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# 21: For New Wellness Habits Try the “Seinfeld Strategy”! 

Wellness Woes  

Every adult:

• Knows that: “health is the first wealth” (Emerson)
• Wants good quality and longevity of life
• Knows what good health practices are.

But, 

• 75% of US adults are measurably unfit.
• Obesity trends- for both adults and kids -are distressing. 
• Failure rates -for diet and exercise programs to get lasting results - are huge

Why were obesity and unfitness non-existent 15K years ago in a Hunter-Gather environment? And, does Jerry Seinfeld have a better, new-habit process to try?      

First Defy Temptations from: Predatory, Big – Sugar, Food, Booze, and Friends’ Norms 

Our Hunter-Gather brains evolved to crave, find and consume as much, scarce, high-calorie, paleo-diet food as we could find. Our ancestors had no choice but to do daily, cross-fit exercise to find enough calories to avoid starvation.   

Today, consumer capitalism preys on our natural cravings. Shouldn’t we be angry that junk food and sugar-water ads and availability are everywhere we and our kids go? (For more on not being victimized by “Evolutionary Mismatches” - see my essay on the topic at merrifield.com.)   

But, what if we decided to make healthy choices amidst friends and family who are indulging in instant-pleasure, sedentary, poor-health choices?  Would some be threatened by our good example?  It takes courage to go against group norms. 

And, what new diet or exercise plan would we then pursue given our past program failures? Why not Google “Seinfeld Strategy” and decide to just move daily for 5 minutes (or more if so inclined).   

How Jerry Stopped Procrastinating About Writing Jokes

Jerry stopped trying to write X good jokes a day and/or to try to write for Z hours/day. He decided, instead, to overcome inertia by going for the simple consistency of just showing up. He picked a best-time to sit down daily in a best, creative spot to write jokes for at least a few minutes. Sometimes he fizzled within minutes and other days he wrote good stuff for hours. 

The key, though, was that he would then put an “X” over that day on a calendar by his desk. Then, streaks of X’s would begin to emerge, and his new goal was: “Don’t break the streak”. When streaks were broken for uncontrollable, random reasons, no worries. But, he wouldn’t skip two days in a row and a new streak would begin.    

This system’s benefits:    

1. You develop the habit of consistency with no fear of being able to meet the goal of just showing up. 
2. You start to organize your day and even your life around that best time each day to work on your priority perhaps with incremental tweaks: like, start taking the stairs instead of the elevator at work.  
3. You don’t have oppressive, standard input or output metrics that don’t match your varying, can-do-energy levels or surprise, uncontrollable, interruptive duties. 
4. But, your average output/results do start to climb. This can turn a downward, couch-potato, vicious spiral into a an upward, motivated, virtuous spiral. 
5. Because of neuroplasticity, your brain – with repetitive practices - starts to create new-habit, neural circuits along this timeline:
   1. The first 1-4 weeks, you create a positive habit of consistency, just showing up.
   2. Over 30 to 90 days your results start to improve which sparks the virtuous spiral.
   3. After 90 days your achievement virtues – positive, growth mindset; willingness (not willpower); resilience; self-efficacy; etc. – all start to grow as byproducts.
   4. And, you are now more confident to tackle a next, incremental wellness habit.

FIRST HABIT: START WITH 5+ MINUTES OF DAILY MOVEMENT

Our Hunter-Gather DNA wants better – Sleep, Exercise, Educational stimulation, Diet (quality), and Socializing (SEEDS) – then modern conditions are undermining.  

Movement is the easiest and most energizing of the SEEDS options. We evolved to wake up and start exercising to find a paleo breakfast. Exercise stimulates the creation of new neurons which can then be put to immediate use for creating memories of our paths to likely food and then for directions back to camp. 

Around 2000, Naperville, IL public schools put this science to work with their “zero-hour PE” program. (Google the story). Early exercise woke the kids up, energized them and created new neurons to put to work in first, re-scheduled, toughest-subject classes. Their test scores soared to world class status. 

The school created an organization (pe4life.org) to help other school systems do the same. But, public schools don’t make big changes, so the cause fizzled around 2012. And, sadly, our kids’ – test scores, obesity, and morale – continue to trend irresponsibly.   

Conclusion

Whether you are super-fit or not, why not put Seinfeld and Naperville School wisdom to work? And, don’t break those streaks.