Breathe
By Adriana Sandoval
It turns out that with a flick of a finger we can find any amount of information on nutrition, exercise, creating good habits, healthy recipes and everything that goes into living a healthy lifestyle.
So what is stopping us from doing it? How can we translate all the knowledge into concrete actions? Where is the disconnect between discourse and practice?
It all starts with this little sentence: Information overload and paralysis by analysis.
Information overload can lead to paralysis, where the abundance of data generates confusion and makes decision-making difficult. It is essential to filter information and focus on reliable sources based on scientific evidence. The best way is to talk to a specialist, influencers did not study metabolism or anatomy, they only talk about what works for them personally but you are another individual with different characteristics and needs; and above all, you are not paid to recommend that product or exercise routine.
The first thing we need to do is to identify the barriers that prevent the adoption of healthy habits. Find some time of peace and write down what are the reasons that have led you to give up those habits you promised to follow. I share with you the ones I hear the most:
Unrealistic Expectations: Getting to a healthy weight or exercising takes time and effort. Your body is not going to change in a short period of time and you are not going to wake up at 5 a.m. to go to the gym when you have never done it before.
Emotional state: The body cannot attend to several masters at the same time, if you are going through a bereavement or have problems at work, you are probably producing stress hormones and that does not help.
3.- Environment: What happens at home, at work, with friends? Do they support you to have good habits? Do they criticize you for getting up early to train, for taking food to work?
4..- Lack of Planning: Many of us are good at planning but we forget that day to day life is not perfect, almost nobody takes into account the difficult days, when you have no time for anything, when you travel, when you sleep little, etc.
Now I give you some strategies to turn knowledge into action:
Set Realistic Goals: Implement small and sustainable changes instead of drastic transformations, you have to be sincere, give time to the process, start little by little. I suggest to my patients to commit to 20 or 30% of everything they want to improve, do a weekly evaluation and if you achieved it, increase it some more, in a short time you will be at 80 or 90% of the actions to follow and that number is already very good.
2.- Turn your emotions into allies not enemies: Learn to detect when it is time to sleep more, be with your loved ones, do yoga and leave the body combat for a while. Your body will also let you know when you can challenge yourself more and then your goals will change. Dragging a body that wants to rest through the gym or the athletics track is a titanic task that only leads to frustrations and injuries.
Also learn to detect if you are eating for anxiety, sadness or boredom. How can you know? When you eat out of hunger you feel satiated after a while, when you eat for other reasons you are never satiated because you don't need food, your hunger is different.
Decorate and purify your environment: We are not talking about leaving your friends, just talk to them about what you want to achieve and what is important to you, they will surely value it and learn to be with you in a different way.
Set up an area at home where you can exercise or just relax, organize the refrigerator, buy food containers suitable for transporting and heating outside the home. Agree with friends from the office to bring healthy snacks together and share.
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