The “Author” (2% of the population)
Your brain type tends to be a gifted storyteller. You have a way with words, both written and spoken, and you are able to express yourself in unique, eloquent, artistic and interesting ways to others. It’s no wonder that William Shakespeare, Helen Keller, C.S. Lewis, Edgar Allan Poe, and Johnny Depp all share your brain type.
Use this gift to set your goals by telling a story about yourself. Write where you were up to this point, where you are now and where you want to go from here. Write why you want to go there. Write what you will be like when you reach your goals. Next, write this last part as if you are already there. Write it in the present tense as if you have already achieved it and sign and date it at the bottom. Now post it somewhere you will see it daily.
Post an “after” picture with it and stand proud every time you see it. Literally, stop and assume a powerful and proud posture as you quickly visualize being that person and how it feels to have attained your goals. It will only take about five seconds and it might feel awkward or “forced” at first, but do it anyway. It will get easier and your brain will become convinced of it.
For your “after” picture, use a past picture of yourself at a healthy state if you have one. If not, browse through a magazine or search online to find someone with your body type who looks healthy and vibrant.
You are success driven and tend to care what others think of your performance, so sharing your progress will be motivating to you, even if it is with only one or two close, encouraging friends. In fact, you would rather not be too public about your progress and successes, because that feels more like bragging than sharing, so keep it to your inner circle and leave the public progress posts for your more extroverted friends.
You thrive in a calm and flexible environment. You don’t typically do well with distractions because you like to concentrate and even work alone in most instances, so having the kitchen to yourself, without having to engage in an unrelated conversation with someone can help you enjoy cooking more. If someone does want to have a conversation while you are in the kitchen (like an extroverted friend), keep the conversation on the food you are preparing and its benefits. This will be less frustrating for you and can even help reinforce your goals in your subconscious.
Since you tend to process things internally, regular exercise is particularly important for you to release pent-up energy. High-intensity exercise is best for this purpose because it is the most effective for releasing internal pressure. You enjoy quiet, thoughtful conversations with a few friends over loud parties with lots of people, so smaller, more intimate gyms, and exercise areas will suit you better.
You can do quite well training on your own, but if you can find a workout partner or personal trainer you can tolerate (preferably another introverted brain type) and a clean, tidy gym, you will be much more likely to stick with the program.
Exercising regularly keeps you mentally alert which tends to be important to you because of your internal processing of thoughts and emotions. You should be sure to train four to six times a week, even if you can only fit in 5-10 minutes of intense, vigorous activity.
Your brain type is well suited for short, intense workouts anyway, so techniques like interval training and full fatigue strength training would be most effective for you. You may be tempted to want to do longer, less intense sessions, and this might be fine to get you started and the habit formed, but your brain will get bored with this style quickly, so be sure to switch over to the shorter, more intense style as soon as possible.
You are usually interested in books and new ideas, so this program should appeal to you. The possibilities you read about here and the innovative principles will be of special be of interest to you.
It will be helpful to you to give extra concern to what goes into your body. It’s harder for you to sense your body signals, including fullness and true hunger. In fact, when you are upset, you may tend to lose interest in food without the normally accompanying hunger sensations.
On the other hand, you may turn to food for comfort, ignoring the sensations that tell you that you are full. For you, with your reduced sensations to hunger and fullness, it all comes down to what emotion you are feeling. To help yourself figure this out, use the Surfing the Urge technique.
You tend to medicate your brain with food when you find yourself in a mood funk, so staying optimistic and positive will help mitigate the negative results of occasional emotional eating. Since you don’t get as much pleasure from food as other brain types, you don’t tend to overeat, even when you are eating for emotional reasons, so excess weight isn’t usually a problem for your brain type.
If excess weight is a problem for you, then it’s usually because of your decreased ability to sense when you are full. The Conscious Eating Technique will help with this because you will be focusing on your sensations. The opposite of that would be eating when you are distracted, so be sure to turn off the TV, and stop working when you are eating, so all you are doing is eating.
Since you find it easier to see the positive in things than most of the other brain types, you should find it easier than most other brain types to “snap” yourself out of a mood funk with the brain training techniques below.
You can be moody at times and tend to withdraw from people when you are in a funk. If this is not controlled, or you let yourself slip into negative moods too often, others might label you as “troubled.” The most effective way for your brain type to get out of a funk is to practice gratitude. Think about what you are grateful for and how many blessings you have.
Because you have a way with words, you will likely find the Word Swap technique to be both fun and effective. This will get you out of many a funk with your mood.
Like Vincent Van Gogh, you prefer fantasy to reality due to your gifted imagination, so the Visualization technique will also be both fun and effective for you. This technique will also help you achieve your goals faster and with more ease.
You aren’t as concerned with the taste and texture of food, so you don’t tend to chew it as slowly as you should. This will make food harder to digest, so using the Conscious Eating technique will be very helpful to you.
You may need to develop your skills in time management and organization. You may be organized and efficient at work but the other way at home, or vice versa, depending on where you feel that you have the most control. Therefore, you might be able to stick with an eating and exercise program at home, but not at work (or vice versa). Be sure to stay mindful of this and adjust as needed to stick with the program wherever you are, especially while traveling as this could knock you off course.
You are not very well suited to a monotonous system because you value variety. This makes it hard to continue with a set routine for more than a week or two, so while food logging and journaling will be helpful, you may find that you do them in “fits and starts,” instead off consistently over time. This is fine, actually because they will give you useful and relevant information while you are doing them. Then you may quit for a while and start up again and get more useful information from that round, which you can also compare to the last time you were food logging or journaling.
Receiving approval from others – especially for being yourself (and you typically are quite unique) – is very motivating for you. If this approval is coming from a few quality, supportive friends and/or family, you will find it quite motivating. You probably already know who these people are, because you are drawn to their tendency to affirm you, so continue to foster those relationships and be sure to reciprocate affirmations back to them as well.
You might find it hard to ask for help, admit failure, or communicate that you are struggling because of your self-reliant and internal nature. Confiding in someone close to you who you can trust with your feelings will be an enormous help to you and will rewire your brain to make it easier every time you do it, which will help balance your brain type.
Remind yourself that success requires sacrifice in some ways to achieve your goals. Your steps should include tangible numbers, such as how many batches of Fitness Chocolate to make each week and how many ounces of water to drink each day. Remember that focusing on your goals now will allow you more time, health and energy to pursue your dreams in the future.
You tend to daydream often about greener pastures and better possibilities, so be sure to stay committed to this program for the long haul, knowing that the grass isn’t actually greener on the other side. It’s greenest where you water it.
Because of your gift for optimism, you may underestimate the time required to achieve your health and fitness goals. When you have completed setting your goals, cut them in half to make them more attainable. Your brain type is better off overshooting goals than not attaining them.
You may often find yourself living in the future, so use this ability to visualize how your future self will feel, look and what you will be capable of. Write about your future self in the present tense, as if you are already him or her. describe how you feel and what your life is like. Next, sign and date this story at the bottom as a contract and agreement to yourself. Then post it somewhere you will see it daily.
Find a realistic “after” picture of how you want to look. Make this a healthy person, enjoying life, with plenty of vibrant energy and post that somewhere you will see it often. Then every time you walk by that picture, assume a proud, powerful posture, imagining how it feels to be that person and soak it in for a few seconds to drive it into your subconscious.
You have strong values, and for the most part, they are kept to yourself. You appreciate abstract feelings such as love, loyalty, and faith. This will help you stay on track with this program once you have committed to it. These qualities will also help you stay committed to your small support group, so make sure to continue to foster that resource.
You often look for perfection both in yourself and others but rarely find it. You may be one of the hardest brain types to satisfy if you hold onto this expectation. This also makes you your own worst critic, judging yourself and others much too harshly, leaving you vulnerable to a mood funk when you feel like you are failing or falling short.
Remind yourself that you are human, that you have and will make mistakes, and that it is easy to get back on track once you have forgiven yourself. Forgiveness comes easily to you (even though you might not give yourself enough credit to think so) which will make this easier for you. A useful affirmation to recite daily would be, “I forgive myself and anyone else who I feel has failed me or harmed me in any way.”
You may find that you are less tolerant of rules, wanting to do things your own way. It’s not that you are a rebel, it’s more because you prefer to think independently and to come up with your own way to do things. Feel free to exercise this trait with food preparation, allowing yourself creative latitude (within healthy guidelines) when you feel like straying outside certain parameters.
Like Edgar Allan Poe, you can be philosophical and even poetic but not particularly practical. Because you hold most of your feelings inside, you are influenced by them more than logic. Sharing these feelings with a close friend will help you tremendously.
You disdain failing (even more than most other brain types) and are usually too tough on yourself when you do, which makes you prone to feeling guilty when you falter. Be careful of your perception of “failure” too, because since you are so tough on yourself, you might label something as a failure too soon. Because of this, your brain type is most likely to fall off the wagon first among the New Year’s resolution setters.
You are idealistic, so it’s important that you accept imperfections and struggles as part of the process. In fact, focusing on the process over results will make you more resistant to discouragement and will help keep you more engaged. Use progress as your benchmark because if you expect perfection, you will quit at the first sign of failure.
Summary and Recap
Goal setting: Write your goals and post them somewhere you will see them daily. Focus on the future. Post an “After” picture and stand proud every time you see it. Focus on the long-term goal first, but be sure to create shorter-term goals as well, with easily attainable and tangible successes tied to each one.
Best Workout: Personal training or training with a close, supportive friend, in a relatively quiet and private setting. Short, intense workouts, four to six times a week would work best for your brain type.
Motivated by: You prefer to live in the future, so be sure to visualize your future self often, imagining what new possibilities optimal health and fitness will bring.
Supported by: A supportive friend or family member who can experience this journey with you and provide you with objective, frank and honest feedback.
Areas to strengthen: Emotional eating. Hunger and satiety sensations. Cut yourself some slack if you feel self-critical. Forgive yourself if you stumble, and remind yourself that you are human too.
Strengths to use: Your strong sense of love, loyalty, and faith can be used inwardly too! Have faith in yourself, love yourself and stay loyal to your plan.
Brain training techniques: Practicing gratitude, Visualization, Success Journaling, Surfing the Urge, Conscious Eating (part 1 and part 2), Word Swap.