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We are programmed to be lazy
The battle between reason and emotions
To understand the conflict between our good intentions and our contrary impulses, we can look at the dual process model. Our behavior are divided into two categories:
- The rational mechanisms, managed by the reflective system.
- The emotional mechanisms, managed by the impulsive system.
The impulsive system can facilitate or prevent the reflective system from putting our intentions into place.
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Sedentary lifestyle and evolution
The attraction toward sedentary can be viewed in light of evolution. When it was challenging to gain access to food, minimizing effort allowed for the saving of energy that was crucial for survival.
This tendency could explain the current pandemic of physical inactivity since genes allowing individuals to survive are likely to be present in the next generation.
Moving toward an active lifestyle
- The first step toward an active lifestyle is to become aware of this force that is driving us to inactivity.
- We likely engage in physical activity only when it is fun or necessary. To promote physical activity, make it pleasant by restructuring your environment to favour it, especially during your daily trips.
- The architecture of new buildings should also encourage physical activity by prioritizing access to stairs, or standing desks, etc.
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Effects of ordinary medication
There’s emerging evidence that ordinary medications - from paracetamol to antihistamines, statins, asthma medications, and antidepressants - can change our brains. They can make us impulsive...
The crisis of over-medication
- The US buys an equivalent of 298 paracetamol tablets per person every year.
- The average American consumes $1,200 worth of prescription medications over the same period.
- In the UK, one in 10 people over the age of 65 takes eight medications every week.
Statins and personality changes
- People with lower cholesterol levels are more likely to die violent deaths.
- If you put primates on a low-cholesterol diet, they become more aggressive. Lowering animals’ cholesterol seems to affect their levels of serotonin. Even fruit flies start fighting if you interfere with their serotonin levels.
- Studies have linked serotonin levels in people to violence, impulsivity, suicide, and murder.
- In a randomized controlled trial, statins were found to increase aggression in post-menopausal women though, oddly, not in men. Giving statins to Nile tilapia made them more confrontational and altered the levels of serotonin in their brains.
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Exercise Defined
Exercise is a movement of the body to enhance physical fitness.
Most people know that exercise is important for the physical development of the self, yet a majority of them are sk...
Decrease in Human Strength
Historic evidence suggests that for many thousands of years, human beings were more active and stronger than today.
The early humans had increased movement and activity, like going for long and tiring hunts, walking long distances that took weeks, making the prehistoric humans fitter than the best athletes today.
Technology as the Culprit
Technological breakthroughs have reduced our activity to a great extent ( vacuum cleaners, washer-dryers, self-cleaning ovens, and even cars).
The rise of the internet gave us a whole lot of technology, curbing our need to move even more.
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Make time for exercise
- Pick a regular (sedentary) part of your routine and switch it out for an active choice: Instead of the elevator, take the stairs;
- Commit to movement after the most frustrating, st...