Smart choices are usually hard choices, think going to the gym instead of Netflix or broccoli instead of cake. This week, Lisa and Brad explore why our best choices are usually somewhat unpleasant and how to overcome this dilemma , at least some of the time.
Ever wondered why it's just so hard to pass up a slice of cake for a stalk of broccoli? Join us and our co-host Lisa as we get real about the challenges of making smart, healthy choices in a world teeming with tasty temptations. We're not just talking greens and grains; we're peeling back the layers of our evolutionary cravings for the sweet, the salty, and the downright fatty. It's a candid reflection on our own food journeys, the pitfalls of self-criticism, and how we're learning to love the choices that love us back, one nutritious bite at a time.
In this heart-to-heart, we also unveil our toolkit for tackling the procrastination beast and seamlessly weaving those wise decisions into our lives. Starting small can lead to big changes, and we're all about celebrating the victories—whether it's saying 'yes' to veggies or finding joy in a jog around the block. Plus, we'll let you in on how a little reward can go a long way to make the mundane magnificent. So, hit play for a dose of motivation and perhaps a new perspective on giving yourself that pat on the back for choosing what's good for you. Let's embrace our unique strengths and toast—to a happier, healthier you!
Smart choices are usually hard choices, think going to the gym instead of Netflix or broccoli instead of cake. This week, Lisa and Brad explore why our best choices are usually somewhat unpleasant and how to overcome this dilemma , at least some of the time.
Ever wondered why it's just so hard to pass up a slice of cake for a stalk of broccoli? Join us and our co-host Lisa as we get real about the challenges of making smart, healthy choices in a world teeming with tasty temptations. We're not just talking greens and grains; we're peeling back the layers of our evolutionary cravings for the sweet, the salty, and the downright fatty. It's a candid reflection on our own food journeys, the pitfalls of self-criticism, and how we're learning to love the choices that love us back, one nutritious bite at a time.
In this heart-to-heart, we also unveil our toolkit for tackling the procrastination beast and seamlessly weaving those wise decisions into our lives. Starting small can lead to big changes, and we're all about celebrating the victories—whether it's saying 'yes' to veggies or finding joy in a jog around the block. Plus, we'll let you in on how a little reward can go a long way to make the mundane magnificent. So, hit play for a dose of motivation and perhaps a new perspective on giving yourself that pat on the back for choosing what's good for you. Let's embrace our unique strengths and toast—to a happier, healthier you!
Hello and welcome to Just One Thing. I'm Brad Stearns, here with Lisa Stearns, and we're your hosts on this weekly exploration of simple ways to enhance your relationships, improve your health, manage your stress and just be happier. Now settle in while we discuss Just One Thing. Good morning, good afternoon, good day, what have you? Welcome to the next episode of.
Speaker 2:
Just One Thing.
Speaker 1:
Just One Thing is the podcast of Mindful Living Today. We are on Facebook as the Mindful Couple. We have a great supportive Facebook group, mindful Living Today, with Lisa and Brad. We're also on Instagram and, just as a reminder, if you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe. It helps other people appreciate that this is something that other people like and encourages them to listen as well. So that is very helpful to us and we're excited to announce that very soon we might have our very first sponsor, so maybe midcast sometime in the future. We'll be putting a plug in for a product that we believe in and is worth endorsing, so it's very exciting for us. So with that, let me sort of delve into what we want to talk about today. Today I'm going to talk about and this is somewhat humorous smart choices. Taste like broccoli.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and I said that last weekend.
Speaker 1:
I said let's talk about that, Because so many times the things that are good for us, the things that move us ahead in life, the things that to improve the quality of our life, are definitely things that we don't enjoy or might not be something that we would embrace readily. So, for example, you know, Lisa was saying to me how can you eat all of those vegetables every day at lunch and like enjoy them and say yummy, yummy? When I eat my broccoli it's like, ah, this is horrible.
Speaker 2:
But I do it, yeah, to me every day, like broccoli vegetables, it's a chore. I feel like I ate those yesterday, why do I have to eat them today?
Speaker 1:
Once should cover me for the week at least. But that, you know, it's not only true of the food we eat, but it's true of like moving more. It's true of getting out of the house and connecting with other people. Most of the things that really are good for us or that are smart choices that are going to make our life more satisfying, will make us happier, will move us ahead or healthier, etc. Most of those choices are not things that we typically like to do.
Speaker 2:
They're not the default, because if they were, we'd be doing them already.
Speaker 1:
Because the default is donuts and chocolate cake. It's not eating broccoli and high fiber, what this or that, right right. So I wanted to delve into that a little bit about that and just sort of explore how broad that really goes. Because you know, definitely with food the things that you know are the smart choices. They're typically not the things that you enjoy the most.
Speaker 1:
Right and this goes back to, you know, I'm really being on how our evolution in terms of human relationships, in terms of our physiology, has shaped what is really good for us versus, and then how that actually being a modern society makes things bad for us. Because, you know, as we evolved most of our human history, and this relates to the food we eat, you know food has been fairly scarce. You know when we eat, when we can we eat what we can we eat a lot of?
Speaker 1:
fibrous tuberous things and berries when they're in season. And we, you know, we hunted and ate what we could.
Speaker 2:
We'd be like the deer, where when you're really hungry, you're eating the bushes you don't normally eat, but some things in our diet were very, very lacking.
Speaker 1:
But, for example, honey, something very sweet, high calorie, kept us, you know, going and fed our brain. Those are the things that we really crave because they're not readily available. It's true of salt, you know, high fat as well, and so, as we, you know, we evolved to really crave those things. They were very rare in most of our human history, but now, today, all of those salty, fatty, sugary things.
Speaker 1:
They're ubiquitous because the food companies designed everything to be salty, fatty and sweet, and so if that's readily available to you, you know you go to choose broccoli. You can't. You can't choose the broccoli If there's a donut. If you had a bowl of broccoli there and a bowl of donuts, I guarantee you 99 out of 100 people are going to eat the donuts. Yes, just it's not easy to do. You have to make hard choices If you know you want to be as happy and as healthy and as successful as you can be.
Speaker 2:
So here's something that, to me, I think happens a lot in our relationship, and it's actually what started this conversation. Was for you, it's easy to eat vegetables.
Speaker 1:
It is.
Speaker 2:
And it's not easy for me.
Speaker 1:
Well, there's two things related to that. It goes back to like recognize your talents. But I think I genuinely enjoy the vegetables, for whatever reason, my taste buds. It either acclimated to them or or or it's tied up, it's just into the whole healthy thing, and so I've convinced myself.
Speaker 2:
I convinced, you convinced yourself.
Speaker 1:
Yeah so, but that's kind of a superpower.
Speaker 2:
That's a talent, not everybody else, so you know.
Speaker 1:
I've probably have one. I'm probably one of those 99 and 100 that in most cases I will pick the broccoli over the donuts.
Speaker 2:
Wiring that says oh wait a minute. That's the best for me, but I think my point in bringing that up is I think it's really hard, um, if you have someone, let's say, in your household or in your circle of friends or at work, that that always seems to be making the right choices, oh it's, and you struggle to make the right choices. Maybe you struggle with your weight. I think it's very hard not to have a negative Script going in your head about God. Why can't I be more like Susie?
Speaker 1:
There's two bad things about that. One is you know you may feel shame or self-loathing because you can't make it right.
Speaker 1:
And then ultimately you're going to feel resentment for that person. It's it's really easy for them. And we watched a television show the other day where Somebody was like he's just a naturally hard worker and he's diligent and he gets things done and his partner's like he takes a nap, he puts his feet up, comes in lane. If there's any excuse not to do work, he doesn't do it and so he's resentful of the guy.
Speaker 1:
That's just so energetic and diligent and I, you know, I to me. Looking at you, it, my view of you is you never procrastinate. If there's hard work to be done, you know, you sit down and get it done. And I'm like, oh, I can't make myself do that, let me, let me sit down here and read another comic book While the taxes are over there not getting done, where you would just sit down and do it. So that's, that's a difference in talent, that's a difference in sort of an innate ability to sort of do the smart choice.
Speaker 1:
Like to me, sitting down to even look at the tax information is like eating a bowl of broccoli Exactly for you.
Speaker 2:
So, it's.
Speaker 1:
It's the smart choice.
Speaker 2:
It's it's not procrastinating as a smart choice, but it's very difficult for you, Right? Yeah, and I just think it's it's important to be aware of the people that look like it's easy, that that's a superpower for them.
Speaker 1:
Well, yeah, and it goes back to our whole. You know, recognize your talents right Right Now. There are things that you can do to make it less.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and let's talk about that. So what, what? What do you do? What are the tools that you use to get to the taxes?
Speaker 1:
It's very difficult, but I am. I'm a grasshopper, you know. I just want to play right. I don't want to do the things that are hard to me. I view you as an ant. I don't know if you view yourself that way. You know you're chugging away, getting things done, Taking care of everything, and I'm like I think I'm going to sit here and play my guitar for a while. So for me, I know there are things.
Speaker 2:
Can we pause right there? Yes, that's really important, because to me, everything that I do is play.
Speaker 1:
Okay, and.
Speaker 2:
I don't see any of it.
Speaker 1:
There's very, very few things that I see as work and so that's the superpower in that. Yes, in that whole. So I enjoy broccoli, you enjoy getting the work done.
Speaker 2:
I just yeah, I like being busy, I like being occupied, and so I'm always, whatever I'm doing, it's like, hey, this is great, I had a friend in college.
Speaker 1:
She came back from her first semester. It's like, ah, I'm so busy every single minute, you know, scheduled. I joined all these clubs and I'm like, oh my god, that's, that's horrible. I think we did a podcast about they have the same room upstairs. What's heaven for somebody is hell for somebody else, and I think you need to recognize that too. I I think, going back to what you originally asked is how do I deal with? Like? For me, procrastination is. You know, I know in my heart of hearts I got to get these things done, and so there are a few techniques that I use. This is procrastination specific, and I think we had a podcast about this right to me. Just starting and and commit to like I'm just going to do two minutes.
Speaker 1:
And right and then if I feel like going on, I will, and oftentimes it's just the getting started, the sitting down to doing it Okay, this isn't so bad, I can get this done and then the feeling of having it done.
Speaker 2:
Oh, it's just so relaxing.
Speaker 1:
And then I get rid of all the anxiety. That's like why didn't you do that before? But it never, it doesn't never, tears it forever. I always have to do that every time, like every time I say why didn't I just do that? Because I've been suffering anxiety for three days, putting this off. Right but I guess there's no real solution to how you're wired in that in that particular way.
Speaker 1:
I think you need to learn a few tricks of the trade, or tricks for you along the way, and I know how do you do. How do you?
Speaker 2:
how do I broccoli? Yeah, um you know for me. I know of all the vegetables Broccoli is it's the king. It's the king and it's the one that I like to. I'll eat anything that looks like a fruit, so I love red peppers and those are good for you to share it. Tomatoes right, horrible, but but those are the ones that I choose to eat. But I just if I can get in one cup of broccoli a day. That's a win to me, oh huge.
Speaker 2:
So so you know I'm not getting my three, get it. If I don't get my three servings a day, or my two servings a day, whatever it is, I like I try I remind myself that it's a win Because I got the one in oh absolutely so. I'm a one and done kind of girl on that kind of thing, but I don't like it and I never get the endorphin release. I don't get the satisfaction of a job well done. So I have to, I have to remind myself, you know well and I was.
Speaker 1:
I was thinking too. So we've talked about you know sort of things to procrastinate on getting work done. We've talked about sort of food. I think exercise falls in the same arena. I don't even say exercise, but additional movement. We know Any additional movement you add to your day.
Speaker 2:
Is it's healthy to your health.
Speaker 1:
I mean, every time a muscle contracts it releases myokines which are very helpful and beneficial to your right, to your whole system. But in an evolutionary sense, the lazier we are, the more likely it is we're going to survive, right, right.
Speaker 1:
So long as we're getting fed, we want to lay around and just wait until we have to eat again, right? So for most people, exercise is not a pleasurable sensation. Right Movement is not a pleasurable sensation, and so making the smart choice to either go for the gym or even go for a walk is a hard thing to do Right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
For me, and I think you too. We were always athletic. We just sort of I feel joy and I feel pleasure when I'm moving. So I know that's not most people, right? So again, it's something that has been relatively easy for me. I've tried to do certain types of I'll use the term again exercise, but I don't find pleasurable, right, and what I find is, over time, I can't make the choice Right, can't make the smart choice. I have to find ways of moving that I find pleasure, right, right, right. And I've got to turn my broccoli into an ice cream sundae so to speak, exactly.
Speaker 1:
Exactly Like long distance running. I used to think that was important. Don't like it that much.
Speaker 2:
Right, don't do it. So I've reduced that, right I find other things that sort of.
Speaker 1:
Give me that cardiorespiratory stimulus.
Speaker 2:
Right? Well, I think you're talking about finding in any of this. How do you find the joy Right and how do you make it small enough? Yeah, that it's doable in some form, I think.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's really welcoming, so you don't have to make all the smart choices all the time, right All the time. But you have to recognize, if you're only making poor choices, if you're only eating donuts, if I'm only laying on the couch, if I'm never going out to talk to people, if I'm never getting the things, the work done that has to be done, things are going to kind of crash. You know you might lose relationships, you might lose your house because you didn't pay the taxes those kinds of things Right.
Speaker 2:
Depression sets in.
Speaker 1:
So you don't have to make all of those smart choices all the time at us. Can I make more of them?
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
Can I figure out a way that I can chunk this off, that I can do this? So, for example, back to the broccoli, because smart choices taste like broccoli. There may be other vegetables, there may be way to prepare or season the broccoli. Well, yeah, that makes it more tolerable, right? And is there a way I can season tax preparation? That's more tolerable, right? Yeah, I can sit down and do that for two minutes.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, talk about what that reminds me. My friend had a day of errands to do.
Speaker 1:
Okay, and she really didn't want to do the errands.
Speaker 2:
It was like, whatever they were, they were crappy errands, and so her big reward was did she have a $50 gift card for a hobby store?
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:
And she's like okay, I'm going to do my four hours of errands and my reward is to use my gift card, and so I think a lot of times you can put a reward at the end of something. So it like with me with broccoli. You know, I don't get an endorphin release from eating broccoli, so I need something else attached to that to have a good feeling associated with it.
Speaker 1:
I just read about somebody who they don't like to move at all, but what they did is say, okay, the only time I'm going to allow myself to listen to my favorite podcast is when I'm walking.
Speaker 1:
Perfect. And so if I want to listen to this 20 minute podcast, I got to go out and walk, right or whatever, and that's a perfect way to link a reward to a smart choice, exactly Like broccoli. But oh, my podcast. Right Now I go for a walk. I can listen to this. I don't mind the walk at all, Right, even though I don't typically like to walk or even move at all. So there are ways that you can. I hate to use the term hack, but there's ways you can hack most of these things to try to make more good choices. It's all about making more good choices, not all good choices, because nobody's going to do that.
Speaker 2:
No, it's never going to happen. And I think on top of that, it's recognizing. You know, pause and recognize and give yourself kudos when you do make a good choice.
Speaker 1:
It's hard for you Always celebrate a victory.
Speaker 2:
Really pause, Like every time I eat broccoli. I'm like good for you, Alicia, Eat the broccoli.
Speaker 1:
And you can gamify it. You know you can say okay, every time I eat my broccoli or whatever the equivalent is, I'm going to make an X on the calendar, and if I get four Xs this week, I'm going to eat a piece of cake.
Speaker 2:
Right, right, it can be something that's not a smart choice as a reward? It's okay, right.
Speaker 2:
The key is to try to sort of like reduce the bad choices and grow the good choices, and I love the idea of what you just said because when I was the short time that I was a personal trainer, I would use this a lot. So if you made a good choice, keep a jar, like on your counter or whatever, and maybe get poker chips or something like that. You can use pennies and every time you make the good choice you put the penny in the jar. You know you can actually.
Speaker 1:
It's a visual reminder. I am making good choices. I am a person that exercises that Right.
Speaker 2:
I'm a person that makes good choices and, at the same time, if you're putting quarters in there or whatever, you can say, well, as soon as I get the $5, I'll go have my favorite coffee at Starbucks or something. So it's a good way to have a visual reminder that, yeah, I actually do make a lot of good choices, instead of being wallowing in that place of oh gosh, I never do the right thing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and the reason I wanted to talk about this today is I just want and this is my just one thing I just wanted people to recognize that making good choices, predominantly, is a hard thing to do. It's hard, it's just hard, it's not the natural way to go and it requires some kind of I'll use the term trick. A trick, a motivation, A motivation something to get you to make the smart choice more often than not.
Speaker 2:
Right, and I guess my one thing is, whatever it is, you know, you probably have a list of 30 things easily.
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah, don't try them Right. And what's the name of this show? Just one thing, just one thing.
Speaker 2:
Exactly so pick one thing, Pick vegetables, and pick that for like a month and say okay, my thing this month is broccoli our vegetables.
Speaker 1:
Well, I remember you started we talked about this in a previous podcast you had somebody that, like you, reduce it down to like I'm going to eat like one piece of broccoli one meal a week Right. And that was the start. Right, because that's where they could, and they give them a reward for that Right, and then you can build on that. Once you make a one good choice, one smart choice, now you can build on it, and you have to constantly monitor. Well, is this too much? Is it becoming like?
Speaker 2:
If I'm ever doing it, then that's too big.
Speaker 1:
I need to ratchet it back and try to set it up such that I can make a smart choice more often than not.
Speaker 2:
Exactly and get that reward for doing the right thing.
Speaker 1:
So my just one thing is recognized. This is just hard. It is hard and making the smart choices is difficult, and that's sort of the focus of all I wanted to say today. Did you have just one?
Speaker 2:
thing On top of your. One thing, my one thing is when you do make the right choice, recognize it and just pause, even if there's a moment, take a breath and say good job, right, good job, I did the right thing. It feels silly to do that, but it's really, really important.
Speaker 1:
It is, and so I wanted to remind you once again if you like this and you like it, subscribe. If you like it, share with your friends. We really appreciate your listening and we hopefully have something that's useful for you and something that you enjoy, yes, so until next time this has been just one thing.
