Fixing Lazy.
I feel lazy a lot. I admit it. I am, on most any given day, wanting to just sit down, not move, eat, and watch Netflix. I don’t want to turn on my brain. I don’t want to exercise. I don’t even want to cook food. I just want to eat what is ready to eat right out of the fridge or the cupboard and be entertained.
Sometimes the guilt I feel about feeling lazy really gets me upset. I doubt my self-worth. I doubt my value to society. I even doubt whether I deserve the beautiful girlfriend I have in my life. It’s a problem for me. After all, I am a Nutrition Coach and Personal Trainer and feeling lazy is contrary to long term health, fitness, and overall well-being. Or is it?
After beating myself up for decades about feeling lazy, I finally decided to do a little research into the field of behavioral economics and social psychology. What an eye opener. I learned the following:
1. Society pressures us all to be “productive”, and stay busy all the time.
2. We pressure ourselves to be “productive”, and stay busy all the time.
3. We feel guilty when we are not “productive”, and busy all the time.
With all that pressure, it’s no wonder that we feel lazy when we don’t feel like being “productive” and busy. On the flip side, I know that I accomplish a lot of meaningful and important things in my life. So, why do we feel lazy? What difference does it make? Why do we let it bother us?
Feeling lazy is not the same as being lazy. Without getting into a conversation on the physiologic reasons why we can lack energy to power us through the day, (such as improper nutrition, hypothyroidism, low iron, lack of sleep, etc.), here is my view on feeling lazy.
Why is “LAZY” is so hard to battle? Well, there is some research into what evolution can teach us. Visit https://www.google.com/amp/s/phys.org/news/2018-08-evolution-favor-survival-laziest.amp Researchers are considering, that to survive as a species, energy conservation, which metabolically defines ‘lazy’, could be important to species survival. It makes total sense that if there is an energy shortage, (lack of obtainable food), then hunkering down, slowing metabolism, and not moving much is indeed a survival tool. But most of us do not have that problem. Most of us have just the opposite problem, which is way too much, easily obtainable, highly palatable, (made up of added sugars and fat), food. We all know, eating too much, especially the wrong stuff, will kill us early, especially when combined with a sedentary lifestyle.
Because most of us do not have an energy shortage and we certainly do not want to practice lazy behavior, let’s look at what “lazy” behavior has to offer, that we are drawn to.
Lazy behavior offers a positive reinforcement that is very powerful and very addictive-instant, positive reinforcement. The very instant that you make the decision to NOT get off the sofa, you are immediately rewarded with comfort. For example, the instant you make the decision to not train, you are immediately rewarded with the comfort of discomfort-avoidance that training causes you to feel. Since sooner, is always better than later, when it comes to receiving positive reinforcement, we way too often choose lazy. We all make way too many poor decisions, based on the fact that, we are not willing to wait for a better positive reinforce which comes later, and instead, we opt for the lesser positive reinforcement (comfort), now.
Eating something directly out of the fridge or the cupboard provides a faster positive reinforcement than having to heat something in the microwave. Heating something in the microwave provides faster positive reinforcement than having to prep and cook something on the range or in the oven.
Jimmy John’s offers subs, “Freaky Fast”. “Freaky fast” trips our brain to expect a “freaky fast” positive reinforcement in the form of food, a very strong form of comfort. Market Watch reported in 2015 that the diet industry is a $71 billion dollar industry with a 95% long term failure rate. That sure seems like a lot of false hope. The fact is, “Fast sells.” “Wait for it”, does not sell. “Lazy” wins way too often because it holds the trump card of positive reinforcements. Immediacy. “Now”, is always more attractive than “later” when it comes to positive feedback. The sooner the better. All things equal, rapid positive reinforcement beats slow positive reinforcement, every time.
So, how do I win the battle against “Lazy behavior”? I practice reprioritizing my to do list and decision making to favor things that have very good positive rewards that come later. For example, the other day I tore apart my car looking for my spare house key because I had locked myself out of my house. I search every nook, cranny and compartment for that key and ended piling all the stuff I came across on the front passenger seat. All the spare change, the receipts, the pens, the bits of trash, old electronic power cords, pocketknives and dead flashlights all ended up on the front passenger seat. Since I know that no one will be sitting in that seat until this coming weekend, I can easily simply ignore the mess until the day that seat will be needed. I could leave the mess there until I had to clean it up. But, I like it when my girlfriend slides into the front seat and comments on how clean my car is. It’s a nice positive reinforcement to me. So, for the sake of practicing the art of making better action decisions, that pay off with more valuable, positive reinforcement later, I will clean up the mess today. In fact, just as soon as I finish this blog article, I will clean up. By always trying to do at least one task that offers a good, delayed positive reinforcement, before I reward my self with behaviors that offers just short term, not so great positive reinforcement, I feel like a winner.
By looking for decisions to make, with an eye towards when they pay off, and choosing to prioritize the options that pay off later as opposed to now, I get better at making good choices for my life, my health and the way my body feels. I feel like I am practicing good decision making, and oddly enough, that in of itself, is positive reinforcement. It is a win-win situation. I am learning to not get hooked on making decisions that only offer minimal, immediate positive feedback. I am learning to make decisions that offer much better positive feedback, albeit somewhat delayed to varying degrees. The price I pay is having to wait a little while. Big deal!
With this mind set to decision making, my health and fitness goals come more quickly. Even though what I do today may not pay off until tomorrow, what I did yesterday, paid off today. There is no shortage of positive reinforcement, motivation and success happening every day. The system is not perfect. Nor am I at keeping to it. But it helps me keep motivated and on top of my behavior and it removes most all the guilt I used to feel about “feeling” lazy.
-Thomas
“Plant seeds now. They’ll sprout before you know it.”
PS: Make them broccoli seeds and enjoy the anti-cancer magic of sulphoraphane.
