Things to Remember
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The problem isn't that you don't know what to do - it's that our entire system makes healthy choices ridiculously hard. You're not "unmotivated" or "weak-willed" if you struggle to eat well and exercise. You're fighting against a trillion-dollar industry designed to keep you eating junk food, sitting all day, and staying stressed out.
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There are four stages to building any new habit, and most people get stuck at stage two: knowing what to do but not actually doing it. The goal is to slowly move healthy behaviors from "things I have to force myself to do" to "things I do automatically without thinking" - like brushing your teeth.
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Most health plans fail because they try to change everything at once, which is overwhelming and unsustainable. This approach focuses on building one habit at a time over four weeks, so changes actually stick instead of lasting three days before you give up completely.
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The core idea: when the tiny "powerhouses" inside your cells (called mitochondria) work well, you feel energized and healthy. When they don't, you get brain fog, fatigue, and eventually chronic diseases. Symptoms like exhaustion, weight gain, and mood swings aren't separate problems - they're all signs that your cells aren't producing energy efficiently.
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Week 1 is about figuring out where you're starting from: track what you eat, when your energy crashes, and why better health actually matters to you personally. Not generic goals like "lose weight," but real reasons like "have energy to play with my grandkids" or "feel like myself again."
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Week 2 focuses on cutting out the three worst food culprits: refined grains (white bread, white rice), added sugars, and processed seed oils. These foods spike your blood sugar, cause inflammation, and basically sabotage your cells' ability to make energy properly - which is why you feel exhausted after eating them.
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The plan builds gradually over four weeks because sustainable change happens slowly, not overnight. You're retraining your body and your habits, which takes time - but it's better to make changes that actually last than to do a dramatic overhaul that fails by next month.
This article explains why healthy habits fail despite good intentions and provides a four-week framework to make them stick by addressing the metabolic and psychological barriers that sabotage execution.
Most people already know what they should do. Eat real food. Sleep enough. Move your body. Manage stress.
The Four Stages of Health Habit Mastery: Where Are You?
| Stage | What It Looks Like | Common Examples | How to Progress |
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| Level 1: Unconscious Incompetence | You're engaging in unhealthy behaviors without realizing the harm | Eating foods with artificial colors; sleeping with TV on; not connecting energy crashes to blood sugar spikes | Education and awareness - read labels, track symptoms, learn about melatonin and glucose regulation |
| Level 2: Conscious Incompetence | You know what you should do but aren't doing it consistently | Understanding refined sugar spikes blood glucose but still drinking soda daily; knowing sleep matters but staying up scrolling | Start with ONE habit; use environmental design (remove triggers); track progress without judgment |
| Level 3: Conscious Competence | You're doing healthy behaviors but they require active effort and planning | Walking 10,000 steps daily but must schedule it; meal prepping whole foods but it feels time-consuming | Maintain consistency for 3-4 weeks; create systems and routines; celebrate small wins to build motivation |
| Level 4: Unconscious Competence | Healthy habits are automatic - just part of who you are | Choosing whole foods without thinking; naturally going to bed at a consistent time; moving throughout the day instinctively | Maintain habits; gradually add new ones; help others by sharing what worked for you |
The Goal: Move from Level 2 (where most people get stuck) to Level 4, one habit at a time, over the four-week Good Energy Plan. Focus on cellular energy production and mitochondrial health rather than willpower alone.
The knowledge isn't missing. The execution is.
I see this constantly - someone sitting across from me, exhausted, pre-diabetic, maybe thirty pounds heavier than they want to be, reciting back to me the exact health advice they've heard a hundred times before. They know it. They just can't seem to do it consistently.
The standard medical narrative blames the patient. "Non-compliant." "Unmotivated." "Looking for the easy way out." But this framing ignores something critical: we're living in a system designed to make us sick. Trillions of dollars in incentives push us toward ultra-processed food, sedentary habits, chronic sleep deprivation, and persistent low-grade anxiety. Against that backdrop, eating whole foods and prioritising sleep isn't just healthy - it's an act of rebellion.
The question isn't why people fail at healthy habits. It's why anyone succeeds at all.
The Hierarchy of Competence: Why Knowing Isn't Doing
There's a learning model from the 1960s that explains this gap between knowledge and action. It's called the hierarchy of competence, and it maps four stages of learning any skill:
Level One: Unconscious incompetence. You're doing the unhealthy thing and don't even realise it's a problem. You're eating foods with artificial colours because you've never heard they might be neurotoxic. You're sleeping with the TV on because no one told you blue light suppresses melatonin - the hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles and signals your body it's time to rest.
Level Two: Conscious incompetence. You know what you should do but aren't doing it. This is where most people live. You understand that refined sugar spikes your blood glucose - a measure of sugar in your bloodstream that, when chronically elevated, damages blood vessels and nerves - but you're still drinking two Cokes a day.
Level Three: Conscious competence. You're doing the healthy behaviour but it takes effort. You're walking 10,000 steps daily, but you have to plan for it, think about it, sometimes force yourself.
Level Four: Unconscious competence. The habit is automatic. You don't think about it anymore. It's just how you live.
The goal of any sustainable health plan is to move behaviours from Level Two to Level Four. Not overnight. Not all at once. But progressively, habit by habit, until healthy living stops feeling like a chore and starts feeling like who you are.
Why Most Health Plans Fail (And Why This One Might Not)
The problem with most health interventions is they try to overhaul everything simultaneously. Cut out sugar, start exercising, sleep eight hours, meditate, drink more water, eat more vegetables, stop drinking alcohol - all at once. It's overwhelming. It's unsustainable. And when people inevitably slip, they give up entirely.
The Good Energy approach is different. It's built around a four-week framework that prioritises gradual integration over immediate perfection. The goal isn't to adopt all twenty-five Good Energy habits immediately. It's to build competence, one habit at a time, until they become second nature.
The framework revolves around cellular energy production - specifically, how mitochondria (the tiny powerhouses inside your cells) convert nutrients into ATP, the energy currency your body uses for everything from thinking to healing to moving. When your cells make energy efficiently, you feel good. When they don't - when chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, or nutrient deficiency disrupts the process - you feel terrible. Brain fog. Fatigue. Mood swings. Weight gain. These aren't separate conditions. They're symptoms of the same underlying metabolic dysfunction.
Most chronic diseases - depression, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, even some cancers - share this common root. Poor cellular energy production. The habits that support Good Energy aren't just about feeling better. They're about preventing disease at the cellular level.
The Four-Week Plan: A Gradual Path to Metabolic Health
Week One: Baseline Assessment
You can't improve what you don't measure. Week one is about establishing where you are right now. Take stock. What are you eating? How are you sleeping? Where are your energy levels throughout the day?
Start a food journal. Not to count calories - calorie counting misses the point - but to notice patterns. When do you reach for sugar? What meals leave you energised versus sluggish? Write it down. The act of recording creates awareness, and awareness is the first step toward change.
Define your "why." Not the surface reason ("I want to lose weight") but the deeper motivation. What would better health give you? More time with your kids? The energy to pursue a project you've been putting off? A sense of agency in your own life? Write it down. You'll need it when motivation fades.
Set up an accountability system. Tell someone what you're doing. Join a community. Schedule weekly check-ins. Human beings are social creatures. We're more likely to follow through when we know someone is watching.
Finally, establish your measurement framework. This doesn't mean weighing yourself daily - bodyweight fluctuates too much to be useful short-term. But track something. Energy levels. Mood. Sleep quality. Waist circumference. Pick metrics that matter to you and measure them weekly.
Week Two: The Unholy Trinity
Week two focuses on food. Specifically, eliminating three categories of Bad Energy foods: refined grains, refined sugars, and industrial seed oils.
Refined grains - white bread, white rice, most cereals - are stripped of fibre and nutrients, leaving behind rapidly digested carbohydrates that spike blood glucose. Your pancreas responds by releasing insulin, a hormone that drives glucose into cells. But chronic spikes in insulin promote fat storage, particularly around the abdomen, and over time can lead to insulin resistance - a condition where your cells stop responding properly to insulin, requiring higher and higher levels to achieve the same effect. Insulin resistance is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes and a driver of cardiovascular disease.
Refined sugars - table sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, anything ending in "-ose" on an ingredient label - do the same thing, often worse. Fructose, in particular, is metabolised primarily in the liver, where excessive intake can contribute to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. And unlike glucose, fructose doesn't trigger the same satiety signals, so you can consume vast quantities without feeling full.
Industrial seed oils - canola, soybean, corn, sunflower, safflower oils - are a more recent addition to the human diet, introduced at scale in the mid-20th century. They're high in omega-6 fatty acids, which, when consumed in excess relative to omega-3s (found in fish, flaxseed, walnuts), promote inflammation. Chronic low-grade inflammation is linked to nearly every modern chronic disease.
Eliminating these three categories isn't about restriction. It's about removing the foods that actively interfere with cellular energy production. Once they're gone, you make space for foods that support it: whole vegetables, quality proteins, healthy fats, fibre-rich legumes and whole grains.
This is harder than it sounds. Refined grains, sugars, and seed oils are ubiquitous. They're in nearly every packaged food, every restaurant meal, every "healthy" granola bar and salad dressing. Reading labels becomes essential. Cooking at home becomes non-negotiable.
But the payoff is significant. Most people notice changes within days. Better energy. Clearer thinking. Improved mood. The body responds quickly when you stop poisoning it.
Weeks Three and Four: Building Momentum
By week three, you've eliminated the worst offenders. Now you add. Pick three additional Good Energy habits - any three - and commit to them for the next two weeks.
Maybe it's prioritising sleep. Most adults need seven to nine hours. Not want - need. Sleep is when your body repairs damaged DNA, consolidates memories, clears metabolic waste from the brain, and regulates hormones. Chronic sleep deprivation is independently associated with obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and dementia. It's not optional.
Maybe it's daily movement. Not necessarily formal exercise, though that helps. Just moving your body throughout the day. Walking 10,000 steps. Taking the stairs. Standing while working. The human body wasn't designed for prolonged sitting. Sedentary behaviour is independently associated with metabolic dysfunction, even in people who exercise regularly.
Maybe it's stress management. Chronic stress elevates cortisol - a hormone released by your adrenal glands in response to perceived threats. Short-term cortisol spikes are adaptive. They mobilise energy, sharpen focus, prepare you to respond. But chronic elevation dysregulates metabolism, suppresses immune function, and impairs sleep. Meditation, deep breathing, time in nature - these aren't luxuries. They're physiological necessities.
Or maybe it's eating more fibre. Most people consume half the recommended daily intake (25-30 grams). Fibre feeds your gut microbiome - the trillions of bacteria in your intestines that influence everything from digestion to immune function to mood. A healthy microbiome produces short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, which reduce inflammation and support metabolic health. An unhealthy one doesn't.
The specific habits matter less than the consistency. Pick three. Commit. Track them daily. By the end of week four, you'll have six habits in place: the three baseline food habits from week two, plus three additional habits of your choosing.
Six habits doesn't sound like much. But habits compound. Each one makes the next easier. Each one builds biological resilience - the capacity to handle stress without breaking down. Over time, six habits become ten. Ten become fifteen. Eventually, healthy living stops being something you do and starts being who you are.
The Goal Isn't Perfection
I'm still at Level Two for some habits. Mindful eating - chewing slowly, putting my fork down between bites, actually tasting my food - I know it's important. I know it improves digestion, enhances satiety, and reduces overeating. I still rush through meals.
Heat therapy - sauna use, hot baths, anything that elevates core body temperature - activates heat shock proteins that protect cells from stress and promote longevity. I rarely do it.
Sleep consistency - going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, even weekends - stabilises circadian rhythms and improves sleep quality. I'm working on it. Some weeks I'm solid. Some weeks I'm not.
The point isn't to be perfect. The point is to keep moving up the hierarchy, habit by habit, knowing that each small improvement compounds into something larger.
Because the alternative - accepting dysfunction as normal, outsourcing health to medications that manage symptoms without addressing causes, waiting until disease forces your hand - that's not sustainable either.
The body is resilient. It wants to heal. It wants to make energy efficiently, regulate hormones properly, fight infections, repair damage. Most of the time, it just needs you to stop getting in its way.
Maybe that's the real rebellion. Not trying to optimise every variable or achieve some impossible standard of wellness. Just removing the obstacles and letting your body do what it already knows how to do.
