Thrive with RA
Thrive with RA
The Truth About Resistance: Why Your Brain Fights Change and How to Win
Ever felt like you wanted to throw in the towel when it comes to making changes in your health?
It's frustrating, right?
You have the desire, you prep as best as you can...only to be met with challenge again and again.
I know the struggle all too well.
In this episode, I share some examples from my journey of transitioning to an anti-inflammatory diet to manage rheumatoid arthritis. Its never as easy as it seems and the more we understand what's involved, the smoother the journey will be.
In this episode, I'll talk about:
- The mental battles we experience as our brains are hardwired to resist change
- Practical tips to help you move through the roadblock
- Ways to embrace the steps along the way
Happy Listening!
Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Grab my FREE Anti-Inflammatory Foods Checklist
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*This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any illness or disease. The information provided herein is for general educational purposes, has not been reviewed nor approved by the FDA and is not intended to take the place of advice from your medical professional, licensed dietitian or nutritionist. You are solely responsible for your health care and activity choices. Your decision to try this formula does not constitute a client-coach relationship. For my full disclaimer, please visit: https://dawnlaflin.com/disclaimer/
Okay, real quick, before we get going, I want to make sure you know I have a free resource for you to grab down in the show notes below. It's my anti-inflammatory foods checklist and it's yours for free. Think of it as a cheat sheet that will help you take the guesswork out of what to eat. Moving toward an anti-inflammatory diet plays a key role in reducing excess inflammation. The reward More energy and less pain, and who doesn't want more of that? Be sure to see the link in the show notes to grab your copy.
Speaker 1:I had a plan, I had the food, I had the right mindset, or so I thought.
Speaker 1:Then on day two, as I was looking at my breakfast, it was a savory meal that was left over from the dinner.
Speaker 1:Before I was ready to call it quits, all I could think about was that good old bowl of granola. My tried and true never failed me. Before standard breakfast, I was telling myself it's healthy, it wasn't sugar. I'm Dawn Laughlin, certified health coach and fellow RA warrior. It wasn't all that long ago that I was in this place where I was fearful of the uncertainty of my future, wondering when my next flare would come or wondering when the pain would let up. Fast forward, through many trials, errors and lessons learned, and you'll find a gal who is stronger, healthier and more confident in her future than ever before. Yes, I still have RA, but RA doesn't have me. I believe our lifestyle, food choices and mindset greatly impact the way our bodies handle rheumatoid arthritis.
Speaker 1:I created the Thrive with RA podcast to explore the science-based ways to realign your health. Through these three pillars and so much more, we'll be navigating both the messy and the blessings that come from living a life with RA. Each week, you'll get a good dose of education, inspiration, encouragement and hope as you take small steps to improve your health and overall life. If you've been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis or are still trying to figure out if the symptoms you're feeling are indeed rheumatoid arthritis, you are in the right place, my friend. Let's get started. Well, hey there, friend. Welcome back to another episode of the Thrive with RA podcast. I am thrilled that you are here. I love that you are continuing to be curious in your diet and your lifestyle so that you can truly make change in the way you feel in your day-to-day life. It is so important in this journey in any journey, but especially when you are working to find a better balance in your health.
Speaker 1:You know, as I was thinking about the episode this week, the thing that kept coming up to me was the mental battlefield that we go through, that we don't realize is going to be part of the process, part of the equation, and so I wanted to cover this topic with you today to help you A not feel alone and B know that there's a way through this. This is what I do when I work with my clients. I help guide them through these muddy middles that we get in there and we're trying to do the thing and it becomes hard. I walk with them through that so that they can come to the other side finding that success. So I wanted to share that with you today Some of what we talk about and some of the process, that how that looks and share some of my own story, because I've been there, I've walked this walk and I know what it looks like to do this hard work. You know you make this decision to go all in to try to do something different. You say yes to doing something that's going to change the way that you look or feel or show up in life. You have this, I'm all in mentality and get started to do the thing Before you know it a couple of weeks well, the reality is a couple of days you start to recognize that there's this mental challenge going on.
Speaker 1:It's suddenly you're at this point where you might consider throwing in the towel and you're like wait, what? How do I go from zero to 60 and then to a grinding halt. What gives? I had this exact experience when I was first going all in with my diet changes. I had a plan, I had the food, I had the right mindset, or so I thought.
Speaker 1:Then, on day two, as I was looking at my breakfast, it was a savory meal that was left over from the dinner. Before I was ready to call it quits, all I could think about was that good old bowl of granola. My tried and true. Never failed me before standard breakfast. I was telling myself it's healthy. Never failed me before standard breakfast, I was telling myself it's healthy, it wasn't sugary, it couldn't be that bad for me. Talk about a mental battle. I had the tools and I was ready to do the work, and yet my mind was pulling me back in this dreamy way to that bowl of cereal. It was stirring up all those feel-good emotions and memories of eating that bowl, because I truly love breakfast. It's literally my favorite meal of the day and has been since I was a kid. Back then it was a bowl of Raisin Bran every morning, without fail. I woke up excited for breakfast. Fast forward a lot of years and while the type of cereal has changed, I still loved granola of some sort for breakfast. Little did I know that that would be a roadblock for me. On day two.
Speaker 1:I went into this decision of eating an anti-inflammatory diet because I wanted less pain and I needed more energy. I knew that I was capable of making these changes. I had done hard things in the past. I could do this hard thing, but something about making dietary changes was different. It felt a little foreign to me. I always thought that I ate pretty healthy. It was my background in health and wellness and exercise and sports science but yet I was trying these new to me foods, foods that were definitely out of my comfort zone and while I was used to being in the kitchen cooking for my family, if I'm being honest, the meals weren't full of variety. We were stuck on a very simple, not so colorful palette. So when looking at these ingredients, especially for a savory breakfast. They felt different. And here I was thinking I had everything I needed to make this transition quick and easy, but what I didn't realize was how influential my brain would be in the process.
Speaker 1:You see, the brain is capable of change and it wants to keep you safe. It loves to feel comfortable, to think the same thoughts and do the same things day in and day out. The natural inclination is to stay with what's comfortable, to stay with what you know. So for me, it was to go back to that bowl of granola because that was my routine. It felt familiar and it was comfortable. When your brain feels a push from you to do something new, something out of the ordinary, it's going to push back. It'll remind you of no, no, we don't eat food like this. Or no, you're not a chef, you overcook chicken all the time True story, by the way. Or another classic example is there is far more important things that you could be working on instead of planning for meals.
Speaker 1:And you know what all of this is. It's resistance. It's what the dictionary defines as the refusal to accept or comply with something, the attempt to prevent something by action or argument. Your brain wants to rationalize what you're doing to find a reason why it won't work. It's on a path to convince you to go back to what feels. But the reality is you know you want to become this new person, this person who has less pain all day, energy and the mental clarity to read through an entire paragraph in one go through. And you know an important step in that process is by eating healthier foods. The truth is, what you want isn't harder, necessarily. It's just different from what you were doing before. Necessarily, it's just different from what you were doing before.
Speaker 1:And I tell you what once I figured that out and understood that there was this where this struggle was coming from, I began to work on my mindset. I had a set of thoughts that really helped me move through this process. I was able to focus more on that process and less on the end game result, and that's so important when you are working to change and create new habits. When you only focus on the end game result and that's so important when you are working to change and create new habits when you only focus on the end result reaching that top of the mountain you move through checking off boxes and miss out on an opportunity to connect the changes that you are making as you are making them, to understand what you're thinking, why you're thinking it, and then creating that lasting change within. So this series of thoughts will help you focus more on the process and less on that end game result. You'll have better understanding of what's going on, give yourself grace and compassion and continue moving forward.
Speaker 1:So let's dive in and talk about these. The first is that you want to acknowledge and remind yourself that it feels uncomfortable because it's something new. Your brain is going to feel challenged as you try these new to you things. It'll try to tell you that this is risky. Let's go back to what we know, or it'll bring up memories and feel good emotions that will cause you to focus on those old foods, the old way of doing things. Your role in this kicks in and that's to remind yourself why you're doing this thing. Secondly, it's time to normalize this feeling, get comfortable with being uncomfortable, know that this is part of the process and expect it. With change comes challenge. So when you go into the process of making changes and embracing the fact that you're going to be challenged, you'll see that the journey is much easier than if you just resist it altogether. Lastly, remind yourself why you started this in the first place. I talk about this all the time with my clients here on the podcast and on social, because it is so critical to know and understand your why. It has the potential to propel you through those hard days. If you don't know your why, you have nothing to kind of help motivate you to keep you going.
Speaker 1:For me, I had to keep reminding myself that I wanted to eat healthier because I was looking to have less pain and more energy. I remember another moment as I was working through the dietary changes, trying new to me foods, and I had this feeling of resistance come up and I had a moment where I had grown in this journey and the first time I was trying dulse, it was. It's a type of seaweed, if you don't know what that is, and for me that was a huge out of my comfort zone step. Anyone that knew me growing up and all the years would have been shocked that first time I actually ate that and still were as they started to see all the new creative, colorful foods that I was eating. But I had to remind myself that I decided, I made a promise to myself to go all in to help my body find a better balance. There was some resistance, but I had grown in that journey to be able to recognize it and remind myself why I was doing the thing and take in and eat that nutrient-dense food. So it's part of the process and reminding yourself will help push through that muddy middle where you really come up against that resistance.
Speaker 1:And the beauty of putting these thoughts into practice is that they are going to work for you, regardless of the change you are trying to move toward. So say you're trying to become somebody who moves her body daily in exercise. The first days or weeks you're likely going to show up with enough motivation to exercise and do the thing, but before you know it, I guarantee you're going to reach this crossroads. You're going to come up. Either something is going to come up in your schedule and you're not going to make a day, or you're going to find every reason in the book to not do the thing and you won't move on that day, and then the next day day, and then the day after that and before you know it, a week or two weeks has gone by and you haven't done the thing. This is your brain trying to get you back into that routine that it was used to An easy pace where you don't have to push hard and it feels comfortable.
Speaker 1:The bottom line is that, even though that this is a healthy new thing, your brain is just working on autopilot, and this is where mindset will be key. Now, of course, this is an example and, being that this is a podcast about RA, you're moving in a way that honors your body that day, but mindset will be everything in this journey. So you can have all the tools and the strategy in the world, but if your mind isn't right around what you're trying to accomplish, success is really going to be a struggle. Taking these three thoughts and reminding yourself again and again of the reasons why you're doing this work will always serve you well. You will come up against resistance as you work to become a healthier version of you. That is a fact. Your brain is naturally going to try and keep you in this cadence that feels comfortable. It's what you do in those moments that indicate how far you'll move toward that change.
Speaker 1:Friend, if you are in this process and you are trying to make change and you find yourself coming up against that wall again and again, reach out to me. This is what I do. I guide my clients through the obstacles and the roadblocks. We set up strategies, we set up goals, we set up check-ins so that you move past this, you learn to create that change within your body and you learn how to handle that resistance so that you can continue showing up for your best self. I hope that you found this episode so helpful and that it's going to allow you to continue taking those small steps that lead to big impacts on your health. Join me here next week, same time, same place. Bye for now, thank you.