One of my guilty pleasures on the internet is looking at a particular type of ad.
They’re usually found below news or special-interest articles, and they’re designed to be sensational. I’m sure there’s a guy somewhere whose boss told him, “Say anything you want, just get them to click.”
My favorites are the news headlines.
“Woman found cheating on husband with buffalo,”
or
“Gigantic watermelon becomes a second home for area kids.”
Then of course there are the diet-y headlines.
“Eat this food and NEVER DIET AGAIN!” they say, with accompanying photos of frog eggs or monkey brains for legitimacy.
Then of course there’s the old:
“Doctors hate this simple trick to lose weight!”
(Do they hate it because it’s unhealthy, or because they’re out of a job?)
I have to admit, as ridiculous as the ads are, the creators are pretty clever. The ads scream to be clicked—especially the diet-y ones.
It’s no coincidence the advertisers put their focus there, either. Most Americans feel fat. We wish we would become healthier, but we never do. Either we don’t know how (because the health world has so much misinformation) or we’re not willing (because we think of it as a chore instead of a joy). There is a small (or large) part of us that wants that quick fix. So when we see a testimonial saying “I lost ten pounds in the first ten days and never went hungry,” we allow that tiny voice of hope to attach itself to the book or program it comes from. We are hooked.
I totally get this. I once bought a useless writing program because I believed it would give a miraculous head start to my writing career. It didn’t. We all crave a quick fix, and we’re willing to spend money trying to get it. For most Americans, that quick fix is for their health. All you have to do is buy the program, and it’s yours. Easy. Perfect. Bingo.
There is only one problem with this approach: it won’t work. It is fundamentally flawed. No matter how healthy a particular food or pill or diet is, it alone will never bring you to ideal health. Yes, even the raw food diet. Even Spirulina. Even Ayurveda. Even the new weight-loss book that claims to do something no other book does.
What is the flaw? It’s the oversimplification of our bodies. Our bodies are not machines. Most of us live in a world dominated by cars and computers, so we often end up comparing our bodies to them. And a quick fix does work for machines. Put some oil in it, reformat your hard drive, and you’re good to go.
But our bodies are not machines. Our bodies are ecosystems. Literally. And as any botanist knows, you can’t fix an ecosystem by injecting one magic ingredient into it. That’s how you create an invasive species, wipe our a population, or dramatically alter nature’s balance. The same is true of your body.
Just as a forest needs rain, sun, wind, night, day, soil microbes, birds, reptiles, and mammals to maintain its ecosystem, so our bodies need a variety of things at the right time and in the right quantity.
Thus, prescribing one thing to a person (or worse, to all people) as a magic pill to fix everything won’t work. Try treating all of your garden plants the same way, or giving them only water (or only soil or only sun), and see if they survive.
Yet, I opened a diet book today and saw this:
The Perriscone M.D. Weight-Loss Diet
Day 2.
Dinner:
Poached or baked halibut (6-8 oz)
1 cup cherry tomato salad
1 pear
8 ounces spring water with fresh lime.
And so it continues. We keep looking for the magic formula, and people keep claiming they have it. That leads to a lot of sales for diet books, and very little progress.
And we keep searching this way because of fear. In order to take full responsibility for our wellness, we have to forget everything we’ve been told about our health (chiefly: “listen to others instead of yourself,”).
We must learn to listen to ourselves again.Where is your body-wisdom? Do you hear it? Are you an empowered creator of your health?
It is intimidating to begin such a quest of deconditioning and empowerment. Most of us don’t really know where to begin.
Develop Body Awareness. The most basic way to begin is to become more aware of your body. Keep a journal if you want, or set a watch alarm—anything to remind you to check in periodically and feel how you feel. Keep going deeper, dive into the subtleties of each sensation. Meditation can help. As you become more aware of your body’s reactions and needs, body-wisdom will guide you to the foods and lifestyle you need.
Nourish. Another important aspect is to nourish yourself with simple, whole food. I can’t prescribe a diet for you, but it’s common sense that the food our ancestors ate is the healthiest (and I’m not talking about the Paleo diet—just fresh, whole, natural food). Anything processed, pasteurized or preserved is something our bodies are unequipped for. Wild foods are more nourishing than cultivated foods, and organic foods more than conventionally grown. Fermented foods are healthy. Wild meat is better than pastured, pastured is better than animals treated cruelly. When in doubt, eat a fresh vegetable. Nobody thinks they’re unhealthy.
Photo by Monstruo Estudio
Participate. Become a participant in every stage of the food you eat. Try to become as involved as you can. Grow a garden if you have space. If you don’t, join a CSA. Let your body-wisdom guide you. You may be surprised how much your gut knows. After you re-learn how to trust your own body’s instincts (and have brought them back into balance through proper nourishment), you may find the idea of trusting someone else to make your health decisions to be ridiculous.
Learn. Finding teachers and authors you trust can be an important part of recovering your body-wisdom. Look for those who empower you as a creator of your own health, and whose goal is to support you in becoming healthy as a whole human being: physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Those who are healthy in all of these four areas are more likely to be good teachers. Anyone who claims a special program is required for health just wants your money.
Even though there is no one magic pill, there might be something like it. Not in the ordinary sense, but there is certainly something that can make or break your journey to true health.
That trait is love.
If we love ourselves as we are, we no longer need to force ourselves to do what’s good for us because we “should.” We nourish ourselves because it is joyful, as a prayer of gratitude for the sacred body we inhabit.
—
Nicholas Tippins
Reblogged this on The Heart of Wellness.