1/28/13 Dangers of food 'rewards' and negative self-talk

-Written by KC

Does thinking about fresh doughnuts with icing and sprinkles make you feel excited? Do they give you little flutters in your tummy or cause you to salivate or remember what your last doughnut tasted like?

This is because the last time you sank your teeth into a doughnut, dopamine was released in your brain and triggered a feeling of 'goodness' in your body...well temporarily anyway.

Nature

Nature wants to tell you what to eat, it really does. And it wants to tell you when you are full. In nature, fruits are sweets and dense sources of calories and micro nutrients. Fat also is a dense energy source found in nature. In nature, when we eat these things we are left with a satisfied feeling, or 'reward'. We are left with a 'full' feeling and rarely overeat on fruit or vegetables, protein, or fat. The problem is, when you eat foods not found in nature (processed, packaged foods or sweets with sugar, empty carbs, crackers, chips...) these foods ping the 'reward' system in your brain at a way too high level, abnormally high for what humans were designed. These processed foods, like doughnuts, send us a 'reward' signal even though they contain no nutrition. They trick the body into wanting more of them, even though they give us nothing but empty, extra calories with no nutritional value.

Food Rewards

Do you workout in order to give yourself an excuse to eat or drink the foods you know will make you less healthy? Sound familiar? Many of us have fallen into this 'food reward' trap at one time or another. And it is a trap, because when you use food as a reward, or punishment it causes an emotional attachment to this or that food. So much so that whenever you are feeling 'bad' you end up choosing a food that is unhealthy because of your past experience with that food and what the dopamine in the brain has told you 'feels good'. It's a vicious cycle that is fueled by constant non-natural food consumption so much so that the human body can no longer 'listen' to it's inherent signals, it only listens to 'cravings'. And what makes matters worse is that there is such a disconnect between what we 'think' we should be eating to help our health, and what we 'crave' and put in our mouths actually hurts our health.

Negative Self-Talk

And we know it, so to make matters worse we start the 'self talk' of 'I'm bad' for eating this....or 'I'm good' because I ate that. We end up placing personality characteristics and character defects and labels on ourselves that only contribute to more STRESS, which continues the cycle of unhealthy diet choices. My goodness, this is a broader challenge than simply 'nutrition'. This is a reason to look at our behavior, and really be honest with ourselves if our behavior matches what our goals really are. And learn how to re-wire the brain to help it work that way we want it to.

This cycle can be stopped by simply enjoying an unlimited supply of natural, whole, foods that make us healthy! Lean protein (animal meat), vegetables, fruits, some nuts and seeds all help our health and get our bodies back on the natural track it was designed for. That's all for now. Just think about it. More to come later.

Workout of the Day

The WOD today was nuts! I'll post the perscribed workout from OutlawWay.com, then i'll post our different versions that were offered to our general population athletes. These pictures represent the wod perfectly, it was a big crazy, but well orchestrated blur...

With a 40 minute running clock…

1 minute ME Muscle-Ups

*Rest 1 minute.

7 minute AMRAP of:

75 Double-Unders
20 Lateral Burpees (over BB)
10 Hang Power Snatches 95/65#

*Rest 1 minute.

1 minute ME Muscle-Ups

*Rest 1 minute.

7 minutes to establish a 1RM Front Squat

*Rest 1 minute.

2 minutes ME Muscle-Ups

*Rest 1 minute.

3 rounds for time of:

Row 20 Calories
15 Lateral Burpees (over BB)
10 Hang Power Cleans 135/95#

Notes: 7 minute cap. If the work is completed in less than 7 minutes, rest the remainder of the 7 minutes.

2 minutes ME Muscle-Ups

*Rest 1 minute.

7 minutes to establish a 1RM Jerk (racks or blocks may be used)