I spent a long time over exercising and pushing my body through pain. I would force myself to exercise so I could “earn” food to eat that day, and I only exercised to control my weight.
In fact, exercising for weight loss was all I ever knew. I didn’t know there were other benefits to exercising. It was only during my recovery from an eating disorder and exercise addiction, that I learnt that exercise has all these other amazing benefits.
Learning this transformed my whole relationship to exercise from a place of hate, guilt, fear, and shame to one of joy. And now I only exercise in ways that I enjoy, and my focus is on how it makes me feel, and not my weight.
So today I wanted to share with you 15 benefits of exercise that have absolutely nothing to do with weight loss, so that you can transform your relationship to exercise too.
Exercise for nourishment, not punishment.
Exercise is a form of nourishment for the mind and body. It reduces stress, increases relaxation, boosts our energy levels, helps us sleep, and it makes us feel good! Most importantly, exercise makes us healthier, stronger, and happier. It can also help prevent cancer, heart disease and diabetes. The more we exercise, the more creative, productive, and resilient we are.
15 benefits of exercise that aren't about weight loss.
1. Increases bone strength
2. Decreases stress.
3. Decreases blood pressure
4. Reduces your risk of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and some cancers.
5. Increases heart and lung strength.
6. Increases mood.
7. Improves satiety cues and appetite regulation.
8. Improves learning and memory.
9. Prevents cognitive decline with ageing.
10. Increases energy.
11. Makes us feel good
12. Decreases mortality by 33%
13. It alleviates long-term depression by increasing serotonin levels.
14. Fuels the brain’s stress buffers, making us feel less stressed immediately after exercising, as well as helping us cope with future life stressors.
15. Increases our resilience to emotional stress, especially to those who have suffered trauma, as it decreases the lasting, damaging effects of traumatic experiences.
The BIG exercise myth.
There is also a misconception that exercise must be intense and hard work for it to “count”, but this is not true. We reap the same health benefits from any type of regular movement as we do from higher intensity workouts. And yep that includes hoovering, walking to the shops, and dancing around your living room!
Exercise shouldn’t be hard work, it is about feeling good, and doing it in a way that works for you and your lifestyle, and most importantly, it should be enjoyable.
If you are struggling with this at the moment, I want you to know that you don’t have to punish yourself in the gym anymore, you don’t have to do exercises that you hate, and you don’t even have to do structured exercise if that doesn’t work for you! All movement, no matter how small, short, or intense- it all counts.
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