Health
Habits
Food
Weight 
Better Than Butternut: Roasted Delicata Squash Recipe
10 Simple Ways To Eat Less Without Noticing
Juicing: Stupid and Pretentious or Nourishing and Enlightening?
10 Tasty Carbs That Won’t Make You Fat
How To Start Working Out When You Don’t Like To Exercise
Focus More on Your Brain and Less on Your Diet if You’re Serious About Losing Weight
Home Court Habits: The Secret to Effortless Weight Control
10 Reasons You Aren’t Losing Weight When You Think You’re Doing Everything Right
How To Burn More Calories Without Breaking A Sweat
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Foodists
How to Troubleshoot a Single Mysterious Bad Habit
Sometimes it feels like you have everything figured out except for this one, baffling problem that seems to defy all logic. For Nina, her healthstyle has always been rather straightforward. She enjoys eating healthy, she understands the value of indulgences, and can easily adjust her behavior to align with her values in almost every circumstance. Almost.
Nina reached out to me because she can’t understand why she binges on junk food during her babysitting job, despite knowing it’s a bad decision and not worth it. She has tried a few things to stop, and had a bit of success, but still doesn’t feel like she has control over her behavior in this one, specific circumstance.
As is often the case when a very specific context becomes a trigger for an intractable habit, Nina can lucidly describe her issue and the circumstances that cause it to arise. She knows she’ll regret her actions, she knows Cheetos and Cinnamon Toast Crunch aren’t special on a random Thursday afternoon, and she knows it’ll impact her ability to enjoy herself after she leaves. What she can’t figure out is why she continues to act in a way she doesn’t like, despite this self-awareness.
For Nina, solving this mystery requires reframing an old habit in a new light. Even though the circumstances have changed for her as an adult, she is acting out an old behavior she developed as a child. As a result, she lacks the perspective necessary to recognize a solution that is right under her nose.
Together Nina and I come up with a simple way for her to hit pause on the autopilot caused by the babysitting trigger and pull herself back into the present moment so she can make a more rational and value-based choice in behavior.
Wish you had more time to listen to the podcast? I use an app called Overcast (no affiliation) to play back my favorite podcasts at faster speeds, dynamically shortening silences in talk shows so it doesn’t sound weird. It’s pretty rad.
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This is not a critique, but a wondering. I notice that most of your stories are about people under 40 – that makes perfect sense given your own age. I’d like to know though, if you can direct me to the stories of people over 50 who are successfully able to retool their attitudes towards food.
A few of my guests have been over 50 (they rarely sound like it), and I know a significant portion of my readers are. I don’t know of anyone else doing what I’m doing for any age group or demographic.
If anyone over 50 is reading this and would like to be a guest I’d love to have you. Please fill out the form here.
I find that I have a similar, specific problem when I am working and when there are moments that require extreme concentration. In these moments, eating well becomes less important than doing a good job at work, and I will break my otherwise whole-food, balanced healthstyle and buy a pack of M&M’s or some other totally crap food I wouldn’t dream of purchasing and putting in my house. I’m not thinking “this is so delicious!” while I’m eating, but somehow the supply of something small, sweet, and constant (till the pack is empty) feels necessary to give over to the task at hand.