The Power in Motion Podcast

On today’s episode of The Joyful Movement Show, I’m chatting with Gillian Yuan about all the pressures on moms to do all the things and to do them right, all while facing hormonal changes, lack of sleep, body changes and adapting to their new role. We had a heart to heart chat about the challenges moms face and how these pressures to be a “good mom” actually cause us to disconnect with our intuiti...

We all have those days when we don’t feel like working out. It’s ok - and it doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong or that you’ve failed. Feeling unmotivated is an invitation to look deeper at our mindset or circumstances. In this episode, Kim will walk you through some questions you can ask yourself to see what’s contributing to your lack of motivation and how to decide what to do on those blah...

“Now just turn this into a lifestyle - and that’s how you’ll keep the weight off for good”... “Everyone can achieve a ‘healthy’ weight with enough hard work and discipline”... These are just two of the many lies the fitness industry tells to keep you coming back. Our guest on the show today learned very early in her career as a personal trainer that the things she was recommending to her clients w...

Intuitive movement is all about tuning in to how your body feels, how you want to feel and choosing movement that will help you get the desired feeling. Often though, we can get stuck in the “how”, where we’re unsure what type of movement to choose that will result in the feeling we are after. Diet culture is so effective in leading us to believe that there are right and wrong ways to exercise, th...

Our guest on the show today is a recovering perfectionist. She’s a nutritionist, and like myself and so many others in the industry always felt the pressure to be a role model for health - eat impeccably, exercise regularly, maintain an “ideal” weight. Like so many of us in this industry, we feel the need to live a life of perfection in order to inspire our clients. In our interview Ardelle will s...

On today’s episode we’re answering a listener’s question. She asked “is planning your workouts or movement sessions compatible with intuitive movement? I like the idea of listening to my body’s cues but I also like having some structure and I’m not sure what to do without a plan to follow”. Tune in to learn how it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Having a plan can be a helpful tool to keep you...

Feeling more confident is usually the goal behind the desire to lose weight. Everyone wants to FEEL better in and about their body, and it is their hope that changing their body will result in this feeling of confidence. The unfortunate reality is that weight loss doesn’t change how we view ourselves; the new found confidence we might experience feels inauthentic because it’s conditional upon our...

What goes through your mind when you hear fitspo ‘motivation’ saying “you have to be stronger than your excuses”? For me it screams “forget what’s going on in your mind or in your life, buck up and show up, drum up some willpower and just do it.” It’s not a very motivating phrase and is loaded with all or nothing, right and wrong, good and bad connotations. It minimizes the barriers we face and ta...

Setting and achieving goals can be a great way to challenge ourselves and celebrate the strength and power we often didn’t know was inside us. Mastering a new skill or participating in an event can be exciting, empowering and 100% joyful. --- But, for some - that feeling of success and accomplishment might be a brand new emotion. If you’ve always believed that your body was weak, incapable or wron...

Ok, so you know that movement would benefit you and you want to start moving in a joyful way, but where the heck do you start?! It can be overwhelming to know how to begin if you’ve never exercised or have had a difficult relationship with it in the past. In this episode, Kim will take you through a mini coaching session to help you get in the right mindset, with practical tips and steps to take t...

Pregnancy and the postpartum period are full of changes - physically, mentally and emotionally and moms struggle to accept themselves and their body during this time. That can lead to restrictive food behaviour, or engaging in exercise that is too intense or demanding and can potentially delay healing or cause damage. This only adds to the shame, pressure and confusion that is already often felt a...

Traditionally, in the fitness industry, progress and success are measured through external metrics like body weight, body fat percentage, body part measurements or fitness metrics such as heart rate, one rep max or running speed. But are these really accurate measures of “success”, or simply data points at a given point in time? And how does focusing on such metrics affect our relationship with mo...

May is mental health awareness month so it’s a perfect time to talk about the effects movement can have on our mental wellbeing. We are all familiar with the many benefits of physical activity on our mental health that are often touted as a reason to get active. Regular movement can contribute to reduced stress, improved mood and a clearer mind, better quality of sleep, a sense of social connectio...

Burnout - the general feeling of depletion or complete exhaustion is the inevitable result of overextending ourselves. With the global stress that is currently being experienced, many people are finding their bandwidth being consumed by new and increasing roles and responsibilities, alongside a multitude of significant stressors. In my fitness practice, I’m seeing the effects of burnout on people’...

In the non-diet space there tends to be a misconception that rejecting punitive, transactional exercise means rejecting intense activity and only doing gentle movement like walking or yoga. While it’s true that fitness culture and diet culture are deeply intertwined and often there’s a belief perpetuated that the only point of exercise is to achieve a certain look or level of fitness; it’s not tru...

For some, joyful movement can feel out of reach. Our history with sports, fitness, gyms and dieting can greatly influence our relationship with movement and our motivation to exercise. I’ll often hear from people “I don’t even know where to start. I can’t think of one type of movement I’d enjoy”. Often at the root of this concern is a belief that the purpose of movement is to lose or control our w...

If you follow any fitness influencers or trainers on instagram, then I venture to guess your feed is littered with pictures of women working out in sports bras and bike shorts, posing in their bikinis, flexing six packs and bubble butts. Or you’re seeing all kinds of “inspiring success stories” highlighting people’s weight loss journey - maybe you’ve even taken such photos or been a “before and af...

Creating a consistent movement practice, for some, is a huge behavioural change. And behavioural change is not easy. If you’ve ever tried to quit a habit or create a new one in the past, then you’ll understand what I’m talking about. It takes a lot of practice, a lot of focus and a lot of mental strength. Willpower is the tool we often rely upon when trying to make a habit change, and is defined a...

All or Nothing thinking abounds in the fitness industry. Effective but erroneous marketing leads us to believe that we must workout hard for an hour 5 days a week or there’s no point; that we must sweat and be sore or we did it wrong; that we must lift the weights, do the cardio, and we must do it fast, heavy and with intensity…. Otherwise we’ll never get healthy. I’ve met countless women who feel...

Excerpt: What do you do if you understand the concept of body neutrality and are at peace with your larger body, but still feel like you need to lose weight for your health? This is a common question amongst the people I work with. Many women will say, they “felt better” when they were smaller. So even though they want to embrace intuitive eating and a more relaxed approach to fitness, they still...

Excerpt: Our guest today, Stephanie Dodier is a non-diet, intuitive eating expert who helps women to go “beyond the food” to get to their root of their struggles with body image. On this episode, Stephanie and I had an in depth conversation about what she calls the “Good Girl Syndrome” - specifically how we are socialized as women to think, look and act a certain way. Tune in as Stephanie teaches...

Excerpt: Intuitive Eating, the un-dieted way of making peace with food, and your body is all about trusting your body to seek health by honouring your individual hunger, fullness and satisfaction. For those who live with a health condition, food intolerance or nutritional disease, however, intuitive eating can seem like an impossible luxury - only available to those who are able to “eat whatever t...

Excerpt: We all know that dieting is taboo these days. Rather, we’re taught to just be healthy. But we still find ourselves on restrictive eating plans and rigid exercise programs trying to achieve an idealized picture of health that can leave us feeling deprived, isolated or obsessed. In this episode, I’m joined by Chanelle Belliveau - Intuitive Eating and Body Image Coach, who like me has a long...

Excerpt: If you’ve been tuning in for a while, you’ll know that I’m a mom of 4 amazing humans and though I work really hard in my business, I consider parenting to be my most important job and it’s certainly the job that comes with the greatest challenges, joys, struggles, and rewards. I love being a mom and learning and growing alongside my kids. Every day they inspire me and make me proud and th...

Excerpt Working alongside women to help them discover joyful movement is my passion. But for some women, it can be really hard to even identify what WOULD be joyful for them. Depending on our perspective or history with exercise/sport - there aren’t always joyful memories associated with movement. However, when we were children, joy was our natural state. We did the things we loved without abandon...