Support Systems

I've been working night shifts the past week or so, as I do once every month. This is tough on your body, as it has to adapt to a different sleep/wake schedule. As you can probably guess, my appetite and exercise schedule go a little haywire while this happens.

I came home from a night shift on Saturday morning, and my wife was up, having just awakened. She was eating breakfast. After talking with her for a minute or two, I made ready to go up to bed, as I normally do after a night shift. I was hungry, because that is normally breakfast time for me, and for whatever reason I decided to make a s'more, even though I would normally never eat that.

My wife, who has to frequently suffer through my rambling about healthy lifestyle since she has been with me for ten years, through my high weight phase and all of my weight loss, went ballistic. "What are you DOING?" She asked me. I mumbled some sort of halfhearted excuse, and she said just the right thing:

Why are you eating?
Why are you eating THAT?

If you have read my blog before, you may recognize these questions. They are the very same ones I encourage the people I advise to ask before a meal. Asking the questions focuses your attention on what you are about to eat, so that you are thinking with your brain, rather than your emotions. Your brain makes far better food choices than your feelings.

Once I had engaged my tired brain, I of course realized that eating sugar laden s'mores was bad. Eating them right before going to sleep was even worse. This was a very poor food choice, and Christy had just saved me from making it. The correct thing to do was to ignore my hunger (it wasn't that bad, anyway), and go right to bed.

This episode reminded me of the importance of support systems. Whether you subscribe to religion's view ("And God said: "It is not good that the Man should be alone." - Genesis 2:18) or the evolutionary view (primates as a rule are extremely social creatures), we were almost certainly meant to interact with our fellow humans. A great many activities are easier when done with others. This is definitely true for weight loss. I don't know about you, but there are many days that I just don't have what it takes. There are days when I just don't want to do what is necessary to be healthy, either because I am feeling lazy, or just emotional. On those days it is nice to have someone to help carry the load, and remind me what I am doing all of this for.

Now many of you may not be married or have children, but there are plenty of support groups out there, and most people have at least one friend they can share with. If all else fails, email me, and I will be your virtual diet and workout buddy. Just remember, even the strongest of us needs help now and again. Admitting this is not a sign of weakness, but of strength and self-awareness.