At the end of the day, what matters is that we have our health – that is, a body that is capable of providing the energy, motivation, and ability to do the things we desire to do with this one and only life. Because of this, the Reprogrammed Systems Approach puts the primary focus on the health of the body, as a whole.
Since this goal is not immediately tangible (after all, how do you tie “the health of the body, as a whole” directly to actions?), we need to break it down into something that is tangible – something that we can clearly comprehend and visualize.
This, however, creates a problem, as I have warned against breaking down the complex, dynamic system that is the human body into individual sub-systems (see Week 5 & Week 6). As I warn in these articles, whatever we do, we must not lose sight of the big picture that is the intertwined nature of these sub-systems working together to create the whole that is the total health of the human body.
Nevertheless, if we are going to clearly define any sort of action that effectively addresses the goal, we must take the route of breaking these systems down into something that is comprehensible. So, to address this problem, I have developed a practice that we can use to safely break down these systems to clarify the healthy action, while also ensuring that we are not compromising the health of the body, as a whole.
The following is a walkthrough of this exercise. Grab a pen and paper and follow along.
To get started, we know that, above all else, our big-picture goal is a healthy body. By this, I mean that the systems supporting the body are able to maintain a state of dynamic equilibrium (homeostasis), so that the body is provided with the energy it needs to function, and that I am provided with the energy, motivation, and ability to do the things that I want to do with this one and only life.
So, get a piece of paper and write this Big Picture Goal on top – feel free to expand as to what exactly this means to you!
Now we need to make this more tangible. Sure, what is written on the top of the page sounds great and motivational, but how do we make decisions about specific actions with this broad scope?
On your piece of paper beneath the Big Picture Goal, write down 2 or 3 sub-systems that are most important for supporting the health of the body. Today, I chose “metabolic health” and “cardiovascular health.” I picked these two because the dysfunction of these two systems is at the root of most modern diseases. Moreover, the poor health of these two systems results in the inability of the body to have a high, stable source of energy and the ability to move as well as it should be able to (which ties directly to my Big Picture Goal).
Now we’re getting closer to something we can comprehend clearly – but we still have a another step to go before we can see how our actions can directly impact these sub-systems.
This brings as to the third line, which we can call our Tangible Goal. This is getting to our specific what – what exactly are we aiming to accomplish within the systems supporting our bodies?
To keep things simple, let’s move forward thinking just about sub-system 1: metabolic health. We’ll write 2 tangible goals for this 1 sub-system:
The tangible goal related to metabolic health that tends to be on most people’s minds: healthy weight. Getting specific from what we learned in Week 1 – it isn’t just about the weight, it’s about a healthy fat mass.
Moreover, we know that metabolic health also has to do with the ability of the body to maintain a stable blood sugar concentration.
So write these down for line 3, tuning it to your specific needs.
Now that we know exactly what we are aiming to achieve, let’s think about how we are going to accomplish this: how do these goals tie into our actions?
Taking these items, if we want to lose fat mass, then we must create a calorie deficit. Moreover, if we want to maintain stable blood sugar, then we must minimize glucose/insulin spiking.
Write these in line 4 as your Actionable Goals – again, as what you are going to aim to accomplish as you take action.
Which brings us to that final piece – the exact actions that you will take to achieve these actionable goals.
So, now I pose this question to you: what actions will you take to accomplish this? How would you take action to create a calorie deficit? What actions would you take to ensure that blood sugar and insulin are not spiking.
Write these down, and then, get ready for the last, most important step.
Given these actions, climb back up the ladder. How does each action impact each step?
Does each specific action lead to both a calorie deficit and minimize glucose/insulin spiking? Does each action lead, ultimately, to a calorie deficit and stable blood sugar? Does each action promote metabolic health? How about cardiovascular health?
Below are some ideas to help guide this practice. Purple writing shows how each specific action may lead to an improved outcome, while light blue writing shows how the specific action could potentially be detrimental to the specific item.
As you walk through this, make sure to question whether each action supports each item. Or, note if it is just speaking to one or two items while harming the rest. If it’s the latter case, I urge you to choose another action and try again.
In this way we ensure that our actions are truly aligned with the health of the entire body.
Ready for a second example? Let’s look at our second sub-goal now: cardiovascular health.
As with metabolic health, cardiovascular health is not an immediately tangible idea. To make it more tangible, we need to think about some specific parts of this sub-system that we can use to measure its health. I chose two: a lipoprotein particle profile and systemic inflammation – because these are the two primary factors that The Reprogrammed Systems Approach recognizes as contributors to the progression of cardiovascular disease.
Now, these two concepts are much easier to comprehend than the broader scope that is cardiovascular health – and yet we still can’t really tie possible action directly to them. To do that we need to dig a little deeper with actionable goals:
The actionable goals you may want to tie to a healthy a lipoprotein particle profile are to: 1. Lower LDL, 2. Raise HDL, and 3. Lower Triglycerides.
The actionable goals that you may want to tie to chronic inflammation are to decrease markers of chronic inflammation (e.g. CRP) or even to rid your body of a particular pain (maybe you have a chronically inflamed gut, so eliminating gut pain may lead to lower systemic inflammation.
Now, as we did yesterday, write down a few specific actions that would help you achieve these specific actionable goals.
Then, finally for the key part of this exercise: take each specific action and examine how taking that action would impact each item on your sheet. For example, maybe you wrote down decrease saturated fat intake as a means to lower LDL. Now, take that example of making the decision to consume saturated fat, and see how it plays out.
Really dig deep into the details: what sort of exact decisions would you make if you had “decrease saturated fat intake” on your mind?
How would that impact LDL, HDL, and triglycerides?
How would that impact systemic or gut inflammation?
Then, how would that reflect on your lipoprotein particle composition?
Below are a few examples that you can use to guide your own thinking:
Get the gist?
Now that you have the idea, let me make a few key points:
1. First and foremost, this exercise is aimed at helping you understand how your actions have impacts that range much further than we tend to think. While we may make what we think is a healthy decision to decrease saturated fat intake to lower LDL, this decision may ultimately lead to higher inflammation and an unhealthier lipoprotein particle profile, overall.
For example, we could choose to ditch burgers and butter, and in doing so consume more refined carbohydrate and vegetable oil. This is a decision that would likely increase systemic inflammation and create a more pro-atherogenic lipid profile due to the pro-inflammatory nature and high oxidative capacity of vegetable oil. Moreover, the refined carbohydrate are capable of increasing triglycerides, exacerbating the problems.
Or, maybe you make the decision to aim for more avocado and olive oil, more vegetables, and less refined meat. This would also decrease saturated fat intake, but would be more likely to improve these items across the board.
Same general idea, very different specific action, very different ultimate outcome.
2. This introduction to this walkthrough likely elicited the following thoughts:
“This exercise is not as easy and straightforward as I would like.”
“Healthy eating should not be this much work”
I mean, sure, the exercise is doable given the time and effort, but come on, we want to be able to make healthier decisions right now. We don’t want to put off everything for a few days so that we can research all of this and map out the right decisions to make – that’s just not feasible.
If these thoughts (and corresponding feelings) came up as you went through this, I get it. This exercise is tough and, to get it right, it will take some time.
I hear you, which is why I do not recommend jumping straight into an exercise that goes this far in depth if you are not already well into your Reprogramming Process.
Instead, I recommend following the overall approach outlined for The Reprogramming Process, which begins with just one or two basic decisions: Just eat real, whole foods and avoid industrial not-so-foods.
If you start here, with this one simple action, I will bet that you avoid the need for much of this tough decision-making.
Then, once this diet based on real, whole foods has been achieved and you still have some remaining issues – well, at that point we can return to this exercise from a very different, more knowledgeable, much more experienced, spot on your path to good health.
Next week, we will finish up this introduction to the Reprogramming Process by walking through exactly how to do this.