Brian Armstrong has written a thought provoking post over at Life Hack.org titled Eating For Energy Or For Stress Relief?
In the post, he talks about how a simple SHIFT in his way of viewing food has had an incredible impact upon his diet. In a nutshell, Brian reports:
The way I used to eat: I associated unhealthy food with pleasure, and healthy foods with pain.
The way I eat now: I associate unhealthy food with pain and healthy food with pleasure.
He goes on to challenge the reader to PAY ATTENTION to how you FEEL after a fast food meal and compare that with how you feel after you’ve eaten a healthy, well balanced one.
The problem is that MANY of us just aren’t paying attention to make the connection.
When I moved 1200 miles from my parents, I made quite a few trips "back home" during the first six months. Each time, I arrived home from the journey completely and totally drained. I began associating trips back "home" with feeling awful, drained and completely worn out. During one trip home, my feet were so swollen, I couldn’t wear shoes and my oldest son was physically ill by the time we got home. Needless to say, we didn’t look forward to going "home" and our trips became less and less frequent.
Then, I began working with a behavioral nutritionist. Fortunately, working with her made my last trip home a completely different experience. Turns out, the REASON I was feeling awful, drained and completely worn out was that I was subsisting on a diet of fast food during the trip. My poor food choices were what made the trip miserable.
During my last trip, I paid careful attention to what we ate. We were careful to make HEALTHY food choices and I made sure EVERYONE drank plenty of WATER instead of fast food SODA. I shouldn’t have been surprised that the trip was MUCH more pleasant. When we arrived home my oldest son wasn’t ill and my feet weren’t swollen up like water balloons.
By putting healthy fuel into our bodies, they just function better. We think more clearly, we sleep better and we have more energy. When you start paying attention to the cause:effect, it’s MUCH easier to adopt a healthy diet.
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