HIL - Health Invisible ledger
First we go physical!
Let’s talk about health; it’s a big HIL to climb!
There is A LOT under this umbrella. For simplicity, I am going to split the topic into two. We will start with a physical health ledger (PHIL). The mental health (MHIL) will be a much larger discussion. The more I think about the mental health ledger the more complex and deep it becomes.
Side story:
I had someone mention “Isn’t this ledger idea similar to karma?”
To that, I said absolutely!
There are many ways to talk about these concepts and I chose this ledger framework. When you think about karma most think of actions. I was driving like a douche canoe and you see me 5 min later pulled over by a cop. Many don’t think about karma through a mental health lens or with parent/child relationships. I like to think of these ledgers as karma expanded. Karma also gets a little weird with the “westernized” version morphing from the original idea. I’m no expert so I’ll let the internet help.
Anyway, on to the physical health ledger!
PHIL
We all know working out and eating “right” is good. I am putting right in quotes because I am not always sure we know what that means. With all the diets that pop up, do we know which ones are actually good for you? This is not the place to debate diets and eating strategies, yeah I see you cleanse people.
Oh crap! Did I just isolate followers?
No, it’s cool, you have to have some to lose them…
The point is, what you consume and how you move your body are important and go into this ledger.
Let’s take a look using some of the guidelines proposed in the last post.
You have those memorized right?
No? how dare you!
Just messing, I will always list them out, because that’s just the type of guy I am.
They are not the same for everyone
This one is pretty obvious here. I have a different body type, different metabolism, and different biology. Dairy and I are cool (for now), I know dairy and others are enemies. Not all things work with all people. I worked at a fitness camp, and the diet they subscribed to was phenomenal for men. I watched them shed pounds FAST. As for the women, they struggled. The weight did not come off as easily and bloating was consistent. Unfortunately, the research this was based on was mostly on men and then applied generically, this is not uncommon. Check out this great book Invisible Women, which discusses this topic at length.
So what do you do with this information? Pay attention to your body. Advice may work for you, or it may not. Test, hypothesize, and determine what food and actions work for you best. I despise running and I'm not too fond of the gym, so I have to find ways to stay active in ways others really enjoy.
The tricky part is you can’t put a number to all these metrics. You can for calories, fat, etc. You can understand how many units are in vs out with exercise and this has been well studied. However, that’s not the whole calculation. Eating things that number-wise are less in and more out may seem fine but what if they make you feel horrible? Gas all the time? That does not always calculate right.
What about timing? Exercise in the morning and eat a whole pie right before bed? The math gets weird.
What if that extensive diet or avoiding sugar makes you “healthy” and unhappy… is that actually healthy?
Seems like this may be a tie into mental health later… maybe a sneak peek at a favorite theory of mine ego depletion.
I’ll end on this point: A friend made an excellent point I don’t want to get lost. From the outside at a macro level the ledgers are treated the same. Industries trying to make money, most research and doctor advice. However, at the micro level and to the individual they operate very differently. Hormones, diseases, body chemistry is so different for everyone.
If you are in debt, you don’t know when your tab will be called in
This one is incredibly hard conceptually and seems very unfair.
How are you supposed to know when you are in debt?
If you are barely in debt will you find yourself in trouble?
What if you exercise regularly and eat well all the time?
It’s possible you do everything you think is right and still find yourself in trouble.
I will tell you the same thing my dad told me far too often and infuriated me my whole childhood… “Life’s not fair”.
Still haunts me.
This is why this guideline is so hard to work through. You may be an ultramarathon runner and drop dead. You may eat fast food daily and live to 100.
So what can you do? Your best.
What do you do when you find yourself deep in debt? Work on getting out. More on this later… I promise!
I have found some transformational wisdom from some great stoics in my life and here is your introduction here:
“These are the characteristics of the rational soul: self-awareness, self-examinations and self-determination. It reaps its own harvest… It succeeds in its own purpose.
— Marcus Aurelius
In this, Marcus is telling us to:
We must look inward
We must examine ourselves critically
We must make our own decisions uninhibited by biases or popular notions.
If you take this with all that has been said previously it can help guide you in figuring out your path, your debt, and what should be best for you.
You have an impact on others’ ledgers
This is an easy one… ever convinced your friend to have one more drink? Eat dessert when they weren’t going to? Go on a diet with you?
For better or worse we impact others in everything we do. If you are working out, your friends may join you and this is great! It also goes the other way, you can be a bad influence as well.
BONUS GUIDELINE!
We pay life taxes.
Did… did this schmuck just mention the thing everyone hates and still expects me to be on board with all this?
Yes. I did. Sorry. As Gloria Steinem says…
“The truth will set you free, but first it will PISS YOU OFF!”
So WTF are life taxes? Whelp let’s bring back the stoics:
“Nothing will ever befall me that I will receive with gloom or a bad disposition. I will pay my taxes gladly. Now, all the things which cause complaint or dread are like the taxes of life. Things from which, my dear Lucilius, you should never hope for exemption or seek escape”
— Seneca
What Seneca is saying here is everything we do has a toll on us. This will be an important aspect of these ledgers.
When it comes to exercise… what do you think being sore is?
Is it worth it? YUUUUUUP!
What about a tax on eating better and cutting some sugar? Maybe less immediate dopamine to the brain.
We try to avoid taxes (some successfully… I’ll rage on this later) however, taxes mean you have gained something. You are sore because you are gaining muscle. Avoid them, ignore them, or run away all you want… or turn around, accept it, and look at what you have GAINED.
I know you are thinking this is still incredibly ambiguous.
Yeah, I get it.
I wish I could give everyone their exact formula to build your ledger properly, but…
My goal is still to help build the mental model even if it does not provide exact outputs like 30 min of morning running balances 1/2 a chocolate cake as a 3 pm snack.
I want you to start thinking in probabilities. Yep, more math words you hate. I won’t make you calculate probabilities, just think more generally about them. Most of what we do is rooted in probabilities and bets.
So where do we go from here?
The mental health connection. With all going on in this crazy timeline we live in, it will be a multipart doozy! I have a feeling this one will play a critical role in everything moving forward. It’s like the central ledger.
As always feel free to comment and open up the discussion!
Until next time, take a deep breath and …
Unless you’re allergic…