Scientists Find Area of the Brain That Motivates Us to Exercise.
It's super cool to know that scientists are studying this stuff. It gives me hope that, maybe someday, I will be able to take a pill, or run a magnet over my brain to switch my dorsal medial habenula "ON."
It is also very fun to say "dorsal medial habenula." Promise you I'm going to try and work it into a sentence today.
But, I see holes.
Just because we can find the area in our brains where motivation happens, doesn't mean we can just switch it "ON" and it will do all the work for us. That's the implication, right? Doesn't this study imply that the missing ingredient for our society's improved health and happiness is just a little motivation?
What these scientists never seem to understand about health and fitness is, good health is a multifaceted thing.
The pursuit of health is every bit like the pursuit of knowledge, or language, or love. The net gain usually only develops through the experiences of the pursuit. It is never a pursuit in and of itself. Think about it, that you might be able to motivate someone to gain more knowledge won't make them brilliant.
I have been going to GPP for over 3 years and it has improved my fitness considerably. The real change started with the 21 day challenge Neil posed to us in July. Each week I have lost a pound, which is nice. The amazing thing for me is how much stronger I have become both physically and mentally. The challenge was to eat better and do some extra cardio, which was fun. I was determined to do the RX + week and I surprised myself when I was able to RX each of those workouts. The past 7 weeks have been life changing for me. I really can do what I set my mind to do. I'll be 52 next month and I feel physically and mentally more fit than ever.
Very proud of our friend Kenzie. She completed the Wasatch 100 this weekend. That's 100 miles of trail, climbing over 26000 ft, over 31 hours of suffering! Impressive!