Do you find your good intentions to exercise daily, plan & prepare healthy foods, incorporate new healthy habits into your life, start out well, but fizzle out too soon, before they become ingrained into your routine? Do you find that you know what you need to do to be healthy (ie. Exercise), that you realize you CAN probably fit it into your day but you somehow are having difficulty actually DOING it? What is getting in the way of your good intentions? WHY can’t you just do it? It’s usually not for lack of motivation, lack of knowledge, lack of time or lack of ability. If you are like most people, you are probably disappointed in your lack of discipline or you may wonder if there is something wrong with you. Over the next several blogs, I will discuss a different way to consider what’s happening. Then maybe you will be saying, “Let me do it!”
#1 Concept: Brain Energy.
First, we all have a finite store of brain energy. “Brain energy” is the total amount of energy your brain carries with it at any time and determines what you can accomplish in a given period of time. Your total capacity for daily function is a reflection of your current quantity of brain energy. If you have more brain energy, you can do more and you can challenge yourself more before you need a recharge. So, you can accomplish more when you have more brain energy.
So, your daily ability to function is based on how much brain energy you have. An easy way to see the link between brain energy and function is to look at toddlers. Think about when toddlers deteriorate after missing their nap. They have exhausted their brain energy and essentially don’t “function” as well. They need some quiet time to recover their brain energy & “get it together.”
The good (& sometimes bad) news is that you and your environment can change the amount of brain energy you have. Choices you make to take care of yourself can increase your brain energy. This will be further reviewed later.
For now, understand that we have brain energy that determines how much we can do every day and that the amount of brain energy can be changed. We all want more brain energy.
Health Booster 