Hey everybody, it is Michelle from the Strong and Simple Podcast. Nice to be here with you today. It's beautiful fall afternoon. Um, hope your weather is beautiful where you are too. And I just absolutely adore the fall. I like the crisp air. It just feels kind of clean. I'm not somebody who really loves to be hot. I mean, don't get me wrong. I love summer. You know what? I just, I can appreciate and get behind pretty much every season. Like that's why I live in New England. That's why I didn't transplant somewhere else. I love the change of the seasons. I think that it helps me kind of align with the seasonality of life and the ebb and flow of life that as human beings, we were at one time more in tune with and probably are less so now. And...

But there's something about the fall and actually said that was talking on Instagram stories the other day. What is the creator's name? Anyways, this creator that I like on Instagram and TikTok, he does these like reviews where he goes through like grandma's house. And like during the pandemic, he would go through like his grandma's house and be like things in my grandma's house that just make sense or things in my grandma's house that don't make sense and like do reviews of them.

So now he's kind of branched out to doing reviews of other things. So right now he's been doing reviews of pumpkin spice and how it's so obnoxious that literally everything is pumpkin spice, like everything is pumpkin spice. And so like I reposted that and I was laughing about it, but one of the things in the review was for Trader Joe's pumpkin spice body butter. So I had to do a correction after I was like laughing at that review because I actually am obsessed. Like if you, first of all, if you have not tried any of Trader Joe's body butters in general, go get yourself some. They, the texture is so amazing. It like soaks right into your skin. And this is not an ad. Like I'm not being paid by Trader Joe's. I don't have an affiliate link for this. I just, I love their fucking body butter so much.

And their pumpkin spice body butter makes me want to eat it out of the container like a crazy person. But it is, it's so good. So I highly recommend it. And but that is not to say that I am obsessed with like all pumpkin spice things all the time. I like pumpkin pie. I enjoy pumpkin soup. And like some other things, but I'm not like every like, when I was at Trader Joe's today, they had all sorts of weird pumpkin spice flavored things. And I'm like, that's too much. That's too much. Like it becomes too much at some point. Like pumpkin spice lovers, you might be hating on me right now. Please don't turn this off. This whole thing isn't about pumpkin spice. The point of this episode is the seasonality of like coming into fall and how I'm really enjoying this like crisper air that we've been having.

And my runs, and I know that I don't talk a lot about running on this podcast and my like story of running, like my running journey. And I think I've like mentioned that there was a point in my life when all I did was run and I kept injuring myself because I wasn't also strength training. So I was like causing overuse injuries to myself and also in retrospect was also probably pushing myself. I was probably a little overly exuberant when I'd be training for different races. So I would always hurt myself. But I don't often talk about or mention much about what I do for cardio, especially running nowadays. And I don't know why that is. So I didn't start running. So I was the kid in middle school and high school who would skip gym class on the day that you were to run a mile. I actually remember, so I used to be a smoker and I remember in high school, so this was in the 90s, skipping gym class and sitting in the bleachers, smoking a cigarette, watching everybody in my class, my gym class run the mile. So this is like where I was with running.

Fast forward to my mid-20s and I wanted to quit smoking. Yay me. That is also a journey that took me many years to finally be like, I'm all done with this. That's a story for another day, I guess if you're interested in that. But it started running because I wanted to quit smoking and I was like, I don't wanna quit smoking because then I'll gain weight. So that like fat phobia, like built in fear of like, I don't wanna gain weight, not because of health reasons, like, because that would be worse than smoking. So anyways, so that's so scary, right? And that's still a prevalent feeling and thought in our culture. So I started running and then I was also like, well, if I run, it's gonna be harder to run if I'm smoking. So therefore, like this will keep me motivated. Anytime I want a cigarette, I'll be like, but you have that 5k you're training for, and then you're going to feel really crappy. So that, and that worked, right. But I mean, the main central motivator here was that like, it was going to help me lose weight or at least not gain weight. So carry on. I actually like really enjoyed it because I like to be challenged. And I guess. Like, to sometimes feel like a little uncomfortable. Like I'm pushing that, especially with running, like when you like really push yourself to like do like a sprint or like that final, like when you run a 5K and it's 3.1 miles, right? And that last 10th of a mile, you're just like really pushing yourself. Like I love that, like that dopamine or endorphin hit I get from that. But along the way, including when I kept injuring myself and then I stopped running. But I developed this over-reliance on external pieces of equipment, Fitbits, garments, heart rate monitors, GPS, whatever, to let me know if I was making progress or if I was doing the training right or whatever, because I do love data.

I Love data. I'm a data nerd. And I want to preface this with like, there's nothing wrong with enjoying looking at data or following a training program or having an endpoint in sight, like a race or an event that you're training for, right? But what I've been noticing over the past year to two years is maybe even, I don't know, one the pandemic start, like really started just like getting out for daily walks again and running, jogging, I guess we could even call it a walk, walk jog, depending on how you want to category it, category, categorize it, but I haven't registered for a race. And with that, it's allowed me to, like, just go out and run.

And I'm not suggesting that if you have not been running, that you just go out and run three miles. You do wanna like work your way up, either through slowly increasing mileage or doing like some walk, run intervals. And there's like all sorts of different programs to help you get there, depending on where you're starting, right?

But also...

Can't we, many of us, go out and just do a light jog and then take a rest and just see how that feels for us, right? We have this over-reliance, whether we're following a training program or not, especially if you want to make sure you're not overdoing something or going too hard too fast, this can be beneficial.

But I think even then, and this might cause some controversy, that we have this over-reliance on training programs to be the end-all be-all to all physical movement and physical fitness.

Right now I'm following a training program for strength training. That's keeping me on track to certain like strength goals that I have, but there's also some fluidity and flexibility within that training program to allow me to kind of ebb and flow between three to five days a week, different amounts of sets and so on.

So for running, for my cardio, which we know, both strength training and cardio fitness are really good for us, right? There's also people in the world who are like, you're gonna lose all your gains if you do cardio. Like unless you're like an elite powerlifter who like, it's gonna come down to like the minutiae of like a kilogram lifted to win your meat.

Overall general population people, me and you, strength training and some sort of cardio is good for you to incorporate into your week. Anyways, I digress.

So I've been running and I mostly do intervals. I run or jog for a few minutes, then I walk for a minute, then when my heart rate comes down, I walk again and I run again. And not having this pressure this like training program or idea of a race or an event, breathing down my neck allows me to actually tune into my body, into my breath, into my heart rate without relying on a heart rate monitor. Like kind of using that rate to perceived exertion to like get an estimate of my in zone one, zone two, zone three. And I will do a whole other episode of the zones of cardio. I'm not gonna dig into that today, but where I don't have this pressure of like, I need to get a 10 minute mile. I need to get a nine minute mile. I need to do X, Y, and Z. It's allowing me to just like go out and run and really fricking enjoy it and look forward to it. And When I miss a run, quote unquote miss a run, like I wanted to do a run the other day and I just didn't have time. Being back to work right now, so if you don't know, I'm also a special education teacher. So it's fall, I'm back in school. I also train folks and have an advocacy business. So I'm busy and I just didn't have time for the run. And I like was actually really disappointed because...

I love it so much. I'm loving it so much. It's bringing me so much joy. And it's not to say that it's not challenging. It's not to say that it's not hard at times. It's not to say that it's not uncomfortable at times, but it's so fun. And I'm able to like go for my run and because I'm not on this, like I gotta get that nine minute or 10 minute or 11 minute mile or whatever, I'm able to like, oh, look at these cute ducks crossing the road and I stop and I take a little video or I quack, quack at them or whatever. Like, yeah, I know, I'm a weirdo, we know that. Or like, if I see a neighbor, I'm like, I'll stop and have a conversation with them, right? I don't have this like, no, I gotta train, I got trained and it's just bringing me so much joy and helping me like take notice of my body and how it's responding to the different stimuli. So like what happens if I move a little faster or I've been really paying attention to how my foot is hitting the ground and pushing off of the ground.

Maybe I can do an episode about that too, if you're interested in it. Um, like to try to like make a more efficient stride or what happens when I bend my torso, like lean forward just a little bit, how is that changing? How the motion's feeling? What happens if I really focus on just breathing through my nose? That's hard. Um, making note of how it feels different on my runs when maybe I've had a bad night's sleep or a good night's sleep or a not so great fuel day the day before. What I mean by that, I know we, like we don't moralizing food between like good food and bad food. Meaning like if I didn't eat enough carbs the day before, cause sometimes I do that, like my run is probably not gonna be as not challenging as other days, right? So it's been really fun to be listening to my body and not always listening to the Fitbit.

Now, I oftentimes also use the Fitbit and also have that data. And that's also really fun for me to kind of look at like how things align. Like, oh, well, I really felt like I was in zone two. That essentially means you're like at 70 to 80% of your max heart rate, you can hold a conversation with somebody while you're doing it. But then I look at my Fitbit and it tells me that like I was like zone three or four for most of the run. And it's like, so what's more accurate? My assessment or the little piece of, I don't know, what is it? Plastic? Plastic, I mean, I suppose there's probably some metal in it, whatever. That's like plastic watch on my arm that's monitoring my heart rate. I know that that's not as accurate as what my body is telling me. Right. So it's kind of fun to see the comparison of the two things. So.

Just like we can have an over-reliance on the scale. If you are on, if you're trying to lose weight, if you're trying to re-comp your body, meaning you're trying to build muscle and lose fat, right, you might be using the scale or measuring tape to get data about your progress. When we are only relying on those things, which are not behaviors, weight loss, fat loss, that's not a behavior. Certain behaviors that you do could lead to those things, right? But we have this like over-reliance on this, especially the scale. Many of you listening to this, listen to this podcast because you have that relationship with the scale where it would determine your feelings and you couldn't not get on it every morning, right? And it like really dictated how you felt about yourself during the day. I find that for a lot of us who had that kind of relationship with the scale, then when we transition away from the scale, tend to then have an over-reliance on gadgets that are measuring non-fat loss goals. We become more obsessive with how many steps we're getting in a day. We're becoming more obsessive about like how intense our workouts are. And we might not be looking at the calories, but we still have this idea in our head that in order for any sort of activity to count, quote unquote count, it means that we need to be burning as many calories as possible. And we also logically probably know that many of these gadgets are not even giving us accurate calorie counts, right? But it's all this like intertwined messiness that we have when we're trying to rebuild our relationship with our bodies. And we're trying to rebuild this relationship with our bodies. We're trying to rebuild our relationship with food. We're trying to rebuild our relationship with fitness and movement. And when we're trying to do that with movement, we then tend to become overly reliant on these other measurements of progress.

So the point of today's episode, my friends, is to share with you my experience of running where I have not been hyper-focusing on the gadgets and what they're telling me. And I have not been hyper-focusing on some sort of end point or end game, like I'm going to train for this 5K and then the 5K comes and then I don't do anything else because that's something else I used to do. I'd be like, I'd get to the destination and then I would stop. Same thing I used to do with weight loss. I would reach a certain point and then I would stop. Right? So this is also why when Marissa and I are talking about, like, if something's sustainable, it's not going to be a 21-day fix or a fucking whole 30 or a 30 day challenge or a 14 day challenge, right? Any of these things that have like a number that have like an endpoint are less likely to be sustainable for the long run because in your brain you're like, oh, I just have to do this for this amount of time. And then when that amount of time comes, then what? Right? So I have been really enjoying my runs and I'm really excited for the fall for my pumpkin spice body butter from Trader Joe's, but also to kind of see where running just like takes me this fall, like maybe take it into the woods and see how that feels and like check out the foliage and there's less bugs in the fall. I love going in the woods, but I really hate it in the summer because I hate bugs. So it puts a damper on things.

So anyways, I invite you.

I invite you my friend, if you are somebody who has traditionally hated running, and this is not to say like if you have knee injuries or back injuries or whatever and there's like a physical reason that running causes you pain, then obviously, like I still invite you to do whatever you want. I'm not going to disinvite you, but you know, listen to your body. That's the point of this episode. But I invite you, the next time you're out for a walk or maybe you don't even go for walks right now, I invite you to just go outside this season and put on a podcast, put on some music or don't. I've also been really enjoying going for walks without music or podcast and it's kind of scary because it forces me to focus on my thoughts but it also allows me to not have any distractions for that 30 minutes or 15 minutes or whatever. And I actually tend to come back from that jog or that walk with some really fun, like creative ideas, or I've been able to process something and I've been less anxious and I don't do it all the time, but I think that there's some benefit in doing that as well. But anyways, I invite you to just go outside this fall. And obviously I don't want you going from couch to 5K. I think that's probably a trademarked program. Please don't sue me. Without working your way up to it. But I invite you to just move yourself into a little bit of a jog. Let that heart rate come up a little bit. Get a little breathless, like whatever that looks like for you because how fast you go and how it impacts you is gonna be different for everybody. And just kinda see how it feels without any expectation. And then maybe try another interval, 20 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute. Again, it's all individualized. And then maybe a few days later or next week, you try it again and just see the difference, especially if you're somebody who used to run and it was like, I need to run so I can lose weight. There are lots of us out there who running was a means to weight loss, right? And now we don't, we stopped, right? And we just think that we hate running. And I just invite you to maybe give it another chance if you've been contemplating it. Again, just because something is joyful doesn't mean that it's not going to be uncomfortable or unchallenging.

Things that are uncomfortable, things that are challenging can also be joyful. That's something that gets lost in the conversation about joyful movement as well. So anyways, I would love to hear from you. I did just post on my Instagram page. Well, this is coming out a couple of weeks after I posted it, but I'd love to hear from you. You can email me at strongandsimplepodcast.gmail.com. You can find me on Instagram @StrongandSimplepodcast or at @Michelle_Farrell. And I would love to hear from you if you give this a try or if you have thoughts or if you have questions.

I think having an endpoint such as an event or a race can be incredibly motivating, can be very useful for helping us ensure that we are hitting certain training sessions, right? But I also think that there's incredible value to allowing ourselves to experience movement without such an expectation.

And I think there's room for both. I think just like so much in the fitness, nutrition, wellness world, everything is super polarized, especially on social media. And I think that just like in most things, it's actually something in the middle. Or it's an and both, it doesn't need to be either or. So let me know your thoughts, have a great day, and we will be back soon.