The Good Life – January-February 2021

MEN'S HEALTH
WRITTEN BY: BEN HANSON
The Importance of Finding
Pleasure in New Habits
Let's all join together, take a
collective sigh of relief, and
celebrate making it through 2020.
It was not an easy year. In fact,
for many of us, it was the most
challenging year yet. But with the
flip of the calendar, we are all given
the chance at a restart — whatever
your particular new start might
look like.
For the purposes of this column,
however, we're going to assume
many of you have a health and
fitness-related goal. Whether it's
weight loss, shaving some inches
off your waistline, or finally diving
into that Whole 30 cookbook you
got as a not-so-subtle gift from your
mother-in-law, New Year's fitness
goals are as common as a Red River
Flood. Though, we seem to battle
floodwaters much more effectively
than we battle the bulge.
With the ongoing COVID-19
pandemic still raging, there really
is no better time than now to give
your body and your brain the stress
relief they so desperately need.
COVID makes the logistics a bit
tougher, but exercising during times
of high stress is a proven method
16 / THE GOOD LIFE / urbantoadmedia.com
for boosting your overall mental
well-being. You're going to have to
plan. You're going to have to make
room in your calendar and make
it a priority. And to help maximize
your initial excitement, it's good to
understand why you may have failed
in the past… and the super simple
secret is to long-term success.
Wrong Goals Lead to
Failure
Speaking with Dr. Forrest Sauer,
Founder of Twin Oaks Health in
Fargo, the reason why so many of
us end up failing to reach our New
Year's resolution goals isn't so
much that we lack commitment or
ability, but we always tend to focus
our energies and optimism on the
wrong thing.
"Oftentimes people will only find
pleasure in the end result… hitting
the number on the scale or getting
the six-pack or whatever it is,"
Dr. Sauer explained. "All of your
emotion and mindset is on that
goal, but that is such a fleeting and
very shallow approach to getting
in shape, because once you've
achieved it you're done. You hit
that peak rush… but then what?
Inevitably, after that huge high
you suffer a very quick emotional
drop with nothing left to keep you
motivated."
Train Your Brain to Love
the Work
When it comes to long term weight
loss or fitness success, maintenance
is the name of the game… and it's a
long game. Your goal may be to lose
20 pounds, but that's just one goal
on the long road to lifetime healthy
weight maintenance. In order to
achieve that, you've got to find a
way to fall in love with the work
that's required. That work needs to
become a habit.
"The trick is to find pleasure in the
act of getting there," Dr. Sauer said
bluntly. "You gotta force yourself
to enjoy exercising — it's a mental
discipline at the end of the day, and
you can train your brain at this just
as you train the rest of your physical
body.
The reward is that wonderful
dopamine rush that comes with
physical exertion, Dr. Sauer
explained. He says you can train
your brain to like exercise — and
learn to love it — by connecting
those feelings of pleasure with the
action itself vs. the result in the
mirror or on the scale.