"Quit 'Should-ing' on Yourself"

Blaine LaFleur
Quit Shoulding on yourself

Lately, there seems to be this “should be” attitude floating around America’s belief about health.

“With all the exercise that I am doing, I should be skinnier.”

“With all of the carbs that I am avoiding, I shouldn’t have love handles.”

“With all of the diet coke that I drink, you would think my blood sugar should be normal.”

Humorous as these phrases may seem to some of you, to others, these are real life concerns and apparent confusion. The only thing I am confused about is at what point in our history with health did the population start relying completely on what they read, no longer attempting to validate what actually works for them? Their "tried and failed" checklist continues to grow. And they are somewhat proud of it. 

“I should be able to work super hard and sleep less now, and then once I retire, I can really relax among the abundant sunshine and rainbows.”

“I can ‘relax’ on vacation or the weekends, and I’ll get back to my diet on Monday.”

I’m just over here waiting to see how long these people continue these patterns. It’s like watching a dog chase its tail. I want to look away; I really do. I know it’s silly as hell to continue wasting my precious time gazing upon such an act of futility, but it is just so friggin' tantalizing, I just can't seem to escape its horror.

Sort of like this haircut:

Quit Shoulding on yourself

I’m still curious, though. What is it about investing in your health that has some of you still confused? If you don’t add money to your IRA, do you “hope” that you can retire on what is in there when the time comes?

Are you just so darn confident and “faithful” that you will have money waiting for you with absolutely no effort in regards to adding the money to it?

By the looks of confusion smeared across their faces upon getting a cancer diagnosis or being told that they are diabetic, you’d swear the patient just walked out of 1960’s Circus Freak Show.

Quit Shoulding on yourself

"Come again?"

I’d like to ease your skepticism and say that there are no such things as bearded ladies and 400 lb children… . I really would like to…

It just seems as though we like to treat our health risks like a college girl's naïve approach to birth control: “It won’t happen to me.”

“People prefer a problem they can’t solve to a solution they don’t like.” – Lee Thayer

Do you want to know why things are the way they are? Because they got to be that way.

Stop looking for alternative reasons as to why you are diabetic. It’s because you eat too many carbs in relation to your current insulin sensitivity.

Stop wondering why you or your family member had a heart attack. It’s because you are promoting an ongoing inflammatory response systemically throughout your body, due to your choices in life.

Stop waiting for research to prove that there is some other approach to health besides through our daily habits and stress reduction. The pharmaceutical industry isn’t chomping at the bit to get those types of studies funded.

Health is nothing more than a prolonged game of cause and effect. Stop questioning your effects without first analyzing your causes. Start there.

So, what do you say? Willing to just try something different than yesterday? Anything?