Learn to Exhibit Mouth Responsibility

“Addictions to sugar, drugs, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine not only undercut physical fitness, personal appearance, personality, and health, but will steadily diminish a person’s self-control, self-esteem, and happiness. Such addictions are rampantly common, yet widely unadmitted. Addictions and compulsions also undermine honesty because they constantly require dishonest rationalizations. That dishonesty, in turn, reduces self-esteem, competence, productivity…”

Since, the majority of your immune system is in your gastrointestinal tract, taking care to put the proper nutrients in your mouth can stave off the majority of health issues.

Mouth responsibility is something that we can all work on. When you control what goes into your mouth, you can control the size of your body, the strength of your immune system, your resistance to fatigue, even your outlook on life.

One problem: Mouth responsibility is difficult. In the 1920s, William Muldoon, a trainer of men, an authentic, practice-what-you-preach, live-strong-well-into-your-80s type man, asserted that we know pretty well what we ought to do, it’s just that we don’t do it (he did). In other words, we make choices that are odds with our best interest.

In Milwaukee, WI, there is a drinking culture. I grew up in that culture and before I knew it I was swept away. Before that, I was swept up in the sugar culture. Sodas, candies, sweets. I was swept away in culture, automatically doing things because that is what was happening around me. All the while I could have stopped, but I wasn’t paying attention.

Then comes awareness. You begin to realize you are putting something into your body that is harming you. And then the battle starts. You’ve developed a habit. A small little part of your existence (with a loud, whiny voice) will help you rationalize and sustain the habit. In some people this voice is so strong that it eventually kills them.

If you’re putting something into your mouth–a cigarette, alcohol, coffee, sugar, processed foods–and you can’t control it, or you’re experiencing problems with it, then you have to adjust your behavior. You have to either learn to limit it or give it up entirely. If you limit it, you have to go through the tough process of figuring out how much you can have before it causes problems. While going through this process, you might uncover an answer that you don’t like–none.

Some things are so obviously problematic that you don’t need to do any analysis at all. Cigarettes, for example. Some of these items have very subtle effects. Pay attention to whether you get stuffed up after drinking or eating certain food. Pay attention to how you feel the night after drinking. Pay attention to how you feel after eating a big meal. How do you feel after eating sugar? In other words, after putting something into your mouth, pay attention to what happens. Once you identify the negative effects, and they are there are, I assure you, then you have to determine whether you want to create problems in your life where none existed.

If you come to the point where you know certain things are causing problems, and you fail to do anything about, you’ll start to experience self-esteem and self-efficacy issues. You’ll have to start rationalizing and, in essence, lying to yourself. At that point, you’re fully aware you’re doing something that you shouldn’t be, and that it is impacting your health–both physical and mental.

This is the genesis of the quote ignorance is bliss. Because when you’re ignorant, you don’t fully understand the impact of your actions. Once you move beyond that, and start to become more conscious, you have to question your actions and curb the irrational ones. Or, learn to accept the problems and lies that the irrational actions create in your life. You can’t have it both ways. Once you gain consciousness over a problem, and don’t address it, you suffer increasingly greater consequences until you do. I’ve seen it in myself and in others, time and time again.

If you’ve gotten to the point where you’ve identified things you shouldn’t be doing, but you’re still doing them, and you’re rationalizing, and lying to yourself about it…I feel your pain! It takes discipline and imagination to change your course of action. You have to feel like you’re moving towards something better rather than away from something you’ll miss.

On a larger scale, you’ll start to see why there are so many problems everywhere you look. Everyone is facing this internal struggle, whether they choose to acknowledge it or not. Scarier are the people who are facing this but are unaware–especially when they are otherwise smart people in command of other people. Yes, it’s possible to be highly intelligent and largely unconscious about the effects of your actions.

So, what’s the point? The point is there are 7 billion people on this planet who are struggling with a fundamental problem–the inability to control themselves and their actions. If you’ve ever been with a group of your friends, you’ve experienced the group consciousness–everyone is doing something so you go along. It’s similar in a corporation–everyone behaves in a certain way and you get swept up in it. Now, imagine the global consciousness of a bunch of people who can’t control their actions and are swept up and unaware.

Whether it’s the group consciousness, the corporate consciousness, or the global consciousness, it doesn’t matter. It’s all made up of a collective individual consciousnesses. An each individual has control over their own consciousness and their own actions. Starting with mouth responsibility, begin taking the steps and work to control your own.

Next step, Bare Bones Fitness Advice –>