A key strategy to succeeding with your exercise goals and eating healthier is to unclutter your environment. In the beginning it takes extra energy to be consistent with exercise and dietary changes. As you know, most people have trouble sustaining these initiatives, and at the first sign of fatigue or feeling overwhelmed, revert back to skipping workouts and eating comfort food to ease the anxiety of the day and/or reward themselves for working so hard. This can lead to feelings of guilt and reinforces the belief that you are a person who is unable to succeed. This belief is wrong. It’s usually that you are not using the right strategy

The truth is that it’s usually not lack of physical energy that leads to fatigue, but rather mental fatigue. This is a state whereby your brain is tired and overwhelmed – and your brain convinces you that your body is too tired to exercise. But this is false evidence appearing real, as they say. In a state of mental fatigue (or “ego depletion”, as it’s called in the willpower world) it becomes very difficult to find the extra energy (mental energy) to make the positive, healthy choices you had originally intended to make. A key way to prevent mental fatigue from derailing you is to unclutter your environment, as I explain in the short video. Uncluttering your environment will remove much of the visual cues that lead to mental fatigue and will help you find the extra energy required to stay on track.  It will also give you the inspiring feeling of a fresh start and instill a sense of self-command that will propel you towards success with your wellness goals.

This is critically important in the early stages because that is when failure is most likely to occur. Over time, your exercise program and positive dietary changes will become an automatic extension of who you are. When that happens, they become a thing called habits. Habits are much easier to sustain because you no longer have to find the mental energy to defeat competing drives (lying on the couch, watching TV, vs going for a 30 minute power walk). Once you sew the habit it gets much easier.  But, in the beginning you need to guard against mental fatigue and muster the inspiring feeling of a fresh new start.  Uncluttering your environment is key way to help make this happen.

Good luck with your wellness goals.

Eat Smart, Live Well, Look Great.

Dr. James Meschino
DC,MS, ROHP