Exercise & Feel the Difference with Kasey Shuler (Intuitive Eating #9)

Exercise and Feel the Difference - Kasey Shuler

[00:00:00] 

Amy: Hey there, welcome to the graced health podcast, your source for aging strong and your physical, mental, and spiritual health. My name is Amy Connell. I'm a weight neutral certified personal trainer and nutrition coach who loves walks with friends, chocolate, and Jesus. Whether you're looking to grow stronger as you age, nourish your body, mind, and spirit, or fit all the pieces of your health together to holistically thrive, this is the place for women over 40. I'm here to guide you In the areas I can and bring on experts in the areas I'm still learning. And of course we cover it all in a whole lot of grace. I'm glad you're here. By the way, if you're new here, I invite you to go back and check out season 19 starting January 9th, 2024 to fully understand this show in short.

This is an intuitive eating focused, grace filled Christ centered show. Focusing on women over 40 who want to age resiliently. and then be sure to check out the episode 30 plus non gym ways to improve your health and grab the free download that goes with that. All of those links are in the show notes. [00:01:00] We are in an episode or a season on intuitive eating. And this week we are focusing on principle nine sometimes called joyful movement, some kind, sometimes called exercise and feel the difference. Personally, I like the phrase joyful movement. So we'll use that a little bit better. And I am thrilled that Kasey Schuller is here with me.

So let me tell you a little bit about Kasey and then we'll jump in. Kasey is an author, a non diet personal trainer. Co founder of the Joyful Health Collective and host of the Joyful Health Show podcast. Her mission is to help others find lasting health by starting with grace and finding their strength in the joy of the Lord. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Athens, Georgia, and would love to connect with you at joyfulhealth. co or on Instagram at Joyful Health Co. Kasey, welcome to the show.

Kasey: Yes, thank you so much for having me.

Amy: Well, I'm thrilled you're here. It's always fun to talk shop [00:02:00] with a fellow personal trainer,

Kasey: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Amy: going to be a little bit different because we're going to be talking more about the mindset rather than the actual movement.

So Before we get in too deep, I would love for you to just explain what joyful movement is, and clearly you are the perfect person to do this since your ministry business tree name is joyful health.

Kasey: Yes, thank you. I haven't heard that phrase before, so I embrace that. So I want to start off with what Principle 9 actually says about joyful movement as far as the intuitive eating principles go. And then I will explain a little bit more from the biblical side of it. So exercise, feel the difference is Principle 9.

And so, evidentially says forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body rather than the calorie burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel [00:03:00] from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the gym.

So, essentially, being able to focus less on how you look and more on how you feel is the essence of that principle. And if we connect it to the spiritual roots, is connected to the joy of the Lord as our strength. And that comes from Nehemiah 8. 10. And The context around Nehemiah is that the people were reading the law, they were reading the words of God and instead of celebrating like we would in church, people were mourning, they were crying.

And I thought, what is this? Because then Nehemiah 8, 10, he says, do not mourn this day is holy to the Lord, your God. For the joy of the Lord is your strength. And so it's like, Whoa, how does this relate to us and movement? It's that I think that we know that we [00:04:00] all fall short and especially of the expectations that are set for us when it comes to movement and how it should shape our bodies with being wrapped up in diet culture and the thin ideal.

And so that. High expectation a lot of times keeps us from exercise, but we are free in the Lord. We are free in our faith to be able to say, I know I'm not good enough. I know I cannot live up to this holy expectation, but the Lord is, he has made us good through himself alone. So that we don't have to live up to this expectation anymore.

Now we can be free to participate in it. And to enjoy the space of being in our bodies because it's really stemming from grace and joy is essentially the expression of grace. So knowing that we can't. I didn't do anything [00:05:00] to earn my body to come into this world. I just came in this world as a baby.

And so probably same goes for you. So I think we get in our heads, especially as adults that we have to earn our way. And we have to earn our food by, with exercise and, you know, to be able to strip all of that away and keep it simple of exercise as a way to express the gratitude of being in our bodies.

So let's follow that joy and and be able to discover what we don't like and to have the freedom to not do that anymore and to discover what we do like and to follow that curiosity and see how it feels. And cause it's really that joy that pulls us forward. That's that motivation that will keep us going and keep us moving for life.

Amy: I really like how you say joy is the expression of grace. I've never heard that before it kind of, you know, how we will hear something and then we kind of think about how that applies to us. You know, as you know, the name of this podcast is graced health. The name of my [00:06:00] little business tree is graced health.

Kasey: Mm

Amy: That's because I realized so many so long ago that that's the missing element for a lot of us is just giving ourselves grace in,

Kasey: hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Amy: said earlier, you know, in stewarding our bodies, and that when that happens, we do get the joy that goes along with it.

So I really, I really like how you said that. You know, you were talking about using exercise as a way of managing our bodies and because of this thin ideal and all of that I'm wondering if you can talk more about shifting from the body. This diet culture sense of I have to work off dessert. I have to, you know, oh gosh, I ate too much.

I need to do that. And just managing the body size to finding joy and giving ourself grace, because I think we all want that. I don't think anyone is like, [00:07:00] oh, I definitely need to make sure that I'm, I'm getting calorie neutral, or, you know, whatever you wanna call it.

Kasey: Right.

Amy: But it's, it's a lot harder sometimes to take that leap in that, or that step into enjoying it.

Kasey: Right? Yeah, and I can speak from personal experience, is that when I separated, My food from my exercise then that really Freed up my exercise routines to be what I wanted to be. It wasn't just about calorie burn anymore I didn't and i'm all about efficiency. And so it's like if I have 20 minutes to exercise If the point of exercise is to burn calories, then you're most likely going to choose the most high intensity thing Which will be pretty hard on your body and might not be the best thing for you that day but you can't lean into that because you are Attaching yourself to an external rule when it comes to exercise, that exercise must [00:08:00] equal calorie burn.

So, simply put, if we can just separate our food from what we eat, if we, our food, or what we eat from how we move, then that will give us some freedom to be able to choose movement and be able to listen and trust our bodies instead of trusting, you know, the Some other ideal of how we should be working out.

So, you know, if you are wanting to take that first step, I would say to. If you're used to tracking calories on your Apple watch or whatever it might be to just take a break from that to just let it rest. And that can allow you to start tuning into your body instead of tuning into your watch. Just, you know, maybe don't turn on that little Apple ring.

And See how you feel. It might feel a little bit anxiety inducing to, to think, Oh no, that workout didn't count, but we know that our, or we can learn that our body actually does keep the score way [00:09:00] better than any other health tracking device. And there's so many studies out there that show that really, there are, there are, there's no tracking device that can accurately track our metabolic activity.

In a way that is useful for us. So our bodies are so complex and the way that we take in calories and nutrients and burn it defers day to day, moment to moment. And so really the best tracking device that you have is your body. So we get, we let to, we get to let exercise be a way to tune in and listen.

And participate with our, the wisdom of our body that's, God has already built in.

Amy: Yeah, I, that idea of separating food from exercise makes a lot of sense. It's also really hard. also a great explanation of why joyful movement is part of intuitive eating, because the [00:10:00] intuitive part of it is like, let's just tune into our body. Cause you know, you have a really hard workout. Maybe you're hungry, you know, extra hungry later

Kasey: Mm hmm. Mm

Amy: so yeah, I, I think that that is great and turning off all of those notifications and prompts and all of that kind of stuff, you know, it's so funny because most of the women in my community are over 40.

I have a lot in, you know, fifties and sixties. And so we did not grow up with Apple watches. did not grow up. I mean, in our early twenties, when for many of us diet culture was at our height, we didn't have that. And

Kasey: hmm. Mm hmm. Mm

Amy: get dependent on that and how it can drive what we do when we didn't, we didn't have that. Like it, it's just one more piece of the madness that is out there that But you know, we should be able to live without. So I

Kasey: hmm.

Amy: is all [00:11:00] right, ladies, we've done this before. We can do this again.

Kasey: That's right.

Amy: Okay. So So what about, let's go kind of the other way, cause I have spoken with people who for a long time use their bodies or used exercise to manage the body. Right. And then maybe they're feeling more at peace with their food now and feeling more secure, but they're kind of gun shy to get back into exercising because it's like, Oh, I'm not I have either had exercise addiction in the past, or

Kasey: hmm.

Amy: with doing just a 20 minute workout, like what you were talking about, like Kasey, no, if I'm going to work out, I need to have that full 60 minutes or whatever it is.

Kasey: Mm hmm.

Amy: or, you know, we'll feel like we have to, we'll fall back into the ever over exercising. So wondering if you might be able to give some guidance in those situations.

Kasey: Yeah I think that can be a tricky subject, but to give [00:12:00] some just kind of blanket questions to ask yourself is where is that fear coming from? Especially if, okay, does 20 minutes count or not? Okay, who said that 20 minutes or 60 minutes counts, you know, if we are Christians We are following the Lord and the Word and there's nowhere in the Bible that it says

Amy: Right.

Kasey: amount of exercise So that is some kind of rule that may have served you in the past.

Is that serving you now? So is it truthful? Is it beneficial? Is to be able to ask yourself to start to challenge those assumptions that you may have around exercise and to break it open because exercise is really just this tiny little box under the umbrella of movement. And so if we can break that open, then the possibilities are so much more joyful.

And for the person who is worried about exercise, maybe taking over their life to be able. to maybe put it back into that box to be able to to be able to have a container [00:13:00] is maybe what some psychologists would say. And you can have a container for exercise. You know, as a personal trainer, we would say you as a body to be able to take care of your bones and to take care of your muscles, you need resistance training twice a week.

And so on non consecutive days, you can allow your body to rest. So like, what are those? Two days that you're going to choose and you do it for that amount of time, you don't think about it anymore, . And so that frees up your mind and your, some of your mental space to think, Ooh, I need to get in a workout or I haven't done it.

And so being able to put that habit into a space and to a contained space in your life allows it from becoming that idol that has power over you because. As we know, I think if, if something is an idol too, then we can really We can give it power, more power than it has, because, you know, I've been reading to you through Isaiah, and the prophets really talk about, like, the, the people of biblical times, they would make idols out of wood and [00:14:00] stone, and they would say, these are handmade things, they can't speak, they can't hear.

They can't love you back. They really have no power except for the power that you give them and so and so I had to Recognize that in myself too of like, oh if i'm fearing food, it's i'm making an idol, but it's actually a gift and so But we can't get to that place until the lord opens our eyes in that way.

So yeah, if we can like go back to the questions of So, if you want to challenge those assumptions, is this true, is this helpful then I think that those can really help to guide our decisions around exercise whether it's becoming too much, okay, let's figure out what we actually need. And you know, of course, it depends on.

what your health team and is recommending that, you know, we really need health providers that you trust. And so if you're in a space of healing with from an eating disorder exercise, it's going to look very [00:15:00] different. It's going to be It's going to definitely be movement, but it'll be different. I mean, our, we're already moving our heart and our lungs are already moving.

And so, you know, even opening and closing your eyes, that's movement breathing that is movement. So breathing, stretching, just being able to redefine what movement is and for how it's helpful, how it's beneficial for you and your season. I think that's going to help it be specific for your needs.

Amy: There's some really good things that you said there. And one of the things that got my mind kind of spinning is I've shared with my community that in the last several months I've kind of personally had this struggle with my body has changed significantly and perimenopause. I've had to remind myself that like my worth is not in my body size, right? And it's not like this does not change who I am. It's just that it's different. And the [00:16:00] connection point that I made when you were talking is also for those who struggle with working out. 20 or 10 or five minutes. Our worth is not in how long we work out, you know, our, our worth is already defined by us and then we move because it fulfills greater goals than what we have, you know, maybe it's protecting those knees as we get older or being able to lift up our grandkids or you know, other, other reasons why, rather than just to Just to exercise because that's what we're supposed to be doing. I love that you talked about health professionals. I feel like this is a good opportunity to that. Like, you are looking for something of like, I just need to move and I don't want to have to think about it. Like maybe if you need to turn your brain off, if it's accessible to you, find a personal trainer to help you with that, because

Kasey: Yeah.

Amy: really freeing about showing up.

And I know, you know, this Kasey but just for, for my community, like do [00:17:00] that and alert. And I may take this out when I edit it, but be on the lookout for someone from yours truly here in a few months. Anyway.

Kasey: Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Amy: we're talking about, you know, going from one end to the other end. You mentioned strength training. And I'm a big proponent of it, especially in, menopausal, you know, perimenopausal and beyond women. It's, it's just so good for our bone density.

It can counteract sarcopenia, which is when we naturally lose muscle. It can help with our balance. We don't want to fall cause we don't want to break our hip. There's some compelling evidence lately that it improves longevity. What about with strength training? Like for someone who has a rocky relationship with strength training, where do you recommend people start?

Because I'm sure you get questions like [00:18:00] this all the time, Kasey, as a, as a health professional, as a personal trainer. And then, you know, just from more of a the personal trainer side, or when we're talking with people, you know, sometimes an encouragement to strength train is needed. But we also don't want to be triggering and we also don't want to send someone down a bad path.

So I'm wondering how we can approach this this joyful movement perspective. While at the same time doing the things that really are helpful and beneficial to our body, like strength training.

Kasey: For sure. And I think if someone is interested or is contemplating strength training, then honor that, honor that desire and to say, okay, this is a good thing. I'm recognizing that my, that I want to take care of the body that God has given me. I want to feel strong because You know, we, if the joy of the Lord is our strength, it's really cool how you, you know, you talk about the benefits of exercise [00:19:00] and when we do something like a squat and we feel the strength in our legs our brain is saying, I'm doing this.

I feel strong and it's connected to our identity. And so we start thinking I am strong. And so it improves another big fancy word, rejection resilience. So that we can feel like, okay, I can do things. And so, it increases that confidence, and we. If we're supposed to be the light of the world, we want to be confident to show up and not to shrink back from, you know, our own whatever condemning thoughts that we may harbor and strength training as one way to just combat some of those thoughts and to step into the joy of the Lord as our strength.

So Yes, so being the light of the world, you know, we we are also a body of christ and we're connected We're all members of one another in the lord and so He has gifted us and he has given some of us a really a really good desire to help one another with those strength [00:20:00] exercises.

So like Amy and myself, I love being able to show people how to do a squat and how to form their body well so that when they load it heavier, they will be protecting their knees and their whole body is in a position to carry that load in a safe way. So then they can go into the world and not injure themselves and that they can be equipped to do all that God has called them to do and feel confident to be able to do that.

So if you're not sure how to start, yes, find a professional that you trust. And so they can get you started and can look at your form and so that you can go forward with that mastery. So I think, and part of a habit is being able to have autonomy, being able to do it by yourself. And if you're not sure.

You can ask someone a ton and then mastery is being able to add on to that and be able to progress. And there's a lot of joy that comes with doing that and being connected to to [00:21:00] creation. You know, God made us to be in creation and he looked at Adam and Eve and, and all that he had made Adam and Eve in creation and said, it is very good.

So it's not just, it's It's just not just us. That's very good. It's us in creation and movement is one way to interact with his creation and to know him better, so Hire someone you trust Start small just really start to question those thoughts of should it be X number of minutes or whatever it might be I mean, I'm sure Amy you and I can probably give like I love being able to give motor patterns for You For a full strength training routine of like, okay, we are made to squat, hinge, push, pull, carry.

Like I want all of those movements to be in there to, to take care of those big functional patterns rather than just like isolating small muscle groups for looks, for example. So definitely more about function and it goes all the way, it [00:22:00] always goes back to your, back to your goals. And if you want to break away from those external appearance goals, then just ask yourself, how do I feel?

How do I want to feel? What exercise can lead me to that?

Amy: I applauding so much on the functional movement. That's actually how I plan every single one of my training clients. And then how I'm planning that the program that I'm doing too, because I call biceps like beach muscles. I mean, yeah, you know, they're good to, I mean, they're nice to have, but, and, but they will get stronger if you were doing the other things that you, you know, the pushing and the pulling, like they will get stronger, they will get stronger with body weight supported stuff.

And so I, I cannot agree more. And honestly, like, I don't have time to be working on my, you know, my biceps all the time. Like just, I don't, I don't have time for that. And probably most of the people don't either. So let's do those basic functional movements. And by the way, if you are interested in that, I do have a [00:23:00] YouTube video where I demonstrate some of those.

And I also talk about them in both of my books, your core strength and for teen girls and also in your worthy body. So if you want a little more information on those, there's some There's some books and then you can also check out the video. Sorry for the shameless plug, but every now and then I'm like, Oh, I should probably mention that. Okay. Kasey, anything else on joyful movement that we have not covered that you want to make sure that we cover?

Kasey: Yeah, I think to even this podcast, if you're listening and you're thinking, I still feel overwhelmed. Just, if you can just cut out the noise and be able to tune in to your body, tune in to the Lord, that is what you need. You're probably listening to this podcast too because you trust Amy and you trust her voice and to be able to guide you with, And so, I would say, you know, being able to, like, while you're moving, if something is painful, if [00:24:00] something doesn't feel right, trust that as well.

And as you do, then you're going to build trust in your body and that's going to become more joyful because it's a relationship. It's a relationship with your body. It's a relationship with the Lord. And that, Is ultimately where we find the joy is in that connection piece and so If you hear nothing else then just get started tune into how you feel and Pursue the lord as your joy 

Amy: That is very good. You probably jumped the gun a little bit with my final question, but I'll ask it in any way here in a second. Okay. Kasey, I would love for you to share where people connect with you. And I know that you do have a free workout series that takes you from traditional exercise to you have a fantastic, email, what do we call it?

Like, like your newsletters are great. And one of the things that I love about it is you connect our breath with scripture, And so if you're listening and you know, we have talked a lot about our breath. We have talked a lot on this show about pulling things down. is a wonderful guide for that.

So you can [00:25:00] sign up. She'll tell you here in a second on how to either get this this, these five or just the newsletters, but you guys, this is worth the email sharing. I know we hold onto our emails very tightly. Kasey's is worth it. So be sure to get that. So I had to do that little plug and I know you didn't know that I was going to do that, but it's, it's a really great email.

And I love, I love, love, love the inhale and whatever guidance you have and exhale. So well done with that, Kasey.

Kasey: Yeah, thank you. Yes, I would say simply just to go to joyfulhealth. co. We have the form where you can put in your name and your email for that newsletter. And so what she's talking about is I've been sending out non diet devotionals. And yes, I always want to be able to connect the breath with the body.

It allows us to take a mindful moment with the Lord, because sometimes that just connecting with his presence, we may only need an inhale and an exhale. And that can remind us that we can [00:26:00] come back and do that again, whenever we want throughout the day, we will always be breathing. So that is a weekly devotional that I send out.

If you want more, there is a daily option.

Amy: Perfect. All right. Yes. And I will put that in the show notes for sure. Okay, Kasey, what is the one simple thing that you would like everybody to remember about this? You kind of talked about it a little already, but I'll give you the chance to either repeat it or say something different and you get to have the final word on the show.

Kasey: Great. Well, I would like to circle back around to that. Joy is the expression of grace. So if you want to adopt a joyful movement habit to be able to just inhale grace and exhale joy, let that tune into your breath, be able to tune into your body and the Lord and just Continue that movement, spread your arms out and stretch out your body [00:27:00] and just start to tune in.

Ah, how does this feel and name it, say it makes me feel happy or it makes me feel open or having some word associated with that helps you, it helps to reinforce that positive memory and that positive association with movement. And that can really help to build a healthy foundation for joyful movement.

Amy: So great. That is all for today. Go out there and have a graced day.

​