. I was fine. I let go of the compulsive need to return to my normal body and I let myself heal. And it was a really beautiful journey. So, how do you avoid falling into the obsessive trap? Let's start with these five questions. So I want you to do a little self-evaluation and answer honestly when I ask you these questions. Here we go. You might be obsessive if your day starts with weighing yourself. You put so much emphasis on what that little number on the scale says that you start giving your power away. You're upset or you're in a funk if your weight is up a few pounds and you're actually elated when it's down. So you let that scale rule your mood. And instead of putting so much emphasis on the scale, I want you to try and only weigh yourself once a week just to see your weight trends. Like you're only weighing yourself once a week just to see the weight trends because it's actually not healthy to weigh yourself every single day. Your body will shift in water weight two to four pounds every single day. And there are a lot of factors on if your weight is up. So you could need to go to the bathroom. Maybe you did a hard workout the day before because your body will retain extra water to repair your muscle. Maybe you ate higher sodium yesterday. Um, you might be starting your period. You get the point. You cannot let it rule your life. So little steps to free yourself from the scale would be to weigh yourself only once a week and then focus on daily mental wins. What are the daily habits that you're doing right? What makes you successful? How did you make healthy choices today? Not out of hate for your body, but because you want to feel amazing and you love your body. We actually just started our renewed challenge, and I'm always trying to teach women how to push themselves out of their comfort zone without becoming obsessed with the result. Instead, become obsessed with the process and the journey and healing your past habits that have been holding you back from being the best version of yourself. All right, number two, you might be obsessive if you can't go out with friends or go to family functions without feeling anxiety about what you're going to eat there. Now, when I start seeing these behaviors with clients, it's an automatic red flag. What's more important? Your relationships with friends and your family or your diet. You cannot let your macro numbers rule your life. Being with loved ones and making memories are important. So if let's say you have this favorite pie that your grandma made you and you don't eat any because you're on a diet, you need to reevaluate your priorities and see what's really important. You can have a healthy balance and still feel amazing. So, to help you with this, I would suggest planning a get together that involves food, and you can practice moderation in the moment without having to track those macros exactly. You need to know how to trust your intuition and yourself. Because remember, your relationships are too important to sacrifice to be lean. No one really cares how lean you are. I will tell you that right now. Nobody cares. They care about how you make them feel. And relationships are all that matter in life. All right, number three, you might be obsessive if you cannot eat without tracking your macros. I know this sounds counterintuitive because I'm a macro coach, but it's important to know that you can live your life without the numbers too. Like there's a time when you want to really hit goals and really hone in on tracking. There will also be seasons of life when you need to live and eat intuitively and practice what you've taught yourself with balancing macros naturally. Because you should not live in by the numbers forever. It's not a healthy mindset to be in. Food is so much more than just calories in your body. It's an experience, it's memories, it's fun. So find your balance where you feel healthy and happy. And if you are becoming obsessive with macros, then a solution I would suggest is taking one day a week where you don't track and you just try to eat healthy. And you'll notice that you usually make the same choices. You're able to still get protein in, you're able to have balanced meals, and your life still goes on without tracking macros. And that's a beautiful thing. So find the balance that there's beauty in the balance, you guys. Okay. Number four, you might be obsessive if you cannot let go of trying to be lean. Have you felt like you're in a deficit for what feels like years? Or are you always in and out of diets? Or do you feel lazy if you aren't always pushing harder? This is a trap that a lot of women fall into and you are not alone. It's actually really easy to fall into this trap. And I see women who feel guilty if they miss the gym and it really gives them a lot of anxiety. Like they cannot go a day without missing their workout, or they go to extremes with cutting out foods like sugar or carbs. And one thing that helped me was to do a lot of self-work on my worth. So if your worth is based on your body, you will never feel satisfied. If your worth is based on who you are as a person and your higher self, then you'll feel at peace and you'll feel content and you'll feel happy while working on goals without becoming obsessive. Because this is where meditation and connecting to your higher self and focusing on your purpose and your potential and your calling here on earth is so powerful. You are more than your body. So start figuring out what that is. Why is it so important for you to be lean? Why do you stress so much about being smaller? Is it to impress other people? Is it a distraction from something else in your life that you actually don't want to like address? Do you feel like you don't have control in your life? So this is the one area that you can control. Dig deep and figure out why this is such a struggle for you. And I promise it will be life-changing. All right, number five, you might be obsessive if you are constantly comparing yourself to others. Let me tell you, comparison is the thief of joy. I have really come a long way in my journey of comparison. I think honestly, it's part of our humanness to compare ourselves to others as a gauge for how we're doing. Like, am I successful? How's this person doing? Like, I think it's just natural. You actually have to work really hard to let go of that notion. It takes a lot of confidence in yourself and who you are to let go of that comparison game. So if you're truly happy with yourself and who you are, you have no need to compare yourself to someone else. All your accomplishments, all your mental wins, all your progress gets thrown out the window when you start comparing yourself to someone else because you won't feel good enough and you'll always be lacking. You have to compare your best with yourself. You have to look inward and be okay with your own progress. And one of my favorite phrases is the water is greener on the other side because it's fake. You don't see the struggle that the other person's going through. You don't know their personal habits or if they're even happy. Like you have no idea. They could be miserable. You could see someone else that has an amazing body and they could be struggling with body dysmorphia and they could be miserable and not even happy about that amazing body that they have. Or maybe they just eat chicken and broccoli all day and that's not living. I would never want to do that. I don't care how ripped I am, that is not living to me. So focus on how you build a life and habits that do make you happy. I want you to ask yourself, are you really happy where you're at? And what's the cost of your fitness goals? Is it taking away from your family? Do you have that balance? Do you have energy? Do you feel good? Because that's what really matters. I'm here to help in any way that I can. I spend my whole career for the last 12 years trying to break these cycles that women get stuck in so that they can see that there's this whole life out there without these restricted habits. So to recap, we have don't be obsessed with the skill, right? You're gonna weigh yourself only one time a week. We have being able to be with friends and family and at functions without anxiety around food. You're gonna work on going one day without tracking your macros so that you can just see that you can eat intuitively and you'll be fine. You're gonna let go of the notion of always needing to be leaner and leaner and leaner, and you're gonna find that balance that feels good for you, and you are going to stop comparing yourself with others. Even if you just pick one of these things and focus on one thing at a time, that's where I would start. Have such a beautiful week. I hope this helps. I really feel like this is a message that so many women need to hear. So many people get stuck in this trap. I've gotten stuck in it before. I am not, you know, without blame. I've done I've done this before. And so I think that's why it's so important to talk about. If you need help, remember I have my eight-week programs. That's what I specialize in, and I'm here to help in any way that I can. All right, I'll see you guys back here next time. Talk to you later. Thank you for joining us in today's episode. If you liked the content and want to hear more, remember to hit that subscribe button and write a review. As a small business owner, I appreciate it more than you know. If you are looking for a program to help with self-confidence, to lose weight, get in shape, and work on your mental, physical, and emotional health. Check out my training programs on www.body by Brie.com. My team and I help to hold you accountable through the Body Bible app, where you log in to see all your workouts, custom meal plan made specifically for you and your needs, and communication through the messenger. You are never alone when you're on the Body by Bree Training program. Click the link in the show notes to get more information on how to transform your life from the inside out.