EP 79 – Movement for Functionality – Kimberly’s Story
Show Notes
In this episode, we are joined by Kimberly, a virtual personal training client of mine.
Kimberly had been doing great work with another coach around her relationship to food and body image, but was having difficulty engaging in movement without focusing on calorie burning or body shaping.
In the past, Kimberly had participated in extreme exercise behaviour, very much focused on aesthetics and weight, and had also been exposed to some harsh and demeaning training methods – all leaving her feeling really stuck and uncertain about how to exercise.
Kimberly wanted to improve her functional fitness and core strength, and knew she needed support to make sure she did so in a healthy and respectful way. Inside she’ll share what’s changed for her now that she’s improved her relationship with movement.
Mentioned in the show:
Virtual Personal Training: learn more about how I can support you with your movement goals AND relationship with exercise on my website www.radiantvitality.ca/programs
If you’re a non diet coach
who has clients that would benefit from my personal training services, I offer a 20% affiliate commission. Contact me via email hello@radiantvitality.ca to enquire.
About the Host
Kim Hagle is a certified Personal Trainer, Body Image Coach, mom of four and founder of Radiant Vitality Wellness. Through mindset coaching and intuitive movement and eating, Kim helps women go beyond the desire to lose weight so they can feel healthy and confident in their now body.
Want to feel good in your body without focusing on weight.
Download “5 Steps to Feeling Healthy, Happy and Confident (without obsessing over the scale)” – our FREE guide that will help get started with the non-diet approach. Inside you’ll learn 5 simple shifts to feeling better in your NOW body! www.radiantvitality.ca/freeguide
Ready to take the next step?
Visit our website to learn more about our coaching programs www.radiantvitality.ca/programs
For health professionals looking to adopt the non-diet approach in your business,
visit Kim’s mentor, Stephanie Dodier’s site for free resources to get started. https://www.stephaniedodier.com
Let’s stay in touch!
Kim is on Instagram and Facebook @radiantvitalitywellness. Or visit her website at www.radiantvitality.ca
Disclaimer.
The information contained in this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always consult a health care professional about your unique need
Full Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, Hey friends, and welcome back to the joyful movement show. This is episode 79 and I’m your host, Kim Hagle certified personal trainer and body image coach. And today we’re joined by a special guest. Her name is Kimberly, and I know you’re going to really enjoy her story.
[00:00:16] Kimberly is a virtual personal training client of mine. Meaning we meet over zoom because she actually lives in another country from me. And she’ll share with you how hesitant she was to try virtual personal training, because she really didn’t think it would work when we couldn’t be face-to-face, but she’s been pleasantly surprised.
[00:00:34] Kimberly we’ll share her story with you about her past history with exercise, which was very extreme and a hundred percent focused on aesthetics and body shaping.
[00:00:44] She’s been doing a lot of work on herself in terms of her body image and her relationship to food through my mentor, Stephanie Dodier’s coaching program. She’s gotten to a really great place where food is just food and she no longer believes that food has any morality. She eats what she likes and makes her feel good, without worry about whether it’s a good food or not. And she’s speaking to herself with kindness, knowing that she’s more than a body. She’s making peace with what she sees in the mirror, knowing that she’s worthy of love and respect, no matter what.
[00:01:16] So that’s been amazing. But she’s had. Had this hangup around movement. And when you hear her story, you’ll know why. Combined with her disordered exercise habits and some really unkind training methods she’d been exposed to, she undoubtedly was a little gun shy to get moving again. So she felt really stuck. She knew that she wanted to get moving and really wanted to improve the functionality of her muscles and her core strength. But she didn’t know how to do it without all the no pain, no gain talk, or without focusing on weight loss or body shaping.
[00:01:50] So, Stephanie send her my way, which by the way, if you’re a non diet coach of any kind listening to this and you have clients in a similar situation that need a weight neutral personal trainer to help them get moving, while working on their relationship with moving, I do have an affiliate program. So I pay a commission for referrals like this, just an FYI. So Stephanie send her my way. And we’ve been working on these exact things.
[00:02:16] Inside, you’ll hear Kimberly share about what’s changed in her relationship to movement and in her functional and core strength, as well as some of the other ways her life has changed as a result of all this great work that she’s done. It’s a really inspiring interview and I know you’ll enjoy getting to know Kimberly.
[00:02:32] Kim: Well, Hey there, Kim. Welcome to the joyful movement show. I’m so excited to have you here today.
[00:02:37] Kimberly: Well, thank you, Kim. I’m glad to be asked to be here.
[00:02:41] Kim: Well, it’s truly my pleasure. So I was telling a little bit about you in the introduction, but why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and what things were like for you before we met.
[00:02:54] Kimberly: Sure. Well, um, hi, I’m Kimberly and, uh, well, before we met, um, a lot has happened before we met, um, transitioning. I moved, uh, and left the area for where I was. Pretty much. I lived my entire life relocated and was kind of struggling and trying to figure out how to maintain those social and as well as routines and part of that was working out.
[00:03:23] Um, and you know, prior to that, you know, as you and I were brought together, Working out has been such a constant in my life. And I was thinking about this when you asked me to talk, I was like, you know, what was it like in my life when it comes to my working out and my health and where did I start this interesting path down this world of health and wellness and so forth.
[00:03:57] And I remember, I went away to camp summer camp one year, I think it was 13. And I come from a home where I have a loving parents. Um, but you know, they put you their own values on you, guess you can say and eating was something that was, seemed to be like, don’t be over over-indulgent because they saw the, the exterior of it, not the health.
[00:04:24] And so going away camp, I remember. Being like free. And this was a summer camp where I was gone for six weeks and I would eat ice cream from the local ice cream shop. Like pretty much every day I ate where I want pizza every night. It was like, I was finally like, I had this, this, this release, but I gained a lot of weight.
[00:04:51] Okay. So by the time I came home, I was much heavier. And that was the first time I was put on a diet and workout program where I had to go do working out and I would do that on a weekly basis. And that really started that, that initial relationship with my body and working out and eating and correlating those three together.
[00:05:18] When to, you know, uh, weight loss programs and did all that. And I remember that the catalyst for it was this going away to camp because I was always athletic. I swam, I was a swimmer, I was a competitive swimmer. Um, but I just did not. When I was out of sight, out of mind with my parents, I just felt free to eat what I want. And. And that really began this spiral that I feel like I’ve been trying to figure out for the remainder of my, my life so far.
[00:05:56] And so when you and I met, you know, I, I was doing this, you know, I’ve been working on myself with twice on my, um, mindset work and, and really understanding cognitive behavior and working through my thoughts and how I have had this mindset around my body and eating and putting value to that, to a point where I could no longer work out. I didn’t have that same interest in working out. I was afraid of working out cause I was correlating, what am I working out because I enjoy it or am my working out because of, it’s a part of me trying to, to, to manipulate my body, to get back into a smaller size. Because over the pandemic, um, I had gained weight. And a lot of it was stressed. I mean, we all had our own ways of relieving stress and in my way of relieving stress, it was really caused weight gain.
[00:07:01] And having to kind of go back to, like, I felt like I was going back to square one where I did all this work. I lost all this weight. I had this workout routine. I was very, you know, fit in my mind and now I’m back to square one and I didn’t know what to do. And so working through that. Um, and understanding my relationship with food and recognizing that food is just food and not a value statement. I then had to, to navigate well, looking at myself in the mirror and being comfortable, seeing what I’m seeing.
[00:07:33] How do you correlate that back to being physical?
[00:07:39] Kim: Wow. Thank you so much for sharing your story. And I know that lots of people could relate to that. And, um, the first thing that jumped out to me was, you know, it was around the age of 12 when all of this started for you. And I think that’s a very common age for almost all of us who struggle with our relationship to food or body image on some way.
[00:07:59] That seems to be the age when we internalize messages that we hear about our body. As you say that experience at summer camp gave you a glimpse of what it is to be an intuitive eater and an intuitive mover. And you just like were able to eat and be athletic and have fun and not worry about how those things affected your body.
[00:08:21] But then returning back home and then weight gain had happened in that meant something to the people that you associated with. And then it started to mean something about you or you internalized it to mean something about you. So they’re in begins the lifelong battle of trying to control the body and find your worth inside a certain size and shape.
[00:08:40] And yeah. And so, so you started to peel back the layers of how dieting had affected you. And so you’re gradually undieting your life and looking at your relationship to food and looking at what you see in the mirror and what you’re making those images of yourself mean about you. And like most people exercise is the next step, right? It’s like, how do I engage with exercise now that I have un-dieted my mindset? What do I believe about exercise?
[00:09:11] Kimberly: Right. And I mean, here’s the thing. I always enjoyed working out, I mean, I was a swimmer, so swimming, I loved and, you know, I really enjoyed it. And so going from that to like now working out, it’s more of a regiment. And I, you know, I shared, you know, a few years ago, I was at my apex, right? I was at this, what they will say “ideal” weight and size, and I was working out at least three to four hours a day.
[00:09:43] Kim: Wow.
[00:09:44] Kimberly: So I will get up in the morning, get up at four 30 in the morning. Go work out, take a couple workout classes, go to work, come back and work out that evening. Wow. And I will do that almost seven days a week.
[00:09:58] Kim: And you were praised for it too.
[00:10:01] Kimberly: Oh, well, yes, because as you can see, I had muscle. That was a smaller, I was definitely more defined and I was like, I was losing the weight, but I wasn’t really losing weight. What I was doing is I was burning muscle. Um, and, and so there was a point where things in my life transition where I did not have the luxury of time to do four or five hour workouts.
[00:10:29] And I was eating like pretty much when I look at what I was eating then, I would say that that’s even a snack worthy of a snack. It was just like minuscule of food. And I was eating that and I was like, so that was in my mind, I was nourishing.
[00:10:44] Um, and. I worked out and I injured myself. I had multiple injuries, you know, it was a sprained ankle. I had a, uh, rotator cuff injury all because I wasn’t doing the maintenance part of working out, which is the functionality part of working out. I was just focused on. Doing whatever I can to get to the extreme weight loss and, um,
[00:11:09] Kim: Plus that’s a lot of activity like that’s over-training really like four or five hours a day that’s over-training.
[00:11:14] And that really does increase your risk of activity combined with underfeeding. And it’s a recipe for that
[00:11:21] Kimberly: It’s a recipe.. I mean, I lost a hundred pounds. I was, you know, I, you know, probably smaller than I ever been. But it was also that pressure and that felt like if I didn’t do it, I was failing someone. I was not living up to that. That you know, you’re not being dedicated, the determination and discipline, you know, the three DS I, you know. I just felt like at some point, and then I ended up at a time I couldn’t do it anymore. I left that place and then I was stuck and I was like, I don’t know what to do. And so I kind of like was wandering and then I found another location, other gym to where I was able to, um, I felt more in line with what I was in my mind at that time.
[00:12:10] And they were talking about functionality of maintenance and doing things in a way that’s more. But then I realized this became a regimen too. I was going into that space. Now mind you, if you’re really talking about movement, movement should not be painful and it should not be stressful. And I was getting both of those.
[00:12:32] I was coming into a space. Where I felt like if I wasn’t perfect in my movement, then I was going to be chastised. If I didn’t do my maintenance, I was going to be chastised. And there was a point where I had an injury and I modified working my workout because I couldn’t do static or dynamic, um, runs. And so you mean that coach, you know, had some words and I ended up leaving the gym because I was, like, I have enough stress at work. I don’t need to wake up in the morning, coming into a space of stress. And that just spiraled me into more of a, I want to do this, but am I doing this? And I’m working on myself, I’m trying to understand my thoughts. I’m trying to understand my relationship or food. And then I have this extra component. That I don’t know where it fits in.
[00:13:31] Kim: Yeah, like suffice to say with, with all of the history that you’re sharing with us here today, suffice to say your relationship with exercise was pretty loaded, pretty loaded, right? Like there were a lot of messages received. There was over-training going on. There was no pain, no gain mentality.
[00:13:46] There was a like superiority complexes, I think with coaches telling you that you weren’t doing things right or not good enough, and that you’d be berated and chastised, if you didn’t do it their way on their schedule and their timeline. So no wonder you’re a little hesitant to return to the world of movement as you’re unpacking all of these beliefs that you have about health and weight and yourself.
[00:14:08] Kimberly: Yeah. Yeah. It is a lot.
[00:14:14] Kim: It’s a lot and you’re not alone. Like this is, this is pretty common. Unfortunately, the fitness industry does a really great job of alienating people, which is the exact opposite effect fact that we shouldn’t be having.
[00:14:25] Kimberly: And here’s the funny part about it. So I’m doing this work around eating right, intuitive eating, understanding that really accepting, embracing that, that mindset. And I’m then I’m reality is, none of my clothes fit. I look at my body. It’s not what I want to look like in the sense of, of what I’ve, I’m going to use the term quote loss. It’s not a loss, but that’s how sometimes you’re seeing it. And, I’m going back to default, but what I know, okay. I know I can’t use food as my default body shaping .
[00:15:04] Now I’m going to go to working out as my default for body shaping. And I saw myself going down that path of, oh, I got to go back into the gym. I got to go workout. I need to start running. I need to start doing this because I was trying to pretend that I wasn’t body shaping myself because I was just want to be active.
[00:15:28] Right. We want to have active lifestyle.
[00:15:30] Kim: Yes. It’s funny. The tricks our brain can play on us. Right. Like when we start to unpack all of this and we think, okay, I know that dieting doesn’t work for me anymore. And yet still I haven’t fully healed my body image. So I do still desire to look different, maybe exercise is the way to get that.
[00:15:47] And, you know, but I’m just going to call it being active and moving my body, but I’m still hopeful. Right. And I think that’s a very common pitfall of the fitness industry and where we have some really sneaky messaging within the industry where we promise such things.
[00:16:00] So, okay. So with all of that said, it sounds like you were, you had enough awareness to know that you, you really didn’t want to go down that path again, where you were tying your worth to how you looked and exercising so many hours a day and being shamed and blamed.
[00:16:21] So, what were you looking for? What prompted you to kind of look into personal training?
[00:16:27] Kimberly: Yeah, so I was working with another coach about my mindset and they noticed that I was not in the same office that I was in previously. And I said, oh yeah, I moved. I left. And they’re like what? I said, yeah. I moved out of town. I left and I relocated. I think I found a job that I really wanted to work at. And I, then I started talking about things that I started doing and I was like, you know, but I still have a nut to crack. I need to figure out how to get my body functioning again in a way that I can incorporate some structural workouts that I’m not thinking about it from a standpoint of my body, but thinking by, from the standpoint of my health. Because I did realize that I was achy, you know, my hips are out of alignment, you know, I not stretching properly. I’m not doing it. So I did know there was some affects to not working out.
[00:17:29] And I needed to have someone to kind of guide me back in and more guiding, not dictating, or like I’m not using, you know, working out, especially with you. It’s more like a, it’s a way of reteaching and relearning and just kind of re affirming the principles I always knew was there, but I had like all these pressures put on me.
[00:17:51] And so, when we had connected, I think I was very clear, like here’s my past trauma around working out. And I attempt to, even prior to you finding a home gym where I’m at now, where I was like, here are my traumas that I had experienced working out. I don’t want to trigger those. And I started getting triggered and I left.
[00:18:15] And when I walked out that door and didn’t look back- I knew I was finally understanding and grasping my mindset around working out. And I said, no, this is not, uh, this is not healthy for me. And I didn’t go down the pathway. Well, let me see what happened next week. Or maybe if I do this differently, maybe I, you know, I, I knew immediately I saw warning signs of triggers and that’s when I came working to you to, and you recognize that immediately.
[00:18:49] Kim: Oh, well, thank you. That’s very kind of you to say. Can you, not to point fingers at anyone, but can you give some examples of those triggers and those red flags that you noticed? And good for you for like acknowledging yourself, and just saying, no, this isn’t going to work for me and just saying, no, not trying to justify it or think it’s gonna get better. You stood up for yourself.
[00:19:09] But I’m curious to know what those red flags were, not so much to point fingers, but just for our listeners or for fitpros who are listening to go, how are these messages being heard and received on the other end?
[00:19:20] Kimberly: Right. So, so here’s the thing working out. Shouldn’t be painful, period.
[00:19:28] Kim: I agree.
[00:19:29] Kimberly: It shouldn’t be. I have a really good friend say to me, there’s always a workout to accomplish the task. So, if you don’t want to do burpees, you don’t have to do burpees. There’s something else that can do the same exact workout to work the same muscles that a burpee does, or you can do something, modify whatever there’s, there are different workouts that you can do to get to the same to attack the same problem. You shouldn’t feel the pressures of having to do X, you know, do that if you don’t feel comfortable.
[00:20:03] And so it was like literally, we were a group. And we had to hold hands around the circle and I’m sorry, it was COVID so we don’t want to hold anyone’s hand, but I got lathered up in some hand sanitizer and held the hands. And we had to squat and not move out of squat for like a minute.
[00:20:30] Kim: Oh,
[00:20:31] Kimberly: and if anyone comes up, we’d have to redo it again.
[00:20:36] Kim: Oh,
[00:20:37] Kimberly: and this is like after the end of the workout. Right. And the whole idea is supposed to be team building. And I literally took the hand, the gentleman that was, I was holding it with all my strength I had. I kept him held down because I can see, he was trying to like, he was, his strength was trying to break and he was trying to get up and I literally was holding him down with the shank of my arm.
[00:21:01] Kim: Cause you didn’t want to start that all over again.
[00:21:03] Kimberly: Nobody wanted to start over, right. Oh, that was the first sign of like, why are we doing this? This is I haven’t worked out in three months. So I don’t have the stamina build up to sit around and hold it in a circle.
[00:21:17] And plus, you know, I know how to do proper posturing to squat, so I don’t start to struggle, but that’s a training that you, you, someone teaches you how to do not is inate. But the final straw was we were doing a strength class and we were doing bench presses and I had added more weight and I know my max number. And so I added some more weight and I got to a point where I knew I couldn’t hit that max rep because of the weight that I had. And so I want to put the weights down and the trainer came over and grabbed the bar and said, no, you’re not. And start assisting me, with pushing up the weight, even though my body has signal you’re done .That was, I got off and got up from that, from that workout, once that happened and I stopped and I left.
[00:22:17] Kim: How did you feel?
[00:22:19] Kimberly: Angry?
[00:22:22] Kim: Well, you know what angry is a powerful emotion and that just speaks to the work that you’ve done. Like where previously, maybe you would have felt embarrassed or ashamed.
[00:22:31] Kimberly: I wouldn’t even felt embarrassed or ashamed. I would probably previously felt more, um, Like, I feel like I disappointed a bit more.
[00:22:42] Like I disappointed the trainer because I couldn’t do it. But this time I felt angry because I said I was very clear upfront when I started the place. These are triggers for me. And in their mind, they’re like, well, we know you are strong. You have that strength. You can see your strength. We, I know you could do more.
[00:23:03] It doesn’t matter if I could or couldn’t at that moment. My body said stop.
[00:23:09] Kim: Yes. And that’s, that’s the thing. I mean, I’m always preaching this, is that just because somebody can do more doesn’t mean that they should. Right?, like every workout doesn’t have to be a progression from the one previously. It doesn’t have to be a PR every time we have the opportunity to listen to our body and show up as we are in every workout.
[00:23:30] And even if you don’t lift a weight, it’s still a productive movement session.
[00:23:35] Kimberly: Yeah. And it’s about functionality. And I think working out with you and, you know, I was very apprehensive about creating space in my house for working out. And I think as you and I started building this relationship around, you know, how I look at my space, you know, as you know, I got very excited about building out my, my dedicated space to working out.
[00:24:03] And it’s more because I looked at it with a joy and not with an obligation. And it’s like, I now have dedicated space in my room where I can go in and I can meditate. I can lay down. I can lift my weights or I can ride my bike or I can jump on my trampoline or I can do some yoga moves and I can it’s it’s place where I can do all those things that I don’t have to leave my house to do. So now I’m not having to worry about the outside world having influence. It says it brings me joy. Right. And that’s all I wanted.
[00:24:42] Kim: Yeah. So would you say that you have started to find some joy in movement again?
[00:24:48] Kimberly: Oh, definitely.
[00:24:49] You know, I have.
[00:24:51] Kim: Oh, I know! I want you to tell our listener. And by the way, I just want to say her home gym is pinterest worthy folks. Like most of my virtual, personal training clients, I was saying today, like they might have a band and a bottle of vinegar to use as a weight, but you’ve got like, it’s just decked right out! I love it.
[00:25:09] Kimberly: I know. But as I said to you this morning, like all of these at what I have in front of what I have in a space, wasn’t something where I spent thousands of thousands of dollars.
[00:25:19] It was things that I had over time that I collected. And put in boxes because it was kinda like, I didn’t want to touch it or, you know, it had another connotation to it. And so I always had it. It was just, I never utilized it because I would take it to class. You know, my classes require all these bands or all these other things, and then COVID happened and, you know, you build your little mini gyms.
[00:25:45] And so, you know, It took me a long time to convince myself to get a cycling bike, because I used to love cycling before I went through this crazy workout routine. And I, I was kind of concerned that if I bought this cycling bike, would I use it or was it a phase? And I can tell you I was so happy to get it. And when I started getting back on cycling again, I’m just like, yeah, I really liked cycling. Like I did enjoy it. It’s a great 10 minutes, 20 minutes, you know, I haven’t gone past 20 minutes and that’s all I need, you know?
[00:26:22] Kim: Yeah. And we can forget how much we enjoy an activity when we’re so focused on calorie, burning, weight, loss, body shaping, and when our thoughts become so obsessive, we can lose all the enjoyment out of the activity. So yeah, like as you say it takes time like, usually there’s a full stop that has to happen. Where then we reflect and evaluate on what we were doing and what we were believing.
[00:26:46] And then we start to like miss certain things and we work them back in, right. Or you bring that equipment back in that you liked that brought you joy, but now you can do it in a different way that’s not about body shaping it’s about being in your body and having a good time and getting those functional strength goals, that you really are after.
[00:27:06] Kimberly: Yeah, no, I agree. I think it was funny. I used to go through Fitbit watches, like crazy. Cause I was one of those people that could not those things do not last long. I was always so obsessed about how many steps I walked today. Can I beat myself and there’s challenges. And, and, and so I got rid of all that, you know, the heart monitor to see how’s my heart rate. And, you know, am I really burning? How many calories in a burn? I mean, how many times have you heard someone say, how many calories I burned from this class, this class worth it? Cause you know, you burn like a hundred calories, even though that’s not how it really works.
[00:27:46] And, it was funny because I ended up getting a, another smart watch from, and, and honestly, I don’t think I ever used it for anything, but for like looking at the time and looking at it for a message. But I there’s all these other functionalities that are dealing with like steps and. It is nice though -it tells me when I’ve been sitting too long to get up and move. And I think that’s a great reminder.
[00:28:12] Kim: Yes. It’s picking and choosing what works for you. Right. And knowing where your boundaries are. Like, do I need to know how many steps I did in a day? Not really. Cause it’s arbitrary anyways. Do I need to know many how many calories I was burning in a workout? No. Cause as you say. It’s inaccurate. Anyways, it doesn’t tell you anything. But if you’re the type who will work at your desk all day and never get up and never even look up, then having a physical reminder to get up and stretch is probably a good thing. Right. So,
[00:28:36] Kimberly: yeah, it’s all give and take. Right. But I don’t think I would have had the ability to have this on my arm without doing the work I’ve done.
[00:28:47] It’s kind of like advanced, it’s like, you know, beginners, novice, beginners, intermediate, and advanced. And it’s like, I couldn’t get here until I had to go through these other steps. Because having a watch on my arm, wasn’t going to trigger me to look at it from a different standpoint.
[00:29:04] And I’m so happy I was at, I bought clothes that fit, you know, I love how we talk about clothes in a way of it has value to it. Right. And should I get rid of my clothes? Oh, I wouldn’t fit my clothes. I want to get to a size that fit my clothes. And what I, you know, I started saying to people is that: you bought new clothes when you’re smaller, because you couldn’t fit the bigger clothes. So you can’t fit the small clothes. Why do we have this peak smaller size clothes? ill fitting clothes when we are bigger size instead of just finding clothes that fit.
[00:29:41] Kim: Yeah. So, we feel like we only deserve nice new clothes when we’re in our smaller body. And then if we’re in a larger body, it’s like, I got to cram myself into the smaller clothes and I will not spend money on larger clothes, right.
[00:29:54] Kimberly: I don’t have a forum. I can’t afford new clothes, but yet we can’t
[00:29:57] Kim: You could afford it when you were small.
[00:29:59] Kimberly: Right. And I think, and I love when I was talking to someone at a store the other day, and we’re talking about sizes and. I can be a size X to a three X. And she’s like, what I tell women is stop looking at the size and look at the fit. Cause she said all in all, it depends on how a particular item is sewn together or the material or the give. And you can be a size 12 and a size 18 and be perfectly fine with. It has, it’s just a number, right? It doesn’t have value. Doesn’t tell you who you are. It doesn’t tell you about your health indicators.
[00:30:40] You know, I tell my mom all the time, unless the doctor tells me I need to be on high blood pressure medication, cholesterol, or any other, those real, you know, my, my liver is gone bad. I can care less what a BMI or what, uh, uh, uh, a scale says is because of scale. And that, it’s just a moment, a snapshot at that moment in time.
[00:31:02] Kim: Yeah. And even if you had all those conditions, weight is not the be all and end all, but that, that’s a, that’s a separate conversation from today. So, okay. So this is all, this is awesome. So tell me now, now that you you’ve done all this work, you’ve really, really dug into your relationship with exercise and you’ve identified how you want that to look for you.
[00:31:22] What’s different when you show up to move your body now- give me some tangible examples about how it looks different than it used to.
[00:31:29] Kimberly: You know, i, as we get older, it’s different. So I think I look at working out in a much smarter way. I really enjoy the technicality of movement. So I, I really think about like, how am I, how am I bracing? How am I moving? And so I really like to learn more about the inner workings of it, than I think about like, just getting the workout.
[00:31:57] Um, you know, I’ve mentioned my hips a lot. I think, um, we don’t realize how much. If I had strengthened more ahead, it strengthened my hips better in a better way, I wouldn’t have rolled my ankle.
[00:32:09] Um, you know, like things happen because we don’t realize our body is so interconnected. And even though you think about your ankle, ankle sprain being at the bottom of your feet, but my hips play such a, such a major role on how I can lift and how I can bend and how I walk. I Never thought about that. And so now I’m trying to be more, more mindful about being, doing more workouts and stretches around my hip area, in the core, which is all integrated into that as well.
[00:32:47] Kim: Yeah. So what would you say has been your biggest win since we’ve started working together?
[00:32:55] Kimberly: I think my biggest win is when you saying like, wow, you’re strong.
[00:33:00] Kim: You are strong.
[00:33:01] Kimberly: I think it was so funny. It’s like how you say wow, like you did a great job. That to me is wonderful because in my head I’m always like, thinking, am I doing this right? And you know, how can we do this on virtual? It doesn’t really work? But it does, um, with the right lighting. Um, and, um, I just really liked that. I liked the feedback. And I, even the days where I’m kind of like just barely making it, like the positive reinforcements, all is helpful. Yeah, that’s, that’s the best part.
[00:33:35] I think the one thing I have to say, and this is just my, I don’t like working out by myself. And it’s not, and I used to say accountability partner was more, you know, whole you’re accountable. But I think it’s just more having a partner, so you don’t feel like it’s an isolating activity. I think just having your presence, it just makes me do the work just because I enjoy being in that space with others and not just feel like I’m isolated working out.
[00:34:04] Kim: No, and that’s really good awareness. Like we know that having a supportive community around us is one of the most motivating factors for moving our bodies. Right. And whether that is just one person, like a personal trainer or whether that’s a, a fitness class that you go to or a gym or whatever, but like the supportive is the key. So that’s important for you to know about yourself so that if, and when our relationship ends, you know, that you having a community is important to you and you can seek that out.
[00:34:30] Kimberly: Yeah, no, for sure. It’s definitely helpful. Um, but yeah, I just, yeah, that’s what I would say. I mean, I just really enjoy just having that positive space around me. And I work out in the morning. So I’m a morning workout. So this is the first thing I do when I get outta bed. And I’m like, I can’t start my day. I know when I don’t work out, some days I can feel like it’s a drag versus when I do work out.
[00:35:02] Kim: So you’ve noticed how it helps your energy level and your mood?
[00:35:04] Kimberly: Energy and mental. Yeah.
[00:35:07] Kim: Yeah. In terms of your functional fitness goals. So you’ve learned that you don’t have to work out for four hours a day to make progress, but how would you rate your progress working out, you know, just 45 minutes. Twice a week.
[00:35:19] Kimberly: Yeah. So we’ve been now working out for about six weeks, I would say.
[00:35:24] And I’ve seen a progress. I remember, I think I first did a pushup. It was, it was like a struggle bus pushup. It was true. I was trying. I was like, okay. I think I remember. And, um, I mean, now I remember when we were doing this morning, I was just like, I could keep going. I slowed down and I kind of like modify a little bit, but I felt like the fatigue coming, but it was like, I could keep going.
[00:35:51] And then I feel like it was the way of the world and my back. So that was cool.
[00:35:55] Kim: Yeah. Yeah. Your strength is improved greatly, right? And that’s just meeting together twice a week for 45 minutes. I know that you’re doing other things on your own, but nothing anywhere near four hours a day.
[00:36:07] Kimberly: Oh no, but what I’m doing is stretching. like I’m not like taking workout classes. And that’s the thing, like in the short period of time, these were functions and muscles that were just needing some tune up. It was always there. It’s just, when you don’t do it often enough, it just, you know, it’s just kind of gets rusty. But it was like 45 minutes is all we do. And I think outside me one or two extra days, I don’t really do a lot of working out outside of that. Other then walking around. So it’s just building on that and just be more intentional
[00:36:44] Kim: yes. Intention is huge, right? You don’t need to put a lot of time in, at the gym to get results. You just need to be clear on what your goals are and then target specific exercises and muscles to get there. And like you say, that strength was in you. Like I saw that the very first time that I met you and assessed you like you, this is a strong woman, right.
[00:37:04] It’s just relearning how to train in a way that’s kind and respectful and gets you the results you want without having to beat yourself up and cause pain. Yeah. So what’s next for you, Kimberly?
[00:37:17] Kimberly: Today?
[00:37:17] Kim: Well, I don’t know. What are your future goals? What do you see for yourself?
[00:37:21] Kimberly: I think, you know, I’m still rehabbing, but I still write when we started, I sprained my ankle and I’ve been trying to rehab.
[00:37:29] It’s been a very slow rehab and I’m working myself through it. Um, you know, I really want to just explore my bike. I just purchased a new bike cause I want to play with that. I have a trampoline. So I want to work with that. Um, it just want to enjoy, you know, it’s going to be summer. It’s going to be hot. So just walking and possibly, you know, finding a good trail to walk around, but just being more like movement and, um, not being so prescribed.
[00:38:01] I think I’ve been. You know, very like six week program type of mindset being more, just functional. And I think functional exercising is something that as we age, we really have to be cognisant of and I don’t. And I think just keeping in that, I feel like that’s where I want to continue to focus on.
[00:38:25] Kim: Amazing sounds wonderful. Well, I always ask my guests, what does joyful movement mean to you? So how would you sum up joyful movement in a couple of sentences?
[00:38:37] Kimberly: What does joyful movement mean to me? Well, I will say that joyful movement means having self-love and appreciation.
[00:38:51] Kim: Yes. So an appreciation of what your body does for you?
[00:38:55] Kimberly: Yes. Because you know, I’m privileged to be an able body person. And with that privilege, there should be, I have to give myself grace and self-love.
[00:39:09] Kim: Mm brene brown says that gratitude is the gateway to joy. So when we are, when we are grateful and appreciative of all the things that our body can do for us, that is how we experience joy in movement.
[00:39:22] So amazing. Well, I want to thank you Kimberly, for being on the show today and sharing your story. I very much appreciate it. Is there anything else that you’re wanting to share with our listeners today?
[00:39:36] Kimberly: No, but Kim, you’re a great personal trainer and I didn’t think that doing this remote training was going to actually work. I was like, hedging my bets, but it has done has been great working out with you and you just bring me joy.
[00:39:52] Kim: Ah, that’s so kind of you to say, and I feel the same way, the feeling’s mutual.
[00:39:57] Kimberly: Great. Well, thank you for having me today.
[00:39:59] All right. Well, that is it for today, from both Kimberly and me. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you resonate with Kimberly’s experience, maybe you want to investigate virtual personal training for yourself. You can find out more about how to work with me on my website, which is www.radiantvitality.ca.
[00:40:17] So I’ll see you back here next week. But in the meantime, stay in touch by following my social media channels at radiant vitality wellness. I hope you have a great week, that includes some joyful movement. Be well, and here’s to your radiant vitality.
