S1 E-12: Redefining Wellness for Marginalized Bodies with Dr. Eli Parrish (pt 2)
Welcome back to the Colorful Futures Podcast! It’s time for Part Two of my conversation with Dr. Eli Parrish (he/they), a Doctor of Physical Therapy and founder of Ally Wellness. If Part One got you thinking, you’re going to love what’s coming next.
We’re talking about building awareness and managing ADHD symptoms, how to balance movement and rest when your job demands a lot, and why self-care doesn’t always mean doing the most. (Sometimes, it’s as simple as getting supportive insoles—which is seriously a game-changer, honestly.)
Dr. Eli also shares how to integrate small bursts of movement into your day without turning it into a full-on gym session and why being kinder to yourself might be the best career advice out there. If you’ve ever felt like juggling work, wellness, and life can all be jussstttt a bit much, this episode has the tips and reminders you didn’t know you needed. 🎧✨
TRANSCRIPT
Liora Natania: Welcome back to another episode of the Colorful Futures podcast. Today we're continuing the conversation that we started last week with Dr. Eli Parrish. So if you haven't already, go back and listen to the first half and then come right back here to hear the rest.
So you were talking about building kind of that awareness and noticing, you know, what is happening. I'm curious if you have any tips for kind of, building that awareness or noticing things, especially for folks like neurodivergent people, folks with ADHD, autistic folks who may struggle with interoception and actually being able to tune into those signals.
Because I know some people can relate to this, but I'll like, sit here for hours. And then suddenly I'll be like, I'm like about pee my pants because I haven't even like noticed that I have to do that.
Eli Parrish: Timers, I think, are the most important. It's like one of my top three PT tools. I probably have five or six timers in this house scattered about. They're magnetic, so they're like on the fridge, everywhere so that I can set 30 to 45 minute timers to remind me to do something else. And that's both for me if I get hyper-focused on something.
Anxiety is something I struggle with so it's also like my anxiety timer, like you can freak out about this for 30 minutes. Like just scatter around, do what you gotta do. And like mixed in with me doing random tasks and getting distracted and all that. And then the timer rings and I'm like, okay, we're gonna sit down now.
That also works as far as like, relieving pain. A lot of like, people work at desks, which is most of us in modern society, I feel like. You should sit or stand probably every 30 minutes, which is ambitious in the beginning. But I say, like, if that's not going to happen, set a timer for an hour, hour and a half, and then set another timer for five minutes and do something, walk around, do nothing, zone out, but like get in a different position than you were in before.
So the timer is tool one, I think.
Liora Natania: I'm like hiding because I'm like, I definitely go like four hours.
Eli Parrish: Yeah, no, four hours is out. No, not approved. I don't really do hard no’s like that, but.
Liora Natania: Like that's a, that's going to be a no. Yeah.
Eli Parrish: Unless the capitalist overlords demand that you sit somewhere for four hours, which does happen. Like if you have the freedom to get up, I would encourage you to set that timer. External timer is important. I don't believe in phone timers. Phones are useful, but for some things that phone timer sets you up for staying at the desk a little bit longer.
Liora Natania: Yeah, and I get so distracted if I set that to, I have this little rainbow timer. For folks who are only listening, it's just like a little analog, I don't know how you would even describe this. Just like a little turn knob and then you can go up to an hour.
Eli Parrish: It's colorful, too.
Liora Natania: Yeah. And when you I'm not going to turn it because it'll make a noise. But when you turn it, it's a little rainbow and a cloud.
Eli Parrish: That's perfect.
Liora Natania: Yeah, it's so good.
Eli Parrish: That's so nice. Tip two, like making whatever your item is a little bit fun.
Liora Natania: Yeah, everything's got to be fun. That's why when I did my office, I got like a pink office chair and I got a nice fancy, I splurged on an electric standing desk, which has helped so much. Cause when my knees and my hips start to get antsy, I'm like, I think I need to stand. Cause I've been sitting for, you know, half the day.
Eli Parrish: That's awesome. I love that standing desk. I actually saw a couple in the thrift store the other day. They're that, been around that long now that they're showing up. Usually it's the one that you put on top of a desk and you go up and down. But still, you know.
Liora Natania: That's what I had for the longest time. It was still helpful. This was like, I redid my whole office. I’m like, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna do the thing.
Eli Parrish: I’m proud of you.
Liora Natania: Thank you.
Eli Parrish: I saw that gaming chair too.
Liora Natania: There's a foot rest. There's a lumbar pillow.
Eli Parrish: See, self care.
Liora Natania: I'm like, if I'm gonna sit here for like 40 plus hours, it’s gotta be comfy.
Eli Parrish: Oh yeah, that does not get you four hours, though.
Liora Natania: No, no. But it's, we try, we try.
Eli Parrish: Some days you do better than others.
Liora Natania: Yeah. Anything else that you have to share about how we can maintain our physical wellness while working? I think you shared some tips but I know like not everyone sits all day. Some people, for the longest time, I had the opposite problem. I was standing for 10, 12 hours a day.
So I guess just like what are the different things that folks can try to incorporate into their day to help maintain that physical wellness?
Eli Parrish: I think a big thing is capitalism makes things hard. Rest is important. It's more important than we give it credit for. And I think a lot of times we have like, a health, wellness obsessed society that has gone a bit into overdrive, I think. Like there are some elements that are great, but also there's only so much a person can do.
So I think one thing for people, especially people who have movement jobs, jobs that require you to be on your feet or do repetitive motions, is taking rest when you can and not feeling necessarily bad that you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing exercise wise, because your job in and of itself is its own movement routine. And then honoring yourself in that way and that you are kind of in that way, you're almost an athlete that has to do a lot of performance that's hard on the body.
And so finding ways that you can rest and recover, things like getting insoles for your shoes if you stand on your feet all day. And they don't have to be expensive. There's a study that came out that custom orthotics and Dr. Scholl's that you buy in the store have about the same benefit for people. So if you're a person that works on your feet all day go ahead and get you some CVS brand inserts and put them in your shoes.
Oh, ice, heat, and compression, like classic, old school, better than most things that people will give you in the beginning of an injury. Things like wearing a wrist sleeve. Like, I had a repetitive use injury for a while working at Whole Foods, cutting fish. So this wrist gets grumpy once in a while. And if that happens, I'll put a brace on it. I'm not worried that it's like, out of place or anything, but the compression itself is helpful for pain relief.
So I guess finding ways to do self care and recognizing that the life that you live is its own form of movement and that even if you're not like, in the gym throwing weights and grunting at people, that movement can be a part of your life too and probably is. And then for those who are able, you know, walking is always my favorite, like take a walk.
In a way, kind of like having a smartwatch. I have like, an off-brand one now because Fitbit is like, self-destructing because Google bought it. But, yeah, they're anyway. But it's also a good reminder for me when I'm walking around because I walk in between clients and I'll be like, I didn't work out today. That same kind of thing. And I'll look down. like, I had 7,000 steps and it's 12 o'clock in the afternoon. Let me go sit down. You know what I mean?
Liora Natania: Not to mention like all the demonstration that you do.
Eli Parrish: Oh yeah, that's true.
Liora Natania: In your sessions. Like, you didn't even think about that.
Eli Parrish: I don't because I'm like, I have to do two and everybody else does like six to 12.
Liora Natania: Yeah, but how many clients do you have in a day where you're doing like two, three random reps?
Eli Parrish: One day I came home and I was like, why are my legs shaking? I'm like, you're tired. So also, like a little of that self parenting where you're like, it's okay.
I think the body and ourselves, sometimes we're still toddlers in a way, and like having that toddler compassion where it's like you're wild right now, but that's appropriate and helping yourself calm down.
Liora Natania: Yeah. When we were just talking about how built into your work is sort of all these little micro movement moments where you're like demonstrating a couple reps of something for someone and then all of that adds up. It reminds me of something that I've been trying to experiment with that recently of, I get stuck in this all or nothing thinking of like, if I'm not doing 30, 40 minutes of a workout, then I'm just not going to do it because like it doesn't count or whatever.
And something that I've been kind of experimenting with is like, if I only have 10 minutes, I'll do like 10 reps of something and like 10 reps of something else and then go about my day. Or if I'm like walking by the weights in the afternoon, like I'll do 5,10 reps of something and then go about my day. And I feel like that's been really helpful to just have those small moments or like watching TV. I'll just stand up and like, start stretching or whatever.
Usually it's cause I get antsy, but yeah. And it's been a really interesting shift cause like, it's not anything I track. Like I don't start my watch and say, I'm doing a workout or I don't like, write it down. But sometimes when I'm not tracking, it's like, it doesn't feel real. But I'm like, no, I'm literally just moving and I'm doing things throughout my day.
Eli Parrish: Yeah, which is probably how, you know, human beings functioned for most of time. You know? Yeah, like ancient man.
Liora Natania: Hunter gatherer.
Eli Parrish: Yeah, it's like, for kicks, like, no, that's not -
Liora Natania: Right.
Eli Parrish: You do that if you have to. And then you chill. Yeah, I had a friend that I started training a long time when I first started the business and I used to tell him everything counts. That was like the motto. So I was like, you know, you have these opportunities for movement, which might not seem like opportunities.
You know, parking in the city is treacherous and you might have to lift a 12 pound bag of cat food, you know, from, from the car to your door. And it might be a little far and you can take breaks, but you basically just did like a deadlift and a shuttle run and you still got to put it away later.
So there's usually some way you can work like you're doing now, which is awesome. Like these bursts of movement and then, you know, keep it going.
Liora Natania: And I want to be clear for all the ADHDers listening. I don't do this regularly. This is something I've done semi-regularly since -
Eli Parrish: Yeah, like not a plan. Like now I have to have a...
Liora Natania: Yeah. And I mean, I don't think I've done that for the past week since I had my cycle start, but like, you know, it's something on the mind. Anytime I get your text reminders, which we talked about a little before we pressed record, but I want to mention this again, it just made physical therapy and training and just like intentional movement so much more accessible because I think you were the, even the one who mentioned it of like, Hey, do want me to send you reminders? How often do you want them? Whatever.
And now like every couple days, I get this text from you being like, do your program, let me know how it goes. And I'm like, yeah, good reminder.
Eli Parrish: That's awesome. I like that. And I think that's kind of cool because that came organically cause I know that's something I would need, you know what I mean? So I'm glad that it works because yeah, it helps to have some outside stimulus to get things done.
Liora Natania: Yeah. And because like my, my time blindness is off the charts. I mean, even today I was like, when's the last time I saw you? It's been like months. And in my mind, it also feels like a couple of weeks.
Eli Parrish: It was yesterday.
Liora Natania: Yeah. So that kind of helps to be like, right. Okay. It has been a couple days. Let me check in with myself where I'm at. What do I have to do?
If you could give yourself in the past or someone going through figuring out what they want to do in their career, what type of advice would you have for them? Or if you know, if you could go back and give yourself any kind of advice as you were navigating being on the boats and figuring out what you want to do and experiencing all of that. What would you say?
Eli Parrish: So much advice. I think two things come to mind. The first one was like, relax a little bit more, easier said than done. But I, like I said, I never wanted to be a physical therapist. I didn't know what it was. My mom was a nurse and I had no intention of doing nursing. Like healthcare was not remotely on my mind.
And I find myself saying, often, even though it still feels weird, I'm glad that this is the career that I have because it actually feels, it feels good. And that's despite like, I have debt, you I think that's, that's something that a lot of us face in the United States of America for various reasons. And even with that, I'm like, this is what I want to do. So that's really cool.
And I also would encourage myself to be okay with my own motivations for doing what I want to do. I think a lot in the beginning of my career, choices were based on what I thought I should be doing because I had this background or, you know, I graduated from school and I was good at this thing. So I should do that.
And if I work doing some other type of job, like when I was working in Whole Foods, being really down on myself as if that was also not a legitimate way to, you know, make money and live in the world. And I think that led me to different careers that I actually didn't want to do or opportunities that I took because I thought I should take it even though it wasn't for me. So yeah, relax and do it for you.
Liora Natania: Mic drop.
Eli Parrish: It's therapy, so yeah.
Liora Natania: Yes.
Eli Parrish: Get a therapist. And keep trying until you find the one. Yeah.
Liora Natania: Yeah, I went through three therapists in a year and a half until I landed on the one that I've now been seeing for three years.
Eli Parrish: Oh, wow. Awesome. Yeah. I went in and out a lot and then I found the business helped me realize I needed to try harder and so I eventually found Sulemi. So it was good.
Liora Natania: Yeah. So many of my therapy sessions are like, about being a business owner. And now my therapist is in private practice. So I'm like, you get it. Like you're one of me now.
Eli Parrish: But I also learned a lot about how therapists, how much they pay for their, for their training, like after to get hours, they have to pay money to get hours. So I'm like, wow, you guys, really do a lot for us. Thank you.
Liora Natania: We love our therapists and our physical therapists and all the incredible medical folks and people who support our overall well-being. Amazing. We touched on so much today and I'm so grateful to have been able to have this conversation with you and for you to be here. And to all those listening and watching, thanks for joining and we'll see you next week.
Eli Parrish: Thank you.