Episode 58: Real Life Body Positivity + My Pilates Mat Training with Carla Contreras

Podcast

Episode 58: Real Life Body Positivity + My Pilates Mat Training with Carla Contreras

“You are whole and complete just as you are right now in this moment .” — Carla Contreras

This podcast episode is deeply personal. It’s about healing my body after the two emergency c-sections of both my children less than 16 months part.

I also include my Pilates Mat Training journey with Patricia Pinto of Lila Flow. It completely shifted the view my body and healing.

Journal Prompts:

1. Are you comfortable and at home in your body?

2. What could you make you feel more comfortable and at home in your body?

3. Do you need support in making that happen?

I am excited to hear your thoughts! Listen on ITUNES + Spotify Please tag me @chefcarlacontreras on Instagram so I can continue the conversation with you. Use the hashtag #showupfullypodcast

Eat Well,

xo Chef Carla

PS: Curious about becoming a Health Coach too? Listen to this episode.

About Chef Carla Contreras

For the last 24 + years, I’ve worked as a trained chef in: Restaurants, hotels, as a chef instructor at three culinary schools, and personal chef in New York City.

Since 2013, I have been sharing my gift of content creation with publications and brands like Better Homes and Gardens, The Wall Street Journal, Shape Magazine, justBobbi.com, Nutritious Life, Well + Good.

In my personal brand, I not only show up for the hard things, I own them and then share them with the world, like my $38,000 lesson I learned in my business and evolution of a Digital Entrepreneur over the last ten years.

In my online courses, I bring my years of experience as a trained chef, content creator, health and life coach, and meditation teacher to help you with you shift mindset around cooking & the content creation process. Learn more here

Find + Work With Carla:

Online Courses & Book: Learn more here

Instagram: @chefcarlacontreras

Full Transcript:

00:00.00

chefcarla_77

Hey, it Chef Carla and welcome to Show Up Fully. This is a podcast where I share what it's like to show up for your real life if you don't know me I'm a food stlus photographer and health coach. You can find me. It's Carla Contreras on Instagram and more information in today's show notes this episode is a solo cast. And it's going to be about body positivity healing and my body's mat training I have a question for you first. Are you comfortable in your body are you at home in your body and take a moment to really think about these questions for me. I feel like at different points in my journey I could have said yes a hundred percent I feel at home in my body a hundred percent I feel comfortable in my body but after 2 emergency c-sections with my children I was on a healing journey. Actually I've been on a healing journey for the last six years my first emergency c-section with my daughter I was unable to walk even 1 block postpartum and I was a person that moved I did boot camp I did yoga i. Ran a five k when I was pregnant with my daughter I moved every single day of that pregnancy so not being able to move was a big deal and then I got pregnant with my son and. Sixteen months apart I had another emergency c-section now with that c-section I was able to heal in a different way I actually have a post on my blog about my healing journey with my son I took a lot more rest and recuperation. I went upstate to my sisters and they took care of me I was able to really rest and heal. But that being said I still was going to physical therapy and I started pallodies as part of my healing practice and to support. The pt that I was doing and my friend I saw on Instagram and I actually took her yoga classes in New York City many many moons ago. Her name is Patricia Pinto and her and her business partner have. A company called lila flow theres both pallodia training ploties Matt and yoga training teacher training and when I saw the palottis Matt teacher training I was like this is for me I'm going to do this now.

02:46.80

Did I set out wanting to be a pallodis mat instructor. Absolutely not. This was more for my learning and so I checked in with my pt and actually she has been on this podcast as a podcast snack and I will link that in the show notes as well. Dr. Keneal Siegel she is absolutely incredible and I checked in with a couple of polites instructors that I regularly go to their classes and I'm like I'm thinking about doing this for my own personal practice like what is your thoughts and. Everyone agreed that it was more for me to have an understanding of my body and understanding of how the exercises in palottis work now if you don't know about palottis it was started by Joseph Palottis and the original way that this was designed was through a hospital bed and springs and it really was a healing practice that Joseph developed and he developed it for himself First he called it controlology and then he went to New York and started to train ballet dancers and. You know it's an incredible history. But for me, it was really important and part of my healing practice to go to pal plotti's class to go to pt and when I started to take the pallatis mattt training now I started the palottis Matt training. Back in 2021 and I was really uncomfortable in my body I'm going to be straight up and share this with you I was very uncomfortable I have some injuries in my abdomen. In my upper abdomen I have very tight hips like there's all these things that go on I have some pain in my back which is all linked to the core. All of these muscles. You know they all connect and I was having a lot of pain. And I took the first 2 days of the pallatis mat training and I was like um I am not comfortable teaching these and taking the test and then somehow the universe brought up a food styling gig and. I wasn't able to finish the palottis match training and it kind of weighed on me that I didn't finish this training that I missed half of the class. So Patricia got in touch with me and she's like.

05:33.70

I'm offering this class in January of 2022 I would love you to be part of it again so I retook the training and again I had that fear of like um I'm going to teach this in front of people like I have a lot of injuries that I'm healing. I'm healing a lot of things in my body and some of the pallatis poses I am physically unable to do but the amazing thing about palottis is that there's always modifications and this is such a beautiful way to look at things. That we can always shift our perspective. We can always do something differently and so I took palottis 1 and 2 um the first two classes and then I went to the study class and. Then we had a Friday night class where we learned therapeutics now I'll explain this very quickly basically therapeutics is really learning about your body and the different ways that you may compensate. So I'm gonna explain this. So. Maybe your shoulder on the left is raised a little bit. Maybe you had an injury. Maybe your neck is lengthened a little bit more on the right side. Maybe your right hip is up just like a micro centimeter or so and people can really identify this and then. What the beauty of Pallas is is that through palottis exercise we can create balance that's actually 1 of the principles of Palloti is to create balance in the body and so as part of the therapeutics exercise for us to learn this but thicia actually. Explained it herself in her body like what things that she's working on what injuries. She's had what experience that she's had with paloties and shifting her body and working through healing it was fascinating. And then we had to break out into groups and and basically do this on each other and Patricia prefaced this that if we were uncomfortable with people looking at our body. We did not have to do it now. The person in me that is healing. And the person in me that is also what I considered not a dancer body. Not a paloti's body but a mother of 2 that really is on a healing journey I was a little bit nervous about.

08:21.31

People looking at my body looking at like where are there you know areas that I might have compensation or unevenness or you know even just like lifting up because we had to wear form fittting clothes in order for people to see our body. So even like lifting up my shirt and and showing my belly it was. It was a thing but I breathed through it and I wanted to really experience the process of it and by doing that process. It helped me shift I literally feel like I had a seismic shift and being at home in my body and being really you know whole and complete no matter what injuries I have no matter what asymmetries I have no matter what's going on because people were. Able to really see me and see me for who I am the human that I am and I was able to do that for other people it was mind blowing and. This is I just wanted to share this experience I think it was one of the most profound experiences that I've had with my body and if you are in a place where you're not at home in your body or you you know. Are not comfortable in your body I invite you to tri po polite and this is I guess the message for this. This podcast is that palot is meant for all bodies for all shapes for all sizes for all. Abilities and this really opened my eyes that there is a potential for healing and maybe your answer isn't palloius. Maybe your answer is something else but I do invite you to. Open the door to possibility that you fit in you matter and that you are whole and complete just as you are right now in this moment listening to this podcast. I would love if you could share this message in any way shape or form that you like text message email creating a story on Instagram and I would love to hear about your experience with this podcast. You can always send me a Dm. It's Carla Contreras on I g.

11:07.47

I'm sending you and yours so much. Love by.