Health is A Discipline

Humans are lazy. We search for simple solutions, take the shorter route, and steer clear of discomfort. This is our nature. And it has conferred an evolutionary advantage to help us thrive as a species. Our laziness has helped us be more efficient, more energy-conserving, more productive, and hence, more prosperous. For millennia, we have been pioneering solutions to minimize labor and free up time for socializing, play, and pleasure.

As is often the case, our most advantageous traits can become our kryptonite if left unchecked. Our laziness can have a counterproductive, maladaptive side. Each day, we confront a multitude of choices—hit the snooze button or get an early workout in, prep lunch the night before or watch a TV show, use a break to scroll social media or get outside for some fresh air. Our choices often boil down to a tug of war between instant pleasures and delayed gratification. If we habitually choose the easier, more comfortable path, we learn to prioritize immediate over long-term—and often more meaningful—rewards. Ultimately, our identities, our futures, and our lives are the product of the choices we make.

This tension is readily apparent when it comes to our health. Health is a long game. There is no final destination, no end point. Our health is arguably our most important asset, yet the daily investments often feel unduly onerous, particularly when we feel generally well. Decrements in functioning and the erosion of health are often subtle, not as urgent as the litany of work and family responsibilities vying for our time and attention. Soon enough, we go a day, then a week, maybe a year, to even a decade without prioritizing and protecting our health.

Ideally our environment provides a corrective counterbalance. Our decisions and behaviors are undoubtedly more strongly influenced by our environment than by our willpower. If we are hardwired to expend as little energy as possible and gravitate towards immediate pleasures, an environment that thwarts this tendency could check our hedonic impulses and force behaviors that align with our long-term priorities and values.

Unfortunately, our modern environment is not only ill-designed to support our health. Our calorie-dense and nutrient-poor food environment, labor saving devices, and hyper-stimulated culture are actively conspiring against our health. Most of us sit all day. We eat and scroll when we are bored, stressed, or craving stimulation. We regularly experience loneliness, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Collectively, we have designed a world that is fueling the pandemic of obesity and related chronic diseases that are undermining our wellbeing, assaulting our vitality, and threatening our longevity.

Simultaneously, we are being sold the idea that success can and should be instant, immediately accessible—1-click shopping. The health and fitness industry, which arose largely as a response to the toxic environment in which we now live, is no exception. Wired for profit, promises of instant weight loss, muscle growth, enhanced focus, and such, pray on the impulsive desires of consumers. Trends, untested gimmicks, and unsubstantiated solutions overpromise and under-deliver, leaving consumers simultaneously dependent and despondent. 

Let’s set the record straight. The pursuit of health in today’s day and age is hard. It demands energy, focus, and foresight. It is a daily effort of delayed gratification that requires a focused strategy, self-discipline, and patience.

The keys to health and longevity are not complicated. Look first at our ancestors or the remaining hunter-gatherer societies in the world today. The bulk of their days are spent moving—procuring food, making and maintaining shelters. Their sustenance is “whole food”—of the earth with minimal if any processing. Their diurnal cycles and biological processes are synced with the circadian rhythm of the sun. They live in small communities or tribes in which people not only know, but actively care for and protect one another. Social cohesion is essential for survival. What we now call a “healthy lifestyle” was once part in parcel of our survival as a species.

These keys to health and longevity, while perhaps simple in concept, often seem inaccessible or impractical in our modern culture. Now the $4.4 trillion global health and wellness industry sells fitness classes, whole food diets, nature walks, and meditation retreats—solutions that were once inescapable elements of our daily lives.  And regrettably, $3.6 trillion that we spend on healthcare—or more aptly “sick care”—here in the U.S. merely pays lip service to the importance to “exercising and eating better” without providing any concrete resources or practical prescriptions.

Thankfully, newer disciplines—Functional Medicine searches for the root cause of disease and prescribe natural remedies like whole foods and stress reduction to help our bodies heal; Lifestyle Medicine actually prescribes movement, healthy diet, stress reduction, tobacco cessation, social connection, and sleep for the prevention and treatment of illness—are gaining momentum within the medical profession.

However, we still are overlooking and often ignoring the foundational element of human behavior change. We do not acknowledge or take into account the immense barriers—the financial constraints, the logistical challenges, the negative self-talk, the “obesogenic” environment—to actually implementing and sustaining health-promoting behaviors today.

We need to be devising a strategic health plan, prescribing goals and health-promoting habits, and providing the tools and supports adapted to each individual’s unique physiology, psychology, and circumstances.

The starting point is to first acknowledge that health is hard work—a process that requires dedication, focus, and sacrifice. Health does not happen without self-discipline, but this does not mean that it is not enjoyable. Quite the contrary. Those who actively prioritize and pursue their health and wellbeing become evangelists once they reap the rewards. Not only how much better they feel day to day, but their enhanced self-confidence and self-efficacy from captaining their health journey.

Performance Medicine empowers you with the methods and mechanisms of self-discipline to take your health and performance to the next level.