Spiritual Principle: Duality
As a dietitian and personal trainer, I’m always looking for ways I can help people go beyond just the physical body and see their health as a holistic being. In this blog I’ll explain:
What is duality?
Where did duality come from?
What problems do I see with maintaining duality in regards to the health and fitness industry?
How can duality help you in your health and fitness journey?
What is duality?
Duality is the idea of holding space for two conflicting ideas. Holding the good and the bad at the same time. Realizing you can have one of your best accomplishments on the same day as you lay in bed and cry about a recent disappointment.
Here’s how a few dictionaries define the term.
According to Oxford Languages, an instance of opposition or contract between two concepts or two aspects of something.
According to Merriam-Webster, the quality or state of having two different or opposite parts or elements.
As I got further into the google rabbit-hole, I found some additional philosophical definitions from good old Wikipedia. Dualistic cosmology is a twofold division in several spiritual and religious worldviews. Dualism as a philosophy of mind, is where the body and mind are considered to be irreducibly distinct. In simpler terms, it can be the coexistence of the mind and the matter or the physical and the spiritual, two states in which all humans exist.
And finally, the Online Etymology Dictionary states, in the theological sense, dualism is a doctrine of two independent divine beings or eternal principles.
Where did duality come from?
Apparently, this term has been around since the days of the Greek philosopher Plato. He spoke of the duality of mind and matter, saying that one part of man lives in his mind, thinking and observing, while another part moves and creates. Greek philosophy also created the idea of “orphism”, of the body-tomb concept, which saw the body as a prison or tomb in which the soul, a divine element akin to the gods, is held. I also think the Christian idea of the body as a temple is an example of duality.
Okay, so you understand what the term means, but why am I writing about it as a dietitian and personal trainer? Let’s pivot a little and bring these ideas together.
What problems do I see with maintaining duality in the health and fitness industry?
When it comes to health, there are so many conflicting viewpoints. I’ve never really been the type to debate or argue. But the longer I’ve been in this industry, the more I realize, there are conflicting ideas and principles in every industry or career field. You can’t avoid it. And sometimes you need to be okay with expressing your views on a topic. As I started my business and creating my brand on social media, I knew I wouldn’t be able to please everyone. I knew that but it’s still hard to accept as a long time people pleaser.
At times I feel exhausted by the conflict I see in the health and fitness industry. I went into this career for 3 reasons: I wanted to make a positive impact in the world, I enjoy learning about the human body (& food) and exercise brings me joy. Simple as that. If you know me I am not always led by logic and I don’t believe we need to be. I trust my intuition, I feel deeply and I love people to the best of my ability. I bring these traits up because I feel a sense of clash between these values and fast paced, business focused energy I feel in the fitness and nutrition industry I am a part of.
If you’re a little lost, let me provide a few examples to hopefully get you back.
Example 1: Eating disorders verses weight management.
This is probably the most challenging area for me to navigate as I coach clients. There’s a clear divide in the dietetics community between dietitians who promote calorie & macronutrient counting for weight loss and those who denounce that and say we should fully trust our bodies and make peace with food because our weight is not an important indicator of health.
As someone who has personally experienced periods of disordered eating and body image issues (as I would argue most all men and women have), I really do resonate with the idea of body interoception and body neutrality that most “intuitive eating dietitians” promote. In case you haven’t heard this term before, intuitive eating is a practice that developed in 1995. It has roots in feminism and denounces the idea that we need to look a certain way to be healthy. It aims to prove diets don’t work and can actually be harmful.
Some ideas from intuitive eating I implement in my practice are:
Eliminating food rules
Not seeing foods as good or bad
Honoring hunger and fullness cues
Giving yourself unconditional permission to eat
Not following any specific diet
The conflict that exists for me comes from my time studying a topic you may know I’m pretty passionate about, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).
This condition involves a variety of factors including metabolic (blood sugar, cholesterol, weight), hormonal (fertility, menstrual irregularities), mental (anxiety & depression) and social (the environment we live in and grew up in). There’s a ton of scientific evidence out there that nutrition and exercise are two of the most important factors in reversing and managing the symptoms of this condition.
There are many not-so-intuitive eating friendly practices that have been studied for PCOS management. For example:
Fasting, which may improve insulin resistance & metabolic syndrome
Low carb diets which may also improve insulin resistance & metabolic syndrome
Calorie restricted diets which may lead to weight loss
High protein diets which may reduce leptin resistance and improve muscle protein synthesis (and thus loss of adipose tissue)
Knowing the science behind all of these things is important to me so I can safely incorporate the most effective protocols for clients.
Example 2: Functional medicine verses public health.
Functional medicine involves taking a root cause approach to one’s health, it usually means doing labs to assess things like vitamin and mineral status, digestion and hormones. Supplements, food and lifestyle recommendations are provided based off of the practitioner’s assessment. While this is an area of dietetics I have been exploring both personally and professionally (by seeking out mentors, trainings and resources), it is difficult for me to really see myself practice this way.
I’ve spent the last 7 months working for a public health program called Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Here I educated clients on feeding their children and discussed the WIC food package created by the USDA. The foods provided by WIC supplement the diet of pregnant and post-partum moms and their children (up to the age of 5). In these short appointments (15-45 minutes long) I would try to find just one health tip or piece of education I could give the client. There was no talk of gut health, blood sugar or hormone balance. For most of the clients, I suspect WIC is the only time they will speak with a dietitian in their life since preventative nutrition counseling is not recognized by insurance companies here in Iowa.
My point being, there’s a whole segment of the population who will never be able to utilize functional medicine. To me that intuitively just feels unfair. The fact is wealth creates the opportunity to be healthy, to get a fancy gym membership, purchase the best quality food and access so much more information about your body and how to keep it healthy.
Example 3: Plant based verses animal based.
The term “veganism” wasn’t really used until 1849 when Leslie J Cross created the term. It’s meaning being, “the principle of the emancipation of animals from exploitation by man”. The concept of veganism can be traced back to ancient Indian and eastern Mediterranean societies. Many religions practice vegan eating including Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. These three religions believe in the concept of Ahimsa, meaning kindness and non-violence towards all living things. I would say most religions believe in kindness and love, yet they don’t all discuss food as a part of this value.
I personally, experienced years of periodically avoiding meat and dairy throughout high school and college, and even a short 3 month period of going fully vegan. It started out as a food preference (I didn’t enjoy the tase of meat), then turned to an environmental value (I thought meat production was harmful to the environment which I no longer believe), then became a sneaky way to eat less calories and finally a practice I thought would balance my hormones (after reading one book written by someone with no medical or nutrition science background).
Needless to say, I now eat animal products with nearly every meal.
I have studied the science of vitamins and minerals in animal products as well as the teachings of leading food writers including Michael Pollan (author of Omnivore’s Dilemma) and Dianna Rodgers (author of the Sacred Cow). Some conflicting ideas that come into play include:
There are certain vitamins and minerals that are best well absorbed and in the highest quantities in animal based foods
Meat production can be done in a regenerative way to actually help the environment thrive, yet factory farms are taking over and making it harder for small, local farms to thrive
Is the naturally thin, vegan, green-juice drinking, pilates girl really healthy if she has no menstrual cycle, feels a constant anxiety about gaining weight and can’t go out for a late night slice of pizza with her friends?
Example 4: Body positivity verses self acceptance.
I’ll keep this one short & sweet.
Can we accept ourselves as we are while still wanting to change our physical appearance? Can these changes lead to better health while also a feeling of more self confidence?
Is wanting to lose weight a bad thing if you believe in feminism and rejection of the idea that a woman’s value is in her body?
Concluding thoughts
Are you more confused than when you started reading?
I hope not.
My goal was to get you thinking and to realize that you can (and will have to) make space for duality on your health journey. I believe there is always a middle ground and we don’t need to make everything so black and white.
I hope you see that duality means you will need to eat when you feel stressed or sad, but you can choose to eat a chocolate bar instead of a salad because you don’t feel hungry that day. You can still be proud of the fact that you have been tracking your protein intake without needing to follow the perfect diet. You can go to pilates without looking like the vegan pilates instructor. You can buy supplements and organic bread while still knowing our food system is fu*ked up and not at all equitable. You can choose to love yourself while still having a hormonal acne breakout.
Thank you for reading,
Stay well,
Love Kelli
