Retrain The Brain - Fitness, Health and Nutrition in the New Year for the New You

By Heath Anderson

Retrain The Brain

As I was discussing a friends motivations about their fitness goals in the new year, it occured to me that dieting and fitness come down to more than making yourself not eat or to go for a run, etc.

First and foremost it should be called your diet and stop using the word dieting. It is much more about your brain and how you think about your diet or exercise (which I call just being more active). For example many people are saying "I'll start a diet in 2021" or "I am going to excercise more in the New Year."

• That, in itself, is the wrong way to start your goals.

It is far to easy to keep putting it off. "Well the kids, spouse, friend or whoever, want this to eat or to go do this but its not healthy so we'll eat or do this today and I will start the diet or the exercise tomorrow."

• That becomes a rolling mantra as the healthier you keeps getting put off.

All or Nothing

I was guilty of this my entire life and can still fall prey to it. The all or nothing frame of mind when it comes to habits. If I eat a doughnut it might as well be my cheat day so I will consume all the sugar, carbs, etc that I have been denying myself for the last few weeks. Then there is "Well it's the Holidays so I'll start after, in the new Year." Sound familiar?

Instead I continue to choose better nutrition and if I eat a doughnut its because I really craved it. Most likely because I wasn't getting enough natural sugars but maybe because doughnuts are tasty and I wanted it. So who cares. I can still continue having a healthy day.

Basically one bad choice in your daily diet should not and does not predict the rest of the day just like we don't let our mistakes in life dictate the rest of our lives. So sometimes a doughnut is just a part of your day just like a mistake or failure is just a moment in the entirety of your life.

Reset the mind

Easier said than done right? Well, no actually it is very easy. It starts now, not tomorrow or last week. Actually for most people you can say it started yesterday or the day before. The start is the most important thing in most peoples minds because we are trained to think of a start date for everything - our whole lives.

What I told my friend who keeps on starting tomorrow, then the next day, etc is that it started yesterday. They went for a walk the day before but changed nothing in their diet. In fact my friend ate worse and drank more than they normally would so they felt that they had done nothing towards their goals instead feeling that they had made it worse.

Failing to have the perfect nutritional day would normaly keep this person from continuing but I just reminded them that they had already started their diet as they called it. I reminded my friend that making mistakes is the expectation not being perfect and that they should not name it a diet at all. They (you) need to just continue to choose alternatives when they (you) can and that over time their (your) brain will reset to always making good choices on nutrition and excercise.

• You need to "continue" resetting your brain not "start" doing it.

Get rid of any start dates in your head or preconceived notions about dieting, which you should now just call your diet and continue to make better choices regardless of how long it takes. Eventually you will forget altogether as your eating better and exercising more because it has become the new you not requiring any thought at all.

Reset Your View of Food

It is not dieting or a new excercise routine, its just resetting your diet and being more active. I can only desribe it this way: if you like to eat foods high in sugar content than find alternatives or either completely stop or start making it vs buying it if you can.

Once you do that be sure to throw away the sugar in your home to start the transformation. Find all-natural alternatives in the produce aisle. Fruits and Vegatables are loaded with natural sugar. A good go to is apples, peaches, pears, strawberries, etc when you start out.

Or if a recipe calls for sugar use an equal amount of 100% Maple Syrup or 100% Honey. Basically the idea in this step is to begin baking/cooking without sugar which will lead your brain to begin always searching for other alternatives.

Our bodies need sugar so having a diet where you avoid it completely won't be sustainable. However if you reshape the way you think of sugar as being Produce or other all-natural foods that contain sugar and begin baking/cooking avoiding that white or brown powder/crystal at the store using the other all-natural alternatives, then you are not "dieting" you are just "living."

Accept Being Human

It's okay to have some bad habits, we are all human. Don't be afraid to make mistakes or to fail. A matter of fact expect to fail, expect to make mistakes and stop being afraid. The one thing every person in the world has in common is that we all fail, make mistakes and do stupid or innapropriate things at times.

If your reading this thinking, "I don't" and "this guy doesn't know what he is talking about." Well first you are right, I dont know what I am talking about. I never officially studied any of this. I never chased a degree in nutrition, fitness, mental health, etc. But I do own and operate a business making recipies using only all-natural ingredients and have my own transformational journey. I am just writing about what my failures and mistakes over the last 46 years have taught me and what I have learned from them.

Secondly, you are wrong, you do make mistakes and have failed before. Regardless of how small or minimal you perceive them to be. Have you ever gossiped? Have you ever judged a situation or people before knowing all the facts? In fact, your failure to realize that you may not be perfect might be the reason you are thinking of making changes in your life now, however minimal or extreme they may be.

For you that change will come when you admit to yourself that you are not perfect and accept the fact that you never will be. The most influential mindset, or mindReset, will come for you when you accept that you are like the rest of us. It's not these perceived negatives that keep us from our goals, its our acceptance of them and how we learn from them that influences our lives the most.

• It's not the failures and mistakes that define us. Instead it's how we React and Respond to them that defines us.

Continue Then Repeat

Continue and expect to fail and make mistakes because unfortunately you cannot learn or be great at something unless you fall down, dust yourself off, learn from it and continue .... Then Repeat

Continue to be more active regardless of lifes ups and downs. Regardless of if you have a great day or have to deal with grief and/or sadness, continue to be active .... Then Repeat.

Continue to eat healthier regardless of if you have a doughnut or fail at times just continue to eat more nutritiously ..... Then Repeat.

Continue to Continue

As someone who seems to fail and make more than my fair share of mistakes just trust the system - so to speak. Continue to reset your mind by changing your perspective of how you view nutrition and being more active. It's not all or nothing. Instead it is ... what it is. We will fail in our goals from time to time but should continue on the path regardless. Just continue to keep continuing.