Feel Like Your Brain is Working Against You?

Do you ever feel like your brain is working against you? Do you feel like you're mind and body are making it hard to stick with healthy habits? Do you feel frustrated when you crave foods you're trying to avoid?

Everything your brain does is meant to keep you alive and well. When you try to restrict your diet, your brain thinks you’re starving and sends out hunger signals to get you to eat. It also tells the body to hold onto more fat. When you try a hard workout, your brain wants to protect you from further pain and tries to convince you that you shouldn’t exercise again.

On the other hand, when you learn to work with your brain, it becomes much easier to develop lasting habits that actually stick for the long run.

Annie Grace

I am fascinated by the story of Annie Grace, author of “This Naked Mind.” She shares her story with alcoholism and how she tried everything to stop drinking. She would tell herself to drink less and end up drinking much more than she intended. She kept wondering “what’s wrong with me? Why can’t I change? Why can’t I stop drinking?”

One day, she just stopped trying to change and instead started trying to understand why she couldn’t stop drinking. She learned that the brain is just doing what it’s supposed to. Her brain was trying to keep her alive and the alcohol interacted with her brain, making it think it was necessary for survival.

So, it wasn’t her fault that she couldn’t stop drinking. It wasn’t because she didn’t have enough willpower. It wasn’t because she was weak or unmotivated. It was because her brain was doing what it was supposed to do.

Annie said that after learning about how the brain works and understanding that she was not weak, she woke up one day and no longer had the desire to drink. She told her husband that this was the last day they could get drunk together, so they drank for one more night, and after that, she was done. She simply didn’t want the alcohol anymore.

This story is very similar to my own. I finally started exercising regularly when it became a choice—when I actually wanted to exercise. I didn’t do it because I knew I “should” do it; I did it because I wanted to.

Is it possible to crave foods that make your body feel great? Is it possible to fall in love with exercise? Yes! It's all about learning to work with your brain instead of against it.