Your Couch Potato Instinct
August 10, 2007 11:04 AM
By Susan Parsons MD
No, you are not lazy. You work hard at your job, taking care of your family, managing your household. Then why do you have such a hard time with exercise?
Basically, you are programmed to be a couch potato. But not just you … we all are. Our genetic makeup evolved to give us a selective survival advantage. Imagine if ancient man, who struggled to find enough to eat, had an urge to do jumping jacks, just for fun. He would surely die soon, by burning off the body fat he needed to survive.
So when you prefer to snuggle down under a lap blanket with the remote in your hand, realize that this is your basic instinct. Fattening foods, warmth, inactivity … that is our comfort zone.
It takes energy to overcome this feeling of inertia. I’m talking about mental energy, in the form of resolve, self-discipline, motivation. It shouldn’t be that hard to come up with this mental energy. We tap into it every morning when we get out of a warm and comfortable bed, when we go to work even when we would prefer to stay home, when we fix dinner for our family rather than pursue our own interests.
The problem is that we have so many things to occupy our time and energy that are required of us, that we want to say NO to one more thing. If it is something that is not fun, that requires more energy, that doesn’t pay the bills, then we don’t seem to have enough motivation to follow through.
The first step to solving this problem is to realize that your instinct to avoid exercise is a basic survival mechanism. It is not a character flaw and you are not lazy. But, to be successful at weight loss, you will need to find a way to overcome your primitive nature. So get rid of the guilt, and get motivated to move. Find ways to have fun with exercise, so that you will make it a part of your life. That way, it won’t be so hard to get yourself off the couch.
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