166: What We Can Learn From Simone Biles

Thrive Beyond Size

Hello there, friends. Welcome back to Thrive Beyond Size. As you probably guessed from the title, today I want to talk about Simone Biles, the world’s best and most decorated gymnast, who recently blew us away with her grace and incomparable physical skill in Paris. She won 3 gold and 1 silver medal in the Paris Olympics. But I think back on her bowing out of the Tokyo Olympics four years earlier as a different kind of shining example of courage and skill. She stepped down to take care of her mental health. She knew her body was ready but there was a disconnect in her mind and she acknowledged how important it was to be mentally ready too, to have mind and body work in harmony. That was a beautiful decision. But it must have been challenging for her to do. And that’s what I want to talk about, doing the difficult thing that’s best for us.

When I look at my own life struggle with diet culture and weight loss, and I hear the stories I’m privileged to have other women share with me, I often realize that the reason we aren’t taking charge of our health is because it’s too big of a change right now. It’s frightening. It’s hard. And what I now teach people to do is what I had to do myself. That is take a look at where we’ve been for years and years, the way we’ve treated and showed up for our bodies, and make that incredibly challenging decision, much like Simone Biles, to step down from all of that and embrace a new way of thinking. I talk about how part of the fear is the sunk cost fallacy, that we’ve already invested so much of our time into dieting that we don’t want it to be a waste, and part of it is that we’re terrified of giving our bodies what they actually need which is the idea behind intuitive eating. In order to change direction and take care of ourselves mind and body, we need to first make that big bold courageous decision to step away from dieting and embrace something different. Something healthier. So join me because we’re going to talk about exactly that in today’s episode. I’m going to share my journey and we’re going to explore what we can learn from Simone Biles.

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Resources mentioned in this episode:

• CNN: Simone Biles reflects on Tokyo Olympics in ‘Rising’
• Episode 137: Talking About Your Body in Relationships with Rob Issa

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About Dr. Michelle Tubman:

Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.

She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.

As the old adage goes, how we do one thing is how we do everything. It's very true that how we do food is often how we do life too. And if we've been struggling with food and body image, there's a good chance that other domains of our lives are contributing - relationships, family, work, money, sexuality, stress. Michelle knows that coaching us through all of this is what leads to our true transformation - from the inside out.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram
• Email Michelle: [e-mail]