endorphasMIC
Join Erica each week as she delves deep into all things wellness, fitness, nutrition, entertainment, entrepreneurship, and spirituality. These intimate, deep, and often intense conversations go beyond the traditional podcast. They are designed to provoke, educate, inspire, and empower you to discover, uncover, unlock, and unleash your best, most authentic self.
To live. To feel alive. Because I can. Because I’m human. Because my humanity demands it! Movement. We weren’t wired this way by accident. Our physical and mental health is by design, dependent on movement. We are designed to feel good when we move because survival depends on movement. This was an obvious truth when hunting, gathering, and farming; our existence depended on our ability and desire to do survival tasks, so our bodies are chemically and hormonally designed to make us feel good when doing them. It is a much less obvious truth in modern society, but no less relevant. The endorphasm is the moment during movement you feel anything is possible. Clarity. This podcast is the exploration of movement as the foundation for a productive, fulfilling, rewarding, most excellent life.
endorphasMIC
Beyond the Mirror
Ever wondered why so many people follow fitness influencers who look great in bikinis but have questionable qualifications? Let’s shake up the conversation about fitness, social media, and self-worth.
Welcome to Endorphasm, where we talk about all things. Endorphasm, I'm your hostess, erica Porter, and I'm just kind of giggling as I say that, because Carlo's always laughing at me for saying hostess. He's like nobody says hostess. Everybody refers to themselves as a host and therefore, more of the reason why I will forever refer to myself as the hostess the hostess with the mostest. So I want to talk about and I've talked about this before is my love-hate relationship with social media and fitness advice. It's on my mind constantly because I'm always asked like what do you eat, erica? What do you do? Okay, the love hate relationship I have with social media, its purpose and the irresponsibility of people using it, is what drives me batshit crazy.
Speaker 1:I have been in the fitness industry for over 30 years certified, educated, re-educated, deliberate in my approach as a trainer and a coach. I stay in my wheelhouse, I take my work seriously, but I also see a lot of nonsense out there, and today I want to break it down. Social media I can't get my little my messing with my computer. There's a lot of misinformation. Here's the thing I am not a registered dietitian and I do not give nutrition advice because I am not qualified to do so what I do is express the value of keeping things in their most natural state and listening to how your body feels. That's the key your body, your rules. I could eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner and feel amazing. Someone else might feel like absolute garbage. We're all different, but here's where social media messes things up. People are following fitness influencers simply because they look good in a bikini, in board shorts, whatever it is. They never stop and ask what are their actual qualifications? What have they done beyond looking good? Are they even educated in the field? Are they even educated in the field? Why are we blindly following someone who sells a lifestyle, not a science-backed approach to movement, my approach to nutrition and movement.
Speaker 1:And let me be very real I don't meal prep, I don't take supplements, I don't use protein powders. I barely get 50 grams of protein a day. I eat what I like Pancakes, bagels, ice cream, beans, chips I'll put spinach in my stuff, broccoli, whatever it is. And guess what? I feel great because how I look is fleeting. It's not how I measure my self-worth. Aging, having a baby, fighting cancers, those things fucked with my body.
Speaker 1:And if I based my happiness solely on what I see in the mirror I would be depressed and angry and annoyed, and that's not to say that I don't look fucking amazing, because to me I absolutely do. But how I looked prior to cancer, how I looked prior to a baby, is a very different than 50-year-old Erica Porter sitting here in my house recording this podcast. It is not the same, but that is why I move not to look a certain way, but to feel a certain way. And, trust me, I lived in a space where I thought my value was solely dependent on how I looked. The truth about fitness, the truth about my fitness journey, is I make a living sharing the joys of movement, but not because it makes you look good, because it makes you feel good and listen. That's not to say that we should not embrace when we've had transformations, or we should not be overjoyed when we put in work and we like what we see. That's okay, but if you are solely basing your happiness, and what you feel is your self-worth on that, that is dangerous, it is unhealthy.
Speaker 1:And again, the body, how it looks, is fleeting. Everything in life is fleeting. How we feel, though. How we feel is the most long lasting thing we will ever have, and it's so critical in our life. Movement makes you feel good. Movement is essential. It is a game changer. It allows us to operate with confidence and ease. So here's an exercise I want you to do, and I don't mean movement. I want you to step in front of a mirror, I want you to take a look in the mirror and now I want you to close your eyes and I want you to tell me what you see. That's what's real Social media. That's a highlight reel. Don't let it dictate how you value yourself. So, before you take advice from someone online, ask yourself is this person really helping me out or just selling me something? Be deliberate, be intentional, move for you and, most importantly, trust how you feel over how you look. Trust how you feel over how you look. That is it Love, health and happiness and always much respect.
