Attitude Diet … Sunday Musings
Psychology Today’s recent edition covers our appetite hardwiring and the weight challenge. Research suggests that we are wired to know when we are too thin, but not when we are overweight.
Primal programming was set in our far-off ancestors to urge them to eat when they could, you never knew when famine might hit. Primal programming never got a glimpse of our food supply. Unlike other earth critters, we eat when we feel like it, not just because we are hungry. And if it’s goooood, we eat more! Who knows when we might need those extra ten (twenty) pounds?
That got me wondering if we’re hardwired with only half the equation on anything else… You suppose that we make such a big deal about having a positive attitude because, like the weight thing, a cautious (some might call it negative) attitude was necessary for survival?
On the one hand, you needed to be resilient and believe there was food, shelter, or safety around the next bend. But on the other, you’d be an idiot to be cruising down the jungle path whistling and singing at the top of your lungs. Back then, perky just might get you killed — or eaten! (Come to think of it, that’s true in some modern “jungles.”)
So maybe the quest for optimism and a positive attitude is tough for the same reason losing weight is tough: the opposite happens a whole lot easier.
If that’s so, we need to go a little easier on ourselves – both in the weight department and the attitude department. That doesn’t mean give up, it just means when you take the path of least resistance, forgive yourself and get back on the healthier path.
Happy Sunday!
Beth
© 2008 Beth Terry Seminars, Inc. All international rights reserved.
