Do you buy the latest vitamin or superfood and never use them?

via Natural Nina

Monday, I mentioned Super Soul Sunday my new favorite show even though I’ve only seen three episodes. The show is on OWN and I can't understand how nobody I've mentioned it to has heard of it.  It’s Oprah and a guest talking about spirituality and if you’re thinking I don’t seem spiritual, I’m really not. But the interviews are compelling and frankly I’ve been missing my Oprah fix. One of the hours I watched featured the author Dani Shapiro. Coincidentally, I had just been invited to attend a reading and conversation with her and had picked up her latest book Still Writing.

Sick last week curled with this this

Two people who inspire me: Aidan Donnelley and Dani Shapiro

Oprah focused on Dani’s book Devotion. I guess it felt more “Super Soul” to her. Oprah read aloud a passage Dani wrote about wanting to do things better, to parent better and be a better writer, to drink more water, “to not only buy flax seed oil but take flax seed oil”.  At this mention Oprah and Dani shared a laugh over buying healthy items and then neglecting or forgetting them.  I hear this from clients all the time “I have vitamin D but I don’t take it” or “I have those at home but never use them.” "I own them though." I started wondering what this is all about.  After all, it’s easier for me to connect with talk of flax than the subsequent talk of joy. As Dani said “joy is scary”.

I think the decision to purchase flax oil or fish oils, goji berries or kale is partially about the potential these foods offer. I have a friend who calls them “promise foods” and some of them, not many, can live up to the promise. Better skin, better mood, better weight? Yes please. When we mulled this over in the office Joanna mentioned “maybe we want to be the type of person who would take these things.”  We all strive to be better or as Dani and Oprah said, “self improve”. I’m definitely guilty; after all I am hooked on a show called Super Soul Sunday.  Just this week I cleaned out my desk, tossed “never reused” reusable bags and in addition to the spinning and running and barre I do I’m about to start training at a place to get in “better” shape.

But what happens when we buy item x and it sits there? Are we breaking that promise to ourselves? Are we full of guilt or rather than better are we worse off for it all? Wasteful and/or disappointing?  We’re not but we need to turn the tide.

First, if you are a buyer of promise foods or vitamins…do the clothing or closet equivalent of purging the items you don’t use. As far as flax oil most nut and seed oils only last a year in the pantry anyway. If you’ve never been a vitamin taker to this point, you’re never going to take 10 things and if you dislike ginger, there’s no need to choke it down.

Then, pick one habit, not two or three, and commit to sticking to that through what we call at Foodtrainers “the 60 days of self destruction” (Halloween until New Years). This behavior is your healthy anchor.

Take that Vitamin D that is so hard to get, via the sun, from November to March

Get those 10,000 steps a day

Eat a protein breakfast daily

A great way to improve your chances of sticking to this anchor behavior is to remind yourself of the function. I’m taking vitamin D as if I’m low in D I’ll lose weight more slowly. Or eating breakfast makes me feel as though the day is off to a productive start. Show yourself the rationale.

In LBT I call these basic behaviors Eating Essentials. The next time you’re tempted to buy a fancy, new product or supplement ask yourself if your essentials are in order. Most essentials cost little and benefit you a lot more than flax oil (not a fan). The other part of this is that our health behaviors send us a message. Truly taking care of yourself via resting or cooking or, as I mentioned Monday, spending time outside feels nurturing. It's where Foodtraining and “super soul seeking” overlap.

What’s going to be your healthy “anchor” behavior from now through the end of the year? Do you watch OWN? Have you read anything by Dani Shapiro?
The winner of the protein pancake/Flapjack giveaway is Erica, enjoy.