Dr. Anna Lembke

fat, salt, sugar, and flavorants.

So having non-drugified foods in our home, right?

Wholesome foods, the way that mother nature made them so that when we eat them, we are getting the calories we need and we're not getting this incredible spike of dopamine that we get from ultra processed food, which is what has us continuing to consume it even after we should be satiated or should feel full from it.

So that's a big one.

I really think also when we think about work, and work we typically think of as effortful and hard, but not all work gives us that sense of natural reward or satisfaction at the

end of the day, either because there's too much of it, we pressed too hard on the pain side of the balance, or it's the kind of work that's really been divorced from the meaning of work.

And so we don't really feel the satisfaction of having an impact.

And a

So there's a real risk of getting into this work hard, play hard, which remember, any deviation from homeostasis is biological stress.

We're releasing our adrenaline every time we have to do the work to get back to a level balance.

So when we're pressing hard on the pain side by doing too much work,

It is a natural inclination at the end of the day to want to then use our intoxicants to bring it back to the level position.

So I think being really thoughtful about limiting the amount of work that we're doing, if we're able to, trying to limit the stress related to work, and then being really mindful that at the end of a really hard day,

it's probably not the time to indulge in intoxicants because of course, you know, people are going to indulge, you know, moderation is okay.

You know, it's the spice of life in many instances.

I'm not here saying, you know, never take a drink or never eat a cupcake or, you know, that's not the message at all.

But,

if we've had a really rough day where we've overextended ourselves at work, that would be the day to intentionally avoid these kind of cheap intoxicants because we will not have the ability in that context to moderate our consumption.

And I'll just use myself as an example.

You know, I love my work, but on the end of my busy clinical days, I cannot watch