Should you always listen to your body?

by Sophie Allen

Okay, so I want to start this by saying YOU and YOU ALONE know what’s best for you and your body at any given time. You should always listen to your body’s signals, and rest when you are sick, injured, super stressed or run down. However, I do believe there is a fine line between ‘listening to your body’, and making excuses. 

No, you don’t need to nail every session and hit your macros to the gram every day to see results. However, if you are chasing certain body composition related goals, then there will be times where you need to rely on discipline and self-control, instead of always listening to your body. There are days when the LAST thing I want to do is train, but I show up because it’s important to me and I remain disciplined. 

If you have a fat loss goal, there may be times where you need to exercise self-control, or limit your intake of a certain food even though your body wants more. If you’re trying to build muscle, there might be days where you are tired and cbf going to the gym, but you need to practice discipline and show up anyway. 

If you are constantly using the excuse of 'listening to your body' just because you couldn't be bothered or don't feel like it, then you may need to check in with yourself. You will need to make some sacrifices to achieve your goals, which means doing the hard things, having self-discipline, and getting out of your comfort zone. 

So, what does listening to your body actually look like? Here are some key differences between actually listening to your body, and just making excuses. 

Listening to your body:

  1. Resting when you are sick or injured
  2. Prioritising your sleep if you are tired
  3. Stopping when you are full
  4. Pulling back if you are very overtired or stressed
  5. Not getting your steps in because you are unwell 

Making excuses:

  1. Missing a session because you couldn't really be bSophiethered
  2. Sleeping in because it's cold
  3. Eating past fullness (Btw…it’s totally okay to do this sometimes! It’s just important to be mindful of your fullness cues, especially when you have a fat loss goal)
  4. Stopping a set because it feels hard
  5. Not hitting your steps because you don’t feel motivated 

Remember, you CAN do hard things gf! It just takes a little bit of discipline and consistency. You got this!

Soph x 

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