2651: [Part 2] Study Suggests We're Doomed to Stay Fat by Steve Kamb of Nerd Fitness on Healthy Habits

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[00:01:10] to stay fat. Wait, what? Part 2 by Steve Kam of nerdfitness.com and I'm your narrator, Dr. Neil. Hello, happy Thursday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily where I simply read to you from the

[00:01:23] best health and fitness blogs for free. Oh, and by the way, today's post is part 2 from yesterday, so if you're new here or skipping around, I'd recommend listening to yesterday's episode first.

[00:01:35] But if you're all caught up, let's jump right in and hear part 2 and continue optimizing your life. Study suggests we're doomed to stay fat. Wait, what? Part 2 by Steve Kam of nerdfitness.com.

[00:01:53] Use all your tools. I'm proud that the nerd fitness rebellion is a group of average folks who think differently. When I started nerd fitness years ago, I knew that mainstream diet and fitness advice sucked and it wasn't getting people lasting long-term results. That was the whole point,

[00:02:10] rebelling against this insanity. So let's take a look at how to use more than the joystick and ensure that all of us get healthy. Like Batman with a fully equipped utility belt,

[00:02:23] we need to use all of the tools at our disposal in order to succeed long-term. Set yourself up for long-term success with habits that last permanently. This is the most important thing

[00:02:35] you can do for yourself. Once you understand how your brain works and how to build new habits, you can start attacking them with small, deliberate, permanent changes. If you struggle with willpower, you're not alone. You have to understand though how willpower works first. So

[00:02:53] we start with tiny changes we can live with and then we slowly expand them as we build momentum. We prove to ourselves we can change. I just need to try harder. Never works. You need to understand

[00:03:07] how to try and then try smarter. Diets don't work. What I mean by diet is a temporary change to one's life for a short period of time. You can also add things like juice cleanses and detoxes to

[00:03:22] this list, also known as destroying yourself 90 days at a time unsustainably. I cover all of these popular weight loss tactics that perfectly fall under the reasons 99% of people struggle to keep weight off a decade later. We don't do short-term changes. Our goal is long-term, permanent

[00:03:41] solutions. We need to be deliberate in our efforts to change our lives. This is not a short-term fix. It's a fundamental adjustment to how we make decisions daily that sets us up to succeed.

[00:03:55] Build an environment that supports you. We are products of our environment and we are affected by everything around us subconsciously all day long. For that reason, like Bruce Wayne and his bat cave, we too need an environment that creates effortless success for us rather than tempting us

[00:04:14] back to the darkness. We know that really focusing on hacking the source code of our lives can have a drastic effect on every decision we make and can set us up to succeed long term. One, we adjust

[00:04:27] our environment so we have to rely less on willpower to say no to certain foods. Not keeping junk food in our house, not driving past our favorite fast food place, only going to healthy

[00:04:38] restaurants so we're not tempted. And two, we set ourselves up to succeed by lowering the barriers between us and healthy choices. Sleeping in our running clothes, blocking time-wasting websites, preparing healthy meals for the whole week. We need to make our new default effortlessly healthy.

[00:04:58] A great support system. Fighting this battle alone is like going up against the toughest dragon in World of Warcraft solo. Why not build a great team to fight alongside you? As the saying goes, you are the average of the five people you associate most with. So surround yourself

[00:05:16] with a killer justice league. We need people who support and inspire us to get healthier rather than drag us back down. If a great support system can cure those with drug addiction, it can certainly help with living a healthier life. It starts by surrounding yourself with

[00:05:32] people that care and want you to succeed, not sabotage your efforts. We know that the types of food we consume factor in greatly. Consuming 600 calories of Twinkies is not a great long-term solution compared to 600 calories of chicken, fish, avocado, and leafy vegetables. In fact,

[00:05:53] most of the processed junk we eat today is designed to target certain parts of our brain that make us say more, more, more. If you've ever eaten one of something and then can't get

[00:06:04] yourself to do anything else until you've eaten the whole bag, you know what I'm talking about. It's tough to restrict calories when your brain has been hijacked. We can win. I know we have a lot of people reading Nerd Fitness or listening now who are just getting

[00:06:20] started on their weight loss journeys, many of whom who probably have gone up and down in weight for years and wondering if it's hopeless. This study is going to divide people into two camps.

[00:06:31] One, I knew it, this is why I can't lose weight, I'm doomed, why bother, I'm off to McDonald's. And two, okay, clearly something's not working. I need to try something different. I need to try

[00:06:44] smarter, not harder. I have a hunch most of society probably fits into group one and most of the Nerd Fitness rebellion fits into group two. You just listened to part two of the post titled

[00:07:01] Study Suggests We're Doomed to Stay Fat. Wait, what? By Steve Kam of nerdfitness.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. Look, I know this wasn't the main point of today's article, but did you catch all of those Batman references?

[00:07:18] You see why I was so thrilled to read today's article? Okay, I'll move on. Steve's article actually reminded me of something that was supposedly said by the author Mark Twain. Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times. Now what if Mr. Twain had some of the

[00:07:35] advice Steve mentioned in today's post? He may have been a bit more successful quitting his smoking habit. I personally am not a big believer in willpower. In fact, studies are showing that it's not great to rely on willpower to change habits. And this is because as Steve said,

[00:07:51] willpower comes and goes. Some days we wake up feeling like we can take on the world, but by the end of the day, we can't wait to just put our feet up. This is normal. Willpower gets

[00:08:03] used up throughout the day. The more stressed, the more fatigued and the hungrier we are, the less willpower we have. That's why it's not recommended we go grocery shopping on an

[00:08:13] empty stomach at the end of a long day. You'll probably end up buying a whole bunch of impulse items. You know, things you'll never eat or use. So if we can make the healthy choice the easy

[00:08:24] choice by using Steve's suggestions, like preparing nutritious meals and snacks in advance or choosing a workout you can easily squeeze into your day and in the comfort of your home, these will make the behavior more likely to happen. All right, that'll do it for today's

[00:08:40] episode. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening every day. Thank you for sharing the show with someone. It's one of the best ways to keep all of our shows and the OLD family going.

[00:08:50] And I'll see you back here tomorrow for the Friday Q&A where your optimal life awaits.