Episode 79: Levels of Thinking for Diet and Nutrition

Transcript

maybe you've heard this uh levels of thinking thing i i learned about it actually through
playing magic but i believe it originated with with poker i think there was actually a book about
it um the general idea is that you know as you play in this case poker or some strategic card
game like magic that there's sort of levels of thinking that you can go through where i think
it's something like level zero is you know i'm just going to instinctually play the stuff i have
and then there's like a level one where you're a little more strategic about it and there's like a
level two where i think you then open up your mindset to i wonder what my opponent has and it
goes through like level four or five becoming like sort of increasingly more complex where toward the
end of the chain you're sort of thinking like okay what does my opponent have that he's going to do
knowing what he thinks i have kind of thing so you get to kind of like this he knows that i know that
he knows that i know kind of world so i was at the gym the other day and there was this there was this
guy who was talking to somebody else i just happened to overhear what they were talking about
and the guy you know very um in in good shape pretty muscular and he says oh you know this
i'm gonna ruin this like clean streak for my body and just ruin it on sunday with crab fries and beer
like something like that like the idea was that he had for a while i guess been you know really on top
of his like diet and nutrition and everything else and been very you know conscientious about that sort of
thing and he had an event coming up it sounded like on sunday where he was gonna go and like have
a bunch of beer and like pizza and wings or like whatever it got me thinking of sort of like a level
of thinking model that one could apply to their own like dieting nutrition physique kind of thing
like for for those who's you know again spend time at a gym working on their physique and
their nutrition is built around that and all that kind of stuff so it seems to me that you know a level
zero of thinking about this would be just no connection whatsoever or no thought about the
connection between you know what you're eating like what you're putting in your body versus compared to
no connection from that to here's how my body looks and feels to me this is like what a child
is right like a child doesn't sit around and think to themselves well i'm having a piece of candy now
and that probably means that in a couple hours i'm going to be extra hungry because my blood pressure
or my blood sugar probably spikes and it's going to make me more hot like you know or there's me rush
of energy and then i'm going to crash like they don't nor do they think like oh i'm eating a burger
jeez i'm going to feel really bloated later or i'm going to put on two pounds or like
to them they just eat you know you just eat food and it's completely disconnected from your physical
and a child probably isn't the best example frankly because they're also you know growing and there's a
whole bunch of other factors there but i'm just using this kind of an example so like level zero
thinking here would be no connection whatsoever like you eat whatever you want and you at no point
consider what the ramifications are going to be on your physical body level one would be
connecting those two things and understanding that like you know the stuff i eat has some sort of direct
impact on how i look and feel throughout the day this is the sort of thing that as you get a little bit
older or whatever you start to connect these ideas and this level of thinking i think becomes
very pervasive in like you know if you're just starting to go down like a fitness and nutrition
road where people start holding themselves very strictly because they start thinking to themselves oh
i really shouldn't you know i really shouldn't eat this burger because it's going to have a very
direct impact on my you know physical appearance and whatever or my nutritional values or you know
whatever and it kind of gets overdone right but it's kind of like a level one thinking like you have
connected the idea of i put stuff in my body and it has some sort of impact whether that's a visual
impact or just how you feel or whatever a level two thinking would then kind of bring in the idea of
you know what sometimes it's okay to have that burger like a cheat here and there is an okay thing
and the reason it's a level like another level up is because eventually once you've been very strict
with yourself and how you eat you eventually learn that if you're really on point like 90 95 percent of
the time that less last five to ten percent of the time does not make a negative like a like a like a
substantial negative impact on things in fact to the contrary that last five to ten percent
cheating a little bit here and there it kind of makes the other 90 percent more tolerable to some
people uh it can have some physical benefits too just kind of varying some stuff up and getting some
extra you know i don't know kind of junkie your calories into your diet there are some positives to
that again not all the time but on occasion so this level two is like understand so now you you know
you've connected that it matters what goes in your body you've kind of overdone that a little bit and
now you're realizing you know what it's okay once in a while to have something that isn't part of this
strict regimen level three thinking becomes then actually technically technically speaking that cheat
does have a negative impact so it's almost the reverse of level two but here's the distinction
it's understanding that there is a negative consequence but that that negative consequence
is short term so the idea being like yeah you go out and you have a big cheat meal or a cheat day
you're gonna be a little extra like bloated and like ruined and maybe not feel the best for like a day or two
but it's understanding that that impact is short term and that doesn't mean in those next two days
that you have to like tank your calories or go on some kind of water detox or like whatever
to somehow come back from that one cheat day that instead your body will clear that like on its own
because again 90 95 percent of time you're on point going for that five percent to go cheat a little
bit is completely fine and you don't need to then over compensate on the other side of that it's gonna
kind of shake out so that's kind of your lot your third level of thinking is like understanding those
cheats do have an impact but that those impacts are short term and then i think eventually you end up
at like level four thinking about this and the level four thinking would be does this impact my overall goals
it's a way to rise above all the minutiae of sort of level zero through three and think is this is this a
problem for my long term right if i'm going to sit down and eat kind of a junk meal or you know
go somewhere for a day and eat nothing but like burgers french fries beer and whatever you should
the question you should be asking yourself is not ooh how's this going to make me feel tomorrow
or ooh you know did i do enough throughout the week to to justify this or okay i'll do this today but
then i'm going to run on the treadmill for five hours tomorrow the question you should be asking
yourself is does this impact me overall what and there's an implication there which is you need to
know what your goal is to begin with so for instance the guy at the gym he said i'm going to go ruin my
physique on sunday okay but what's your goal because there's two like i'll give you you know kind of a split
example right on the one hand if your goal is to look really good on monday if that was your goal
if your goal was on that monday the day after i'm going to go ruin my physique i need to look really
really good because i've got like a competition or i don't know like whatever whatever your reason is
then yeah you probably shouldn't go out sunday and have a bunch of beer and crab fries
on the other hand if your goal is two months from now i need to look my absolute best or three months
from now when beach season rolls around i want to be lean and good you know good to go to the beach
or like what whatever or if your long-term goal is like you know i want to be able to run more distance
or whatever your goal is then go ahead on that sunday unless your goal is like i've got to look top
notch on monday you're going to be fine and that's sort of that level four thinking is just for
stepping back from all of it assuming that you've got your you know you're locked in most the time
go enjoy yourself on sunday it's going to be fine because if your long-term goal is something
two three months out you're not even going to remember that sunday it's not going to make
any difference in the long run