Welcome home to your body

Body image. It’s a combination of thoughts and feelings ranging between positive and negative experiences.

There are four aspects of body image

1. Perceptual – the way you see your body
2. Affective – the way you feel about your body
3. Cognitive – the way you think about your body
4. Behavioural – behaviours you engage in because of your body image

Where does your mind sit when you see, feel, think, and engage with your body?

No spring (mock) chicken

I’m not sure about you but as an ageing female body I am constantly sitting and falling off the fence when it comes to the way I see, feel, think, and engage with this body of mine. Currently I am flat out on the floor grappling with a pre-menopausal and greater injury prone body which has me confused, frustrated, annoyed and struggling with acceptance & peace. I’m not 21 anymore.

Upon waking each day, I do my best to welcome myself home to my body, I:

• Wake openly
• Look in the mirror without judgement
• Trust with hope
• Move with kindness

And most importantly accept this is where I am today. Tomorrow might be different; I will just have to wait and see. This is the power of now.

We are all runners

Two words ‘imposter syndrome’. It’s these two words that creates a mindset that has you disconnected with your body. You see, if you run, you are a runner. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far the definition of a runner is simply – a person who runs for sports or pleasure.

The runners body. What does it look like? YOU, it looks like you.

Do you remember running as a child, the freedom felt by just running around the school yard, down the street and in nature? Then we started to grow up and become body aware, more self-conscious and it was this mindset that changed everything.  We suddenly lost our ability to run free, to run with no excuses and to run for fun.

Whether you’re a weekend warrior or competitive beast having a relaxed mindset and trust in your body is key to finding your success in both training and on race day. Your body will not always play nice and as frustrating and disheartening this can be, there are also many lessons to be learnt.

As I say to all my athletes ‘there are no failures, only learnings’.

Five fun facts about the runner’s body:

1. Each step you run consumes movement from 200 muscles
2. Doing high knees and heel flicks are more effective than stretching in preparing muscles for a run
3. Even for at least 30 minutes daily, running shows proven health benefits
4. Endurance running enhances your nervous system
5. The ‘runner’s knee’ is considered as the most common injury in running

Body acceptance

We encourage you to treat your body with continued respect, listen with intent and wake each day with a positive self-acceptance of the beautifully strong powerhouse you train every day.

You are 100% human powered, plant-powered even and this is your superpower that gets to shine each day. How cool is that?

About Amanda

Amanda is a plant-based run coach who takes a holistic approach to training. All training plans are centred around:

• Consistency⁠
• Speed⁠
• Easy runs⁠
• Load management ⁠
• Injury prevention⁠
• Satisfaction⁠
• Kindness⁠

To learn about the Planted Runner Coaching packages available click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

⁠