Transcript: What Babies Know About Movement That We Forgot
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Ashley Grant introduces the episode and plays a voice note from Shirley Billigmeyer, founder of Energetics, who argues that humans are born with natural eating boundaries and a desire to move — using infants as the example — and that reclaiming personal choice over food and movement leads back to that innate wisdom.
Maybe we could learn a thing or two from children about fitness and nutrition. What's up, you guys? Famous Sasha Grant here. Welcome to More Movement, Please, the podcast where I hope to inspire you to move your body more. Today, I have another voice note for you, and this one comes to us from Shirley Billigmeyer, and here's what she had to say. I'm Shirley Billigmeyer, the founder. of energetics. Energetics is inner spelled I -N -N -E -R because it is your own energy from within, your choice. And this is key regardless if it is your choice of what you are eating or how you are moving. Choice is your identity and it is important to own what gives you life, food, and how you move forward in life, both physically and mentally. And once you are choosing what to eat and how to move, you own it. and it will become permanent and pleasurable. We are born with our own eating boundaries and the desire
to move. Think of an infant. They know when they are hungry, they want to start eating. And they certainly know when they are no longer hungry, they want to stop eating. And they will be quite forceful in their desire to stop eating. They will spit it out, throw it, clench those little lips to tell you they want to stop eating. and they could care less about their weight or their diaper size. They simply want to stop eating.
We were also born with over 10 ,000 taste buds, unique to each and every one of us, to let us know what feels good to us. True health, how you feel. It is why the research keeps changing. The research isn't wrong. It depends on how that group of people responds to a particular food or group of foods in the study. For example, if you read that shrimp is healthy, yet when you eat it, you have a reaction, who really is the final authority? You are. In addition, have you ever seen an infant not want to learn and get moving? It is our natural desire to want to learn and move. So what happened to our natural eating boundaries and our desire to move? We just stopped listening to ourselves and stopped.
making our own choices. And we left the one place that had all the answers, our gut brain, our own wisdom, our own selves that houses our identity created from total and complete choice of what we eat and how we decide our movement. And once we reclaim it, we reclaim the joy of eating and the joy of movement and the joy of living in a body you love living in without storage, which is my term for fat, because it is truly stored information. You can follow me on Instagram at energeticsmethod or check out my website, Energetics.
Ashley responds to Shirley's message, connecting it to the nature vs. nurture tension in how people develop eating and movement habits, and shares a personal example of packing healthier road trip snacks as a way of retraining the brain toward better choices.
So I find that kind of fascinating, what Shirley said about the fact that we could actually learn something from children, basically. Because when you really think about it, our food, our nutrition, our movement, it really was something that was like nurtured. Nature tells us, you know, we want to move our bodies more and that we want to eat things that are feeling good to us and healthy for us. But nurture is what. kind of creeps up on us and makes us think that, well, okay, if everybody else is drinking sodas, I drink sodas. Or if I'm served a bunch of sugar, I'm supposed to consume a bunch of sugar. And at some point, you have to make a decision for yourself. You have to decide that you want to kind of go back to the better way of doing things, which is moving your body more and consuming foods that are good for you. And I said something about this recently. that you know for my road trip we chose to pack snacks that were a little
bit healthier and you know not just a bunch of crap because that's one thing that's really bad about road trips is that it's very easy to just reach for chips and cookies and candy bars and all kinds of junk but if you're constantly reaching for junk then you're training your brain and your body that you want junk But if you are reaching for healthier foods, you're training your mind and your body that you want healthier foods.
So I really like what Shirley had to say. I hope you guys enjoyed it too. And if y 'all want to leave a voice note for me too, to be featured on the show, I would love to hear from y 'all. Whether you're a fitness industry expert or just someone who's on the same journey as I am and want to talk about it, please hit me up, famousalshagrant.com backslash fitness. I would love to hear from y 'all. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Onwards and upwards, my friends. Have you worked out today?