During my years of Clinical Medicine, I realized that patients were consistently experiencing a hard time sticking to the plan. In fact, they knew exactly what they needed to do, yet it became this overloaded mental voice keeping them from doing it.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it is as if the issue was more unmasked and I realized that it was easier to take the medication, receive the emergency help, and hope that whatever the healthcare staff did, gave a fighting chance — a heartbreaking realization for me.

Fast-forward to my story and creating a robust health plan for myself, I realized that it is very hard to knowingly cut things from the diet and the moment the brain experiences these same pleasures again, it falls right into the habit again. This is where the question became even more pronounced, “Why do not act on the things we know we should do?”

The physician has explained it.

The patient understands.

The blood sugar is rising.

Their condition is worsening.

They have been told that continuing a particular behavior could have serious consequences.

They leave the appointment determined: “I am going to change.”

How many times have you said this? How many times have you heard this? How many times has that little voice in your head convinced you otherwise?

The moment the hype is done — the clinician visit — regression seems to take front row. Stress occurs. The week becomes tiring. Cooking seems like a mountain. Loneliness perhaps kicks in. And the mental overload takes over.

These factors in the presence of all the cues that make the decisions easier override change, invite the routines and circumstances that were easier to follow. The question remains obvious nonetheless, “If you know this is hurting you, why would you keep doing it?”

But this is where human conditioning comes in, from which our human behavior takes precedence. Knowing better does not automatically produce doing better. The equation is dynamic, never static.

It remains that knowledge and information alone cannot stimulate change. We require more than that. It is easier to listen to the voice inside.

Maybe the question we should ask instead is, “What keeps winning in the moment when knowledge and behavior collide?”

Know the Moment Before the Behavior

Instead of asking, “why did I do that again,” look at what happens before.

What led to that moment?

CUE → TRIGGER → REWARD

Cue: What happened?

Trigger: What did it lead to?

Reward: What did I gain from it?

In understanding the train of processes that occur within your mind, you begin to understand why certain behaviors override that of others.

If you win all the time, losing may feel too painful. What are you winning all the time with your behaviors, that when change is required, it feels like a massive loss?

The Patient Should Know Better

Oftentimes, one of the most reckless statements we make as clinicians is, “We’ve discussed this three times. You know what you need to do.”

I have been in that trap before because I was desperate for the treatment to work. But we are human beings, conditioned by many factors that cause us to fall off the health grid, and even when we do everything for it, sometimes, health has its own route.

For today and the rest of the week, let’s implement something different

Track it. Manage it. Sustain it.

This is why tracking matters. To give a sense of what is happening within our reach and control that could help us reshape our mindset. This is why I have created The Clinical Adherence System — A Brain Snacks Series. Your health behavior now has somewhere to become visible.

Designed for people living with chronic illness, caregivers, and health-conscious individuals, it transforms health management from an overwhelming task into a structured daily practice.

You do not have the believe the thought that protects the habit.

Generally, before we do anything there is always a sentence that precedes. If you are guilty, that’s okay — the aim is for us to recognize, just as I have as well.

Possible sentences:

Just this once.

I’ll start tomorrow.

I’ve already messed up today.

It is not that serious.

I can’t do this forever.

I’m too tired.

Nothing is going to change anyway.

I’ll die anyway.

What is your specific sentence?

The sentence I usually tell myself immediately before I break my intention is ______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

Place it on the mirror, the fridge, the bedside table or even on your phone screensaver.

Then ask,

Is this really true?

Is what I am thinking really going to happen?

Then let us make a corrective statement,

“I want this right now, but _______________________________________________________________________.”

Tell me how it goes for you.

Catch the Moment Before

Let us study ourselves.

No shame.

No essay.

One line.

Where does change have the best place of succeeding?

“Knowing Better” Is Only the Beginning

There is a painful place between knowing what your health needs and repeatedly struggling to do it.

People feel shame.

Clinicians become frustrated because they cannot save everyone.

Families become impatient.

And there is you, “overwhelmed.”

“Something must be wrong with me,” a statement rehearsed in your head after everything piles up.

But as a human, to you as a human, we all want the best for each other forgetting that we must remember compassion and empathy even while being objective. In our growth, we learned habits that have harmed us, derailed our efforts and dampened our progress.

Today, here is a statement you can ponder on,

“Now that I know better, what can I build differently so that I can live differently, even while maintaining a positive relationship with life?”

And for the families, friends and support team, here is a response that you can begin to think of to ask for help indirectly,

“I understand what I am supposed to do. I am struggling to do it.”

Let us,

Change the question. Change the Story.