I’ve tried relying on willpower. Everybody has. You decide you’re going to eat better, and for a while you do—until you don’t. Then you blame yourself for not being disciplined enough.

But here’s what I’ve come to understand: My body is the result of thousands of small decisions made over years. Most weren’t really decisions at all. They were defaults—things I did without thinking because that’s what I do. Open the pantry, grab what’s at eye level. Finish what’s on the plate because it’s on the plate.

The problem with “eating better”

The problem with trying to “eat better” is that it frames eating as a series of choices. But by the time I’m choosing, the default has already voted. Willpower shows up late, tired, and outnumbered.

So I stopped trying to have more willpower. I started trying to change my defaults.

Defaults are built from accumulated ideas—things I believe without examining. If I want different defaults, I need different ideas taking up residence. Not all at once. One thought at a time, repeated until it becomes part of how I see things.

That’s why I built something that puts a single thought in front of me each morning—not to motivate me, but to slowly reshape what “normal” feels like.

365 Changes: A daily prompt about eating — https://365changes.com/

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