I always think that our bodies are rather like wilful children- I mean, we tend to seat our consciousness, our awareness in our minds, our physical brains. We're a very cerebral culture, in a lot of ways- and we think our brains are in charge. And, they are for the most part; but we also have this whole body we're inextricably connected to that has a whole agenda of its' own. It gets too hot, and too cold, and wants food that we, intellectually, *know* is bad for us. Our bodies fuss, and nag us if we don't pay attention to them. Our bodies demand our constant care and attentive observation- or else!
We're the product of evolution, and trying to rule our bodies is like a tiny scientist sitting on a gorilla that is trying to ride a dinosaur. Don't laugh! Think about it! We have all these conscious decisions that we feel are 'us', the part that's in control, but that foremost part of us is sitting, evolutionarily, on the shoulders of our primate selves and is a tiny newcomer to the decision making party. The majority of our 'conscious' decision are made before they even reach the top of the mental food chain. Made, by our simple happy primate selves. Don't like that person, can't figure out why? It's almost certainly something about their body language or their smell. Oook, ook. In turn, King Kong is evolutionarily resting on the hindmost parts of our brains, our most basic, lizard-like impulses.
Hulk, Smash! Hulk Eat Entire Pizza!
Besides often being comedic,Our bodies have their own ideas of what they would like to do, consume and behave like on any given day. it's really quite difficult to reign it in if the dinosaur decides it's going to stampede off in the direction of the chocolate cake.
It's *hard* to establish good body habits. They can't exist in the void. They start with the decision, the mental switch to consciously begin to instil a good habit. And because it's hard, our bodies often want to (metaphorically) throw a tantrum in the grocery store aisle. It takes a bit of convincing that, yes, in fact, you actually like this and it feels good, silly. Remember, you wanted this. You have to keep a tight rein on the rest of the brain.
This is what was on my mind this morning when I woke up, and again, found myself having a craving for fruit. Not a mental "hey, I'd like some fruit" kind of craving, but a *body* craving. My body was making it's needs felt loud and clear- and it was for fruit and veggies and nutritioninanglassnowplease. I actually caught myself wanting a glass of mixed fruit juice *and* a green smoothie. All the things. Now. Please.
I think this is a real shift in this diet, where the good habit has caught on, finally, with my body.
Which, of course, would like to be rewarded for this good behaviour with some chocolate.
Maybe it'll settle for a gold star and an apple.
