I have a lot of gratitude that, as of this moment, me and mine are safe and healthy.
But, as I started planning to venture out to the ATM yesterday, going to a public place for the first time in many weeks, I had impulses to just ignore all the recommended precautions and just do what I used to do.
I just wanted to jump in my car and GO, and I resisted the idea of having to exert all this effort and take all these precautions about masks, touching things, cleaning hands, avoiding people, etc.
I felt “I’m tired, I’m stressed, and I don’t want things to be so HARD! I want things back to normal!”
Have you had some of these feelings?
Experiencing this strong pull to just ignore all these precautions and just interact with my environment in a freer, easier way again, it reminded me of the rebelliousness I used to have about eating healthy.
As I discovered major truths about exactly how to do healthy eating to truly achieve great results, I sometimes rebelled. I felt like I had been eating pretty healthy for years, and I didn’t want to do anything DRASTIC.
Gradually, though, I started to let go of my rebellious attachment to the way I used to eat and decided to really give the big changes a try, to see what results I could achieve.
I started to focus on finding more and more ways to thoroughly enjoy eating the way my body WANTED me to eat.
And my body became so much healthier and happier as I did this! I regained such great health and vitality in return.
Now, I want you to be able to get these great rewards, too, so, let’s understand a little about this rebelliousness.
The primitive part of our brain tends to believe that the easiest way of doing things is the best way. That part of our brain supports maintaining the status quo.
So, while we’re learning how to minimize contagion right now, that part of the brain is going to say things like, “Gee, this seems excessive. Let’s just keep doing things the way we’ve been doing them.”
And, when it comes to how we eat, that part of our brain is going argue for getting the most calories in the easiest way.
We’re not going to get rid of this tendency!
However, we can engage the more evolved part of our brain which knows that the easiest way isn’t always the healthiest way.
For example, some of the things we need to do to minimize contagion at this time are not the easiest. Washing our hands for 20 seconds is not as easy as washing for 2 seconds!
In the same way, the easiest ways to eat are not always the best for our health. In fact, the easiest way to eat, the way that’s all around us all the time, is the standard American diet, with excessive processed food and inadequate nutrition. This diet is strongly linked to a host of bad outcomes, including excess weight gain, hormone dysregulation, and ill health, including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
If we want better results than the status quo, we need ways to engage the more evolved part of our brain in making these health choices.
How? Here are a couple of pieces of advice that apply both to minimizing contagion risk and maximizing healthy eating:
First, make a commitment to your health. Yes, it takes some effort to eat healthy, and it takes some effort to minimize your risk of contagion. Start your day with an intention to make your health a priority. Check in with yourself as you’re making shopping and meal prep decisions—what’s the best choice for my best health? Check in with yourself again at night, what are 3 positive choices I made today for my health? What is one thing I want to do better tomorrow?
Second, make it easy on yourself. Develop systems for making it easier. Eating real, whole, nutritious food may not be as easy as eating high processed, non-nutritious food-like substances, but you can develop systems for making it easier. And it will be worth the trouble!
Please prioritize your health right now. And let’s be unfailingly kind, especially to ourselves!
