Wellness Weekly: Why do humans struggle with discipline?

Happy Monday friends! I hope your weekend has been a good one.

I saw an interesting tweet just over a week ago, with some really interesting comments from others as well.

Here's the tweet (plus my response):

Some of the comments were really interesting:

• "At the bottom of it all you doing it for other people's appraisal. I'd never torture myself to this point for people's praises."
• "10 meals of the same thing: I will hold on to my love handles"
• "good job man, the people complaining don’t understand this is the way"

It was a very interesting mix of people praising his discipline, but many rejecting the idea that you can eat the same/similar meals on repeat in pursuit of your goals.

This is something that, in my view, is easily explained.

Shiny Object Syndrome

Humans are quite excitable.

We like the "new" thing, and we like it often.

It's known as "Shiny Object Syndrome" – which is essentially defined as 'a continual state of distraction brought on by an ongoing belief that there is something new worth pursuing'.

Whether that be clothes, workout plans, food, health, supplements – there is always a new thing that has the potential to distract us.

I think this syndrome is a huge reason why people struggle to stay the course with their health goals; they want something new constantly.

Whether that be new foods to try, new workouts that they've seen on a TikTok, new supplements that promise their best ever health, and so on.

The trouble with this is that getting pulled in multiple different directions and doing different things won't get you anywhere when it comes to your health long-term.

Discipline with health requires repetition.

The importance of repetition

Take me for example: I know that for a fact my breakfast will be a bowl of protein oatmeal with various toppings 80-90% of the time, and the other 10-20% of the time I will have a smoothie.

That just does not change, and has not changed for over 7 years.

Of course you have to make it taste good so you can enjoy it, and that helps with adherence over a long period of time.

My training has largely remained the same as well: a standard push/pull/legs split, with two cardio sessions in there, along with mobility work dotted around during the week.

This works for me, and I've continued to build lean muscle (fuelled by plants of course!)

The reality is this: your desires and goals for your health often don't really care about how you feel.

The reality is just getting things done.

But here's the good news: you don't necessarily have to eat the exact same foods on repeat every day of every week to reach your goals.

Food habits for success

You can build a batch of 3-4 meals that you know you can tweak to your liking – but that are healthy and meet your macro and micronutrient needs (and expand as you get more comfortable in the kitchen).

For example, even though I eat oatmeal most days, it's not always the same...one day I might have it with raspberries, cinnamon, hemp seeds, flax seeds, plant protein powder and maca powder – and then the next day I'll switch it up with blueberries, cacao nibs, pumpkin seeds, nutmeg, almond butter and plant protein powder. So it's the 'same' meal, but different

Ingredient prep is also another very useful tool that I make use of – this being preparing certain ingredients (lentil bolognese stew, tofu etc) and then use those to throw together really quick meals that tick all of the necessary boxes.

However you want to do it is up to you, but you always have to keep in mind that you have to broadly repeat habitual things to see success in your life with your health.

If you have designs on improving your wellbeing – or any other area of your life for that matter – you have to lean into what discipline truly is.

You hear the word get thrown about a lot, but for me it comes down to two things: one being that it is you just doing what you said you were going to do, and secondly that it is repetition in motion.

If it were as simple as changing up your routine every single time you felt like it or that something caught your eye, everyone would be on track with their health goals.

But the ultimate hack is that wherever your thoughts and your mind want to lead you, you've just got to do what needs to be done.

And that's often repeatedly doing said things for a long, long time.

Stay healthy,

Jeff

ps. if you got value from this email, do me a favour and send it to a couple of friends for them to read. Have a great week!