Five tips for better health.

Making healthier choices can be difficult. We are so filled with biases we are often unable to recognize failed ideas and strategies. You can do better, but you have to be willing to confront stinkin thinkin.

Replace short-term extremes with long-term actions.

Most people can stay on a severely restricted diet for a week or a month. But if you put all the weight back on when you stop, you will not see any health benefits. Knowing how to take the weight off is one thing. Learning how to keep it off is something else entirely.

Choose sustainable programs, even if the change you see is less dramatic than you want.

Ignore promises and follow facts.

Having ten people, 100 people, or 1,000 people share their success stories is nothing compared to a rigorous clinical study.

For hundreds of years, doctors said you could cure disease by draining the blood out of people. Physicians had been promoting it for centuries, and thousands of people claimed it cured their ills. But when it was put to the test, removing blood from a sick person lowered their chances of survival.

It's easy to get caught up in a compelling story. It's especially tough when you can relate to someone sharing what happened to them. But a vivid story isn't proof. Demand the facts or dismiss the claims.

Learn to recognize negative bias.

When we hear something negative, we tend to take that more seriously than positive information. Even when doing so is irrational.

Here's an example. If you buy ground hamburger, the labels say it's "80% lean." That sells much better than "20% fat." Beef companies emphasize the positive or "lean" part of the label.

Let's up the odds. Suppose you had cancer, and the doctor said there's a surgery with a 90% success rate. Would you do it? Psychologists say that 80% of people would.

Now, if that same doctor presented you with the option of surgery, but instead of a 90% success rate, they said it had a 10% chance of failure. That's the same odds you were previously given, but only about half would choose to have the surgery when presented with that choice. They weigh the negative more strongly than the positive.

The sad fact is that people who are given negative information don't automatically change when that information is presented in a more positive light. What you hear first has a huge influence on your actions. So start by looking on the bright side. If someone says, "Do you want the good or bad news first?" Choose the good news. It may help you make a better decision.

Repeat after me. "I see reality through the filter of my life."

What we've been taught, how we've been raised and what we've been surrounded with shape how we see the world. Overcoming that is almost impossible. But by saying that sentence out loud, at least you can acknowledge things might be different than your first impression.

I have a friend that believed if she lifted weights, she would get bulky muscles. Her mother told her that. Her grandmother told her that. Her friends reinforced that worldview. It wasn't until after her sister started working out that she learned differently.

If a woman wants big muscles, it takes extreme dedication and often extra supplementation. Women tend to develop a lean and toned physique when they work out rather than get big and bulky. But the incorrect perception stuck with my friend until she was confronted with undeniable evidence from her sister.

Acknowledging you have a bias is the first step in accepting new information and overcoming it.

Finally, factor in the true benefit of delayed gratification.

One of the cornerstones of a healthy life is that you may need to sacrifice a little now to have better results later. But most people aren't good at calculating the benefit.

Let's say you eat relatively healthy but like one beer a night to relax. After a year, you discover you've put on 5 pounds. No big deal, it's just 5 pounds.

Carry that habit out for 20 years. Five pounds a year multiplied by twenty years is 100 pounds. How would it feel to be 100 pounds heavier?

You've got to face those habits head-on. Decide what you won't change and what you will. Maybe switching to a lite beer is all you need. Maybe riding a bike twice a week is the solution. Choose something you can "set and forget" so you don't have to keep making agonizing decisions. Then imagine what your future self would say if you took action today.

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11/2/2022