What if weight-loss doesn’t make you feel good, but having peace makes you lose weight?
Biologists at the Scripps Research Institute uncovered exactly this a few years ago: https://www.scripps.edu/…/pres…/2017/20170127srinivasan.html
Calories-in/calories-out does not account for this finding. Metabolic rate is too variable and adaptable. Currently I’m running an experiment which has discovered that one subject can achieve zero additional weight gain at an intake of over 6,000kcal per day; but the same subject has not lost any body mass with an intake as low as 3,800kcal per day even though physical activity went up.
What else could explain the outcome? Serotonin certainly could. Other neurotransmitter balance or imbalance could. Hormonal cascades could. Calories CANNOT.
On rare occasion people in my network ask me why I focus so much on the psychological aspect of training, the mental health component of wellness, the emotional piece of fitness. Welp, here you go.
Seeking ways to reduce hyper emotional responses doesn’t just make life better, it makes fat burn, literally. I was pretty clueless up until 4 years ago about exactly how low the average person’s emotional IQ is. Since being on social media in these past four years, I woke up. And I realize now more than ever how calories is never going to solve the problems of a persistently angry, agitated, or depressed mind. If you’re letting total strangers take up free rent in your head all day every day, getting fit is going to be harder.
Yesterday, I wrote about checking the ego whenever you’re feeling a reaction to someone or something. I have to double down today, because right after doing so I saw people in my network rile themselves up over a story which in no way impacts them. But they imagined that it does. They created a fantasy of drama and each further agitated the others, opining (incorrectly) on fundamentals of linguistics when it was clear no one in the group has studied a language, let alone how languages and sounds within them are fluid. And to what end? They wanted to get high from being angry at something. They achieved it. Good trade. Now all of their lives are needlessly shortened by a totally useless sentiment of indignation toward a complete stranger they’ll never know.
Johns Hopkins, the Mayo, and many other bodies of medical expertise have determined that forgiveness improves life, lengthens life, creates peace in your mind. There are so many papers on it, I‘d be here all day just posting the top ones, many of which I’ve shared before. Here’s one I haven’t: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi…
With this well-known scientific fact in hand, you might expect people to clear their mental baggage and walk through the discordant people in their lives one by one, making peace with each. I’m reminded of Louis Zamperini, who spent years forgiving people WHO TORTURED HIM during war. You think you have trauma? Try being tortured. Do you think his forgiveness might’ve played a role in how a traumatized man lived healthily to the age of 97? Nah. Coincidence, right? Make sure you get back to your internet grudges against total strangers. Let me know how that works out for you.
The anger/rage addiction is a strong one. We have to break it. We have to help one another break it. We have to support one another in breaking it. You’re doing no one favors by feeding nonstop indignation and irritation, especially new grudges against unknown people.
And if the concept of peace in your heart isn’t motivational enough, just think how much easier fat loss is when you can let go of your addiction to anger.
Biologists at the Scripps Research Institute uncovered exactly this a few years ago: https://www.scripps.edu/…/pres…/2017/20170127srinivasan.html
Calories-in/calories-out does not account for this finding. Metabolic rate is too variable and adaptable. Currently I’m running an experiment which has discovered that one subject can achieve zero additional weight gain at an intake of over 6,000kcal per day; but the same subject has not lost any body mass with an intake as low as 3,800kcal per day even though physical activity went up.
What else could explain the outcome? Serotonin certainly could. Other neurotransmitter balance or imbalance could. Hormonal cascades could. Calories CANNOT.
On rare occasion people in my network ask me why I focus so much on the psychological aspect of training, the mental health component of wellness, the emotional piece of fitness. Welp, here you go.
Seeking ways to reduce hyper emotional responses doesn’t just make life better, it makes fat burn, literally. I was pretty clueless up until 4 years ago about exactly how low the average person’s emotional IQ is. Since being on social media in these past four years, I woke up. And I realize now more than ever how calories is never going to solve the problems of a persistently angry, agitated, or depressed mind. If you’re letting total strangers take up free rent in your head all day every day, getting fit is going to be harder.
Yesterday, I wrote about checking the ego whenever you’re feeling a reaction to someone or something. I have to double down today, because right after doing so I saw people in my network rile themselves up over a story which in no way impacts them. But they imagined that it does. They created a fantasy of drama and each further agitated the others, opining (incorrectly) on fundamentals of linguistics when it was clear no one in the group has studied a language, let alone how languages and sounds within them are fluid. And to what end? They wanted to get high from being angry at something. They achieved it. Good trade. Now all of their lives are needlessly shortened by a totally useless sentiment of indignation toward a complete stranger they’ll never know.
Johns Hopkins, the Mayo, and many other bodies of medical expertise have determined that forgiveness improves life, lengthens life, creates peace in your mind. There are so many papers on it, I‘d be here all day just posting the top ones, many of which I’ve shared before. Here’s one I haven’t: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi…
With this well-known scientific fact in hand, you might expect people to clear their mental baggage and walk through the discordant people in their lives one by one, making peace with each. I’m reminded of Louis Zamperini, who spent years forgiving people WHO TORTURED HIM during war. You think you have trauma? Try being tortured. Do you think his forgiveness might’ve played a role in how a traumatized man lived healthily to the age of 97? Nah. Coincidence, right? Make sure you get back to your internet grudges against total strangers. Let me know how that works out for you.
The anger/rage addiction is a strong one. We have to break it. We have to help one another break it. We have to support one another in breaking it. You’re doing no one favors by feeding nonstop indignation and irritation, especially new grudges against unknown people.
And if the concept of peace in your heart isn’t motivational enough, just think how much easier fat loss is when you can let go of your addiction to anger.