Why Train Your Brain?

You can make me do what you wanna do

But you got to know how,

You can make me cry, you can make me sigh,

But you got to know how,

You can make me do like this, you

can make me do like that,

Woh, baby, but you got to know how.

(Lyrics from “You Got to Know How” by Bonnie Raitt)



I don’t think Bonnie was writing about fitness and nutrition, but the underlying premise still holds true. How can we expect our bodies to do the smartest things (e.g., buy, prepare and eat the best food, respond appropriately in the physical world to maintain balance and prevent falls), unless our brain has all the knowledge necessary to give out the best instructions?



How many of us did the absolute minimum required throughout our formal education regarding physical education and nutrition? If you’re like me, you took what was absolutely required, did exactly what was needed to get through, no more and no less, and then promptly forgot about it once the necessary credit was obtained. How can we expect this limited introduction to fitness and nutrition to help us make the smartest choices about what we eat and how we exercise for the rest of our adult lives, not to mention making choices for our children?



Of course, the simple and apparent answer is that it doesn’t. Sure we all know that vegetables are good for us and doughnuts aren’t, but our choices about what we put in our mouths are rarely that obvious. Which vegetables are best and what happens during the preparation process? What’s really in all those packaged foods? Out of the hundreds of varieties of bread on the grocery store shelves, which one is really the best for us? What kind and how much exercise is right for us? What are the muscles that help us maintain balance and how do we strengthen them?



These are the kinds of things we need our brain to know so that it can better direct our bodies to take the most informed and appropriate actions. I frankly find it hard to make deliberately stupid choices, and I don’t think this makes me unique! We learn all sorts of things about our jobs so that we can perform our duties in the safest and most productive manner possible. When we decide to have children or buy a house or choose a university, we learn all that we need to know to make smart choices. Our health, the one thing that will have the greatest impact on the quality of the rest of our entire lives, is certainly worthy of the same if not a greater level of acquired knowledge and skills.



I finally connected all these dots around age 47, and I’m not proud that it took me so long. However, if better late than never is really true, then I’m glad to give it my full attention now. It’s been a slow growth process and I’m not done yet. I decided though, that I wanted to share what I’ve learned through this blog and hopefully pick up more information from those who will comment and perhaps guest blog.



So let’s make our bodies do what we want them to do by learning how!



Posted by Donna Smith