Fitness From The Ego To The Heart

I’ve been sharing insights and teachings about holistic health and fitness for 20 years. What I’m seeing now is a resurgence of people who are really excited to learn how to get healthy. This is exciting to me because there’s a new energy to it. It feels curious and childlike.

In the past we’d will ourselves to exercise and punish ourselves if we ate something we deemed bad or feel guity if we didn’t work it off in the gym.

Now I’m seeing that mentality fad away…

and more people are gravitating towards a healthier mindset as it relates to their fitness and nutrition. A more balanced mindset. They’re being led from their heart instead of their ego and I think thats so beautiful.

Much of my work over the years has been helping people find the joy in their fitness routine and witness how miraculous their body really is. That’s what my book, Finally Thriving is all about.

I’ve always loved sharing natural ways to get healthy. Holistic health principles that support your body in healing and regeneration. Tools that are accessible and simple.

Today’s no different.

As I’ve gone through my own personal hormonal changes during menopause…

I’ve had lots of women ask me what I’m doing and how they can support their body through this phase in their life.

They share with me that they’re frustrated because all they’re seeing about menopause is related to hormonal therapy. As if that’s our only option. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do hormonal therapy but so many women are craving an alternative.

Mostly what’s talked about is how to combat hormonal changes physiologically (which is important) but what’s not talked about as much is the emotional rite of passage we go through during this time. I’ve noticed women who tend to suppress their emotions over the years have more physical symptoms generally.

Why are we suppressing our emotions?

We’ve missed the boat on feeling our emotions because so often we’re directed to figure out our emotions. This turns an emotion into a thought which keeps it on the mental plane. Emotions are meant to be felt not intellectualized because they’re stored in the body not the brain so the solution is to be with them so that your emotions can move through.

We

I’ve had my challenges personally with menopause too and what I want to share with you is there’s always something you can do to support your body. It’s a matter of patience and attention. So going through menopause has taught me to go deeper into my own self care and value me.

To explore what I’m feeling and lean into a deeper state of self acceptance.

Taking care of yourself on a deeper level…

teaches you to be present with your body and directs your focus continually to what matters most. I don’t know about you but menopause really made me pay attention to what my body needed even more. It wasn’t a signal I could bypass even if I wanted to.

So how do we do this? First, do your best NOT to fight it. I know hot flashes are uncomfortable and sometimes they come at the most inappropriate times but it’s an energy that is moving through your body and like emotions if you try to suppress your symptoms they will amplify.

What we want to do…

is be present with our body and respond proactively by supporting our body with what it needs. Be there for your body unconditionally.

This will also teach you how to love yourself because you’re practicing presence with your body and with yourself. This is a really big deal. To be able to support your body with the right nutrition, rest, hydration, movement and emotional regulation and honesty.

I go into these hormonal changes in my latest Youtube video, Menopause Doesn't Have To Suck. I share that when you make the switch from estradiol to estrone. Estrogen stops getting produced in your ovaries and now it’s being produced in your adrenals and adipose tissue (fat cells).

What does this mean? You’re way more sensitive to stress now. So that’s why it’s so important to tune into your body and support it smarter not harder.

Check out my video below!

https://youtu.be/ouLWR9Vc3Hg?si=GMLXoztqtmXnwN6z

In health and happiness,

Allison Pelot

Create A Beautiful Body With Accountability

I think accountability, which is the act of being responsible for one’s self, is a practice and depending on where we start and how well we know ourselves, it’s a process.

According to Brene Brown accountability is connected to courage. She explains since accountability opposes blame, we can see how not having accountability can keep us in a victimhood state of mind. One that paralyzes us and keeps us in shame without being able to move forward and find resolution.

I’ve gone through this myself and with many of my clients. Accountability is hard and most of the time we need someone to walk us through it if we’re not sure where to start.

The most uncomfortable part is finding the courage to be honest with yourself about what is or isn’t working. I’ve been in denial about what’s not working more times than I can count. Sometimes it takes a little push from the people who care about me most, but when I can be honest with myself and begin to take steps toward what could work, I find my life shifts into alignment.

When you stop hustling and guessing you can begin to make decisions that are based on your values. When you give yourself space to slow down and to reflect then you’re better able to make decisions from a place of awareness rather than not.

Coming from this place of awareness is incredibly helpful in shaping a foundational plan that’s based on your values (not someone else’s)

You no longer have to guess, self criticize or get frustrated because things aren’t working. Instead you come from a place of knowing what works and what doesn’t so that you can start moving toward your goal.

But you’ll never know this unless you look at what you’re doing first.

You most likely will make mistakes, but it’s a learning process. If we can avoid attaching ourselves to the shame of messing up and instead realize that messing up is part of the process of learning, our experience can be way more impactful.

Moving forward with courage instead of shame and blame is the first step in holding yourself accountable and trusting yourself again.

Accountability Tools For Success

You don’t even have to participate in extreme dieting tactics if you don’t want to. All you have to do is become aware of how much you take in in relation to how much you move. It’s that simple.

Some people are not taking in enough and some are taking in too much without getting enough movement to offset the calorie intake. Some people are eating too much in one sitting and could benefit from splitting the bigger meals up and spreading them out throughout the day.

What Your tools Will help you see:

• Your macronutrients ratios and discover what works best

• What vitamins and minerals you’re getting and which ones you may not be getting enough of.

• Your food patterns - if you’re eating too much in one sitting or not eating enough.

• If you’re eating low quality foods you’ll quickly discover that you’ll not be satisfied with your normal calorie intake.

Tools I Use:

Cronometer - A food logging app. It tracks calorie intake and compares it to how much movement you’re getting each day. This app helps you discover how much you’re taking in comparing to how much you’re expending. Cronometer integrates with Fitbit and offers a paid option of splitting your meals so you can see how much you are eating at each meal. I find this to be incredibly helpful to know.

Fitbit - tracks; hours of sleep, gives you your weekly average weight, daily water intake and movement

Note: If your goal is to lose weight, You want to take your weight everyday first thing in the morning with the same scale. Then take the weekly average. That way you will see a true measure of weight rather than the day to day fluctuation (because you will fluctuate depending on the time of day and where you are in your cycle)

Temp and pulse - Use your temperature and pulse readings to find out how your metabolism is functioning and responding to changes you are making.

Mood - Your mood will always give you an indication of how your physiology is working. It will also tell you if you’re not getting enough energy or if you have tons of energy.

If you want to learn more about how I teach my clients to build a foundation of fitness and nutrition so they can live the life they love in the body they love contact me today for a free 30 minute consultation.

My New Years Reflection; What We Make Other People

It's not the New Years resolutions that are the problem, it's that what we think we're resolving is not really what needs to be resolved.  Reflection of self has to happen first before anything can be resolved.  Will power has nothing to do with it.  In fact, using will power to push through something you really don't want to do is not only unhealthy, it can be potentially damaging to the physical body.  It distracts us from something deeper that's calling out to us for attention.  When we ignore this call, resistance is created and then failure of not following through comes next.  This could be why so many people only make it a few weeks.

My inner resolution has been not making other people into who I want them to be.  I realized that we simply cannot allow ourselves to be who we truly are if we make other people into who we want them to be.  This was my issue, I wasn't allowing myself to be who I was thus, not allowing others to disappoint, amaze and confuse me and be who they are.  Whether I was putting other people on a pedestal (which I've done many times) or putting myself above another person or becoming the authority of another;  all are equally destructive.

We give our power away when we make other people into who we want them to be despite the fact that they may not be anything close to the version we see them as.  This not only puts pressure on the person you're setting conditional expectations on, you're setting yourself up for failure simply because you'll always be disappointed by the outcome.  I've also been on the other side of it, trying to be what people want me to be and that's just as destructive.

So as the quote mentions above, we start with our relationship with our self.  This kind of perspective can be healing in a time of confusion and uncertainty.  The practice of living life in a more unconditional way (maintaining a positive or aware disposition despite how your environment changes) is how I've been able to find true peace from within.  Looking at each person I come in contact with as a mirror for myself.

Through the practice of reflection (getting still or slowing down), movement, meditation, returning (teaching) and integrating I've helped myself come out of some dark places and returned to the light and passion that keeps me childlike and curious.  My hope for this year is that I can continue to get closer to what's true for me, what I'm passionate about and express this you all in way that uplifts, heals and may cause you to reflect, return and integrate more of yourself.