( Women ’ s Health )
NARDIA NORMAN
MOVEMENT AS NOURISHMENT
Nardia Norman explains how movement can be nourishing .
omeone mocked me the other day for saying ' movement is
S nourishment for my soul '. It was met with one of those
under-the-breath snorts and a ' you serious ?' look .
When he realised I was 100 per cent serious he backtracked .
20 years old : Hockey was taking a back seat . I started working with a personal trainer for the first time ever . Initially the focus was on getting me super fit , however I then switched the goal to weight loss . Fitness became less about performance and more about aesthetics .
I am unapologetic about saying movement is nourishment for my soul . I love it . It fuels me . I use movement as a way of connecting in with myself and my body . It centres me , grounds me ; I love feeling strong , fit and free .
However this mindset is relatively new – it ' s only become part of me in the past four or five years . Before that – wowsers , I had a tumultuous journey ( read : one big freakin ' mess !).
Here ' s a very ( very ) brief PG version of this journey :
23 years old : Decided to train for my first competition . Disaster . I couldn ' t handle the egg whites and low fat diet ( this was when fat was still the devil ). I trained like a demon and I hated life as a result . Fitness had become all about beating my body into submission .
24 to 33 years old : One big horrible mess of body loathing , self loathing , angst , punishment , competig , sex , drugs and rock and roll ... ( a decade of extreme craziness and dark periods which I will share the details of one day ).
10 years old : Started playing sport . This was fun !
14 years old : Started worrying about my body shape and consciously made the decision to change my body shape because I hated it . Simultaneously was playing representative hockey so fitness was about performance . At this point I hadn ' t connected the dots between training and body shape , so for the most part fitness was still fun .
16 years old : Hockey was my life . Fitness directly equated to performance . But on the side I was manipulating my food intake .
17 years old : Joined my first gym and became a step aerobics junkie . I attended with an older friend who was persistently telling me how much she hated her body and needed to lose weight . I thought that was cool .
18 years old : Hello university , hello beers , hello first-year massive weight gain ! Hockey was still about performance for me , but the focus had turned to my keg-like physique .
34 years old : Realised that I was in control of my own happiness and that this was entirely independent of how I looked . I started to use movement as a way to heal the relationship that I had with food , exercise and all my past wounds .
Present day : For me , movement is now a form of self-love and selfcare . I still train hard and intensely at times , but it is done from a place of wonder and appreciation . My focus is not on how I look or measure up against society ' s definition of beauty ; instead , it is all about how I feel . Sure , I love looking good because I take pride in my apprearance , but I don ' t train to gain external validation . These days I validate myself , and movement is the vehicle that fuels this inner strength and peace . I ' m still a work in progress but nowadays fitness = fun and it is a form of self-love and self-care . So to the dude who mocked me , this is why movement nourishes my soul !
YOU CAN CONTACT NARDIA VIA : Web : nardianorman . com | Facebook : nardia . norman Twitter : @ nardianorman | Instagram : @ nardianorman
OH ! MAGAZINE ( SEPTEMBER 2016 ) 23