A few weeks ago, my husband and I decided to buy a new mattress. We had had our existing one since we moved in and it was long overdue for replacement. It was flat as a pancake and I was tired of feeling like I was sleeping on springs. It goes without saying that I am no mattress expert. There was a million choices and it seemed impossible to differentiate between them. But, I figured anything I chose would be a marked improvement on what we had. So, just pick one, right? Instead of getting overwhelmed (which I usually would) I did what people normally do in a situation like this like this. I didn’t go for the cheapest, and didn’t go for the most expensive. I went for something in the middle.
This is fairly standard in decision making. It has been well documented by behavioural experts. If you don’t believe me, just notice what you do the next time you are choosing a bottle of wine in a restaurant! This all got me thinking, if this Goldilocks effect is so standard in decision making, that it is essentially the default, how come it doesn’t translate into the rest of our lives? How come so much of our behaviour is one extreme or the other.
I have talked a lot on the blog about the idea of balance. I want to have a healthy diet, but I don’t want to feel restricted. I want to get enough exercise, but I don’t want to run myself into the ground. I love to keep busy and active, but want to avoid feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Why is it that in these areas of my life, I find it difficult to determine what it “just right?”
I mean, wouldn’t it be ideal if our bodies were programmed to give us immediate feedback? Like, “OK Arwen, that’s enough cake now.” How perfect would it be if we were given accurate indications on how much actually is enough? Of course, there are plenty of devices we can plug data into. We can track our food intake, our energy expenditure, our sleep and just about any other metric you can think of. However, is our reliance on these tools only further damaging our ability to make good decisions by ourselves?
Any regular readers will know that I have experimented with just about every diet protocol that there is. I have gone from elimination type diets, where I ate as much as I wanted, but only from certain food groups, to diets that involved weighing and tracking every bite. No matter how diverse these diets appear, they all have one common drawback. They don’t feel like a “normal” or “natural” way to eat. I am at the stage now, where I really want to be able to eat intuitively. The only problem with this, is that I don’t trust my intuition. Do you blame me? It hasn’t got an awesome track record of keeping me in line!
It is a very similar situation with training. I always wonder if I could or should be doing more. I am constantly on the look out for new things to incorporate into my routine. New ways to get more out of my training sessions. Again, it would be lovely to feel in tune enough with my body to be able to relax about it. I don’t want to spend any less time in the gym, but it would be nice if it took up less head space. Surely the only time I need to be actively thinking about training, is when I am actually doing it?
In short, I have reached a point now where I want my training and nutrition to just tick along in the background. I don’t want them to be a source of stress or anxiety. I would love to be able to just rock up to the gym and do whatever workout I felt like, without worrying about how it will impact the rest of my week. I would love to blow off meal prep if I am tired or busy, without it giving me a panic attack (not literally, but you get the point!) As it is, I am over thinking and creating problems for myself, using up time and energy which could better serve me elsewhere.
Having given all of this a lot of thought, I think the only way I can learn to trust my inner Goldilocks is if I let her take control. This isn’t going to be an easy transition for me. I am a complete control freak and I always have a nagging worry in the back of my mind that if I take my foot off the gas, even for a second, I will wake up 20kg heavier. I know how irrational this is, but you try telling that to the voices in my head.
I have a trip to Rome coming up in 3 weeks, and I think this will be the perfect time to experiment. For the four days I am there, I will not even attempt to track a single calorie or macro. I won’t be eating at my desk or with other distractions. I will try to use eating in a more relaxed setting, to help me to better recognise and trust my hunger and satiety ques. My travel companion has never struggled with her weight or food in general, so she will be a good guide. I also won’t have access to a scale, kitchen or bathroom, so I will need to trust myself to do without the former, and not worry what is happening with the later. (I will post my meals and snacks on my Instagram story, so you guys can see how it’s going.)
Any of you who may be reading this, thinking it all sounds crazy, let me tell you how much I envy you. I have battled for a long time with very disordered thoughts and behaviour around diet and exercise. At the moment I feel like I am controlling it, as opposed to it controlling me, but I am acutely aware of how quickly the scales can tip in the other direction. Enough is enough. Be well xxx
Ps. Any of you who have come up against similar issues, I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
