elev8 wellness
  • Elev8 Wellness
    • About
    • Meet the team
    • Classes >
      • Women's Wellness Series
      • Elev8 Yoga
      • Elev8 Dance
      • Elev8 Kids Programs >
        • Elev8kids Summer Camp
        • Toddler Classes
    • Our Studios >
      • Rent Our Studio
    • Elev8 Recipes
  • WellBlog
    • Elev8 Weekly Thoughts
  • Services
  • Virtual Coaching
  • Contact
    • Take a Tour

wellblog

A Lot of Eating Habits Are Just Getting High/Drug Abuse

4/11/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Dopamine and serotonin run our lives. In large part, we eat food to get high. That’s right. The same reason junkies can’t kick physical dependency on drugs (ie - neurotransmitter mismanagement) is why people struggle with food. Dopamine plays a very strong role in weight gain: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/…/S0960-9822(19)31468-X

We might think wealth, access to food abundance, and over-abundance play a pivotal role in people getting fat. But the reality is that, though the developed world has higher incidence of obesity than the third world, within the developed world the highest rated areas are impoverished: https://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/60/11/2667

People in poverty are at the highest risk of obesity and the related health risks. Yet again, this is why I scoff at the arguments against saturated fat intake and meat in the diet. Poor people aren’t eating duck fat and grass fed steaks. But they are getting high with vegetable oils and lots of vegan foods, namely grains.

Most importantly, people need to understand that changing dietary behaviors is the same brain chemistry alteration required to get off of hard drugs. At first, you will enjoy all of life less, because you are in withdrawal and making all-time lows of dopamine. Expect to grind through a period of acute depression. More than half of the reason stimulants work for fat loss is that they trigger a dopamine response to make up for your food withdrawal.

This is also why I work with clients on fasts. If you take your drugs away long enough, low healthy doses of them can be integrated positively back into your life. And when I say “drugs” here, I mean food, social media, screens, sex, or whatever your dopamine addiction is. For some people it’s drama. For some people it’s anger. For some people it’s outrage. For some people it’s grief. For some people it’s victimhood. For some people it’s actually tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. You will notice, upon reflection, that your dopamine high now comes from increasingly depraved versions of whatever it was that got you high previously. A tiny bite of cake used to do it. No longer. Now, it better be the whole cake. And even that doesn’t get you quite as high. A small friendly debate used to do it. No longer. Now, it better be nonstop berating and pejoratives toward your enemies. And even that doesn’t get you high like it used to.

Whatever it is that gets you high, you have receptors in the body for the adrenaline, cortisol, and dopamine that you dump out when you engage in these unhealthy and counterproductive behaviors. They need a reset. They need a period of abstinence. They need a fast.

Afterward, you may find you can reintegrate small amounts back into your life in a positive manner; or you may find you still can’t handle it.

Why did people ever create offices? Why did people ever invent walkabout, wilderness retreat, and strategic solitude? Because without the noise of your addictions and distractions, your brain might return to a healthier state with greater clarity.

Why do cults create retreats, getaways, and gathering places? So they can rob you of your clarity you’d get in solitude. So they can steal the reward we are to retrieve from thinking straight. So they can bombard you with ideology in the very moment you ought to be thinking for yourself and shaking off the controls of other people’s expectations.

And this is where food addiction has at least one component that is more difficult than illicit drug addiction. The societal norm doesn’t discourage it. Our obsession with identity politics (ie - this is WHO I AM) reigns supreme over our behaviors. Rather than viewing actions as things we sometimes do, we have developed some really erroneous beliefs that those actions are WHO I AM. And people ought to be ashamed of implying that I should change WHO I AM.

If you can break free from the cults, if you can view behaviors as behaviors, if you can view desires as desires, you don’t need to change WHO YOU ARE. You can remain every awesome thing you are while kicking your habit. You can fast from getting high for a little bit; and you’ll find that the best parts of who you are not only stay, but improve.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Elev8 Wellness
    ​wellblog

    We strive to provide the latest articles and commentary on health, fitness, nutrition and vitality strategy.

    Archives

    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All
    Active Memory
    Age
    Business
    Cancer
    Coaching
    Dementia
    Diet
    Dna
    Elev8 Wellness
    Family
    Fat
    Fish Oil
    Genetics
    Gut Health
    Health
    Jonathan Watters
    Ketosis
    Leadership
    Life
    Memory
    Muscle
    Nutrition
    Optimisim
    Parkinsons
    Pessimism
    Probiotics
    Sales
    Spatial Intelligence
    Strength Training
    Weight Loss
    Weight-loss
    Wellness

    RSS Feed

Picture

LIVE. AWESOME.

We offer the highest quality in personal  fitness, nutrition, and mindset coaching, helping you achieve your fitness, health, wellness and performance goals no matter the obstacle. With virtual online training and private, in-studio training we make it easier to reach your wellness goals safely.

​No more can't. No more not good enough. If you compete in a sport, let your mind no longer hold you back from being the greatest. If you don't, let your mind no longer hold you back from being the best version of you that you can be.

Sign-up for a Tour
Covid Screen Waiver
​Elev8 Waiver
Become an Elev8 Instructor
Space Rental
LOGIN / MEMBER REGISTER

6244 lyndale ave. s., minneapolis, mn 55423
[email protected]
612-440-6877

© 2021 Elev8 Wellness LLC.  All Rights Reserved.                                              site map  |  contribute  |                                                           SITE BY  Sproute Creative
Photos from benzado, frankieleon, hatcher10027, Sterling College, OakleyOriginals, rawpixel.com, quinn.anya, allispossible.org.uk, wuestenigel, jeffdjevdet, Brian Legate, jeffreyw, Ray Larabie, katerha, Agência Brasil, TheBetterDay, A. M. D.
  • Elev8 Wellness
    • About
    • Meet the team
    • Classes >
      • Women's Wellness Series
      • Elev8 Yoga
      • Elev8 Dance
      • Elev8 Kids Programs >
        • Elev8kids Summer Camp
        • Toddler Classes
    • Our Studios >
      • Rent Our Studio
    • Elev8 Recipes
  • WellBlog
    • Elev8 Weekly Thoughts
  • Services
  • Virtual Coaching
  • Contact
    • Take a Tour