[00:00:00] Jenn Trepeck: Welcome to Salad with a side of Fries. I'm your host, Jenn Trepeck, talking wellness and weight loss for real life. We're here to clear up the myths, misinformation, bad science and marketing to teach you how to eat and how to cheat. Are you ready? I'm having salad with a side of Friess this week. We're talking about hard.

[00:00:26] What I mean is when we say something is hard. And as a health and lifestyle coach, I work with people toward living a healthier life. And on this podcast we talk about making changes to live a healthier life. And maybe that means we wanna wake up earlier. Maybe that means we wanna eat different foods or not tune to food as a coping mechanism or change our default.

[00:00:53] These efforts are not easy and often we will say to ourselves or even say it to [00:01:00] other people. It's hard. I've used the phrase right and I am always learning. I think as part of what I love about this show is that it feeds my insatiable student piece. Now, recently I saw something online that struck me.

[00:01:19] About reframing the word hard and then I was thinking more about it so that we could talk about it here. And I realized that they took what I saw, took it one step. And in order to really make things easier, we have to go another step further. Lemme explain. So the thing I saw online was a guy saying this thing that like the thing you want to do is hard.

[00:01:45] And he asked, is it hard? Or is it just uncomfortable? And at first I was like, yes, I love this idea because the thing that seems hard, maybe it's just new and because [00:02:00] it's new, it's uncomfortable. And like that really resonated with me. Then as I do, I started to dig into how the brain works, and if you're a longtime listener of salad with a side of fries, you know, like I'm very particular about the words that I use, and we have a number of nutrition nuggets on specific words.

[00:02:19] We even have an episode called Going Against the Textbook where I talked about words that we use. So anyway, in looking at how the brain processes the word hard, and then how it processes the word uncomfortable. Uncomfortable isn't enough of a reframe to change how the brain reacts. So here's the thing.

[00:02:41] Okay, so the word hard leads to mental fatigue. It increases stress and decreases motivation, and it essentially. With all of that happens, it causes the brain to retract, it causes the brain to conserve energy and try [00:03:00] to survive and protect the status quo. So this happens. It's a combination of neurotransmitters, so it increases glutamate, decreases dopamine, the amygdala that is the part of the brain that detects threats, so that gets activated, and then it triggers the same pathways as physical pain.

[00:03:19] And defensive self-preservation responses where it then shuts down and causes us to completely avoid the task, whatever. It's so clearly the word hard is not helping us. So then the guy said to use the word uncomfortable. Now it's interesting to me to find out that this guy's reframe of uncomfortable ignites many of the same processes and pathways in the brain, so we end up with emotional alarm.

[00:03:45] It prevents thinking from like the front of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, which is our higher order thinking and delayed gratification. It ignites the same survival mechanisms. And so again, like that's the amygdala, [00:04:00] increased glutamate activates the same like pain matrix and creates the same avoidance of the new behavior.

[00:04:08] So before I go to the last step of like what we really need to do to make things easier, I hope what you're hearing is that if you have ever wanted to create a new habit and it hasn't stuck or it felt nearly impossible or it was the thing you then. Started to avoid and yet you were thinking about it all the time.

[00:04:30] This might be why maybe you said this is hard. Were you physically uncomfortable? So like I'm thinking about even changing a food habit or your movement. So maybe you said finding time for the gym is hard. Or when I get there, it hurts and it's uncomfortable, or you are uncomfortable in the gym. Maybe you're uncomfortable in the gym clothes that you have.

[00:04:54] These things are absolutely standing in the way of creating that new [00:05:00] habit. So if you've ever said, it's hard not to eat when I sit and watch tv, or it's hard to not have a drink when I get home after a long day, please know you are correct. It's not easy and. Saying these things to ourselves is making it more difficult.

[00:05:19] So what do we say instead? If it's not hard and it's not uncomfortable, what is it? What is the word that can actually change The biochemistry? The word is challenge. So challenge is the reframe. When something is a challenge, it doesn't send us into avoidance and like watching Netflix, it creates a puzzle for the brain to solve.

[00:05:42] It becomes a project. We're then seeing, we're exploring, we're experimenting, and there's a choice in that. And so the word challenge itself does not register the same as a threat. So rather than [00:06:00] avoidance. The word challenge signals the brain for focus, engagement, and even growth. The biochemistry of challenge is neuroplasticity.

[00:06:13] It's literally changing the brain with new neural pathways. Thinking happens not from the amygdala. The back of the brain, but from the front of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, which is that executive function, the self-control, the problem solving, and delayed gratification. We get increased focus, increased alertness rather than avoidance.

[00:06:36] And while you still may have cortisol or adrenaline, like some of those stress related things, the body interprets them as excitement and alertness rather than. Fight or flight simply by changing the word to challenge instead of hard or uncomfortable. So we see like [00:07:00] fundamentally there is improved performance and capacity for new things.

[00:07:04] And like, I don't know if you, have you ever heard exercising the brain like a muscle? Yes. This is that. This is essentially part of that, like the growth from challenge, from problem solving and experimenting is the brain's A MCC, it's the anterior, mid cingulate cortex that grows when we give persistent effort.

[00:07:30] So instead of like going back to those same examples, instead of saying It's hard to find time to go to the gym or move my body. We say I'm challenging myself to go to the gym every day or three times this week. If we say it's hard to not eat when I sit and watch tv, or it's hard to not have a drink when I get home after a long day, yes, it's going to be hard.

[00:07:52] What if instead we said I'm challenging myself to do something other than drink to help me unwind at the end of the day, [00:08:00] or I'm challenged by not snacking while I watch tv. I know for me, like even just hearing those things, like my brain starts to do other things, that starts to think about other scenarios and it gets creative of like, oh, well, here are other things I could do instead of having a drink when I get home, and I can make it happen.

[00:08:20] As opposed to like creating the laundry list of reasons why I need to do anything except the thing that I'm saying I wanna do. Nat, thoughts, questions? I just did a lot of talking. No, I love the idea of almost putting a publicist spin on things for yourself. I mean, we have people manipulating us for their needs all the time.

[00:08:45] Like why aren't we manipulating our own brains to have the give us a desired effect? And I like that you got rid of uncomfortable too, because let me tell you, if you have like a little bit of autism, uncomfortable is almost worse than hard. So I'm glad we went with [00:09:00] challenge. I think that is more of a level.

[00:09:01] Serve all words. Yes, for sure. Awesome. Yeah, it's, it was a reframe for me too and I was like, it's so interesting that I think like even just changing the words that we use can make it easier on ourselves to do the things. I always joke like sometimes this stuff feels like we're climbing Mount Everest naked in barefoot, and what if just changing one word completely changes?

[00:09:25] How we approach it and it doesn't feel that way anymore. Like, wouldn't that be nice? So I think bottom line, anything you wanna do, anything you wanna change, it's not hard, it's not uncomfortable. It is a challenge. Yeah. And I think people, you start thinking about like challenging themselves instead of being hard on themselves as well.

[00:09:47] A thousand percent. Love that. All right, well, as always, everybody, I'm your host, gen Trebeck. Connect with me on Instagram or all social media. I'm at Jenn Trepeck, [00:10:00] J-E-N-N-T-R-E-P-E-C-K. Website is a salad with the side of fries.com. Pick your platform, send a message. I love hearing from you, your takeaways, your ideas, your questions.

[00:10:08] This is also the easiest way to learn more about working with me as your coach. Natalie, thank you again for joining me. Thank you for having me. I love doing this. You bring so much humor. And of course everybody, if you are not already a member, I invite you to the Happy Healthy Hub. You'll go to a salad with the side fries.com/membership.

[00:10:31] This show is your support for this podcast, this community, and importantly, your health. On top of access to the Community Board where we can interact, ask, and answer questions and more, you get discounts curated content. Of course, interview episodes in full video and this week's recipe for the Green Veggie Bowl with chicken and lemon tahini dressing well, friends.

[00:10:54] That's it for today's episode of Salad with a Side of Fries. Congratulations for making yourself and your health a [00:11:00] priority. Thanks so much for joining us. Be sure to click subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast platform. Share us with a friend and we'll be back next week. Always remember you deserve it and you are worth it. Happy, healthy.