Exercise for prolapse

Strength training is ABSOLUTELY the way forward for anyone with prolapse.

We are told to fear movement and avoid it, but as someone that has CONQUERED prolapse and helped hundreds of other women do the same, I can tell you with absolute certainty, you need to strength train to beat this.

The question is HOW?

There are three requirements to using strength training to heal prolapse.

You MUST:

1. Harness the power of the breath-your breath is your core stability system and if you don't use it properly, your weak core will result in your pushing DOWN on your pelvic organs and OUT on your Diastasis recti.
   
   

2. Make room in the thorax. Without sufficient room in the thorax for expansion in movement and breath, we are left shoving too much pressure into the pelvic cavity, worsening existing prolapse. To get the LIFT you need, you have to make SPACE in the compartment above your pelvis, i.e. your thorax.
   
   

3. Stop trying to shed fat and instead learn how to build your body.
   Chasing the same old exercise methods and mindsets is part of what got you into this mess. If you want to overcome prolapse, then you have to ditch the diet and weightless mentalities and focus on BUILDING a stronger, better functioning body.
   Yes, that can and will involve leaning out, but in a holistic and health-promoting way. The binging, over-doing it approach to exercise results in women increasing their prolapse symptoms and sitting on the bench. The sitting out on the bench waiting for a miracle or surgery to fix everything doesn’t work either. If you want the confident and competent body of someone that is in shape, then you’ll have to try a new way that honors BETTER movement patterns, MUSCLE growth, REST and RECOVERY.

Using squats

to beat prolapse is just ONE way we strengthen the pelvic floor, quads and glutes!

If you’re ready to try a NEW thing, then it’s time for you to join Hold Up™ and conquer your prolapse!

In this program you will learn how to:

1. Exercise with and to combat prolapse for physique changes and feeling amazing in your body

2. Recover and restore after training

3. Change your mindset around your body, injury and exercise

4. Detox your liver for balanced hormones-this plays a role in your prolapse!

5. Improve your gut health-essential for better pelvic tissue, routine pooping and reduced pressure in the abdomen and pelvis
   
   And SO MUCH MORE!

Use the code SQUATS for 15% off when you sign up TODAY!
Monthly payment options available.

Heal your prolapse

Exercise, education and the essentials for overcoming prolapse!

This course is closed for enrollment

My personal benefits experienced from using an Infrared sauna and also, scientism

There are loads of articles on the benefits of infrared (IR) sauna use, but this ain’t one of them.

If you want evidence-based research on these things, then I recommend checking out the articles I link below.


THIS ARTICLE is simply about the changes I saw in my own body.

Our modern culture and obsession with “scientism” (research considered science that may or not be repeatable, scientific method-proof or without bias, aka-funded by the people that stand to make money off of the “results”.
Yes I made up that definition.

In the quest for regular folks to ONLY post “scientifically- sound” information on social media or even share it in conversation with friends, we have done something very silly and unscientific and that is we have lost an appreciation for anecdotal evidence.

A friend’s or trusted person’s testimony about their own person experience can in many cases be MORE relevant and helpful to regular folks like you and me, than a peer-reviewed journal articles conducted by strangers, on strangers.

YES we have to be discerning and responsible about what we believe, what we are willing to try with our own bodies and pocketbooks, but the idea that something ISN’T valid if it doesn’t have citations and footnotes from articles that let’s face it, most of the general public can’t even read and comprehend, is silly.

I’m not saying we should ignore science and or jump on every fad that comes down the pike, BUT I do believe that people’s personal stories can actually lead us to scientific discovery.
After all, all science is is people making observations about responses to changes in variable.

We are PEOPLE and we can make observations too!

In fact we regular people and our observations can drive scientific exploration and funding because science is a business.
It costs money to do science so then science needs to make money and if the public show that they are willing to pay for things, then the science will follow.

But I digress…

Ok, so SAUNA!

I have an IR sauna.
I purchased it in 2018 from High Tech Health because of their VERY low EMFs and VOCs.

I love it.

I typically sauna 3-4 times a week for 30-40 minutes.
The temperature reaches 145.

I TRY to mostly just read in the sauna, since it seems silly to buy a low EMF sauna and then BRING emfs in the sauna with you (i.e. my iPad) but I’m a human and sometimes I just want to. zone out and watch a show OR I need to do some work while I sauna and I just “kiss it up to God”-is that a thing for EMF’s? I don’t know, but I do it.

I do not plan my meals around the sauna-I MOST often sauna after dinner once the kids are in bed because that’s what I can do consistently.

And I typically drink an entire mason jar glass of water while I’m in there.


Ok, now lets get to the good part!

Why did I get an IR Sauna?

Most of you know me here as someone that values strength training, has worked hard to rehab my own pelvic floor ( I have pelvic organ prolapse ) as well as others and I LOVE supporting the gut.

I’ve learned over the years that BOTH pelvic health and gut health are tied strongly to LIVER decongestion.

A congested liver is bad for the gut and proper tissue growth.
It drains the entire system which creates a sinking of energy, organs and mood.

AND so after trying various other strategies to improve my overall health, I decided that an IR sauna was in order.
I had talked with multiple people that had explained to me how the routine gentle detox caused by an infrared sauna was just the ticket to getting their bodies to slowly release toxins in return to homeostasis.

”It has been known for decades that sweating is a wonderful way to get rid of stored chemicals, including heavy metals. In fact, a sauna is one of the detoxification procedures used in the Environmental Units in Dallas (Dr. William Rea) and North Charleston (Dr. Allan Lieberman) where the sickest of folks go to heal.” Dr. Sherry Rogers, Total Wellness, May 2000.”

What changes have I noticed from using the sauna?

1. The most noticeable change is my sensitivity to food and digestive distress
   When I purchased the sauna, despite having worked with TWO different functional medicine doctors that supposedly helped me clear out Candida and multiple parasite infections, I was still having random stomach aches, digestive issues and sensitive to various foods with no clear pattern.
   
   Just BAM for no reason I was struggling.
   
   After about 4 months of using the sauna routinely, I noticed that stopped.
   Stomach aches and digestive challenges no longer just appeared for no reason.
   I would get them, but for very specific reasons-more on that another time.
   
   I also noticed that I just wasn’t nearly as food sensitive.
   I could be less militant about avoiding certain grains and dairy because my body was cool with it.
   I didn’t go off the rails or anything, but feeling LESS fearful or stressed about food triggers relaxed me which also contributed to my reduced digestive issues.
   
   
   
   
   

2. My skin
   Before the sauna I had noticed that my back was more susceptible to breakouts. I wasn’t getting them on my face so much, but my back, so annoying!
   My acupuncturist explained to me that it’s excess heat or dampness in the body, which is ALSO associated with Candida.
   Using the sauna seemed to resolve this in about 2 months.
   
   While I do believe that sweating so much helped me to clean out my pores and clear my skin, I was pretty sure my back breaking out was a toxin/hormone/liver issue brought on my stress and Candida.
   I was lifting heavier at the time, which means more testosterone and other hormones, which means the liver has to work harder to clear out old expired hormones.
   I also wasn’t resting as much as I needed too, too much life in the sympathetic and not enough parasympathetic.
   AND I knew I had tested with some high levels of Candia multiple times.
   
   Since we know that sauna helps to gently detoxify the body especially of heavy metals and toxins associated with liver congestion and Candida, I’m not surprised that using it for a couple of months cleared my skin.
   Learning to value the process of resting and detoxifying the body because I saw the value of it via the sauna, ALSO contributed to my shifting my training program and expectations for my body that no doubt helped with toxin load as well!
   
   
   
   
   

3. Soreness
   
   I pretty much sauna every day that I train and I’m now rarely very sore from a workout.
   Keep in mind that being sore from EVERY workout is not normal.
   It can be a sign of over-training, so if you’re reading this and you do experience lots of soreness form every workout, I would recommend getting with a professional that can take a second look at your training program and make sure you are getting adequate rest and recovery-a MUST for good gains and results.
   
   But yeah, there are workouts that I do that challenge my body in a new way and I expect to be sore from it and it’s just not the case if I sauna and I usually do.
   
   
   
   
   
   

4. Sleep
   
   When I first started with the sauna it would knock me out.
   
   I would sauna, shower and get in bed and pass out and sleep the entire night.
   And that was mostly the case for months.
   
   I don’t notice that as much any more.
   My body has adapted to the sauna and I think I have also caught up on a lot of MUCH needed sleep.
   I don't pass out and I may wake up from time to time, but in the beginning when I was probably severely sleep-deprived after a sauna sesh, I was ZONKED!
   
   I typically sleep 10 hours a night now, but if you are someone that struggles to fall asleep and stay asleep, I tell ya, try the IR sauna-just don’t bring your blue light screen in there with you which will wake you up!
   
   
   
   
   

5. Sickness
   
   If any of us (my husband or one of my three boys) feel under the weather, run down or like we are fighting something but are neither dehydrated or nauseous, we do the sauna.
   
   My boys (10, 8 and 5) do abbreviated sessions at lower temperatures and MAN it’s remarkable.
   They rarely get sick as it is, but when they feel a little run down, we put them in there for about 15-20 minutes and not only do they sleep harder, but they don’t get sick!

   
   Same goes for my husband and I.
   Any indication that we are not feeling well or are fighting something off, we get in the sauna and we don’t get sick, Praise the Lord!
   
   **I will say, having this baby over the past year (2020) has been a HUGE blessing.
   I totally trust in our immune systems and the decisions we’ve made/work we do in this household to invest in, exercise and protect them and to me having an IR sauna is part of our prevention program at the Smith household!
   
   
   
   
   
   Ok well, in the words of the great Levar Burton, “Don’t take my word for it, find out for yourself!”
   Get in a sauna!
   
   Many cities have IR sauna and cryotherapy spas that you can join and use.
   I think the lowed model for the HighTech health sauna is about $4k or so.
   Not cheap, I get it, but when I tallied up all the money I was spending on tests and solutions for my gut health issues, I have to say that sauna has paid for itself OVER and OVER again!
   
   We know that parasite infections, Candida (and I had both detected by various tests) are connected to heavy metals in the body.
   In fact, some research shows that Candida is PROTECTIVE against heavy metal poisoning because Candida complexes with the metals in the body to render them less harmful.
   
   Using the sauna to GENTLY detox my body seemed to help me with the symptoms associated with high levels of Candida in the body AND improve the overall health of my microbiome and intestinal lining.

   
   Now for some science!
   Most of these sources are enjoyable to read and cite peer-reviewed science too!
   
   
   
   Resources on IR saunas:
   
   Mercola on sauna use for protection against disease
   Detoxify or Die
   Ten Scientifically Proven Reasons I’m Addicted To A Daily Sauna
   Candida and sauna

   Science behind heavy metal detox and sauna
   Maximize the benefits of sauna detox
   
   
   
   Sauna’s are AWESOME, but if you want to maximize the benefit of your sauna time, then take my nervous-system relaxing breath course, Better Than Kegels and literally change your body!
   
   
   “Having pelvic floor problems for about 16 years, I have tried many, many different methods for treatment and relief. Not until Sarah’s program of diaphragmatic breathing have I begun begun feel better and not had a need for daily medication to relax my pelvic floor. My new breathing practice has helped me to fall back asleep if I awaken in the night — a many years’ struggle for me.  I am a convert and true believer in her programs and so thankful to have found her!!!”

   ~Amanda ❤️ 
   
   ”It’s a miracle! I already have less pain and I haven’t been dizzy after just three days of breathing like this!”

   -R. Boer
   
   

Tap into the power of your breath

to soother your pain, digestive distress and pelvic floor problems!

"Free in Three", a three day formula to change your body and your mindset around exercise

There are seasons in our lives when it seems IMPOSSIBLE to make exercise happen!
Funny enough, those BURSTING at the seams periods of our lives are often when we need the stress release and health benefits of movement MOST!

What if taking care of our bodies with movement doesn’t have to be all or nothing?
What if we don't need to hit the gym 2-5 days a week to get results and feel good?
What IF we could have a simple three day formula for movement that we could adapt to our weeks as needed.

Here’s how it works:

All we have to do is find THREE days a week that match up with the formula, a day for walking, a day for resets (gentle movement) and a day for strength training.
And on GOOD weeks, maybe we repeat the formula to get 6 days of movement.
Other weeks, maybe we don’t even get in the full three day formula, but the important thing is that we have OPTIONS to help us check that movement box, remain consistent and become persistent without the crush stress of “conventional” exercise programming OR the guilt, for that matter.

Have I piqued your interest yet?
Check out the formula below!

DAY 1 Leisure Walk

For many people, Day 1 is Monday.
If you always struggle to “get back on track” on Mondays, switch things up.
Make Sunday your Day 1.
On Day 1 we walk for a minimum of 30 minutes, but you main goal is to walk as long as possible! Grab a friend, pet or family member and MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Even if climate is a factor, get creative about making this happen.

This is NOT about steps.
This is NOT about burning calorie. It’s about:

• calming your nervous system with contralateral movement (walking)

• balancing hormones - leisure walks positively influence blood sugar, cravings and digestive (gut) health

Day 2 Build Strength

So now you have some movement momentum (or movementum, as I like to call it!)
Today we are challenging our bodies with some SUPER simple, yet challenging strength training.

Complete 4 rounds (should take about 20-30 minutes, rest as needed!) of the following:

• 15-20 bodyweight squats-you can also do them weighted

• 10 get-ups, this means you lay down on the floor and try to get up to standing with minimal assistance from your hands - notice if you favor one side and try working BOTH sides

• 6-8 pushups OR plank for as long as you can **see my video on pushups!

• 60 seconds of blanket shakes (rest as needed) ** see video

• 60 seconds marching in place or skipping (REALLY SWING THOSE ARMS!)

Day 3 Press Reset

One of my FAVORITE movement habits that I have cultivated is #pressingreset with Original Strength!

Movement that changes your body is SO MUCH more than exercise! In fact most of us regular people that are not professional athletes or competitors do not have the time or resources to support exercising hard every single day.

Pressing reset is a simple concept and doesn’t have to take a lot of time (set aside 10 minutes, but work longer if you feel good!)
There are three major rules to it:

• Breath with the diaphragm

• The eyes move the head, the head moves the body

• Work across the midline (the imaginary line that runs down the body splitting it into right and left)
  
  
  

There are LITERALLY countless ways to press reset, but I’m sharing some of my favorite below.
There is no require number of reps, just do the movement for as long as feels good, then move to the next! Try to make it through 3 rounds of this suggested circuit, but feel free to play with the movement and make adjustments!

• Head nods (video)

• Rocks (video)

• Bird dogs (video)

• Crosscrawls (video)

Sound too simple?
It totally is simple, but that doesn’t mean that it will be easy and it doesn’t mean that it won’t get you results!

Complete this three day movement protocol TWICE a week for a total of 6 days of movement and watch what happens to your mindset and your body!

This is the same approach that I use with my clients to get them MORE consistent, STRONGER, BALANCED and more CONFIDENT in their bodies than EVER!

These movements are NOT complicated, but that doesn’t meant that these circuits aren’t challenging.
And the RESULTS?
They come from CONSISTENCY.
So you GOTTA , you just GOTTA made this a PRACTICE.

The good news is that these approaches to movement will help you to find enjoyment and peace in cultivating a routine movement practice and that is everything.
That is where all the results are!

**If you want a DOWNLOADABLE PDF version of Free in Three as well as an additional more advanced Strength Circuit, tips on how to REV up this protocol for more results and HOW to measure your success, click here!



Sarah Smith is a Functional Gut and Pelvic Health Educator and she’s on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS! 

Sarah is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science. Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

She loves her boys, soil (good thing because her life is full of it), her bulldog, Bella, coffee and not folding laundry.

If you want MORE information about YOUR pelvic floor and why you shouldn’t settle for incontinence, tailbone pain, discomfort and pain in intercourse, constipation, pelvic pressure and the feeling of organs in your vaginal canal DOWNLOAD THIS FREE GUIDE! 

Three Strategies To Help YOU FINALLY get consistent in exercise ** PLUS free workouts!

**Scroll down if you want to skip the TIPS and just get the workout!

All summer my husband and I have been traveling with our 3 boys around New England for the past month and have managed to train with kettlebells 3-4 days per week.

With a family of 5 moving around from place to place on vacation, being consistent with training could be almost impossible except that we had THREE simple strategies for getting out workouts in.

These particular strategies not only worked for us on this vacation, but they are my GO-TO strategies for both myself and my clients to stay consistent in our training EVEN when our full and busy lives make it difficult, so here they are:

1. Simplicity

2. Flexibility

3. Accountability

Let’s talk about them.

Simplicity:
WE kept our workouts MAJORLY simple on this trip for two primary reasons,

1. We only had space in our car and ease of transport for two kettlebells (12 K and 16K) and two resistance bands. IF we had brought much more than that, the equipment would have become a burden, nuisance to have around PLUS it would have been too cumbersome to lug to the beach, or pull out in the AirBNB yard to get our sweat sesh on. 

This was the case for us on this trip, but this may be the case for you right now!
If you don't have room in your home, the stroller, your car or your home office for lots of equipment, don’t worry. Being consistent with just a few pieces of equipment can build your body and physique AND help you to truly master exercise.
In Kettlebells For Cool Kids-my 12 week kettlebell program we only use TWO pieces of equipment!!

And
2. When you’re traveling and managing a family of 5, you simply don’t have the bandwidth for COMPLICATED workouts.

We found that it was FAR easier to be consistent in our training by keeping our training sessions to 3-4 compound (utilizing multiple muscle groups and joints) movements only.
If we wanted to add a few in more at the end, like a finisher, we had that option, but when we met out in the yard or at the beach to train, we knew that we were simply going to do a 3-4 exercises at a set number of reps and then move on with our day!
The weights were relatively light, so we kept the pace up and worked as hard as we could, resting as needed.

Flexibility:

I tell my clients this all of the time, but it was especially important on a family vacation, the only way to be CONSISTENT in your TRAINING is to be FLEXIBLE around what it looks like, where and when it takes place and how perfect it is.
On the days that we trained, we had a plan as to what we would do, but if we simply gave up when things weren’t going to plan (breakfast ran late, getting to the beach took longer, we forgot a piece of equipment, the kids needed us, etc….) then we would NEVER have honored our commitment to workout 3 times a week this month.
And so when things when awry, we just went with it.
We improvised with bodyweight exercises.
We accepted interruptions, even embraced them, “Sure kids we’ll play with you, let’s sprint down the beach to those rocks!?”

We just kept going as best we could and knew that whatever we managed to make happen was better than NOTHING!

That #persistenceoverperfection mindset, man, it is the BEST way to get things done and keep us coming back!

Accountability: 

Feeling like our commitment matters is helpful.

On this particular trip, Jeremiah (hubs) and I were accountable to each other in the way that my Kettlebells For Cool Kids are accountable to their fellow cool kids, my clients are accountable to me and you can be accountable to your friend, partners, coach, neighbor, or online community.

Rather than solely focusing on my own self and my own commitment, I also wanted to show up and train to support Jeremiah, my partner in crime.
I mean when it’s 92 degrees, sunny and you’d love to just lay around and drink coffee or nap and chill at the beach, knowing that your bud is willing to train with you and also wants to honor their own commitments can make all the difference.

At the end of the day, diet and exercise culture has trained us to think it’s OK to give up on our commitments to ourselves because many of us have DECADES of experience trying crash diet and exercise programs, that we quit because let’s face it, they suck and are impossible to stay with.

But the truth is COMMITMENTS matter.
It takes time and help to BREAK the habit of quitting and giving up on the promises that we make to ourselves.

Effective and smart programming shouldn’t MAKE you feel like you want to quit.
It should be adaptable to your real life, BUT you also have to be tenacious and determined to show up and do what you said you were going to do.

I have personally seen that for myself and my clients, the accountability piece is HUGELY important.
We are FAR less likely to break a promise ourselves or put our goals on the back burner because they are inconvenient, uncomfortable and or too much work IF we know someone is watching.

PLUS when we partner with someone else in our commitment, on those days when we truthfully don’t feel like working for ourselves, we can often muster the strength to show up for someone else.

This summer on days when we needed the SIMPLEST of workouts that would pack a PUNCH, workout WHOLE BODY and leave us feeling like we had WORKED OUT HARD-you know all that burny, sore good feelings we did the following workout:

In any order, complete the following (it takes about 30-45 minutes, depending on how much rest you take and you should rest as needed!:

100 KB swings **(beginners sub KB deadlifts)

100 pushups **(beginners sub 50 incline pushups)

100 weighted squats **(beginners sub bodyweight)

If you’ve NEVER learned how to do a kettlebell deadlift, proper pushup or squat, get
Kettlebells For Cool Kids™!

Sarah Smith is a former athletic coach, personal trainer, level two Russian Kettlebell Instructor, postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil Science and Agricultural. 

She works online and in her garage gym in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University. She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, confident and capable in their bodies-even when struggling with pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions. 

She is a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog. She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move-in a non-creepy way.

Zooming out from our health problems to get perspective, answers and real solutions!

I'm sort of on a roll this week with blogs posts and emails, but I have so many things that I want to share with you, that I sort of can't even help it!

Today I want to chat briefly with you about perspective. 

In the West, our healthcare system is largely one based on treating symptoms. 
We experience a problem in a specific part of the body and both we and our healthcare providers often problem solve as if the problem originated in said part.
Consequently, the treatment is solely focused on this one area. 



For example, if you go to the doctor with persistent knee pain, they will typically recommend you:
take an anti-inflammatory,
wear a knee brace, 
receive steroid shots to the knee
and if all else fails, get knee surgery. 


But ALL of theses solutions are about STOPPING the uncomfortable symptoms that are coming from the knee, which is in actuality a RESPONSE to other issues taking place in the body. 


Anything from the hips, to the ankle, toes, pelvic floor or head position....
diet, stress management, shoes, movement habits and lifestyle...
is IN FACT OFTEN behind the knee pain, but we are often so ZOOMED in on the location of problem and consumed with stopping the symptoms that we fail to realize that the knee's current state is not because of the knee at ALL, but due to many other factors. 




I see this same problem a LOT with the pelvic floor. 
I receive emails and DM's all of the time from people that had prolapse corrective surgery and how find themselves having symptoms again. 


This is because the surgery only took care of the symptoms of a larger problem of strength, stability, pressure management, lifestyle and tissue health. 
 

• Surgery doesn't change the health of your gut microbiome, which determines the health of your pelvic tissue and hormones.
   

• Surgery doesn't stop constipation, change your breathing habits or how you regulate intra-abdominal pressure. 
   

• Surgery doesn't sustainably lift your tissues or teach you how to move in a way that activates your pelvic floor as needed. 

And so because surgery is often just a big ol' expensive bandaid, we find ourselves back in the same ol' pickle. 

**There are absolutely instances when trauma merits surgery and or situations where we need surgical intervention to stop or slow damage to the body. But even with surgery, it's imperative that we not see it as a solution, but as something that is staving off problems...and the problems will return if we don't change how we live!



THIS is why I advocate that we all take a step BACK from our health problems and try to better understand the many other aspects of health in our body, to which our problems can be related. 


When I hurt my shoulder, I tried stretching it and resting it...but I never got any healing or was able to move past the chronic pain until I sought out someone that understand how my shoulder was responding to my ENTIRE body's movement mechanics. Shoutout to Kate Galliett!



And when I developed prolapse, my breakthrough moment that lead to progress and healing was when I began to understand that my prolapse was only sort of about the pelvic floor, but was MORE about how I was carrying my body around all day long every day...
how I was breathing....
how my body was struggling with major gut dysbiois and this was resulting in malnourished tissues and elimination struggles
and lastly
how my stress and failure to take care of my body was increasing my stress response and worsening symptoms. 


And so today, whether it's pelvic health, knee pain, food struggles or motivation to move and train your body, I want to encourage you to zoom out!
Whatever narrative you've created about your pain or condition, I want you to put it on the shelf today. 


Instead of "I have a bad back", consider that your back pain is a message to you that something or things in the body aren't functioning optimally. 

What is it connected to or impacted by in the body?
Your hips, abdominal muscles, glutes, shoulders, feet....

How often do you "train" your back to be strong and able to do the things you need it to do?
Even standing or sitting up straight takes energy and work!

Do you simply stretch it, or do you build it and its capabilities?

Is back surgery or pain reliever going solve the root cause of your problem?

If you stick your finger in the back pain "hole in the dike" will the water start coming out another area of the body? 
Chances are pretty great that it will. 


Instead of, "I have always been a fat kid" or "I can't help but binge at night", "I don't like moving or exercise," 

Stop blaming yourself or your body and find all the tiny or big threads that are attached to these actions and tendencies and see where they lead you?
What is this behavior a RESPONSE to?
What is it telling you about yourself and your life and what's ONE little thing you can do today to try to address the LARGER issue?

And most importantly, where can you find someone that can HELP you get perspective and zoom out??!!


For ease of understanding and discussion, we have split up the body into lots of little pieces and given those pieces names. 
But make no mistake, EVERYTHING is connected. 
Zooming out from your problems is going to give you PERSPECTIVE and OPPORTUNITY to find LOTS of different solutions and areas of impact in t he body to calm your pain and give you LASTING healing. 


Which reminds me, you are invited to join my seminar on mindset strategies I employed to finally get some healing from my pelvic health struggles!
If you're struggling now, still battling the same level of symptoms you had when you were diagnosed or WORSE, then you're going to want to attend. 
It wasn't until I got my MIND right around my prolapse, that I was able to find solutions, strategies that worked and healing!
Come join us!

SIGN UP HERE



xoxo,
Sarah Smith 

Sarah Smith is on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS!
She is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science.
Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina. 
She is a Believer, wife to her best friend, Jeremiah, a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves soil, coffee and not folding laundry. 
Come follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

"Scale schmale"

You see this?

Do you have one?

Are you an MMA fighter that needs to weigh in for a match? No?
Are you measuring out grain to feed to your livestock? No?
Then throw it out!

Scales are misleading.
This one piece of equipment can ruin your day AND can actually set you back in your wellness journey.

The average person's weight can fluctuate as much as 1-3 pounds in a day and as much as 5 pounds in a weekend. How reliable of a measure is that?

Losing weight is counterproductive if you're not just losing fat, but losing muscle as well.
Many weight loss programs are low-calorie and aerobic-exercise based so that participants are losing weight, yes, but it's not all fat weight.
That kind of program targets burning calories but does not help your body to specifically burn your excess fat stores, so you're most likely just going to end up being "skinny fat" and having difficulty keeping fat away in the future.

Muscle is what gets us lean.
Muscle makes us strong.
Muscle makes us...awesome.

Lots of folks have the idea, "I'll get skinny, then I'll go to the gym."
Or, "If I lose weight, then you'll be able to see my muscles and I'll look toned."
Or worse, "If I can drop ___lbs then I will love my body and feel the freedom to wear a bathing suit at the beach."
You know what I'm saying.
And logically they think that food makes them fat, so they will start to eat less and when they do eat they will eat "healthy".
This approach might work for 5% of the population (if that!), but realistically for most of us, especially as we age, this is not the road to take.
When we restrict calories and participate in low-intensity aerobic exercise,  we lose muscle.
Without muscle, we burn fewer calories so we have to eat less and less and less...
I don't know about you, but I do not believe that eating less and less food or being on some crazy restrictive diet is the way to live...unless you think you'd enjoy becoming a raging hungry lunatic.
 

Make lifestyle changes so that you are moving towards enjoying your healthfull life!
Slowly incorporate efficient forms of exercise (like weight lifting) to build muscle and target fat, stress-relieving activities (yoga, leisure walks, massage) to help your body stop holding on to stubborn fat, and eat a diet that is built upon whole foods that are mostly lean protein and veggies but INCLUDES your favorite items too so that you can sustain the diet long term.

If you want to measure success in fitness and nutrition, don't look to your scale, pay attention to how your clothes are fitting.
Look at your energy levels, your food cravings, and ask yourself, "Do I feel healthfull and happy, am I taking ownership over my daily movement (exercise and otherwise) and eating while enjoying the process?"

And if it's a love for your body that you seek,  lower number on the scale isn't going to give you that.
Many of the thinnest people in the world hate their bodies...
Instead, love on your body by nourishing it, strengthening it, allowing it to be a reflection of the person you are on the inside, both today and in the future.
Then you will truly love it and all that it does for you.

This is how you succeed.

This is how you get to a place of healthful and happy living.

So toss out that scale out on the curb.

 

Genesis 1:27, Psalm 139:14.