I spent a day in Glasgow this week competing in my first Hyrox race. If you are unfamiliar with what Hyrox is’it is a blend of functional movements and running. There were over 4000 people competing. Talk about a sport taking off, it has grown exponentially in the last couple of years and is now worldwide.
I believe the popularity behind it is due to the fact It is accessible to most. Opposed to Crossfit where some of the movements are daunting and technical, the Hyrox movements are simpler.
Good luck to all those competing in the Surrey Half today as well, my brother is running for QEF which is our charity of the year. This is his preparation race for the London Marathon so we will be cheering him on.
You may have noticed that I have been intrigued by the author Michael Easter over the last few months. I read his second book “The Scarcity Brain” and it has sent me down the rabbit hole, in a good way to explore why we do certain things, make decisions and how this impacts our lives.
He refers to a concept called the “Scarcity Loop”.this is how we now crave more food, social media and more dopamine hits than ever and how the world we live in exploits this to create endless craving and always wanting more. We move into the new house and then we want the bigger house on the next road, we get our dream car and then after 6 months we are bored and want the upgrade and then how we always have room for desert when we are eating even though we are probably full up from the main course.
There is a theory called the “arrival fallacy” coined by Dr Tal Ben-Shahar, he says that we believe that lasting happiness will be achieved once we hit that one specific milestone or goal. Which isn’t the case, as soon as you hit it we then get disappointed as we feel the same, leading us to continually chase the next “thing”.
And all the time this fallacy prevails we are not enjoying and appreciating the present.
When our ancestors where alive and living in caves, they would have to hunt for their food, chop wood for fires and the fight for survival each day was real.
Our ancestors would hunt their food over hours and even days often not eating for days on end, they never knew when their next meal would come from. Cue the scarcity brain, “when we get something to eat, we need to gorge as we don’t know where the next food is coming from.”
The scarcity brain does not serve us well now when it comes to food, as you can see obesity rates across the world are rising. We have this innate loop in us that when we see food we need to eat as much as possible. Just take a hotel buffet for example, a lot of people will have two plates of food or more when in daily life they may just have a bowl of cereal or eggs.
How does the scarcity loop work?
It is a three-part cycle that triggers compulsive behaviours:
- Opportunity-there needs to be a chance to get something of value, for example, money, food and social approval.
- Unpredictable rewards– you don’t know how much of a reward you will get
- Quick repeatability– the action can be repeated instantly creating a rapid feedback loop.
If you have ever been to a casino, they have perfected the loop to work against us and keep us engaged. I went to Las Vegas on a stag do 7 years ago, it was an experience as you can imagine, the floors are lined with slot machines and the incessant ringing is heard across the room.
Slot machines in the US are designed to keep players hooked for longer, this is where most of the casino’s revenue is made up.
Back in the 70?s a new slot machine as invited which changed the long lever handles to buttons which allowed players to spin 900 times per hour rather than 400. This lends itself to the quick repeatability part of the loop, we can stay engaged quicker and for longer, so your brain does not get bored.
They then started paying out small wins, like when you bet £1 you win 50p. This is a loss but because you are winning something the brain perceived this as an unpredictable reward.
If you almost hit the jackpot your brain thinks “oh so close, just one spin away” making you want to play more as you were so close.
How does this impact our health?
Food companies use the scarcity loop to keep us eating. There are so many processed foods with more sugar, salt and fat in that taste delicious but do not serve our bodies. Like a slot machine the food created unpredictable rewards in that they “hit the spot” differently each time, sometimes they are amazing and delicious, others not so much but they keep you coming back for more.
How to break this loop? Eating whole foods that are unprocessed like vegetables and lean meats such as fish and chicken take longer to prepare and longer to digest. When you take your time to eat , the body produces a hormone called Leptin which signals to the brain you are full. This breaks the loop by reducing the opportunity as your body doesn’t see value in the food anymore.
Plus unprocessed foods don’t light up certain parts of the brain like sugar and salt do. Our body craves more sugar when we eat it, this does not happen with vegetables and protein.
The second way the loop is used against us Is with social media.
Every time you check your phone it is like a digital slot machine. Will we have a new comment, like and how many people have viewed my post?
It is so easy for us to pick our phone when we are “bored” or procrastinating.
To break this loop, you can:
- Turn all your notifications off
- Delete social media from your phone for a week and see the difference
- Use grayscale mode on your phone to make apps less stimulating
- Use an app to block all your social media channel at certain times
In a world with consistent stimulation there needs to be time for quiet and solitude.
Easter spends 2 weeks with Benedictine monks who live structed lives with minimal distraction and use alone time to breed happiness.
Our brain needs intentional quiet periods to break free from compulsive cycles, get off the rat run.
–Avoid defaulting to consumption-when you are “bored” don’t grab your phone, sit with your thoughts and be bored, it is interesting to see what happens.
–Schedule quiet time-take 20 minutes per day of alone time, away from screens, other people. A walk in the woods, alone in a room and meditate.
–Mindful activities-mindfulness using headspace, journaling, deep breathing can re wire the loops to help us to seek fulfilment outside of instant gratification.
If you are wanting to chat more about the information above then why not book a call with me and we can go into more detail? Click here to book or if you want to get an assessment then Book a consultation with a Chiropractor here
If you do know someone who wants more advice, please send them our details. You can send them this assessment as well to diagnose their back pain. It is a great tool to understand where your back pain is coming from, it is free and takes 60 seconds. Click here for assessment
