The War Within

It’s incredible how bright we can be while still being so foolish. I know,consciously, that I ought to exercise at least 5 times a week and that I ought to eat enough (for me, some 2500 to 3000 calories/day). But despite that fact here I am, preparing to run a blog based around health, I hadn’t been doing it. “Why not?” I think to myself. And then the answer is delivered…

The excellent new book Nudge thinks about the problems in terms of two brain systems. One, the reflective system, is what you know you know. It’s the part that thinks about all the things you should be doing. It’s the part that tells you to go to the gym, or to not eat potato chips, or to grab a piece of fruit in the morning. But the other, the automatic system, is the one that finds you sleeping in, munching away, and driving to work in the morning. More on both ahead.

The Lizard Brain

Why does our automatic system put things off and snack even when we know we shouldn’t? Because it’s concerned about you. This part of your brain is keen on staying alive and making sure that your conscious functions don’t have to work too hard to get you through the day. Think about the last time you took a long drive. How much of it do you remember? If it was uneventful, probably not too much. If it was eventful, you probably only remember swerving to avoid the deer, or pulling over so a kid could vomit – but not much else. This is because your automatic brain learns to do all sorts of things for you. Remember how harrowing it was when you first learned to drive? It would be like that every time if your brain couldn’t repeat these functions automatically.

Naturally, our most important functions came naturally coded into our automatic brains. Sleeping and eating are key among those functions, since if we didn’t take care of those, we wouldn’t get far in life. But in the modern age of plenty, eating at least now needs to be kept under control. Whereas our ancestors were endlessly grateful that they could hold intelligent cocktail parties while their automatic systems kept munching on grapes or whatever was handy, we are less pleased with the ability to mindlessly consume cheese and crackers (high in calories, fats, and much more) during those same parties.

What else is this brain not so great at? Financial planning, for one; health planning, for another. Actually, almost any sort of long-term planning is out of the question – our evolutionary predecessors simply didn’t live long enough to need to develop such an ability! This is why planning, budgeting, and the like come so difficult to so many of us. The automatic brain is motivated by real, immediate rewards, like a full stomach. Hypothetical, potential, and on-paper rewards like money and health just don’t do a great job of making us do the right thing by nature.

Taking Charge of the Lizard Within

Since you can’t change the habits that are written into your DNA, you have to do your best to change the ones that aren’t. Our automatic systems are capable of learning (we ride bikes, drive cars, learn new languages and type), but it takes time and repitition. For simple, common tasks like excercise, all we can do is go every day until it becomes as natural as sitting down to dinner. Working out at the same time every day can go a long way here, because our brains are very capable of tying activities to time.

But what about the activities that we only get a few chances at? What about long-term activities where we will not see the rewards until it’s too late to change our behaviors?

Breaking out the Carrot and Stick

You have to provide the automatic brain with enough incentive to get off its lazy tail and stop trying to take care of you – at least in those areas where you really do know better. If you don’t want to put on extra weight (that is, to protect yourself from starvation in scarce times), you have to let the lizard brain know thatkeeping fit is more important to you. Money is usually a good way to do this. Countless stories circulate of the workplace bets to keep the pounds off, oftentimes including a hefty sum (several thousand dollars makes a good incentive to stay slim) and at-will weigh-ins. Hire a friend to let your mother know every time you skip breakfast. Make morning dates and meetings with people whose friendship or business you can’t afford to lose. Get a Clocky.