While only about halfway through the podcast whilst at the gym, something was said that resonated with me and caused me to reflect a little. The podcast is The Drive by Peter Attia and this one was on obesity. I listen elsewhere, but I think those interested can listen directly from that link. There is a lot covered in there, but two things stood out to me because of my own interests and writings over the years.

As some know, I am often writing about the growing prevalence of obesity in our communities, but I also use it as an example for lots of different situations, because it is something that most of us can relate to. If we aren't struggling with it directly ourselves, we likely know of people in our close circles that are.

I don't write about it to make others feel bad, I write about it because I am someone who struggles with my own health and physical condition. While it should be pretty easy to manage weight, fat and health by eating correctly and exercising enough, these things are made more difficult because they are affected by our upbringing, our habits, our lack of understanding and of course, our emotional states.

As I have had a recent discussion about emotional management here, my brain focused in on a couple of things that were mentioned in the podcast. The first is the environmental factors, which is essentially the ecosystem we have created around food and movement, which has changed the way we eat and move. The other is about the emotional side of it, and something in particular - satisfaction. It is this last one I am going to consider here, but I think it is also worth starting with the environment, because -

We are what we eat.

And what we eat is going to be heavily influenced by what we surround ourselves with, and we have surrounded ourselves with a lot of easy to get, attractive foods that might not be the best for us. Not only this, it is combined with advertising and social supports that make it even more compelling. We have a far richer selection than we did even a few decades ago, and it is nearly always available. There is a lot to think about in terms of what is available and when, as well as what we get out of consuming what we do and why.

Yet, what caught my attention was something more philosophical than the environment, but likely still related, as we have also changed the way we think and feel about what we consume. Food is no longer just a survival need, it is would into our social lives, our culture and even our identity. It isn't a simple tool to keep us alive, we now also need to be satisfied by what we eat.

The question raised in the podcast was if there is a right way to eat, does that mean that we can still be satisfied? And this resonates with me, because it is something that I have noticed in myself and others, where there is some kind of expectation that I should be able to eat healthily and feel good about it, which leads me down the path of looking for alternatives.

For instance, my wife and daughter have gluten intolerance, yet my wife looks for all kinds of alternatives so she can keep eating bread. And, the market is filled (in Finland) with gluten-free options. This is an example of looking for an alternative so as to feel satisfied, rather than going without in order to be healthy. And of course, my wife is not alone, because I will do the same thing with sweet foods to satisfy my sweet teeth, constantly looking for something that I can get the taste on my tongue, without it affecting my health.

It might be impossible.

Again, I am not alone and because the demand is so high, industry has created a lot of sugar substitutes, like aspartame, which deliver the sweetness of sugar, as well as increases the risk of cancers. And, we create these substitutes in order to feel satisfied, to meet our desires, to fill that void. But, maybe that void shouldn't be filled and perhaps it is healthy to live unsatisfied to some degree, a little hungry, and learn to go without.

But, the environment we have built through the media has made us feel that if we have a desire, we should fill it, no matter what it really is. And now, we live in a world where everything is available on-demand, whenever or wherever we happen to be. This is something else I have a history of writing about as a negative, because it impacts on the way we think, feel and behave and I believe it is responsible for a lot of the sense of entitlement we see in younger generations, where they feel that they deserve to get whatever they want, whenever they want, even if it harms others to fulfill their desires.

I have often talked about patience also, but patience isn't just about the ability of being able to wait for a result, it is also about being uncomfortable before the result arrives. Patience is being able to put up with being unsatisfied, in the hope that it will lead to future satisfaction. It is an investment, with the cost being not having what is wanted now.

And, while this post talks about obesity, it really is about our emotional states and our behaviors, where we have created an environment where we are controlled by how we feel, and have the ability to satisfy ourselves, even if it is not in our best interest to do so. We do this with food, we do this with entertainment, we do this with our relationships. We keep looking for ways to satisfy ourselves, even while it harms us.

Do the right thing.

The thing about "the right thing" is that even if I knew exactly what I needed to do to be healthy, it is unlikely I would do it. It is the same for the people who constantly scroll Instagram, knowing it isn't bringing them the value their time is worth, but they keep justifying it. It isn't that we don't have the information to improve our personal lives across to a large degree, but we don't have the emotional intelligence to be willing to do what it takes to improve.

We keep looking for a substitute to satisfy us, when what we might need to do, is learn to live with more dissatisfaction.

Taraz
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