Is too much info causing you to freeze?

This gets filed under rant (even though I hope it is more constructive than that) because I was watching some news segments last night that really got me fired up and I had to write this. Today’s planned post on the primal activity will be temporarily postponed.

Here we go:

There is a lot of information out there on health, nutrition and exercise (some good and definitely some bad). I mean a LOT of information. So much so that it can be extremely overwhelming trying to take it all in. I was there once. I was trying so hard to be healthy in every single aspect and trying to follow so much different advice at the same time that I became overwhelmed and froze up. That train of thought just isn’t sustainable.

Truth be told, you really don’t have to go 100% healthy all at once. Actually you could argue that going 100% healthy isn’t actually healthy at all. I mean we ARE humans and not machines.

Fact of the matter is, there is not enough time in the day and there are not enough meals in the day to incorporate every single food, supplement and vitamin deemed “healthy” or “beneficial”.

There is also not enough time in the day or workouts in a week to get in every single exercise or workout that is deemed “beneficial” or “fantastic”. Our bodies can’t handle that!

Trying too hard to fit everything in is a surefire way to get overwhelmed, burnout and fail.

My Advice:

Focus on a few key, healthy principles.
Find one healthy thing that works for you and start there. If it isn’t working out for you, try a different one. Once you are comfortable with that one thing, try incorporating another! The devil truly is in the details here. By focusing on a few broad principles of health, you can avoid getting overwhelmed in the details of every little thing.

Here is a broad example of how I have developed my sustainable healthy lifestyle.
1. I started with a focus on raw and natural foods. Simply eating less processed foods.
2. I focused on removing all refined sugars from my diet.
3. I removed the grains from my diet.
4. I added IF into my practices.
5. I turned my focus to exercise and my overtraining. Exercising less often but more effectively.

If I had tried to focus on all of these things at the same time right from the get go, it could easily have been too much for me to handle. It is still important that I don’t get stuck in the details. I don’t need to incorporate every single beneficial vegetable or meat or fish into every single meal. As long as what I am doing falls under the general scope of my key, healthy principles then I am being healthy and doing well!

Once you become comfortable with your core, broad healthy principles, it becomes much easier to tweak things here and there or try something new.

Please comment your experiences and thoughts!