If we took the time to consider the long-term repercussions of our choices, our lives would be immensely different.
Humans love instant gratification. We can’t get enough of the feelings of dopamine flooding our synapses, releasing wonderful chemicals through our body. We love doing something and immediately feeling satisfied, receiving compliments, and seeing results.
Humans do not, however, enjoy delayed gratification. We hate waiting for pleasure, waiting for results, or waiting for recognition. This is a major factor in our inability to or apathy towards making healthy choices like exercise and healthy eating.
When you go to the gym, lift heavy weights, run 5 miles, or whatever other exercise, you may feel some euphoria, but “Where are my abs?? Why am I still flabby?!”
When you eat a candy bar, your brain fills with dopamine. Your gut thrives on the wonderful sugar molecules! “Oh my gosh, this tastes so good!” That shit doesn’t happen when you eat fruit.
But our choice to eat candy and other sugary/unhealthy foods is slowly destroying us.
Our choice to stay home and watch TV instead of working out is tearing our body apart.
You unfortunately will not see results right away. Both when you make unhealthy choices and healthy ones. But with healthy choices, you at least get a quick burst of dopamine, so you tend to keep doing those things.
You have to think about the long-term impact of your choices. You have to really think about them. Conceptualize just how bad all this sugar is for your mind and body. Realize how terrible it’ll be when your muscles and strength disappear and you can barely walk without some pain in your body.
Yes these foods taste amazing right now, but you’ll wish you had eaten differently when you’re overweight, covered in acne, mentally unwell, or *insert horrible repercussion here*.
You can say “I’ll work out tomorrow” and choose to relax all you want, but you’ll wish you had done more when you’re weak as hell, chubby as Thor in Endgame, and feel like shit every time you stand up.
Start making some changes. You may not get the same rush you get with the alternative, it won’t always be the easy choice, and you won’t see results immediately. But you need to realize the impact your choices have on your body and mind.
Starting will only get harder as the days continue to pass. There’s no better time than now to make a change.
January 19, 2022
