I am constantly trying to explain the true meaning of healthy eating and how a lifestyle change, and the way we approach nutrition, could lead to a complete makeover of our life, as a whole- a complete makeover in the way we feel, think, act, as well as the results we get as a consequence.
One of the hardest things for most people is to realize, that healthy eating isn’t just about weight loss. Take weight loss, as an accompanying factor of all other positive changes, that are gonna take place.
In order to understand what I mean, I will say it like this: Our behavior is influenced by our hormones ( i.e. their balance or imbalance), and hormones in turn are being influenced by our environment- which includes a bunch of factors like food, stress, light, communication, temperature and so forth.
In order to change your behavior, your should influence your hormones, which could happen, just after you take care and conscious control over your environment.
And because I don’t want to scare you with perplexing expressions, I will give you a simple example.
If you want to lose weight, you should influence the hormones, which are responsible for satiety and the use of energy as fuel, by creating an environment, where they will act in your favor.
You should decrease the influence of hormones, which make you feel hungry and the once which store energy as fat.
This could be once again accomplished, by manipulating your environment, in such a way, that you won’t create favorable conditions for these hormones to rage.
Everything in the world comes up to interaction and communication. Not just in the world of people, but in the world of our own bodies, the functions they perform, the signals they receive.
The external environment, sends signals to our body, which it interprets and then sends to the brain, waiting for an “order”, about the way it should act. This happens with the help of hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters and so on ( I won’t bother you with them).
If every hormone does its job, then the whole process of communication will be excellent. Your body receives the right instructions for future actions and your behavior just contributes for your success.
Let’s see things in a different perspective. Junk food, sleep deprivation, bad lifestyle habits ( I won’t list them, because every one of us is more than familiar with them), “import” information in our body, which either can’t be interpreted, because it is foreign for our organism , or it interrupts the proper execution of the communication process, which in turn alters the signals to get to our brain.
You should remember, that will works wonders, but just for a short period of time. Then biology trumps willpower and takes everything under control.
This means, that you can torture your body with exercises or a lack of food, but there will come a point, when biology, and the needs of your body will prevail. Then, all functions of your body will be concentrated on providing your body, what it is missing, what you’ve been depriving it from.
This will lead, to some hormones working in excess, because other hormones, as a consequence of wrong communication, do not get the information they need, and thus they do not do their job.
When one hormone is out of hack, this leads to the so called “domino effect”, where all the rest of hormones are going out of balance.
In order to improve our health, to lose unwanted weight, to feel more energetic, our behavior should guarantee us actions, which lead to such outcomes.
We need to eat better, to sleep more, to think in a different way, to move more and so forth.
A lot of people think that our behavior, comes up to our actions, which are a choice, based on free will. Truth is that our behavior is “a stereotyped motor response to a physiological stimulus.” In other words, our behavior requires some kind of a hormonal stimulus, in order for it to be expressed.
For example:
Sexual behavior is determined by the presence or absence of androgens, estrogen.
Hunger and satiety are determined by levels of grelin and leptin.
Exhaustion and energy are being influenced by cortisol, melatonin and so forth.
Behind each feeling, there are chemical reactions, which take place inside our bodies, which are a consequence of the signals, send by our hormones.
As I already said, these hormones, are being influenced, by the information our environment sends.
In reality, our behavior is a result of our biochemistry and that has a logical explanation- evolution and the mere goal for survival that accompanied it.
So, no matter if we want it or not, we are in the captivity of our own hormones and our own biochemistry. And if we want them to “act” in a way that corresponds with our goals, we should find a way to send our body, the information which will be interpreted in our favor.
The simplest way is by taking care about our environment.
The simplest way is to start eating real food, that will contribute for the good communication and the proper execution of our body’s functions.
We should let go of crappy food, that is just altering the proper communication between our body’s systems.
We should surround ourselves with positive, motivated and hardworking people, who inspire us, and not people who just stress us more with each action.
We should start moving enough- just as much, as we guarantee that we are not sending our bodies a signal, that the world we live in doesn’t require physical activity and that we do not need muscles. Such a signal would lead to your body getting rid of unnecessary tissue( muscle tissue), which would just compromise its survival.
We should move enough, so that we do not abuse our body, making it feel stressed and then “switching off” essential functions, just so it can cope with the stress we are giving it.
We should take enough time for rest and sleep, so our body can recover and so it doesn’t feel on the edge of survival.
We should stop repeating how we are living one life and how we should enjoy it by eating crappy foods; by being constantly sleep deprived; by focusing on the artificial and neglecting the meaningful.
Trust me! You will get more out of life, when you take care for your health. When your body is healthy, your thoughts will be “healthy”, your behavior will be different and your success is guaranteed.
Food matters!
It matters if you choose to eat an egg omelet with veggies, or if you choose to eat a hamburger with fries.
It matters if you eat an apple or a pop tart.
Everything you do, everything which surrounds you, sends information to your body. Then, your actions and your behavior are a consequence of the interpretation of this information.
Think more about what you are “telling” to your body and it will return the favor!
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Great template of blog! What is the name of it?