Why it's so hard to lose weight & what to do about it.
Our primitive brain only wants three things: to avoid pain, to move toward pleasure, and to reduce effort. And it will say anything it needs to in order to get you on board with its wishes.
The motivational triad are the three missions your primitive brain has. It wants to move you toward pleasure, encouraging you to have sex and perpetuate the species, to get out of the cave and go seek food, to tell you to pull your hand back when you are too close to the fire, and to make sure you aren't wasting those hard-earned calories on unnecessary efforting.
All that is good stuff, and just what we needed to survive and thrive in cave man days.
The problem is, for most of us, survival is no longer an issue. As a society, we've pretty much resolved these issues. So to go beyond mere survival and to thrive, we have to go against the constant chatter of our caveman brains.
I have a friend who refers to her caveman/primitive brain as a nervous assistant. I think it's a great way to approach it. Because that part of your mind wants to help. It's trying to keep you safe. But it's just one input, and we can choose to deal with it exactly as we would with a nervous assistant – to thank it for its concern, and then to explain that we are doing something different, and it's all ok.
Your primitive brain is going to try to keep you to sticking to just the motivational triad, but the good news is that it can't do anything without your consent. So the more you listen to this voice and realize it is a part of you that means well but isn't on board with the plan, the more you can acknowledge it and move on.
You get to choose what you eat. And that's very good news. So let the primitive brain have it's motivational triad, and then you do what you need to do to hit your goals.
Avoid the holiday weight gain by working with a coach. Email me at lisa@lisaduke.net to learn more.
Recent Comments