exercise

Motivation: “Not all Apples are Alike…

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By Sam Ibraham

As a professional health consultant and primary healthcare provider I am asked by my clients, patients and colleagues the secret to good health and fitness. I understand the virtues of good health and role model this behavior in my personal and professional life. Many of the people who seek my help ask about the “secrets” of health and fitness have one underlying and predominately identifiable concern, low motivation! The reasons for this are multiple and can be confounding and each individual has separate and unique circumstances that should be noted. For Jane Doe* her antidepressant as she noted was not doing what it used to for her. For John Smith* being overweight all his life continued to drive down his motivation and self-esteem creating a ripple effect of years of sabotage.

I have made references in past blogs about where physiologically in the brain motivation lives and some underlying realities about it. For the scope of this blog the focus is on nutritional motivation and “no apples being alike”.  We all require motivation to carry out the most basic functions of life many that are taken for granted until afflicted major mental health or physical ailments. Motivation, following that basic life functioning is met then lives in a different plane of fulfillment which can include body image, desire to fulfill tasks and dreams, and what I call living into the future which is at the highest level of the functional pyramid.

I have mentioned before how “the little things” matter and that no change should be made overnight, however the decision to change is different from this concept and needs to be adopted first!  We all contemplate healthy eating and are bombarded by media and imagery about food almost to a nauseous state. Unfortunately this onslaught of media is used to impact a food industry that we could all consume less of, that being processed and prepared foods. Could you image a world that advertised golden apples instead of golden arches?  How often do we “eat with our eyes”? how significant is the environment to shape how we feel about food and the food choices we make?  Interestingly the answer is as you suspected and our decisions and lifestyle do become products of the choices we make.

So is the answer to shut down all your media, newsfeeds, and all technologies to start making healthier food choices? Does this mean you have to sell your car and start walking to work?  Or better yet is this the end, and the beginning of the war on fast food?  The answer as I have stated is not a radical one, it is not an overnight change or an effort to boycott businesses. The same mental imagery that “wired our brains and de-motivated it to eat this way, is a similar pathway to motivate and energize it” to where it needs to be.

Nutrition like everything else is a choice, you choose based on what you know and what you see.  You evaluate what is good or not good by how you interpret information and media. Although the change will not happen overnight, here is what you can do to help out, “the little things”:

1.  Re-orientation to your grocery store:  GET TO KNOW HOW YOUR GROCERY STORE WORKS!! Sounds odd? Your ‘basics’ are all located on the periphery, at the furthest reaches of the store, your fruit and vegetable, diary, meat, and grains.

The store is organized to pull you into the center regions where anything but your whole foods are located in.  Start by visiting these areas of the store, collect your food from here first and foremost, selected whole foods (the foods that come naturally from the earth and do not require processing). Once you understand how your grocer store works, map out a plan of attack and stick to it, staying about from the central areas and limiting your chances of picking up something you should not be.

2. Make your list and check it twice:  Its very much like Christmas except Santa is not in charge here.  Making a list of the foods you know you MUST to buy not OUGHT to will help make you successful. Make the list based on the American/Canadian/European or your country specific food guide and ensure that you buy from these categories. Enter the grocery store with your new knowledge of how it is set up, remind yourself of why you are there and stick to your list.

3. Have and exit plan: making your list means you will minimize your time in the store and maximize your overall time productivity. The faster you enter and exit the store with your knowledge of how its set-up and your list, the less likely you encouraged to buy things you ought not to, saving yourself time, money and limited sabotage in your diet.

4. Practice makes perfect: If you know a seasoned expert you has done the above, enlist their help and watch how an expert meticulously navigates the steps. You will realistically need to repeat this exercise at least 30 times before it starts becoming routine for you. If you have children and they come to the store with you, this is an optimal time to teach them about the virtue of healthy choices and let them make a roadmap of the grocery store and target the key areas.  Couples who shop together are best to individualize tasks, in this instance the “divide and conquer” works.

5. Learn how to reward yourself: This is not an activity in self-indulgence where you break every good that you have done. Human beings live and improve by a rewards system, we are genetically wired to seek rewards. When food shopping, the reward for a job well done should NOT be a food reward rather the reciprocal.

“Most of all, remembering that each time to try you come one step closer to success, each time you fail you come one step closer to success”

Disclaimer:

*names used in this blog are entirely fictitious and do not represent persons or affiliations to persons medical histories or problems. This blog is the opinions of the author and should not be taken as a treatment plan for any mental or physical ailments without consulting your own healthcare provider as circumstances are unique.

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