Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

We want more. Sorry to break it to you, but no matter how awesome your car is, after a couple of months, you’re going to want a better one. No matter how lovely your house is, you’re going to want a better one (either bigger or in a more prestigious neighborhood). No matter how thin you are, you’re going to want to be better. As humans, we are wired for MORE.

How can we make eating healthy more like a video game? How can we give ourselves a score that we can compare? Maybe if we had some sort of composite number that rated our eating, exercise and mental state, we could compare numbers and compete to try to get it higher. We’re wired for this kind of competition, that’s why places like Weight Watchers work. We’re secretly very proud that we have our little five pound bookmark and all of its stars on it.

So much of weight loss is about LESS, though…

Losing weight is literally about making LESS of yourself. Eating less food. It’s the whole “Eat Less Move More” movement. I’ve got the Move More part down pat. I love to exercise. The Eat Less thing, however is really difficult and I think it’s the LESS part that makes it hard. Since we’re so wired to want more, the idea of less goes against every instinct programmed into us. Less is inherently AGAINST evolution.

Unfortunately, we’ve kinda made evolution obsolete…

We have been able to conquer famine, disease and even our aggressive nature. All the things that helped us survive famine are now causing a disease of their own. Our instinctual desire for more is making us slow and lethargic.

I have no idea how to get past this. Anyone have any ideas?