Peg Herring's Blog - Posts Tagged "resolution"
Please Tell Me Your Brain Does This Too
I'm driving home from yet another road trip. My brain starts in with an oh-so-familiar lie.
"I'd like to lose a few pounds. Starting when I get home, I'm going to eat sensibly--no crash diet, just smaller portions and smarter choices. I'm going to exercise more, too, not just my daily walk but some
cardio and some stretches and maybe some weights."
LIES! It's all LIES, I tell you!!
Why is it that it seems so logical and easy to plan a new lifestyle in theory and so impossible to accomplish those plans in the real world?
I know from past experience: now that I'm home I will eat whatever John cooks and cheat with those darling little Hershey's Gold things. I'll decide I can't exercise today because I've got all that laundry from the trip. In fact, I might not even be able to go for a walk, because it's raining, and I wouldn't want to get wet, for pete's sake. It will all get put off until tomorrow, which, to the brain, never comes. It's perfectly happy to let me put off the plan and live in the present, which is all any of us is really able to do.
The brain is unable to comprehend the future. It can consider it, but it can't "be" there. When we make plans, the brain in all its logic says, "Yup, that's doable. We won't overspend on Christmas this year and we'll put away the money we save for that trip in the spring."
The brain doesn't know it's lying. It understands that we're capable of doing what we plan to do. It just doesn't know how it will feel when temptation steps into its way. Since it only exists in the present, it can't recall that enthusiasm we felt when we promised ourselves we'd act rationally. Nope. The brain can only see what's happening right now and say, "Wow! Chocolate!"
"I'd like to lose a few pounds. Starting when I get home, I'm going to eat sensibly--no crash diet, just smaller portions and smarter choices. I'm going to exercise more, too, not just my daily walk but some
cardio and some stretches and maybe some weights."
LIES! It's all LIES, I tell you!!
Why is it that it seems so logical and easy to plan a new lifestyle in theory and so impossible to accomplish those plans in the real world?
I know from past experience: now that I'm home I will eat whatever John cooks and cheat with those darling little Hershey's Gold things. I'll decide I can't exercise today because I've got all that laundry from the trip. In fact, I might not even be able to go for a walk, because it's raining, and I wouldn't want to get wet, for pete's sake. It will all get put off until tomorrow, which, to the brain, never comes. It's perfectly happy to let me put off the plan and live in the present, which is all any of us is really able to do.
The brain is unable to comprehend the future. It can consider it, but it can't "be" there. When we make plans, the brain in all its logic says, "Yup, that's doable. We won't overspend on Christmas this year and we'll put away the money we save for that trip in the spring."
The brain doesn't know it's lying. It understands that we're capable of doing what we plan to do. It just doesn't know how it will feel when temptation steps into its way. Since it only exists in the present, it can't recall that enthusiasm we felt when we promised ourselves we'd act rationally. Nope. The brain can only see what's happening right now and say, "Wow! Chocolate!"
