The Brain Diet

For the past several days now I have been sputtering about. What seems to be happening is that my brain is not firing on all cylinders. This is probably not noticeable to most people around me and in fact may be viewed by some to be my normal state. I have been known to miss a beat every now and again. But this is something much more noticeable to me. There seems to be an absence of thought.

I really noticed this yesterday when I had a difficult time concentrating on a writing task. Even simple email messages were not written well. I needed to understand what the possible cause could be for such a problem. I needed to find answers, but realized that even answers are hard to come by when I find myself in this state. What I was experiencing was a mental malaise. I observed no other physical signs of trouble. Everything else seemed to be fine and in good working order.

When I experience a problem physically I usually try to think back to the events of the several days prior. A pain in the shoulder perhaps is related to the shoulder workout of two days ago when maybe I pushed too hard. The upset stomach at 2:00 in the morning can be traced back to the bowl of ice cream and Oreo cookies that I could not resist at 9:30. The dryness in my mouth can be quickly traced back to the unopened water bottles on my desk, and the empty third cup of coffee. But this brain drain, now that is something completely different.

After thinking about this for a little while the answer suddenly occurred to me. This was in itself a total surprise given my depleted mental state. Looking back over the weekend and the latter part of last week I had been starving my brain of nutrition. It all started with Friday when I spent the better part of the day lifting boxes and moving tables to set up for a non-profit fund raiser. The physical exhaustion from that activity caused me to just veg out on Friday night eating pizza, and way too much Coke. Then came Saturday, and more toting and bailing for the same fund raiser as we approached crunch time. The food was even worse of Saturday, Wendy’s for lunch, chicken wings and more Coke for dinner. Mentally I did even less. I sat in front of the television watching Pitt lose to Connecticut, and the movie Tomb Raider. I even stayed up late with the boys to play video games.

Sunday was more of the same. There was more basketball, movies, scanning the newspaper and searching on eBay. By Monday morning my brain was totally out of gas. Running on fumes I wrote several email messages, prepared a document for a client, and attended a lunch meeting.

Sometimes we kid ourselves into thinking that we can get by reading the newspaper or an occasional monthly magazine. These are really the intellectual equivalent of a Snickers bar. They are full of sugar and offer no nutritional value. What I need is the good stuff found in books. Exposure to ideas and thoughts is the fuel that really makes the brain work. A unique turn of a phrase, a witty quote, or a profound statement read over and over again and then pondered as I think about its meaning and implication. That for me is soul food.

Our world is so full of seductions that rob the brain of needed nutrition. A comfortable chair in front of the television can be like a dozen Krispy Creme doughnuts. Before you know it they are all gone, and you wonder what made you do that. Books on the other hand excite. They engage the brain in a way that is lasting. Every time I read I learn something new. I enjoy sharing what I learn with others (which are not the case with the doughnuts). I can sometimes devour two in a week and they never make me feel fat. Books produce ideas, they inspire and they encourage.

Walking through downtown Pittsburgh yesterday I realized that there are few people missing meals here. But there were only twelve people in the downtown library. Perhaps we need to miss a meal and feed the brain. I started feeding mine again yesterday and the benefits were immediate. Perhaps you too would like to begin feeding your brain. Why not try out my diet plan that is outlined here: Reading Diet

I fell off of my diet this past weekend, but it feels good now to be back on track. Now I have to finish a book report that I owe to someone.