Titrating healthy lifestyle: Bite size approach to chronic health
“This one change should really happen first but rarely does. It’s the one thing that will keep you moving forward no matter where you start your health journey. The change before the change”
-Ericka Thomas
Transcript
Ep 215
Titrating healthy lifestyle
Bite size approach to chronic health
The ONE thing you need to change before any change can happen.
The MAHA movement has taken the country by storm. Finally some of my snarky thoughts and questions about big food and big pharma have made it into the mainstream consciousness. And it’s possible that something might change about the standard American diet. At the very least the way we think about health, what it is and where it comes from is changing. Because health certainly doesn’t come out of a package in aisle 9, an instagram meme or a pill bottle. There’s no doubt undoing generations of misinformation about what is healthy and stopping the progression of our self induced chronic disease pandemic is going to take time. And while changes at the macro level of health policy are important, what matters more is that we take back personal freedom and control to influence our own physical, mental and emotional health. That’s our Work IN today. We’re kicking off a series on Titrating change in our body and mind on the path to chronic health. Today we’re talking about the most important change you need to make before any other change can happen.
Getting healthy and staying healthy in the face of a full court press of deliberately misleading food marketing, quick fix pharmaceuticals, outdated nutrition advice based on cherry picked science and government health policy makers who are bought and paid for by big pharma is overwhelming. It’s hard enough for the regular person who depends on these organizations to make healthy choices without actively being shamed or manipulated.
There is always a point when whatever you are experiencing in your real life will tip the scales. A point where you realize that even with the best of intentions, the medical professionals can only do so much for you. They can put out the fire. But you have to do the clean up. You have to do the rebuilding. You are the one that has to do the work. They can help with symptoms but they don’t do the healing. That’s up to you and that incredible body you live in.
In this series we’re looking at pillars of health in bite size ways. That’s what titration is. Adding just a little bit at a time to build up to the right dose. It’s a practical way to get the health results we want without the all or nothing playbook. Like we’ve said many times before on this podcast, everything little thing counts. But when you want or need to make health changes it’s hard to know where to start because everything matters. It can be really confusing and where people get off on the wrong foot because they want to change everything all at once before they really change the most important thing. This one change should really happen first but rarely does. It’s the one thing that will keep you moving forward no matter where you start your health journey.
You ready for it?
The first place that needs to change in order to start to get healthy and stay healthy in body mind and spirit is your belief about your health.
Seriously though, hear me out.
We live in an internal world of assumptions and beliefs about what we think is possible in every aspect of our daily lives. Our own physical and mental health is no exception. We have intimate knowledge of our own genetic and family trauma history and a lifetime of experience in our own body. Couple that with a lifetime of diagnosis, prognosis and guesses that have been handed to us from medical professionals over the years and voila we think we know who we are and what we’re capable of supported by a constant stream of self limiting thoughts that fit those stories.
All of that experience and history all of those beliefs cement behaviors that got you where you are on your health journey.
Now before you get all up in arms about how your health isn’t your fault, let me say I agree with you. It isn’t your fault. You could have been doing everything “right” according to all the "experts" and still be full on in metabolic syndrome. In fact only 7 % of the population has none of the markers for metabolic syndrome. And we know that the standard American diet, that’s filled with highly processed food and sugar, leads to metabolic syndrome and mental illness and the WHI showed that a low fat was no better. And that was what was being pushed on us for decades, generations even. So yes, it’s not your fault.
But here we are and I don’t know anyone that doesn’t need to change something about how they eat or move or sleep or connect that would improve their overall health. In order to do that we have to start somewhere. If we want any change to stick, we have to start with what we believe about it.
If I want to change, for example, what I do for exercise. Maybe I want to add resistance training abd build muscle. What are my beliefs about that? If I believe I have to have a gym membership and I don’t have the money, I’m not going to get very far with that change. If I believe the pain in my joints means that I’m injured and I shouldn’t move them then I'm not going to get very far because lifting weights sometimes actually makes you uncomfortable. Maybe I believe I don’t have good upper body strength so I never pick up dumbbells heavier than 5 pounds, never do a push up, or plank. You can see the problem here. Beliefs about our activity and what we’re eating have an affect on health outcomes in positive ways. You can see this in studies from Dr. Alia Crum in the milkshake study and the housekeeper study that we’ve talked about before on this podcast and I’ll link to those in the show notes.
So it’s not just what we believe about the food we eat or our activity or sleep etc. It’s really our belief about what we can do about it. Our beliefs about what our influence is on our health.
For over 100 years our personal responsibility and power when it comes to our own health has been slowly eroded to the point where we have completely outsourced our health outcomes to what we now call the healthcare system. It’s not actually a healthcare system. It’s actually a sick care system. Medical professionals are very good at fixing acute issues that come up in the body. They fail miserably when it comes to prevention of chronic disease and promotion of actual health that doesn’t involve a prescription pad.
So the first step to changing anything about our lifestyle to make it healthier is to examine our beliefs. We do this with some questions similar to Byron Katy’s questions in the work.
What do you believe about your health right now?
Do you believe there’s anything you do about it?
Where (or when) do those beliefs come from?
Is your belief true and how do you know?
Who would you be without that belief?
Where do your beliefs about your health allow you to take action? What action will you take?
This is how we start the process of chronic health. You can journal about these questions to help you work through them. There might be 1 or many beliefs in many areas of your health that are holding you back. And many beliefs are so deeply ingrained in us from childhood that they don’t feel separate from us at all. Beliefs around food in particular. It's not easy nor is it necessary to try to change them all at once. Choose one, in one pillar. You’ll know which one to start with. It’ll be the one that keeps getting in your way. The thought that drives you to the pantry before you can stop yourself or the endless excuses to stay on the couch. My belief is the “I deserve this” belief.
It’s a difficult one because sometimes I do deserve this, that or the other. (And so do you by the way.) It shows up like this, I am working all evening tonight so I deserve to binge netflix for 5 hours this afternoon. I taught 3 classes and cleaned the house today so I deserve a glass or 3 of wine. I didn’t sleep well last night, I need extra caffeine and maybe a cookie, cookies are energy, I deserve a cookie (lets be honest, several cookies)
Look, none of these things are bad or wrong to have or do every once in a while. It’s the belief that they need to be earned. And I find it comes up the most when I’m not taking care of myself. All of those behaviors can be addictive and once they become a habit and adopted into part of a lifestyle they can be very destructive and hard to break. And they’re all traceable back to that belief.
In 1:2 of Pantanjali’s Yoga Sutras Citta vritti narodha - Control the mind and you have controlled everything and the 1:4 Changing the mind we can change everything.
This isn’t magical thinking, this is directing our awareness to how we got where we are. What is our part in it and where can we make changes that ripple out into other parts of our health? Knowing where our health beliefs are is a fundamental first step. Sometimes it’s not necessary to actually change that belief, we only need to recognize that it’s there. That alone can make a powerful shift within the body because our beliefs always color our perceptions of who we are and who we believe we are. And maybe just maybe you’re not that anymore.
Thanks for listening! Next week we’ll continue this series Titrating healthy lifestyle by getting out of our own way.
Until next time, stop working out and start working in
Whether you’re a fit pro or fitness enthusiast, coaching athletes or soccer moms, connecting the dots for your personal health and professional wellness can be daunting. You don’t have to go it alone. Head over to savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin you’ll find all the show notes for this and other episodes plus lots of free resources including a link to book a 30 min fitness success strategy call with me. And of course I’d be ever so grateful if you would take a moment to like and subscribe to this podcast wherever you’re listening.
Hey there!
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a health coach and trauma informed yoga professional bringing real world resilience and healing to main street USA.
I offer trauma release + yoga + wellness education for groups and individuals…regular people like you.
Book a call to learn how I can help.