feedback loops
I’ve been thinking about feedback loops. I know, its kind of a random topic, but hear me out. I think that it is very important. In our body we have neurological feedback loops. If you touch a hot stove – you do not think, ‘wow, that was hot, I should remove my hand now.’ Before you can even think your body just reacts. These reactions are governed by the emotional part of the brain. We do not have to think about it, the body just does it. If it did not every 4 year old in the world would be literally scared for life.
More of our body and life are like that. We respond to the stimulus around us. Often without even thinking. It is just what we do. And if we can control the stimulus, or use that emotional reaction to our favor – we will win the weight loss game.
From a weight loss perspective this blog is an immediate consequence for me. I know that I have to post my performance on a regular basis, so I modify my life styles more naturally now that the whole world can see and comment on it. I don’t really think about it any more. It is just what I do
Some foods offer the same thing to me. If I eat chocolate I get sick. That feed back loop ensures that certain things will not tempt me to break my regime.
As my body has become more sensitive to good foods, I crave the bad much less, and I can feel the immediate consequence of indulging.
Unfortunately we have modern medicine that helps us cover up the feedback loops. Here I am thinking mostly of the anti-acid pills we can take to “enjoy” whatever we want to eat. If we let the body suffer the consequences I think that we would be more apt to listen to our body’s feedback and that, I believe, is one of the best keys to weight loss that I can find.
I think that I will post more on this over the next few days – or write an article on it. It is a good topic to continue. If you are interested let me know.
From a weekend goal perspective, I’m going to just live a normal as possible. I’ll get in some good exercise, drink lots of water, try to get some sleep and if I lose some more weight that will just be great.
Be Healthy – Enjoy Life!
Matt Stearmer
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Comments
i really like this topic. it covers so much that I am trying to integrate into my lifestyle choices- healthy food choices, treating my body with respect, healthy brain chemistry and self talk- it is a very vital subject. I would love to hear more! It is all about us becoming our best selves.
This is a good article about feedback loops. It has great content and such wide range of topics interwoven and explained with clarity. Yes personally I also like to listen to body's feedback mechanism and hope to benefit from it. Look forward to more of such posts. Congrats!
Hi there Matt,
I am kind of new on the “Feedback loop” term. As I searched on the internet, it can be under the category of climate and biology. But since we are talking about our body, I like your analogy about the automatic response of the body against stimulus. I'm also trying to lose weight and I agree that if we try to take again the food that we are avoiding for diet, our body is sort of trying to reject it, like how your body react when you eat chocolates.
It's also like a philosophy or theory in physics that in every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Feedback loop is the opposite reaction that we get if we try to do something in our body and health.
This is a very interesting topic. Hope you'll discuss more of these in the future.
I have to agree about this “feedback loop” idea to a certain extent. Of course, there are exceptions when our natural loops, well, fail to do their intended duty & medications become necessary to make up for the faulty connection. On the other other hand, though, how many of those faulty connections would corrode slower if we listened to the loops earlier in life. I'm inspired to review my life to really take a look at what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. Perhaps my natural instincts aren't so far off the mark on a few things. Thanks!
yes it's really our body have neurological feedback loops, it's helps in doing appropriate action
we need to control the stimulus .
Feed back loops, I think my body has been very sensitive to good foods, l because I will not eat good foods we can’t sensitive of our work and I think feedback is very good I think behaviors change over time.
It is a nice post about feed back loops. I learn a lot of information with this post especially weight loss. As I was an overweight person i now knew which food to eat and control my weight.
Hey Matt, I just wanted to let you know that I linked to your feedback blog in a philosophy/science article I wrote for examiner.com:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-44484-Science–Society-Examiner~y2010m6d8-The-scientific-method-steps-of-faith-not-leaps
a bit out of context, but I think that makes it even more fun!
Ransom
I think the feedback loop can also be applied to our surrounding atmosphere as well – I am thinking of how tastes/behaviors change over time – for example, I eat much less chocolate now as well, because Matt has bad reactions to it and eats very little of it. So in fact, even though I was raised in a highly chocolate indulgent household, I eat very little chocolate as well – I don't even really crave it. If I have the choice between a chocolate dessert and a fruit dessert, I will almost always choose a fruit dessert. In fact, I often crave foods that we as a couple have grown to both enjoy.