Brain Training: The Secret to Getting in the Best Shape of Your Life!
Need to improve your health? Start by training your brain.
Today's article will teach you how to think about thinking. Sounds weird right? Stick with us, if you adopt this framework for thinking, it will serve you well to hit your health goals and carry over to every area of your life.
Binary vs Cumulative Thinking
Most people think in "Yes" or "No". This is called binary thinking and it tends to be our brain's default because it's easy and conserves energy.
Here's an example...
Let's say you have a weight loss goal and so you're following a diet. You measure your health in terms of whether you kept your diet for the day. Will you lose weight if you stick to your diet more days than you don't over the course of a year?
Did you answer "YES"?
If you did, your brain defaulted to binary thinking.
It's possible that you'll lose weight, but it's also very possible you won't and here's why.
On the days you failed to stick to your diet, did you eat 20 pizzas?
On the days you stuck with your diet, did you make up for the damage done on days you didn't?
Do you see how just saying "Yes I stuck with my diet today" or "No, I didn't" doesn't account for these important details?
Yet, this binary way of thinking is the way so many of us determine whether we're making progress towards our goals.
Cumulative Thinking
Cumulative thinking is hard and uses brain power but it's also more accurate.
Using the same weight loss example from above, a cumulative thinker doesn't measure whether they stuck with their diet for the day and then label it as "Yes" or "No".
Instead, they might calculate the number of calories they ate and determine by how many they exceeded their target then make plans to make up for that the next day to stay on track.
Cumulative thinkers take the whole picture into account when looking at a situation and realize that just labeling something as "Yes" or "No" can be arbitrary and ineffective.
From Binary Thinking to Binging
A problem a lot of people struggle with due to their tendency to think binary is to binge.
Sticking with the diet example, a lot of people will mess up and then justify binge eating because they've already chalked the day up to a failure
This applies to so many areas of life.
"I already blew off work this morning, I might as well just blow off the whole day and start over tomorrow"
"It's already way past my bedtime, might as well just watch another NetFlix episode"
"I haven't been to the gym yet this week, might as well just start next week"
Your body doesn't care though because it follows the rules of biology and responds to the cumulative treatment it receives. The only time frame you can use to gauge your health is the day you're born until the day you die.
This is obvious, yet we tend to make these binary thinking mistakes more than we'd like to admit!
Thankfully, the human body is very resilient. By training our brain to think cumulatively we can reverse a lot of the damage we've done to our bodies by treating it right and giving it the care it deserves consistently over time.
Focus on Habits
Because our health is cumulative, our belief at HydroSwell is that everyone should focus on building the right habits in the right order.
An extreme diet might get you results fast, but won't serve you well in the long run.
At HydroSwell, we create products aka. power-ups to help you create healthy habits so you can become the best version of yourself!
We created our first product ProLoco, a protein-infused hydration drink, to help you achieve a total energy transformation!
The combination of protein, electrolytes, and vitamins will help you kill cravings so you can avoid sugary junk, burn fat, build lean muscle, and stay hydrated and alert!
To check it out, click here!
