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Transform your eating habits with this skill

Transform your eating habits with this skill

Plus: Nihilism as an inverted map

Geoff Girvitz
November 07, 2024

Today on Dad Strength

Friction, not restriction
Nihilism as an inverted map
A year, a decade, a lifetime
A book, a quote, a dad joke

Transform your eating habits with friction, not restriction

Rigid rules feel strong until they break. That’s the nature of brittle things. That’s also why the only hard and fast rule that I have for nutrition is not to make it weird for yourself. Restrictive eating can do that to a fella. So, if there’s something that you want to turn the volume down on, whether it be total calories, saturated fat, etc, my advice is to add friction instead of restriction. Let’s say, for example, that you want to stop snacking after 8 PM. Rather than screaming “NO” into the fridge at 11 PM, you can add the following layers of friction. After you notice you are feeling snacky you can do any or all of the following:

Make a cup of tea
Drink that tea
Eat fermented foods like pickles, kimchee, or sauerkraut
Move around for a few minutes
Sit silently for one minute
Check in with how you feel — and whether it’s truly hunger
Eat filling, nutrient dense foods like lean protein, veggies ,or fruit
Get completely prepared for bed
Brush your teeth
Just go to sleep, man

You may wind up snacking. You may even wind up eating something wildly imperfect. But each layer of action and decision-making makes a difference. They increase the likelihood of feeling good – both in the moment and in the days that follow. Friction, not restriction.

An inverted map

As a Canadian who watched the US elections in action this week, I find myself most curious about expected outcomes over the next term for Trump supporters. As the very American commanding officer in G.I. Jane says, “You're gonna get everything you want…. I just wonder if you want what you're gonna get.” That is my way of saying that there is a deep, human desire for fairness, progress, and health. That’s bipartisan stuff until we get to the hows. So, I would love to know what measurable metrics of success folks have in mind by the end of Trump’s next four years. What data (not feelings) will point to success? On the other hand, what data would force you to conclude, “This didn’t go well”?

On feelings: the dominant one that I’ve picked up on is not what people want — but what they don’t want. This is what essayist, James Davidson Hunter describes here as a nihilistic drive. He says, “‘Nihilism,’ according to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, is ‘not only the belief that everything deserves to perish; but one actually puts one’s shoulder to the plough; one destroys.’ A nihilistic culture is defined by the drive to destroy, by the will to power.” So, will success only be measured by what is destroyed?”

As a parent, my question is this: when you talk to your kids about politics, do they know more about what you stand for or what you stand against? An (age-appropriate) argument can be made for both, however… When you chart a ship’s course, it cannot exclusively be made up of icebergs and shallows. That creates a sort of inverted map— one that tells you where not to go but offers no guidance about a real destination. What course are you helping your kids chart?

This stuff can be tricky. That’s why we talk it out every Tuesday as a community. Coming up next week: skill-share. Share one thing you know well with the group.

To sign up, visit dadstrength.com/calls

A year, a decade, a lifetime

You’ve undoubtedly heard about the human tendency to overestimate what you can do in one year but then underestimate what you can do in 10. So, here’s a question for you: if you could take away all the pressure for early success away… If you were gifted with a huge amount of time AND the patience to truly leverage it, what skills would you invest in? What would change?