New Year's Resolution: Daily Small Dose of Comfort Food After Healthy Meal

Developmental psychologist Robert Kegan has said that being a better citizen of the world in the 21st century "requires us to have a relationship to our own reactions, rather than be captive of them".  I would argue that the same is true for us to improve how we take care of ourselves.  Ignoring our survival instinct for sugar, fats, and satiety leads to thinking that at the New Year or some other tortured moment in our lives we can simply start eating healthier.  The result is that every New Year we will repeat our annual pattern of failure in recognizing how powerful our survival instincts are.  Instead of working with our survival instinct by feeding it small doses of comfort foods after eating a healthy meal containing vegetables, our tendancy is to go cold turkey and then fall off the wagon.  Back and forth indefinitely.

Comments

[Richard Abadie]

It's really hard to eat healthy food and avoid to much sugar, carbs etc. Hope I can make it this year.

[Alexander J. Rinehart, MS, DC, CCN]

I'm seeing a widespread movement in business/health advice, to think big, but act small to make it happen. This means taking large goals, breaking down to system parts, finding 1-2 areas where you'll get the most bang for your buck...and focus on surrounding your environment with the behavioral triggers that will get you through those 1-2 small goals. Make them a habit, then move on to the next 1-2 goals...it can be frustrating at first in terms of intended results, but overtime you become regain more control over your health and feed a positive cycle instead of falling down a slippery slope toward chronic disease.