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You've Seen This Movie Before

Guest post by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: With the cinema season on the top of my mind, yet ever-mindful of my health habits (as well as those of my coaching clients, whether they own a business or carry out a different kind of leadership mission), I was intrigued to read about a study reported earlier this year in the "Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin." Researchers studied popcorn consumption by movie patrons, and their findings were interesting....

You've Seen This Movie Before

Control Your Health Habits So They Won't Control You During the holiday season, when it's cold outside and the golf course is drifted with snow, I begin to focus more on the kinds of fun you can have indoors. I'm referring, of course, to going to the movies. (What did you think I was talking about?)

With the cinema season on the top of my mind, yet ever-mindful of my health habits (as well as those of my coaching clients, whether they own a business or carry out a different kind of leadership mission), I was intrigued to read about a study reported earlier this year in the "Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin." Researchers studied popcorn consumption by movie patrons, and their findings were interesting.

By now, you're thinking "Really?" But yes, I'm not making this up. There really is an academic journal for everything, and researchers really do study every aspect of human behavior! Remember, every doctoral student has to dream up something about which they can write a dissertation... and finding something that hasn't already been done to death is not as easy as it might sound.

Here's what they did in the popcorn study: subjects entered the theater, and some were given a bucket of fresh, just-popped popcorn; others got a bucket of stale, week-old popcorn. Those patrons who don't usually go for popcorn at the movies ate much less of the stale stuff than they did of the fresh stuff. However, those who typically do have popcorn at the movies ate about the same amount, whether the popcorn was fresh or stale.

The researchers' conclusion? When you make food choices, your brain is susceptible to environmental cues. If you've made a habit of eating a certain food in a certain environment, your brain associates one with the other, and you keep eating as long as those environmental cues are present.

These findings might not shock you. Ever try to stop drinking coffee at your desk, or forego that favorite crispy snack you always go for at break time? It's almost like you'd feel cheated if you didn't get your regular dose of certain foods.

When bad habits become habits, I refer to this as your urges controlling you. The only prescription is to reverse things, and start controlling your urges. And the best way to do that, in my experience, is simply to replace one habit with another and repeat for about 21 straight days.

People who knew and worked with me years ago would've known I loved coffee - all day long - and always loaded my cup with sugar and creamer. Someone told me back in those days that, if I ever got used to drinking coffee black, I'd never go back to the sugary beverage: "It'll just taste nasty to you." Of course, I didn't believe her. Then, several years ago, I became convinced that my sugary caffeine was very bad for me, and I forced myself to drink decaf, exclusively with real cream. And a few weeks back, I put my old friend's assertion to the test by "decorating" a cup of coffee the way I used to do all the time. She was right: I couldn't get the stuff down!

What you put into your body has a major impact on what you can expect to get out of it in terms of energy, vitality, and performance... and this includes mental performance, for those of you (like some of my clients) who think you can operate as a highly-functioning "brain on a stick." You can't. You need to take care of the organism that's doing the thinking and deciding in your business or mission. And good nutrition is only one of five key daily health habits I call "The NEWSS" - Nutrition, Exercise (get your 3-6 workouts a week), Water (two liters a day), Sleep (eight hours a night), and Supplements (take at least one good daily multi-nutrient).

Intuitively, you know where you have garbage that can be cut out of your diet... and you're probably aware that replacing a bad habit with a good one for three weeks will do the trick. Do the trick! You want to live a long, happy, vital life. If you don't like the movie you're currently starring in, change it. As your own best critic, you'll agree that a healthier lifestyle deserves two enthusiastic thumbs up!

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Article Tags: health habits, health wealth and happiness, personal responsibility, successful entrepreneurs



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