I want to help you make healthy decisions for your own human body. To do this, we need to be strategic.
The problem is that the current healthy-decisions paradigm lacks a useful strategy. We jump from idea to idea (diet to diet, one exercise program to another), achieving temporary goals, only to fall back into our old habits and routines.
Here at Your Health, Reprogrammed, we’re not so interested in achieving short term goals and producing transient results. Rather, we’re interested in making changes that last – that build up over time, setting you on a projection of long-term improvement, not the decline that we witness in our modern society.
The challenge is that this is difficult to do when dealing with a problem of this magnitude and specific type: addressing poor health and modern disease is a complex problem and one of the top challenges of our times.
Still though, even though it is challenging, it is worth digging into because if we fail to take control of our own health then we lose the ability to live out the lives that we desire.
That is, if we cannot make significant progress addressing this problem within ourselves, then we lose out on the ability to live this life fully due to the lack of energy and physical ability that a healthy body provides (along with the wasted time and money lost to medical care down the road).
Fortunately, I know that we can accomplish this task if only we come at it from the right angle and are provided with the necessary resources. This is what I have put together for you with:
The Reprogrammed Systems Approach
We begin with the problem-solving skillset that I developed when training as engineer. This skillset is useful when it comes to addressing any sort of problem, but it really becomes necessary as the problem increases in complexity.
Here’s what it looks like:
- Identify the system
- Get clear on what exactly the problem is
- Identify a strategy that fits the problem and system to identify the solution
Before jumping in, let me say a few words about how this process is going to unfold.
When it comes to solving problems of this magnitude, we have to employ a blend of science and art. That is, to come up with a valid solution, we need to ensure that we:
- Stay grounded in scientifically valid data and theory
- Allow ourselves to get creative, think outside the box, and dare to explore new opportunities
Overall, we want to ensure that we stay grounded in that which we know to be true (valid science) while also understanding that science doesn’t have all the answers. The scientific process is wonderful for helping us understand truths about our world; however, when it comes to solving complex problems such as this one, we need more information and more tools and these may not be completely held up by the scientific process.
One more idea to understand before getting started: as we go through this process, we will find ourselves down a few rabbit holes, diving deep into technical details. As we find ourselves in various places using language borrowed from systems engineering, or as we find ourselves walking through different physiologic pathways, we must always be primed to re-focus on the big picture goal.
Now is a great time to practice this. Can you recall what our real goal is here?
We are here to understand what it is about our specific actions that directly impact the health of our bodies. We want this understanding so that we can move forward through our lives making healthier decisions that support the functioning of our bodies.
Got all that? Let’s summarize while I add in a bit more explanation.
Here’s how we ensure that we are taking care of the health of our bodies:
- By building a solid foundation with theories grounded in valid science
- The idea: we want to know what is true about the human body and to be able to apply this truth as useful practices
- By carefully veering away from this foundation, strategically exploring other opportunities
- The idea: we need to embrace our creativity as we try out different solutions that may provide benefit for our own bodies
- Throughout this journey, we must remain focused on our big picture goal that is building a healthy body
- The overall idea: don’t get too bogged down in that which is well-established and don’t get too carried away with novel ideas that may threaten the health of your body.
- In other words, what we are aiming for here is balance. Always have a method to become grounded, but feel free to take a chance to fly.
We have our roadmap, now let’s get started with the first step.
How to get started
To accomplish this mighty task, we begin by taking many steps back to critically examine all data about the human body and healthy decision-making.
Remember, we begin our process with a foundation build on valid theory.
To do this, what we have to understand is that science is a process that is less about piling up data to support an idea, but instead, it works by beginning with an idea and testing it out as a hypothesis, with the aim to find data that refutes the hypothesis. If at any point in our testing of this idea – of our hypothesis – we come across data that goes against it, we have to modify the hypothesis if possible (or if not possible, then we’re forced to throw it out entirely).
This is a challenging process, but one that must be done if we are going to come to scientifically valid ideas that we can apply in our lives to create a solid, healthy foundation.
As we go through this process, we can develop principles that can be applied in our lives as useful practices. This step is important, because if we look at what is typically practiced in our current healthy decisions paradigm, not all data is useful and not all practices (most practices, really) aren’t grounded in valid scientific principles.
To begin our journey to good health, we will focus on both what is useful and what is scientifically valid.
This is the first step. Further along our journey to good health, we’ll move into a process that is examining other data sets and developing creative practices that may improve the health of our own bodies.
That’s not our task now though. Our task begins by building a solid foundation. Fortunately for you, I’ve done the hard work that is all the sifting through data and theory to determine that which is valid.
Now, let’s get you to where you need to go to best meet your needs on your own journey to good health:
- Ready to jump right in with those foundational principles. Here they are, ready for you to begin taking action.
- Want to learn more before jumping in? Maybe you want to hear more about this systems approach or want to look at my methods yourself:
Wherever your journey takes you, don’t forget to take a moment from time to time to remember what we are doing here. You can always come back to this post for a reminder of the goal and this current post as a reminder of the approach to reaching this goal.