How We Became Couch Potatoes - and What We Can Do About It!!!

Hey there! Thanks for dropping in! Today we’ll take a serious look at the biology of bad habits—particularly those that make us physically unfit. Please forward this to anyone you feel it may help. Also at the end of this edition you will find a NEW PATIENT coupon for a friend or family member to get a nice break on the cost of their first visit to us!

Our Epidemic of Overfed Inactivity

Why does it take ongoing acts of enormous will to eat right and exercise with regularity and consistency? Why so hard to stay on the wagon? Why so easy to fall off?

Why?

A deep dive into human nature can help answer this question. And while the answer may not make doing the right stuff much easier, it will at very least help you better understand yourself, forgive yourself (if necessary), and possibly give you a good bit of useful motivation and a ‘secret weapon.’ So—read on!

Your Great Grand Parents Times 1000

We have the same genes, bodies, and built-in instincts of our earliest ancestors - the pre-agricultural folks we call hunter-gatherers. These folks who's biological programming we still have in our modern bodies didn’t have to do what we call exercise. Chances are they didn’t even have a word for it. What we call exercise for them simply meant the physical quest for the next meal. No refrigerator to stagger toward first thing in the morning. They had to go out into the world to hunt and gather. And there were no wrong food choices back then either. Big physical exertion first - then food. And again… there were no bad food choices in the unspoiled, natural environment they gathered from.

Craving Fatty, Starchy, Sugary, and Salty is Instinctual.

When our pre-agricultural ancient ancestors struck out at daybreak to hunt and gather, they instinctually, through the programming of their senses, went after high calorie animals and plants that would provide a sense of satiation for their hunger. These are food substances that return enough energy and nutrients to make the hunting and gathering effort pay off. This is why there is no immediate sensory reward when we chew on a piece of celery (near zero calories), and a ton of feel-good sensations when we eat a fatty slice of bacon, or a mouthful of honey. When we eat foods high in fat, protein, starch, and sugar our bodies are programmed to reward us with ‘feel good’ brain chemistry. It was a survival mechanism for our ancient ancestors keeping them motivated to expend massive energy on the hunt—but for us in the modern world it is a backfiring hormonal death-trap that makes us lazy diggers of an early grave with our own mouths!

Worth repeating?

Our ancient ancestors were motivated by the unpleasantness of hunger to expend massive energy in search of foods that produce the reward of feel-good brain chemistry— a condition that in the modern world is a backfiring hormonal death-trap that makes us lazy diggers of an early grave with our own mouths!

Yikes. How?

The unpleasantness of hunger drove our ancient ancestors out into the world to work hard for their sustenance. And once food was acquired, they were rewarded by the feel-good brain chemistry that also informs the body that activity is over for the day. Time to rest and digest.

Today these brain chemicals produce what I call instinctual backfiring.

Our brain chemistry reward system for consuming high calorie foods backfires on us in the modern world because we can acquire such foods without any physical effort. Your Paleolithic grandmother spent hours hiking around in nature to collect a basket of blue berries. Today we can drive to the 7-11 and purchase a box of Oreos. 10x the calories of the blueberries with no ‘exercise’ needed ahead of time. And once the sugar in our bloodstream from the cookies hits the right spot in the reward center of the brain, there are no instinctual urges to put out effort. So long as the body thinks it’s well fed, there are no physiological urges to do what we call exercise.

Because we are constantly and easily overfed, it requires non-instinctual acts of mental effort to override our brain chemistry to drag ourselves into exercising. This explains why so many folks don’t exercise at all. Exercise in reality is an ‘un-natural’ behavior—an effort to make-up for the fact that we no longer have to put out substantial physical exertion before we can eat.

Again…

Exercise in reality is an ‘un-natural’ behavior—an effort to make-up for the fact that we no longer have to work hard for our food before we can eat it.

And it gets worse…

Our modern relationship with food is a double-edged sword that produces lethargic inactivity and food addiction for millions. Not only can we become addicted to cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs, but food as well—and in particular the high calorie, unnatural, low nutritional value foods that drive our epidemic of obesity.

The high starch and sugar content in modern processed foods produces a far more potent brain reward than the blueberries our ancestor foraged for. And this potent brain reward is the same biochemistry that can addict us to smoking, drinking alcohol, and snorting crack cocaine!

We are a nation of food addicts.

What sounds more appealing to you? A handful of blueberries, or a nice Blueberry Danish?

If you are like me, you would not feel much like exercising after eating one or two of these. More like having a nap. Our food choices and our methods of acquiring them have created the double-edged sword of food addiction and inactivity. As a nation, we are out of shape and overweight.

So…what can we do?

The Ulysses Pact (Secret Weapon)

As the story goes brave Ulysses wanted to hear the lethal songs of the Sirens (sea witches)—the sounds that would force a man to dive to certain death into the sea. So he had his men lash him to the ship’s mast so he could not enter the water. He had his men stuff their ears with wax so they could not hear the Siren’s themselves. He made a solemn pact with his men to ignore his pleas to be untied as the Siren’s seduced him, and then had his men row into the sea witch infested waters. His men watched him as he begged, and wrenched himself trying to get free, but they held to their pact with him. And so he survived.

If you are having trouble starting or staying on an exercise program—make a Ulysses Pact with yourself! Tell yourself that you won’t eat until you have exercised first. Lash yourself to the mast! And no matter how you kick and scream, get your exercise first—before you eat. Let your hunger be your exercise motivator.

Put off your first meal of the day until you have exercised. Even as late as the early afternoon! Then reward yourself with food. This is a very, very healthy habit to acquire. (Breakfast IS NOT the most important meal of the day. That is cereal company nonsense.)

When you are done with this content come back and click the link below to my post on a NARROW EATING WINDOW and INTERMITTENT FASTING. Utilizing this eating habit along with exercising first can have massive health benefits. This post will also have a link to non-addictive eating.

On the Level

The conveniences of modern living have stacked the deck against us when it comes to having a truly healthy lifestyle. It takes acts of will to stay on a healthier path. It’s hard. But being sick and out of shape is also hard. As they say…

Choose your hard.

I hope this not been a useful eye opener for you! Food for thought!

Now… about that new patient offer:

Thanks for dropping in. Go exercise before you eat!!!!

Until next time,

Blessings to you.