What is cognitive dissonance? Good question. I had only a vague idea until I got interested in the concept and looked it up. Here's what I found in the dictionary.
Cognitive dissonance
The mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information. The unease or tension that the conflict arouses in people is relieved by one of several defensive maneuvers: they reject, explain away, or avoid the new information.
It's easier for the brain to accept what it already believes to be true even in the face of new information. That explains a lot when it comes to our health and nutrition!
We just can't very easily get over the old ideas that "fat makes you fat!" or that cutting calories is an effective way to lose weight. This old-fashioned thinking can demolish and destroy even our best and most intentional efforts to be healthy and happy.
Just like how so many people hold on to the assumption that there is one perfect body type or size for all when we know rationally that healthy people come in all shapes and sizes. We also know that people are attracted to differing body types and a lot of what we believe to be true about weight and happiness is just a story that's been imbedded into our thinking systems by ruthlessly persistent media suggestions.
But what's the truth? Where do we look now?
I'm going to venture to say that the truth is slightly different for each of us. But that doesn't mean we can't learn from each other. Or even more importantly, from ourselves.
Are you brave enough to discovery how you should eat in order to feel your best? Even if it means keeping track of what you eat and how you feel for 3 whole days? At one point in my life, I was desperate to figure out the answer to that question or at least to figure out how to not be sick, tired and 100 lbs. overweight.
In this picture I was a 38-year-old mom of an adorably precocious two-year-old boy, The way I was eating wasn't doing it for me. Although I was very active, I never really felt energetic.
And I almost always felt hungry, often even right after eating.
Instead of having you guess what was wrong with me and my eating, let me ask you this question.
Do you still feel hungry and/or tired when you're trying your best to eat a healthy diet?
If not, and you feel great, keep eating like you are because it seems to be working for you.
If you're wondering how I figured out what to eat, it's simple and free. I got the idea from a book by Dr. Mark Hyman and I started tracking what I ate and and one or two hours later how it made me feel. Fast forward 12 years later and here I am with my camper van and finally feeling the energy I deserve.
If you want to learn more, I'd love for you to join our community of confident and energetic parents and care providers and hang out with us, but I'm not going to twist your arm. Poke around my website and my blog and see if you like the kind of information you find there. I have more than 100 free blog articles about parenting, health and sleep for your browsing pleasure.
If you want a copy of the journal sheets I designed and used to track my food and my moods, you can find them here. I usually print mine off, but I think you might be able to write in the document, also.
If you want to know more about me and what I do, join our community here, it's free, and you'll get an all access pass to all my best stuff on parenting, health and sleep. My articles are all short, sweet and affiliate free for your reading pleasure!
COVID 19 special
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the complete plan I used
Nanci J Bradley is an early childhood and family educator, parent, author, teacher, SELF-care facilitator, family aerobics instructor, and an all-around fun-loving person. She believes in the power of sleep, healthy eating, lifelong learning, and most of all, PLAY! She studied early childhood ed at Triton College and received her BS in education in 1986 from NIU. She received her MA in human development from Pacific Oaks College in 2011. She lives and teaches in Madison WI