Healthy Body: Fundamentals
Give It a Year
TL:DR version:
- Human patience has dwindled.
- The media makes us want things now.
- What we need takes patience.
- Rushing health improvements doesn’t work.
- We are stuck in a cycle that makes us feel bad.
Read on….
It doesn’t sell well, it isn’t sexy, no one wants to hear it – and it’s boring. But I’m going to say it anyway.
I did some online food shopping the other day, and as I checked out, it said:
“pay an extra ££ and get this in 2 hours.”
WHAT?
I couldn’t get in my car, get round the shop, check out, bag it, and get home in that time.
No brainer – I could stay here and get some work done.
Today’s world is organised so that we can ‘get’ almost everything faster than our grandparents could have dreamed of.
Instant box sets, Amazon Prime, groceries, takeaways.
Alexa can play you a song the moment it pops into your head (and Shazam can tell you what an overheard song is).
ChatGPT can organise information in a second.
Translation apps mean you don’t need to learn a language to communicate in a foreign country
Companies know we value speed.
If we want a thing, we want that thing as soon as possible.
Now, ideally.And we will pay whatever it takes.
Delayed gratification is not something humans are wired to do – we have to build that kind of mental muscle on purpose.
It’s quite uncomfortable and frustrating and there’s no shortcut to it.
Like real muscle.
There used to be more chances to practice patience.
Waiting for the book to come into the library,the next instalment of a TV show, even meeting up with friends.
We can get it all right now.
Even ordering your food in a restaurant can be done from the QR on the table.
No need to catch the eye of the waiter.
Gen Z really hate speaking to the waiter.
(I saw the first fully automated McDonald’s the other day – no humans in sight. It did feel apocalyptic, but apparently, people get their food much faster, so that’s alright then).
We live in an age where waiting is an almost obsolete concept.
Problem 1:
What we traded for the commodity of NOW – is our ability to wait.
It’s literally shrunk our collective patience.
The same people who offer us everything instantly are the same ones that show us images of perfection.
The glossy, filtered photos we scroll past thousands of times a day.
Professionally staged, contoured, expertly lit, posed, crafted, and photoshopped.
And even then, only the ‘best’ out of hundreds make it onto our feed.
Logically we know that these are highlight reels – because we do it ourselves.
We only upload the most flattering photo and delete the ones where we have a double chin or our ‘bad bits’ show,
Problem 2:
When we compare our unfiltered selves in the mirror, to these perfect Barbie-proportioned gods and goddesses, it skews our perception of progress.
It can make the pressure unbearable and makes us desperate.
When it seems as though everyone is beautiful, slim, toned, and flawless, then WE feel like the problem.
The odd one out.
There is little wonder that we have a mental health crisis at epidemic levels amongst our young people who have grown up in this madness.
2024 Stats:
The Mental Health Foundation
found that the mental health of 40% of young people has been affected by social media images to the point it changes their daily life
i.e., they won’t go out/go to school/join in with hobbies:
Girls (54%)
Boys (26%)
More than half of Gen Z women and girls think Barbie represents the Ideal Body Type.
Pubmed published some similar UK statistics:
80% of girls and women, and
45% of boys and men feel dissatisfied with their bodies.
45% of girls aged 15-17 avoid daily activities, like school, when feeling bad about their looks;
30% for boys in the same age group.
65% of girls aged 14-16 have been on a diet.
40% of girls aged 11-13 see themselves as overweight,
30-45% of primary school girls are concerned about their weight or becoming “too fat.”
In the U.S., those figures are even worse.
Problem 3:
Quick fixes with health just don’t work.
(below is an example, all the research I’ve ever seen shows similar results)
UCLA researchers found that people on diets typically lose 5 to 10 percent of their starting weight in the first six months.
Over 2/3 regain MORE weight than they lost.
They also found dieting is a consistent predictor of future weight gain.
And that ‘dieters’ were more likely to gain weight over time compared to those who didn’t
.This means that: dieters became more overweight over the long run than those who didn’t diet at all.
People tend to diet – ‘fail’ – put on more weight than when they started… and repeat the cycle.
The official name for yo-yo dieting is called weight cycling – and it can put you at greater risk of diabetes, raised blood pressure, loss of muscle mass and strength…
Adding problem 1 to problem 2 means we are literally primed to want a quick fix.
We have unachievable goals, and we need to achieve them now.
The ‘crash’ diet seems the most obvious thing to do – and the internet is full of shiny people telling you that – their way is the only way.
And as you’ve seen – problem 3 is that they just don’t work.
But they do keep you trapped in a cycle which keeps you frustrated, and really easy to sell magic quick fixes to.
By dedicating a year to whatever kind of transformation you want, you take the pressure off.
Step by step, decision by decision, you can move from where you are to where you want to be.
If you try to sprint – you’ve lost as soon as the starting pistol fires.
But nailing the essentials, over time, means you build strong foundations.
Laying the groundwork for progress, without the burden of unrealistic expectations that will send things crashing down and mess with your mental health.
When it comes to challenging the NCDs, you have to rebel against the ‘culture of now.‘
The same is true of any body shape benefits you want to maintain, whether that’s building muscle, getting to a heavier, healthier weight, a lighter one.
Zoom out to see the years of your life stretched out ahead.
One year now – will make the rest of them healthier, happier, and with much less stress.
Giving it a year is a bold choice.
It flies in the face of practically everything we are told.
It’s really bad for business (theirs) and really good for our bodies.
And that’s why it’s the only way that really works.
Action:
Zoom out. Write down:
What bbody goal are you prepared to ‘Give A Year’ to?
What do you stand to gain from giving it a year?
- A year from now?
- In 10 years?
- In 30 years