DOCTOR'S BLOG
Two Weeks on the Keto Diet: The Good and the Bad
The ketogenic diet seems to be the latest thing in weight loss circles. There are many articles about the diet and many celebrities are promoting it as well. So I decided to try the ketogenic diet for a couple of weeks and wanted to write about my experience.
The ketogenic diet—or keto for short—is basically a low-carb, high-protein, and high-fat diet. To get into ketosis, you need to consume fewer than 50 grams of carbohydrates daily. The idea is to consume the majority of your calories from healthy fats (yes, there are such things) and protein. I recently penned a blog about the keto diet that goes into much more detail. Read “A Primer for the Ketogenic Diet.”
I have messed around with the keto diet for a few days at a time in the past but never really tried to sustain it for any length of time. Recently, I did the keto diet for two weeks and kept my carbohydrate intake down to under 50 grams a day and on several days fewer than 20 grams.
I found myself in ketosis (which is good) fairly quickly. The cool thing about ketosis is it tends to block your appetite. I didn’t get as hungry as I normally do. Overall, I dropped 2 lbs. a week for a 4-pound weight loss. Not to bad for two weeks. I also got to move my belt up another notch!
I did have a tough time with my workouts. I had trouble with energy. Our bodies will prefer to burn carbs as a primary source of energy, but when you are not consuming any carbs, our bodies turn to fats to burn energy. I was able to complete all of my workouts, but my intensity was down slightly. I think with time I could probably figure out a better way to fuel for workouts but did struggle for these two weeks.
I also had some trouble finding healthy fats to eat that were convenient. I do like avocadoes but after a while, I grew a little weary of eating them. Fortunately for me, my wife is an amazing cook and prepared some great ketogenic meals for me. I also consumed a lot of nuts. They are easy and convenient but do pack lots of calories. One of the good things about the keto diet is that it’s carnivore-friendly. You do want to watch your protein intake and not go overboard with it. (For me details about how much to eat, please read the previous blog mentioned above). I did probably eat too much beef jerky!
The interesting thing for me was my blood test results. I had previously tested my blood several months ago and then tested on the final day of my two weeks. My main personal go was to make sure I could get and keep my blood sugar down. My fasting blood sugar was well below 100 and my A1c was 5.4. (The A1c is an average of your blood sugar for 3 months.) The crazy thing for me was my total cholesterol. It went from being well below 200 to over 300! One positive thing about my lipid panel was my HDL (the good cholesterol). It went up really high as well. My ratio of good cholesterol to bad was okay.
My overall takeaway from my two-week experience was generally positive. I found the diet fairly easy to tolerate without getting too “hangry.” If I were to do it again and for a longer time, I would have to come up with some different snacks and meals. There are plenty of resources available for free on the Internet that gives you great recipes and other ideas for foods. I was disappointed in my total cholesterol number but hope to get it back to normal before long.
I hope this has been helpful for you and I would encourage you to try the ketogenic diet if you have any interest in it. It is especially good for getting your blood sugar down.
I am still a fan of my 10-Day Diet Challenge. It has worked the best for me over the years of just about anything I have done. Let me know about your experiences with your weight loss journey. I would love to hear from you about the keto diet or if you have done the 10-Day Diet Challenge.
Wishing You an Amazing Life,
Dr. Curtis Brown
A Primer for the Ketogenic Diet
First Things First: What’s the Best Diet?
There are all sorts of diet plans easily available. Simply search the internet, and you will find hundreds of different types of diets—all claiming to be the best. It can be confusing to say the least. So which one is the best? Why are there so many different plans? How can so many experts disagree on the best plan?
One of the reasons there are so many different diet plans is because there are so many different people with different preferences, genetics, experiences, and tastes. Many plans are really healthy and good for you. Some are kind of crazy and should generally be avoided. But still, which one is the best one?
I am honestly not sure if there is a “best” one. The one that is best for you may not work for me. So the best one for you is the one that works. It’s the one you can actually live on and is healthy for you.
This blog is about the ketogenic diet. It may not work for you. I know it can work for most people, but it may not fit your lifestyle or preferences.
Bye, Bye, Carbs!
The bottom line to weight loss is to use up more calories in your body than you put in. It’s as simple as that and as hard as that. Most of us cannot exercise enough to overcome bad eating habits (and we all have them). So any diet that accomplishes the net negative calorie intake should do the trick. However, not all calories are created equal. While it is true a hundred calories is a hundred calories no matter the source, our bodies are far more complicated than the simple math would imply.
It’s not hard to understand that a hundred calories from an apple is probably better for your body than a hundred calories from a candy bar. The food we eat contains far more than just calories. It actually communicates with our bodies in some wonderful ways.
One of the reasons I like the ketogenic diet is that it generally doesn’t make me as tired as some other diets I’ve tried. The idea behind the ketogenic diet is to limit your total carbohydrates to fewer than 50 grams a day and preferably around 20 grams of carbohydrates. Many of the foods I enjoy probably have 20 grams of carbs in each bite!
When we limit our carbs, our bodies have to turn to fat for energy. Generally, our bodies use glucose or sugar as its primary energy source. It’s easier to get the energy out of sugar as compared to protein or fats. When we don’t consume carbohydrates, our bodies will start to burn fat (a very good thing) for its energy needs.
When we start to burn fat instead of sugar, one of the byproducts of the fat metabolism is ketone formation. When we have ketosis, it tends to curb our appetites and we feel full longer.
Another positive benefit of the ketogenic diet is our insulin levels remain lower. Insulin is a pro-growth hormone. It makes us sluggish and tells our livers to store more fat. Insulin can also stimulate our appetites. High insulin levels lead to insulin resistant diabetes.
When we eat carbohydrates, our blood sugar immediately goes up. When blood sugar goes up, so do our insulin levels. High insulin levels are not good! When insulin levels increase, so do our appetites. That’s one of the reasons it’s hard to eat only one cookie or just one chip.
Eat the Fat
One of the problems with diets that are high in protein and low in carbs and fats is fatigue. It is amplified if you are exercising. The ketogenic diet allows for healthy fats. The fats give us energy and will help with exercise. It does take some adjusting. I find it hard to work out really hard when I am strictly on a ketogenic diet. It takes some time for my body to get used to it, but I can still get a pretty good workout in.
There are several lists of healthy fats on the web. In general, avocados, olive oil, nuts, and butter are good sources of healthy fats. Fish and other meats will also have healthy fats. Several sauces are considered acceptable on a ketogenic diet. I found this website to be very helpful with an overview of foods to eat and not eat: www.ruled.me/ketogenic-diet-food-list/. (I am not affiliated with them in anyway but do appreciate their work. They have some plans you can purchase that are more detailed. I have yet to get one but have thought about it.)
Break It Down
Ideally, on a ketogenic diet, you will get about 70–75% of your calories from fats and about 20–25% from protein. Try to limit the carbohydrates to about 5% of your total calorie intake.
Your calorie input will vary on your needs or desire. A general rule is to take whatever weight you want to weigh and add a zero to it. So if you want to weigh 150 pounds, simply add a zero and that equates to 1,500 calories. If you exercise, you can calculate how many calories you burned and add them back to your total for the day. If you burned about 300 calories working out, and your target weight is 150 pounds, then you should be able to eat about 1,800 calories that day.
One of the really tough things on a ketogenic diet is to control what you snack on. If you slip up and get too many carbohydrates, it will defeat the purpose of getting into ketosis. Healthy snacks you might consider would be walnuts, pecans, and pistachios. One of the sneaky secrets to watch out for is that each kernel of nut will have about 10 calories. The count can add up quickly.
Check Yourself
Don’t be surprised if you have increased urination during the first few days. Stored fat being burned for fuel will release a lot of water during metabolism. You will also want to be sure to drink plenty of water.
One of the benefits of a ketogenic diet is decrease in hunger. That is a major clue you are in ketosis. Ketosis will help suppress your appetite. Some people will purchase “keto” sticks for urine testing. It will allow you to know if you have ketones in your urine. Ideally, you will. If not, go back and look and see if you can find where the carbs sneaked in.
I hope this has been helpful information. Life is too short not to enjoy some birthday cake or some special food for a celebration, but I do believe most of us can improve our health with improving our diets. This is just another tool for you to use. Keep trying and eventually you will find a plan or combination of plans that fit you and your lifestyle.
Wishing You an Amazing Life,
Dr. Curtis Brown
The Midsummer Five-Day Diet Challenge
It’s midsummer and the Fourth of July is behind us! If you’re like me, you’ve let your diet slip a little. It’s so easy to cheat, especially around the Fourth. I’ve found challenges like this one (even if it’s relatively short) help me reset my mindset and appetite and improve my success with eating clean.
My goal with this five-day challenge is to lose about 2.5 pounds. Perhaps more importantly, I want to improve my healthy eating moving forward for the rest of the summer. I firmly believe we become what we eat and if we are not eating a healthy diet, we will not like the ultimate results.
This is a simple challenge I am starting on July 17 and ending the evening of July 21. It’s a Monday through Friday challenge. For five days, I am going to avoid any bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, sugar, and milk. Wednesday, I am going to do at least a 12-hour fast from any calories. (I will drink water and maybe tea or coffee.) I might do a 24-hour fast, but this will be a game day decision.
I am going to try to eat around 1,750 calories a day except on Wednesday when I will be fasting. If you do this challenge with me, I would suggest you pick your ideal body weight (whatever it is you want to weigh) and then add a zero to it. This number will be the number of calories to eat daily. I want to weigh around 175 pounds so I’m going to limit my total calories for the day to 1,750.
It is my hope many of you will join me on this short challenge and post comments and/or questions of my Facebook! It is always more fun and seems easier when doing these challenges with friends and family. I do have some good recipes for smoothies and meals on the blog.
Let me know if you are in!
Wishing You an Amazing Life,
Dr. Curtis Brown
Attitude of Gratitude
Last week, I had tried to get you to try a simple experiment. It was to simply stand in front of a mirror and get you to smile for three minutes a day. I know it sounds silly and I am not promising to cure you of all ailments, but if you did the challenge, I bet you felt a little better.
Motion leads to emotion. If you act a certain way, you will eventually feel that way. Something as simple as smiling can change your current mental state. I dare you to try it!
Another key to feeling less stressed (code word for fear) is to change your focus. Focus will lead to feelings. We become a summation of our thoughts. If you have a bunch of depressed or stressed thoughts, you will feel depressed or stressed. Every thought has some emotion tagged to it. If you change your focus, which is simply controlling your thoughts, you can change your emotional state.
Do a quick inventory of your emotional state for the week. Write down every emotion you had this week. Try not to edit it—just write them down as they come to mind. Hopefully, you have had a good week, but go ahead and do this little exercise. Try to determine what your primary emotion for the week has been. Honestly, I think mine has been frustration.
Now, the primary reason we feel frustrated or stressed is because our current situation doesn’t match up with our expectations or our blueprint for life. If we are feeling good, chances are our current situation matches up with our blueprint for life.
If things are not matching up with our blueprint for life, we can either change our blueprint (our expectations) or change our situation. Often, our situation can change simply by changing our focus. If we remained focused on the negative outcome or negative possibilities, chances are that our emotions well be negative. If, however, we focus on the positive things or possibilities (the glass is half full), we will tend to have positive emotions.
We all have a tendency to take a negative thought and go to the darkest corners in our minds with them. This is why solitary confinement is the worst punishment for prisoners. They are left alone with their thoughts.
You have to learn to control your thoughts. Most of the things people tend to worry over are outside of their control. They really have no influence over the outcomes. Take captive every thought you have and dwell on the good, the pure, the noble.
If you are having repetitive thoughts in your life that you really cannot control the outcome of, discipline your mind not to think about it. I have no control over the changes coming in healthcare. I can worry about it all, but it will not change the outcome. Now, I need to be aware of changes, but it will not help me to worry about Obamacare or Trumpcare. I have no control. So, when I am tempted to worry about it, I try to take control of my thoughts and focus on something else.
Focus will lead to feelings. Control what you focus on! If you want to take a deeper dive into this subject and other ideas for healthy living, take a look at my e-book, The Caleb Journey.
Wishing You an Amazing Life,
Dr. Curtis Brown
Stress Tip: Smile for a While
How was your week? Was it a productive week or was it one filled with frustration and stress? If I had to guess, more people experienced frustration than enjoyment. I hope that is not true for you, but I know in our culture there is a tremendous amount of stress.
I believe stress is really a code word for fear. When I say that I am stressed, it usually means I am fearful something isn’t going according to my blueprint for life. Stress (fear) can lead to all sorts of physical ailments. I have seen people worry themselves into an ulcer and even heart attacks.
So, if you had a stressful week or even a stressful month (maybe even a lifetime of stress), I have some simple solutions to improve your attitude. These solutions are so simple they seem almost silly. The only side effect is happiness or less stress. This is not better living through chemistry! No medication is involved.
A few years ago, there was a study that took clinically depressed patients through a treatment for 30 days and at the end, they had a 100 percent cure rate. They had clinically depressed patients stand in front of a mirror and smile for twenty minutes a day for 30 days in a row. Now it had to be a big smile, but that was all they did. (Sounds crazy or too good to be true!)
The key takeaway is “motion can lead to emotion.” Think about it for a few seconds. If I asked you to describe someone who looked depressed, what would they look like? Chances are they are slouched over slightly, face downcast, and not slow moving. We have all experienced this state of emotion. Now, consider someone who is excited or happy. What do they look like?
Try a little experiment. Make yourself looked depressed for a minute or two and see how it makes you feel. Now, try making yourself look happy or excited. How did you feel? Could you notice any difference even slightly? So, something as simple as paying attention to your body can change your mental state.
I have a challenge for you this week. Simply stand in front of a mirror and smile—a big smile—for about three minutes a day. If you have a big meeting, maybe before you go into it, smile for a while. I know it sounds crazy, but what do you have to lose? Let me know how you do!
If you want to take a deeper dive into this subject and other ideas for healthy living, take a look at my e-book, The Caleb Journey. Here’s what people are saying:
“This was a productive, useable, comfortable plan for me to follow. This plan is obviously based on successful personal and professional experience and knowledge in the medical, nutritional and sports fields, as well as in the spiritual well-being realm.” —Harry Brewer
“This 3-week challenge focuses on your spiritual walk, teaches you about your own body, and offers recipes and actionable tips to help you not only lose weight, but also find true happiness again.” —Shayla Eaton
Wishing You an Amazing Life,
Dr. Curtis Brown
What Is Your Purpose in Life?
WThe most popular book in the world is The Holy Bible. It has had more copies produced than any other book. The second most published book is not even close to the Bible. The second one, however, is fairly recent. It is The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren.
Knowing one’s purpose is essential to living a fully productive life. If you do not understand why you exist, then you will have difficulty making good decisions about your future and even your present. You will be taken with the current of popular opinion and may end up in a place you do not want to be in.
Earlier in the year, we talked about what you want written on your tombstone. How do you want to be remembered? This really gets you thinking about your character and your influence. I think this is a good starting point (the end of your life) on understanding your purpose.
Everyone and everything has a purpose. Even if you do not believe in a Creator, honest people will come to the conclusion that everything has a purpose. If you really believe we evolved from some primordial mist, then the only thing that makes sense is that we evolve to a specific end or purpose. We cannot evolve, and it not serve a purpose or benefit. Everyone and everything is designed for some purpose or use. We may not understand it with our limited sight or knowledge today, but there are no accidents.
I believe we are uniquely created by a loving God and that we all have purpose or reason for existence. I believe God has created each of us to fulfill roles only we can. The roles may be similar to others, but they will be unique to each of us.
Our purpose for life may be experienced differently as we go through different stages of life or life events; but at the core, our purpose or reason for breathing stays the same throughout our life spans.
We are never too old (or too young, for that matter) not to have a purpose. Many of my geriatric patients struggle with why they are still alive. They often feel like they have completed their purpose for living. There are many reasons for this, but at its core is the belief that they are no longer contributing.
Our sense of worth often comes from our sense of how we contribute to society, especially our families. If we feel we are not contributing, then often we will feel worthless. Eventually, we feel worthless.
I was at both of my grandfathers’ deaths. I watched as they took their last breaths and watched the monitors flatline. To this day, I am still learning from them. I will compare myself to them when I am close to the end. They showed me how men end well. They never quit leading me. You are never too old or too sick not to have a purpose. You will always have a purpose as long as you have air in your lungs.
You must know what your unique purpose in life is! I want to challenge you to think about your purpose, your reason for breathing. And I want you to write it down. It does not need to be elegant or even elaborate. I think the simpler it is, the easier it is to understand and to follow.
I recently reviewed my purpose and wrote down thoughts as they came to my mind.
“I exist to glorify God in all I say and do. I do this mainly through helping others to improve their health and lives. I experience God most when I am serving His children and enjoying the outdoors. Learning is another common way I enjoy God. Therefore, I will be a lifelong learner who loves God and helps others on their journey.”
This statement is basically a filter for me when it comes to decisions about how I am to spend “my” (it is all His anyway) money and time. It is a fairly broad statement and leaves me lots of leeway, but it is still one of my first filters. The things I do and spend my time on need to fit with this in some way or fashion.
We all have a purpose and a unique design. What is yours? Don’t be shy: tell me in the comments.
Wishing You an Amazing Life,
Dr. Curtis Brown
A Simple Key to Happiness
Read the first three in this series:
The Most Important Thing about Trying to Lose Weight
Understand Your Why
Brain Hack for Weight Loss
Isn’t it true we all just want to be happy? Are you happy right now? Do you have healthy relationships? Are you financially ok? How is your health? Are you growing spiritually? How is your family life?
How you answer these basic questions often determines your level of happiness. I want to slow down and have you think about some really basic things I believe can increase your level of happiness.
We all have a basic understanding or belief about how life should be. We all have a blueprint, if you will, on how to build our lives. At any given moment, your sense of happiness is determined by how well your current situation measures up to your blueprint for life. Think about it for a moment. Think of the different areas in your life: financial, health, relationships, family, and spiritual. How happy are you in each of these areas? Rate yourself on a scale of 1–10. How happy are you?
Chances are if you rate yourself fairly happy, your current situation aligns well with your ideas on how your life should be. For instance, if your financial goals are to have six months of living expenses set aside for an emergency fund and you have achieved that goal, you probably have some sense of contentment. I would imagine you have other financial goals as well, but I hope you are getting the point I am trying to make.
Now if you are not happy in some areas of your life, why not? Chances are that area of your life does not match up with your blueprint. Well, why not? Do you feel loved and respected by your spouse? Are you growing spiritually? Why or why not?
Our energies flow to our focus. If you want to be happy, focus on what is important to you, your blueprint for life. If you are struggling in a certain area, it is probably because you have not been focused on that area of your life. Maybe you are a dad who is working hard providing for your family, but you are neglecting your kids and things at home are not matching up to your blueprint. Focus on the family; balance the work-family continuum. I know it is not always as easy or simple as I have made it sound. But I do know it is true: your energy will flow to your focus.
If you are not happy in an area of your life, stop for about 15 minutes today and develop a plan to change your focus. Write your plan down on paper or on your smartphone, and review it daily. It will only take a few minutes. It helps to start the time with thinking about two or three things you have to be thankful for. Develop an attitude of gratitude. In a couple of weeks, take the time and reevaluate your situation. Focus and adapt!
Now the real key to a successful life is to have a lasting blueprint for life. Make sure your foundation of your blueprint is laid on the Cornerstone.
Wishing You an Amazing Life,
Curtis Brown MD
Brain Hack for Weight Loss
Read the first two in this series:
The Most Important Thing about Trying to Lose Weight
Understand Your Why
I really believe most of us can do just about anything when we put our minds to it. Now, I am not talking about crazy things that are physically impossible like flapping our arms to land on the moon. It is a matter of focus and what we focus on.
In recent blogs, I have written about the importance of deciding to do something and then having a compelling vision of your future. This compelling vision should help you overcome in times of struggles, and the struggles always come.
Today, I want to give you a simple brain hack to help you in your struggles in the moment. But first, let’s talk about some ways to prevent getting into struggles.
Why is it we often find ourselves dwelling on the things we are trying to avoid? Adam and Eve had acres of good trees to choose from, but they seemed to focus on the forbidden fruit.
My friend Rick Thompson tells a story about teaching his young son to ride a bike. He found an open parking lot on a weekend that was huge, but it had a couple of light poles in the middle of the lot. His son kept saying he was afraid he would hit the light pole. Now, there were literally acres of parking lot free from the light poles. But what do you think happened? His son went straight for the light pole!
The truth is our energy will flow to where we focus. If you are trying to lose weight and you are constantly thinking about food, where do you think you will end up? Probably at the refrigerator or the cabinet where the chips and cookies are.
The Bible encourages us to dwell on what is good and pure and noble. Keep thinking about your preferred future. How will you feel when you drop the weight? How much more energy will you have? How will your self-image change? Write down your goals and benefits and review them daily. Get on the scale every morning and decide tomorrow will be better. Make it happen!
When you are in the moment of a struggle, and you must decide between pain versus pleasure, now versus later, what can you do to improve your odds? Most of us have patterns we have developed over the years. Our spouses and close friends can often predict how we will react to a certain situation. It is the same with temptations of all kinds. We have thought patterns that usually lead to a behavioral reaction.
The key is to interrupt the thought patterns. We have to disrupt the routines of our neuropathways. It usually takes some energy and action.
One of the things I will do is simply get up and move. Get a drink of water or take a look out of the window. Do something to change my focus.
Our energy will follow our focus. Change your focus. I heard of one guy who would pinch his nose and make a noise. It disrupted his neuropathway and changed his focus. It helps if you immediately think of something funny or otherwise good. This will start changing your neuropathways and with time, the temptation will lose its grip on you.
Decide, create vision, focus on the good!
Wishing You an Amazing Life,
Curtis Brown MD
Read Part 4: A Simple Key to Success.
Understand Your Why
In a recent blog, The Most Important Thing about Trying to Lose Weight, I wrote about the most important thing for improving your health and losing weight: simply to decide to do so. Over the years, I have found those people who have succeeded have chosen to make it happen. They are proactive and take responsibility for their own health and weight loss goals.
Again, the concept is really simple. First you must decide! If you are thinking, I will do this when I have more time or money or my situation changes, chances are you will never take action. Most of us are like water: we tend to go to the level of least resistance.
Deciding is the first step. Deciding is the most important thing, but it is not everything. I have decided and have started many things only to give up in a few short days or weeks.
To really stay with it when things are a little tougher, you must have a compelling reason, a compelling why. Remember, we basically make decisions based off of pain versus pleasure.
For me to stick with something, even when it is painful, I must have a compelling vision of future benefit or pleasure. The scale must be tipped to the pleasure side for me to decide in the moment. Now the problem becomes in the moment; if I eat this now, I will have some pleasure and relief of pain. I must have a compelling vision of future benefits that outweigh the current situation. It has to have more attraction, more benefits in my mind, than my current situation.
People who are successful at losing weight understand delaying temporary pleasure for permanent results will ultimately give them more pleasure. So, you must get a clear vision of your future desires. What do you think it will feel like when you have reached your goals? What health benefits will you have obtained? How much more energy will you have? How much better will you feel about your body?
First, decide it is important. You cannot move beyond this until you know that you know it is important. Next, create in your mind a compelling future vision. Write it down. Keep a journal of your thoughts and desires. This vision must be strong and compelling. You will need to draw energy from it when you are tired. Set a goal with a timeline and tell someone. Better yet, team up with some friends and journey together to better health.
Wishing You an Amazing Life,
Curtis Brown MD
The Most Important Thing about Trying to Lose Weight
I have had the privilege of helping thousands of people improve their health over my 25+ years of being a family doc. Unfortunately, I have also not been able to help many people. Oh, I can give them the necessary information and/or medications, but many people just seem unable to move the needle. They seem stuck in a rut or even worse, continue down a bad path to decline.
I have discovered a simple, basic principle that successful people have in common. It is so simple that many people will not believe me, but I know it is the truth. It is not hard to understand and yet so many are simply unable to do it.
The simple truth is people who lose weight or otherwise improve their health decide to do so! This is the foundation of making improvements in your life. You must first decide. It must become important to you.
People know they should do something. They know they could do something. How many times have you said, “I should lose weight or I should start eating clean or I should start exercising?” I have “should” all over myself at certain times in my life!
So, the simple dirty little truth to the reason you cannot lose weight is you have not really decided to do so. I know I will get a lot of push-back, but just hear me out.
I know weight loss is complicated and hard. Heck, I have been trying to lose the same 20 lbs. now for a couple of years. I know it is hard and I have planned and strategized to lose the weight and have had some success but not lasting.
The bottom line is I have chosen to be where I am today. The choices I have made have led me to where I am now.
We are basically binary people. Every decision we make is simply deciding between pain or pleasure. Think about it for a second. When you really decide something is important to you, you will find a way to make it happen. Now, I am not talking about unrealistic things such as swimming to Hawaii or flying to the moon.
The problem comes in the moment. When you are tired or stressed, your willpower is not as strong as it would be when you’re not so stressed or tired. In the moment, you chose to relieve yourself of the stress by eating something or doing something that is not so healthy for you over the long haul. You chose temporary pleasure to avoid the pain you find yourself in. Pain versus pleasure. This concept of pain versus pleasure is true in all areas of your life.
So, the first thing you must do is to decide your health is important to you. I found I have this natural tendency in me to judge myself by what I intend to do but to judge others by what they actually do! My intentions are turned into deeds, when I actually decide and take action. I really have not truly decided until I act. The road to good health is paved with good decisions and not good intentions.
If you truly decide to do something, I am betting you can find a way to make it happen. Next time, we will discuss more on how you move from good intentions to taking action.
Wishing You an Amazing Life,
Curtis Brown MD