Do You Have a Healthy Relationship with Exercise?
By Kelsey Chadwick, MS RDN
January 24th, 2025
Exercise comes in many different forms and looks different for everyone. As an intuitive eating dietitian, I prefer to use the term movement, as do many of my clients. The word exercise can feel a bit strict and forceful and is often associated with dieting and weight loss efforts.
In addition to taking time to reflect on our relationship with food, it’s important to reflect on our relationship with movement. There are many benefits to movement, which can include stress relief, protecting bone health, improving balance and strength, improving sleep quality, spending time in nature and building up cardiorespiratory fitness.
Just as there is no “perfect” way to eat, there is no “perfect” way to move our body. Most folks prefer variety and enjoy a mix of indoor and outdoor activities. Some examples of movement can include a yoga class, hiking outdoors with friends, a group Zumba class, walking on your lunch break and lifting weights at the gym or at home.
The bottom line is movement should be flexible and enjoyable.
However, just as eating behaviors can become disordered, so can our exercise behaviors. Important questions to ask yourself are — can you take rest days without feeling stressed or guilty? Can you take breaks from movement when you are sick or on vacation, or even at random times of the year? Do you miss social events or family gatherings to exercise? If you answered yes to any of these, it might be time to think about your relationship with movement.
When working with a client on establishing a healthy (and flexible) movement routines I always like to start from a place of joy. If we’re focused on having fun and/or doing movements that feel good in our body then we’re on the right track.
If you are getting started on your movement journey or looking to reincorporate movement into your routine here are a few questions to help you get started:
Do you like to move alone or in a group class?
Do you like to move indoors or outdoors?
Considering your current “fitness” level, what might be a type of movement that feels good to start with? What are some that you may want to work up to?
What is realistic in terms of frequency of movement during my week?