Give Yourself More Through Movement with K. Aleisha Fetters

Embracing movement as true self-care hinges on seeking it for your own benefit. This means doing it for the right reasons. That’s why episode 39 of The Positively Living Podcast is about giving ourselves MORE through movement!

This episode of The Positively Living Podcast with K. Aleisha Fetters is going to help you evaluate your current relationship with exercise and movement so you can rediscover the joy in it that we often lose through unrealistic fitness goals.

Is exercise something you can’t live without or a dirty word to you? What about movement? Or does that feel like I’m tricking you? Semantics aside, today’s episode is going to help you evaluate your current relationship with exercise and movement so you can rediscover the joy in it that we often lose through unrealistic fitness goals. It’s time to give ourselves MORE through movement.

If you want to be more productive, simplify your life, reduce stress, and feel encouraged as you develop new habits and tackle projects, then I personally invite you to join the Positively Living Membership Community. For a Netflix-level investment of $11/mo (or $120/yr) you’ll receive access to exclusive content like live guest Q&As, custom workshops, and co-working sessions.

Today I welcome Aleisha Fetters to the Positively Living Podcast. K. Aleisha Fetters, MS, CSCS, is an internationally syndicated journalist and certified strength and conditioning specialist who believes that physical health is inseparable from mental and emotional health. Her work has been featured in TIME, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Runner’s World, SELF, VICE, U.S. News & World Report, and O, The Oprah Magazine. She is regularly interviewed as a fitness expert for LIVESTRONG, SHAPE, Food Network, and Lifehacker. Her works include Give Yourself MORE and Fitness Hacks for Over 50. You can usually find her in workout clothes and cat hair.

Aleisha and I met through her co-author of Give Yourself More, Georgie Fear, my guest on Episode 28. With Georgie, we covered the six areas of their book that help you reach your weight-loss goals by seeking more. Sounds counterintuitive, right? It’s a wonderful reframe of how we are constantly seeking to be “less” when it comes to getting healthy and losing weight — I mean “losing” is right there in the phrase. This focus on less plays negatively on our wellbeing. So how do we find a way toward our goals without falling into that trap? By wanting the best for ourselves and acting with our best interests in mind. That’s where the “more” comes in and today, Aleisha is helping us focus on one in particular – movement.

In their book, Aleisha and Georgie talk about embracing movement as true self-care, which hinges on seeking it for your own benefit. This means doing it for the right reasons. What are those reasons? We cover a long list in this conversation with the majority connecting to mental and emotional health. Physical strength and mental strength go hand in hand. And while you can absolutely include looking better in your fitness goals, it’s important to consider the functional too. Movement can lift our spirits, help our balance and coordination, and make us feel proud, confident, and focused. It reduces our stress levels by taking cortisol (the stress hormone) down and bumping up the endorphins (the happy hormones). It increases our self-awareness. We sleep better, perform better, just plain show up better.

While all these are great reasons to do it, I understand as a habits coach that benefits aren’t enough to take action. So Aleisha and I also discuss how much exercise — what she calls “intentional movement” you need each day — and it’s not as much as you might think. Add to that the simple variations and options to accomplish it and you might be surprised how simple it can be to integrate movement into your day. We also talk about what you can do at home. This is helpful when we are limited by availability (which is what happened during the COVID pandemic) or by funds or preferences. Aleisha asserts that you can achieve the fitness you want without ever going to a gym.

If you are ready to move more, but unsure where to start, I recommend connecting with Aleisha at www.kaleishafetters.com or finding her on the app Trainercize, which was one of the resources she recommends for finding trainers.

At this point I am dying to make a joke about putting the FUN back in FUNCTIONAL, but I need you to stay with me.

You are going to love Aleisha and her encouraging energy. She does talk a lot about how exercise IS supposed to be fun but she tells us how to do that. She has me fired up to move more and I bet she’ll do the same for you.

Thank you for listening! Be sure to tune in to all the episodes to receive tons of practical tips to create space for what really matters in your life

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