...That is to say that I've been thinking about the way I think, which, in doing so, I came to the realization that I think I've always thought about the way I think. Confused? That's what happens when you climb into my head, baby!!!
I'm by NO means an expert on the topic, nor have I become a master of the process yet, but I have read some really fascinating articles out there over the last year or so about metathinking and how our brains not only think about things, but how they think about the way it thinks about things. I won't get into too deep of an explanation of these articles, vocab definitions, or the studies reported in them. Hopefully, my brief explanation will be clear enough, but I'll leave some of my favorite links on the subject for you to head to if you're interested... (consider it homework... FUN!!). I mostly want to just offer what I've learned on a really basic level and how I plan to apply it to PROJECT: Briles 200.
According to Wikipedia, "the prefix, "Meta", has Greek origins and means "after", "beyond", "with", "adjacent", "self" and is used to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept used to complete or add to the latter." Got that?... Yeah, it took me a couple days too. Hopefully, this example will explain it better...
One of the common terms out there using the prefix "Meta" is METADATA. Among other items, metadata is associated with digital picture files. Say you want to take a color picture with your digital camera. When you press that button on the camera to take a picture, the camera takes in all the data (data=information) it needs of that image (such as light, colors, shape), to form an image file that gets saved onto your camera's memory card. Along with all the info the camera uses to create the image file, it also (usually) records metadata along with it. The metadata is all the data about the data in that image file, such as the time and date you took the image, the shutter speed, ISO and aperture you used to take the picture, and some cameras even record a GPS location of where the picture was taken. All that metadata is information about the data that is the image file.
What does this all this META nonsense have to do with me, you, and PROJECT: Briles 200, you ask??
I believe metathinking has been a really important process in my decision making for a lot of my life. This may sound strange to those of you who know me as a pretty spontaneous, whimsical person, but while I am horrible at calculating math, I have always been able to recognize that my thoughts are emotionally charged. For certain parts of my life (work, relationships, social aspects), I have been good about being able to quickly question, analyze, and calculate those initial emotions/thoughts, and gather my metathoughts about that initial thought process, leading to a higher percentage of good decisions/considerations/relationships and a better understanding of myself.
Where I have been lacking in this process is when I eat and spend money on food. I think I've mentioned before that I'm kind of ADD. I tend to FORGET (whether accidentally or intentionally) that I'm not supposed to be eating a Big Mac and an M&M McFlurry. I just WANT some crab rangoons, egg rolls, and pork fried rice, so instead of cooking up the chicken breast I have defrosting in the fridge, I head to Foodler.com and order some Chinese. My impulses and cravings almost always get the best of me in these situations. I HAVE a lot of the facts and know how, which is an important part of making healthy choices, but I have to figure out how to jog my brain to use that knowledge in tandem with the metathinking process.
Now, I'm going to be thinking a lot more about my food decisions as they're happening, hopefully instilling another string of discipline into my life. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to enjoy the bad stuff too, I just need to do it with increased moderation.
For example, as I start busting into a half gallon of ice cream during 'LOST', I need to think about WHY I am eating the ice cream when I know there are healthier options around. The easy and first answer to come to my mind is and will ALWAYS be, "I want to eat ice cream at any given point of every day of my life cuz it's AWESOME". Why do you want to eat ice cream when you know it's bad for you? "Because it tastes good?" Why does it taste good? "Because it's sweet and creamy and it comforts me.." Why does it comfort you and what is it comforting you from? Why do you REALLY need to eat a whole half gallon? Why not a bowl there, stud?! Why?! Why?! Why?!
I also need to focus this discipline towards my activity levesl. Part of the whole PROJECT: Briles 200 thing is to be more active. Activity is going to be key to the success of this mission... and frankly, it's been a slow start. Aside from heading over to my weekly workouts at
Cutting Edge Fitness, I've been soft on that front. Part of it is my crazy work (or in a lot of cases non-work) schedule and some of the responsibilities I've taken on recently, but mostly it's due to my laziness, lack of discipline, and desire to watch the classic 1990 volleyball movie,
SIDE OUT , for the 52nd time in my life on a GORGEOUS afternoon where I could have been out AT LEAST walking around, taking pictures or, even more actively, out for a jog. At that moment when I saw that
SIDE OUT was available to watch, I just sat down and watched it... no questions asked (aside from "Who was hotter than Courtney Thorne-Smith in the those days?"). The metathinking process has to start right before I sit my ass on that couch. I need to start firing questions away about why I'm choosing to be sedentary rather than going out to enjoy a beautiful day.
I don't know what it is about my health that keeps me from the metathinking process I use in other aspects of my life, but I want to train my brain to start this ultra-examination at the moment of decision-making in my eating/exercise/overall health habits. I figure that if I can develop the ability to sit back and think about what I'm actually about to put into or not do with my body, I can swing some of that good decision-making from other aspects of my life over to my health.
How do I make that happen? By asking strings of continuous 'WHY's about how I come to the decisions I do and examining all the facets/motivations of my thought process when considering a subject beyond just the initial emotions/thoughts that I have when that subject is placed in front of me.
I actually think all of us would benefit from this line of thinking when it comes to our health... To inspire you to start metathinking the same way and to inspire you to call me out when I make the poor choice, I'm introducing a segment to "Briles Is Losing It!" called "Decisions, Decisions!" Now that I've been blessed with an iPhone, I'm going to start taking pictures of the foods I am choosing between at the point of decision making, posting them, honestly telling you which one I chose, and the thought process behind why I chose to eat what I did. Will you be interested in this? Probably not. It's more going to be a picture food journal for my own use and a way for me to somehow coin the phrase/make money off of the term "Metadiet" (which I think is only being used by some company as a name to hock some weight loss pills), but I'm hoping some of you will get involved in the discussion, call me out and ask questions as you see fit!!
That was a bit heady for me... My brain hurts now... Where's the ice cream?!?!?! (just kidding, Ann Marie...)
Enjoy your homework!!
