Have you ever felt so frustrated with yourself when you can’t stick with a good habit? You start off thinking ‘right this is it for me…’ then something overtakes your brain like a ‘cravings monster’ and it all goes out the window?
This is such a debilitating thing for us, we lose faith and get angry at ourselves, feel low self esteem and we feel powerless right? Don’t worry, we’ve ALL been there. Our health is our most important asset right, but why is it so hard you may ask!?
I want to tell you about another way to look at it! It revolves around how our brains actually work so we are going ‘with’ the flow instead of against it! This way the changes ‘stick’ and we have the satisfaction of looking back on our old life habits and actually have a bit of a chuckle about how wrong they all were for us!!
Neuroscientists (brain guys) explain how our brain is very ‘neuroplastic’ i.e. it’s NOT fixed and unchangeable (as was once thought.) Instead, WE can create new neural pathways by swapping bad habits for good habits.
The key is to keep doing the ‘replacement habit’ (whatever that may be) long enough so that this pathway is strong and the other bad habit pathway have all but gone!
A side note: To keep our brain healthy, advice is that we change up our daily routines so that our brain doesn’t basically die of boredom! If we do the same thing day in and day out, we are asking for mental trouble, brain ‘fatigue’ or foggy brain. Easy ways to do this is change your food (don’t have the same thing every lunch) drive a different way to work, learn something new, or do a new exercise.
So how long does it take to change our brain pathways? How long before something that we really want to change in our lives becomes second nature… so that we don’t have to constantly stress about it? This can be really draining can’t it!
Some theories say 21 days to create a habit, I think longer, more like 6 months (I’m a realist;) The main thing to know is the longer you do ‘it’ the easier it gets, so if it’s important to you then it doesn’t matter, just keep doing it until it’s second nature. Easier said than done? See below then….
BUT there is something that we MUST do first so that we can carry this off… successfully.
It’s not that simple. You see a bad habit such as CRAVINGS for example, can be so strong, that it’s virtually impossible to shut them out. The messages to our brain will basically overtake our own logic every time. Then we lose faith in ourselves.
These messages to our brain can actually come from all directions: From our bad gut bacteria if they’ve got a hold on (overgrowth,) any gut parasites that we may have pick up from our kids (playground,) yeast overgrowth or candida demand sugar, and hormonal imbalances shout to our brain and make demands: The top 4 hormones to do this are cortisol (stress hormone), our sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone etc; thyroid and insulin.
All of these guys will rule the brain and send messages over an above your good intentions IF they’re out of balance. And the reverse will happen too: If these guys are IN BALANCE, they will keep you on the right path always. It will be easy for you to make a choice.
So before we tackle a change such as stop overeating, ignore cravings or eat more plant food, we first must address our imbalances. Otherwise many of us will just keep failing and it’s a horrible feeling.
We would do functional tests (bloods, saliva, stool tests) to see what’s going on, what’s the cause, is it hormones, gut parasites, candida overgrowth etc.? Then we know WHAT to balance before we tackle the change! We’ll then have every chance of controlling our habits LONG enough for them to stick in our brain.
Sadly, most people miss this crucial step (testing and re balancing first) and are miserable when they fail and keep failing. I really empathize, because I know that we aren’t taught this anywhere. How could we possibly know this sequence of events if we don’t study this stuff for a living? I’m hearing you!!
So here’s some small steps you can take now to get big results in a couple of minutes (there’s no time like the present!)
1. Get this FREE Instant Hormone Quiz and see what’s going on with your hormones.
2. If you’re results are showing imbalance, contact me to arrange a saliva hormone test (to confirm these results.)
Note: And/or If you’re struggling with digestion issues, feeling unusually stressed, have weight gain or other health issues, you may want to get a digestive analysis done. I can have a test kit posted to you. It’s that easy. Remember, our digestion and our hormones work together very closely. (If you have any questions about any of this you can email me: johanna@johannaanning.com.au or even send me a message via Facebook Messenger.)
3. Then you wait. I’ll contact you with your results and we can go from there.
Please share this post with your family and friends if you think they may get something out of it.
Commentaires