Today’s guest post comes courtesy of TG.com regular, Justin Kompf.
Ever have a family member or friend give you flak for going out of your way to exercise?
How about for eating healthy?
What about for having pecs that can cut diamonds?[footnote]Oh, that’s just me? My bad. I guess that’s what happens when your dad is Zeus.[/footnote]
In any case, it’s important to understand that when this happens it’s (rarely) because they’re judging you or attempting to make you feel bad on purpose. It’s often a result of other, internal factors on their end.
Great post from Justin today.
Also, I defy anyone to read the word “sabotage” and NOT immediately have the Beastie Boys’ song of the same title reverberate in their head.
In 1686 Sir Isaac Newton introduced his three laws of motion in “Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis.” His third law states that for every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Centuries later, and much less importantly, I was interviewed in a podcast and was asked what to do when attempts to be healthy are sabotaged (i.e. met with cruel remarks) by significant others.
Why, when we try to be healthy do other folks try to stop us?
I’m of the mind that their behaviors are often not malicious. Your desire to change and your behaviors cause an emotional reaction.
Behaviors are just behaviors, reactions and the extent to which someone reacts to your behaviors is a reflection of what that means to them within the context of everything else that is happening in their lives.
Let’s say your partner gets upset with you for something you did. Maybe you put your dishes in the sink and not the dishwasher. Their reaction should be a 1 out of 10 but instead it’s a 5 out of 10.
Note From TG: In the case of my household it would be a sleep on the couch out of 10.
Something else caused the elevated reaction. Perhaps it was the fact that they have asked you to not do this. Maybe they have had a really tough day at work or a fight with a family member. Either way, something else caused the elevated reaction.
So, if you eat a salad and that makes your partner upset, this is because something else is happening on their side of the equation.
Here is my law of social sabotage:
A behavior + it’s meaning to the other person = reaction.
If for whatever reason I keyed someone’s car right in front of them, they should flip out. They should be pissed! They should have an elevated reaction.
Maybe they will yell at me. Maybe they will call the cops or punch me in the face. Their reaction will be based on what it means to them in the context of my bad behavior.
Exercising should mean nothing to someone else. It is a completely neutral behavior. If someone makes snide remarks about you exercising it is because it makes them feel a certain way. Maybe it makes them feel insecure that they are not exercising.
What to do?
Be crystal clear in your conversation with that person. Tell them how their behaviors have an influence on you. Tell them why doing this is important to you and that you would like their support.
Tell them that their reactions to you trying to improve yourself hurt. Importantly, tell them that you would like to listen and hear why they are doing what they are doing.
Then actually do what you said you would do, listen!
Again, it is not your behavior that is the problem if you’re trying to be healthy, it’s how your behavior is making someone else feel.
Want to learn more about how to deal with things that can drain your motivation? Want to learn more about ways to harness motivation? This was an excerpt from Justin’s motivation eBook which you can download HERE.
About the Author
Justin Kompf is doctoral student studying exercise and health sciences. He is a personal trainer in Boston at CLIENTEL3.
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of TG.com fan-favorite, Justin Kompf. And by “fan-favorite” I mean his one fan, his mom.
Just kidding.
Justin’s my good friend, occasional training partner, and has written a ton of content for this site, but it’s been awhile…
…and I was excited to see this article waiting in my inbox this morning. The title of the email was “really, really good blog,” and, begrudgingly (because Justin is the opposite of modest when it comes to E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G), I have to admit, he was right.
Trashing the Word Can’t: It’s Either You Will or You Won’t
Only twice in my life have I deadlifted 600 pounds.
I cannot do that now. There remains a plethora of other feats that I cannot do. I cannot run a five-minute mile. I cannot bench double my body weight and I cannot jump four feet in the air.
However, I certainly can deadlift, I can run, I can bench press, and I can jump.
Saying you cannot do a behavior is like saying you cannot ask out a person you like. You can, but for any number of reasons, you’re just not going to.
In fitness, there are outcome goals and there are process goals. Process goals lead to outcome goals. Deadlifting, the process goal, leads to the 600-pound deadlift, the outcome goal. Reducing calories, the process goal, leads to a lower body fat percentage, the outcome goal. Processes cause outcomes.
Outcome goals are not plausible in the here and now.
You cannot achieve them now because they are in the future, and often far away. Process goals are here and now, and they are plausible.
You can do them today.
For process goals, cannot is often a misused word.
It sets up a false narrative that allows for stagnation. Yes, with 100% confidence you can go to the gym and lift. Yes, with 100% confidence you can eat vegetables. Once cannot and can are used properly and the right words are used instead (“I don’t want to”, “I don’t feel like it”) you can actually move forward to different options or maintain the status quo.
Your choice.
A Clear-Cut Definition of Can and Cannot
Any student who has spent a semester in an introductory psychology class has inevitably heard of the importance of self-efficacy, a person’s confidence in their abilities to execute a task. Confidence in abilities plays a pivotal role in whether a behavior is initiated. For example, even if I wanted to Salsa dance tonight, I couldn’t because I don’t have the skills to do so.
I could dance or move my body in a way that someone may be able to make an educated guess that I am dancing. But it’s not Salsa.
In a 2016 paper, Ryan Rhodes, a researcher out of the University of Victoria, dived into how can and cannot are misinterpreted. Participants were asked to rate their confidence that they could do resistance training two times per week for at least 20 minutes on a graded percent scale where 0% meant cannot do at all and 100% meant definitely can do.
After they recorded their answers can and cannot were properly explained.
Cannot was described in a similar way to my 600-pound deadlift or 5-minute mile example. No matter how hard I try, I would have no confidence that I can run a 5-minute mile. Can was explained similarly to the asking a crush out example.
The capabilities are there, you just aren’t going to do it.
Once can and cannot were properly explained, confidence values for resistance training increased. Nothing really changed though, other than the understanding of the word can. They realized they could do it; that is, they have the capabilities.
Prior to the explanation capabilities were considered the same as motivation. Stated otherwise, they had the capability; they just weren’t motivated.
There we have it, can and cannot.
If you have done resistance training or exercised within the last year even once, you certainly can do it. If you have had a single bite of broccoli you can eat vegetables. While the skill set may not be there to do a back squat or make a ratatouille casserole you certainly can do a leg press and put baby carrots into your mouth. It just might be hard, but entirely doable.
Moving on, it’s best to trash the words “can’t” and “cannot.”
What Can I Do That I Am Willing to Do?
As a disclaimer, there are real “cannots.”
You cannot do a back squat unless you have a gym membership or a squat rack. Nor can you go for a run without running shoes.
Limitations are real but only exclude a small percent of us from exercise and improvement.
“What can I do?” is going to be the first question, immediately followed by “what am I willing to do?”
Goals necessitate a willingness for change. An opportunity-cost will always exist in a change effort. What am I willing to give up to get what I want? Drinking 30 beers a week is counterproductive to a weight loss goal. If you are lifting weights for 90 minutes you cannot simultaneously be watching Netflix on your couch for 90 minutes.
Opportunities have a cost.
If you’re not willing to give on anything, be honest with yourself, it’s a motivation issue not a capability issue. If you’re willing to give on something, then it’s time to design your change menu.
Design Your Change Menu
Your change menu is composed of what you can do AND what you are willing to do. If you don’t know how to do certain exercises it can’t be on your menu.
Your menu would need to say “learn how to do X,Y,X” instead.
If you don’t know how to write your own fitness program you cannot say “write my own fitness program.” It needs to be “hire someone to write my program” or “hire someone to teach me to write a program.”
If you can do it, what are you willing to do? How much time are you willing to dedicate to it? Are you willing to go faster? To lift heavier?
If you can run, what are you willing to do? How far, how fast, how many days?
If you can lift, what are you willing to do? What exercises, how long, how many days?
We often have lofty fitness goals, abstract visions of six pack futures, jaw dropping physiques.
For the most part we are entirely capable of doing the things that would lead us to get there.
We can cut calories.
We can push ourselves to lift heavier, to accumulate greater training volume, to learn new exercises.
We can persist year in and year out.
Match your goals to what you are willing to put on your change menu.
I realize it’s just vernacular, but it’s words that tell us the story we follow. It’s rarely an issue of if you can do it. Arguably, most reasonable fitness goals can be chipped away at with time and persistence. It’s all a matter of picking what you can do right now and choosing goals that match what you are willing to do.
About the Author
Justin Kompf is doctoral student studying exercise and health sciences. He is a personal trainer in Boston at CLIENTEL3.
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of TG.com regular, and my 1-day-per-week training partner[footnote]I have bigger biceps.[/footnote], Justin Kompf.
Listening, I mean really listening, is a learned skill and takes a lot of (purposeful) practice to master. Those who are able to so, however, are often the ones who separate themselves from the masses in the fitness industry.
I take a deep breath before I knock on my advisor’s office door.
“Keep it together Justin, whatever you do don’t cry”
I take a seat in his office and immediately start crying. We don’t need to go into details, but I was in a tough place.
Fine, my girlfriend broke up with me and I had no idea where I was going with my career. Okay, great, sharing feelings, my favorite.
Can we move on?
I’m sitting in his office, which mind you is surrounded by other offices, just balling.
But as I’m talking, I’m starting to feel better.
Why?
Well, here’s what he was doing. Just listening, providing me with enough silence to think thoughts and say them out loud. He asked me open ended questions without giving advice. That was special for me because up until then I don’t recall ever really being heard like that.
Of course, there are friends I could say anything to, but I never really had this kind of experience before. This experience profoundly changed the way I interacted with people and even changed my approach on coaching.
Empathetic Listening
The other day in a lecture I hammered home the importance of forming relationships with the people you coach.
Given enough time in anyone’s life, something stressful (which is not necessarily bad) or crappy is bound to happen with different magnitudes of crappiness.
Sometimes I like to think of God as Donkey Kong from Nintendo just throwing barrels filled with crap (like bad or stressful events not actual poop) at people. It’s not a bad thing, that’s just life and it happens to everyone but it’s nice when you have someone to help you work through it.
Low levels of crappiness might be failing to get a promotion at work whereas high levels of crappiness might mean going through a divorce or a death in the family.
Many of the clients I train I’m close with, especially those close in age to me. I’m sure lots of other trainers are the same. Over time, trust forms and when things that bother them come up, they know I’ll listen.
This isn’t to say that a lift should turn into a therapy session, because it shouldn’t. But imagine how much a client would appreciate it when something came up and you just said:
“Hey, it sounds like you’re going through some tough stuff, let’s grab a coffee after the session”
How to Do This Empathetic Listening Thing
I don’t have set in stone guidelines on how to accomplish this, but I know when I’ve done it the right way and I know when I’ve failed.
I think one of the biggest issues people have in conversations is that they wait for their turn to talk. They have already concluded what they are going to say next even before the person in front of them has finished talking.
Yes Karen[footnote]I don’t actually know any Karen’s, I just thought it would be funny to write. If you’re reading this far Karen, I didn’t really mean it. I’m sure you’re a great listener.[/footnote], you’re guilty of this so pay close attention.
As soon as you’re thinking about what you are going to say next, you’re not fully engaged with the person, so that means you’re not listening.
Side Note: This is also super important for a successful initial consultation with a client if you want to truly understand their goals and why their goals are important.
If you’re going to be a good listener, you need to suspend your thoughts.
Good listeners don’t jump to give advice or relate their experiences to the person in front of them. If you feel like you have something that the person can relate to, try saying:
“You know, everyone’s experience is different, and I don’t want to pretend like we’ve gone through the same thing, but I’ve got a story that I think you might relate to.”
People don’t always talk to get advice back.
They just want to talk because things are tough, and they want to get it off their chest. If they want advice, they’ll probably say “what do you think I should do?”
The last thing that I know for sure is that if you want to be a great listener you need to put your phone down.
All the incredible memes will still be there when your conversation is over.
The Subtle Art of Shutting Up
Listen…
Listening is incredibly important. Yea, sometimes it can be just about as comfortable as being single for the third year in a row at your families Thanksgiving get together.
Right…
But in order to be a good listener, you need to shut up.
Something great happens when a person feels accepted and can speak their mind. You might find out way more about the person you are working with, whether it’s about their goals or about their life, by saying nothing.
Just like lifting, writing, or slipping high brow poop jokes into casual conversations with your highly successful clients, listening is a skill that needs to be practiced.
So, I would encourage all of you to go out their and in the appropriate times, just shut up.
About the Author
Justin Kompf is doctoral student studying exercise and health sciences. He is a personal trainer in Boston at CLIENTEL3.
Being or not being healthy, by and large, is rarely an information problem. Most people know regular physical activity is good for their health, as is not crushing an entire bag of Doritos right before bed.
Why, then, are so many of us struggling with attaining a “healthy” lifestyle?
Simple (but not really): Lack of behavioral interventions.
In today’s guest post strength coach and PhD to be, Justin Kompf, discusses the dilemma.
Four facts keep me thinking on a consistent basis.
The majority of us are overweight or obese
The majority of people who lose weight will gain it back
The majority of us are getting insufficient amounts of exercise; and
The majority of people who start an exercise program will quit within six months
Physical inactivity contributes to 9% of premature deaths.
Maintaining a healthy body weight and exercising regularly are two of four health behaviors (the other two being not drinking your face off and not smoking) that can extend a person’s life by over a decade.[footnote]Note From TG: that and spoonful of Unicorn tears, daily.[/footnote]
Mathematically, the odds of a person doing two behaviors is lower than doing one behavior, and the percent should keep getting smaller as more behaviors are added on.
Still, the number is staggeringly low.
Only 4.8% of us do all of these health behaviors. Stated otherwise, 95.2% of people either have a poor diet, are insufficiently active, drink too much, smoke, or do some combination of the four behaviors.
Why Don’t People Do These Health Behaviors?
I was recently at an interview for a new training job and my interviewee asked me why I train people.
It’s because we sell time. We can give people additional high qualities years on their life so that they can continue doing what they love to do.
The question of why; as in, “why don’t people do these healthy behaviors” sits around in my mind a lot. The question of adherence also hangs out up there.
The environment exerts such a strong influence on us that it makes it challenging to be healthy. I would also say that most people lack an appropriate plan and a strong enough form of behavioral regulation.
Environmental Influence
We live in an ‘obesogenic environment’.
The term “obesogenic environment” refers to an environment that promotes gaining weight and one that is not conducive to weight loss. This environment helps, or contributes to, obesity.
So, quite literally when we try to lose weight or exercise there is a fight against the environment.
Imagine going to work, trying to get a project done but Jim the cubicle invader keeps barging into your office to talk about his weekly Tinder dates. Then, because he thinks it’s funny, he flips your desk too.
That’s what weight loss is like in our environment, keeping focus despite distractions and going back to work despite setbacks.
What to do Then?
Full disclosure, I don’t have all the answers. Everyone is different so a one size fits all answer would be a disservice. All I have is experience and a decent understanding of behavioral research.
So, what to do?
In my opinion, the best thing a person can do no matter what is to simply start.
That being said, as people start, there are things I would encourage them to do in regards to their behavioral regulation.
Whenever someone sets a goal, they have a motive.
For example, “I want to lose 20 pounds” or “I want to gain 10 pounds of muscle” are both motives. They are a person’s WHAT and are a part of a person’s goals.
WHAT’s also have WHY’s.
A person’s WHY is their form of behavioral regulation.
People can be extrinsically motivated or they can be intrinsically motived.
Intrinsic motivationrefers to doing an activity out of sheer enjoyment. But, let’s face it most people won’t always run, lift or eat broccoli for sheer enjoyment.
Within extrinsic motivation are four different categories. They are (see chart above and below) external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and integrated regulation.
Regulation type
Description
Example
External regulation
Achieve an external reward or avoid punishment
Compliance with demands from others
Exercising because of doctor’s orders
Introjected regulation
Avoiding shame, enhancing ego or pride
Exercising to avoid feeling guilty
Identified regulation
Acceptance of the value of the behavior
Exercising because it is important to do so
Integrated regulation
Behavior is congruent with a person’s values and needs
Exercising because the outcome is valuable
Being fit is part of one’s identity
Behavior Change is Like Battle
Recall, the obesogenic environment is programmed to make us fat. In order to overcome it there must be a ‘fight’ against it.
Most behavioral theories discuss a motivational phase and a planning phase.
Motivational phases are the precursor for a planning phase. A person has to have some form of motivation (i.e. not be amotivated) to make a plan.
However, it certainly helps in the planning phase to have a strong form of behavioral regulation (why you are motivated to do a behavior).
Here’s how I think about it; when a person goes to battle they have their own strengths as well as a weapon of choice.
Thor doesn’t go into battle without his hammer (RIP Mjolnir), Luke Skywalker doesn’t leave his light saber at home, and the Punisher (watch this series[footnote]Note From TG: DO IT. It’s LEGIT.[/footnote]) is always packing.
These heroes also have their plan.
The Punisher doesn’t just go in guns blazing, he’s tactical. Luke Skywalker blows up the death star with a good plan (Thanks Rogue One) but gets his hand cut off when he takes on a challenge that is too big for him.
Think of motivational regulation as a person’s strength and think of the plan of attack as the strategy for success.
The more powerful your weapon (or the weaker the adversary), the less necessary a specific plan becomes.
If a person loves weight lifting (intrinsic motivation), they wouldn’t really need instructions to make a specific plan because nothing can stop them. Odds are they would make plans with no help.
In geek language, Superman wouldn’t need a plan to beat a common criminal. His strength is sufficient to just get the job done.
Strength and Plans
Any form of motivational regulation is enough to get a person started. However, there are some forms that are more likely to keep a person going.
If motivational regulation is closer to the extrinsic side, the challenge shouldn’t be made too hard. Barriers are likely to derail people like this.
To me, having external regulation to fight the obesogenic environment would be like Luke Skywalker going to fight Darth Vader with a rubber chicken.
He’s going to need a damn good plan to win, and even then, it’s likely that he will get his other hand chopped off.
Regulation type
Description
Metaphor
External regulation
Achieve an external reward or avoid punishment
Compliance with demands from others
Rubber chicken
Introjected regulation
Avoiding shame, enhancing ego or pride
sling shot
Identified regulation
Acceptance of the value of the behavior
One of those laser guns Chewbacca has
Integrated regulation
Behavior is congruent with a person’s values and needs
The force and a lightsaber
On the other hand, if a person wants to achieve a goal because the behavior is congruent with their life values (i.e. to be a better parent) that’s the same as going into a fight with the full use of the force and a lightsaber.
You still need a plan, but you’re better equipped to win.
Planning Phases
Planning phases dictate specifically when, where and how a behavior is going to occur.
For example, if someone decides that eating more vegetables will be beneficial to their health, they should plan exactly when and where they are going to eat vegetables.
These plans are called implementation intentions. They link situational cues to desired behaviors.
If a person wants to eat more vegetables they might say “when it is my lunch break I will have the bag full of baby carrots I brought to work”
I propose that a stronger motivational foundation when paired with specific planning will contribute to more favorable outcomes.
Motivational foundation
Planning phase
Predicted behavioral outcome
External regulation
Weak
Introjected regulation
Implementation intention formation
Moderate
Identified regulation
Strong
Integrated regulation
Very strong
What to Do?
With a weak foundation (i.e. external or introjected) plans are more necessary but still likely not as effective as if they were based on a strong foundation (i.e. identified or integrated).
There are many reasons why people fail but I consider behavioral regulation to be an especially important one.
Changing motivational foundations is challenging. A weight loss goal is great. However, as people go through the process they should try to find activities that they love doing. For example, they could do the following:
Try a variety of exercises and see which one makes you feel great, ones you love
Set a small goal: (1) do 1 pull up (2) do one perfect push-up (3) run a 5k (4) learn how to master a squat or a deadlift
Learn to make new foods that taste good and are also healthy
Try connecting your goal to a different value. Sure, losing weight will make you look better but it will also make you healthier which means you will have better quality time to do the things you love doing. Try making the link between your goal and life values.
Reference
Ford, E.S., Zhao, G.Z., Tsai, J., Chaoyang, L. (2011). Low-risk lifestyle behaviors and all-cause mortality: Findings from the national health and nutrition examination survey III mortality study. American Journal of Public Health 101(1): 1922-1929.
Author’s Bio
Justin is a PhD student in the exercise and health sciences department at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He is a certified personal trainer and certified strength and conditioning specialist. Justin blogs at Justinmkompf.com.
Today’s guest post from regular contributor, Justin Kompf, discusses a phenomenon everyone deals with on a daily basis: opportunity costs.
For example, the opportunity cost of me posting pictures of my cat in different outfits everyday is that I don’t get invited to public gatherings all too often.[footnote]This and other examples will be coming in my soon-to-be-released memoir Introvert: How to Live Your Life Like a Boss, self-published 2017.[/footnote]
In the health & fitness realm we battle opportunity costs all the time. It drives why we may hit up the pizza buffet rather than make an omelet, or why we’d choose to go exercise over going out drinking with our friends. Opportunity costs very much play a role in our ability to make healthy decisions and differ person to person.
I hope today’s post helps shed some light on a very important and relevant topic.
In college, I had a roommate who would tag along with me to the grocery store. He had this habit of always performing the mental arithmetic to determine how much chicken he could get for the price of any one item.
“Hmm this bacon is $6.00 but I could get 2.5 pounds of chicken for the same price.”
“Well, I like steak but I could get double the amount of chicken for this.”
What my friend didn’t know was that he was demonstrating, nearly perfectly, an economic principle called opportunity cost. The text-book term for opportunity cost is “the unrealized flow of utility from the alternatives a choice displaces” (Frederick, Novemsky, Wang, Dhar, & Nowlis, 2009).
To a money saving 21-year-old, opportunity cost begs the question; is 2 pounds of chicken plus an extra four dollars more valuable than eating steak?
Opportunity-cost dictates that anytime we make a decision between several choices we give up the benefits of the alternative choices.
People do not implicitly think about opportunity-cost when making purchasing decisions (Frederick et al., 2009) and I would argue that they fail to as well with health decisions. Further, most people limit themselves in their decision-making process to usually one of two choices (do this or that, pick this or that).
Identifying the opportunity cost of healthy decisions in a similar way to economic decisions may prove beneficial. In order to do this, one would simply replace a dollar amount with a caloric amount or replace lost time amounts that could be used on activities other than exercise (i.e. family time vs gym time).
Opportunity Cost Application to Health Decisions
It would be useful to identify opportunity cost to help resolve ambivalence in the healthy decision making process. Competing demands often do exist between a person’s desires to be physically active and to be sedentary (Smith & Biddle, 1999).
Similarly, anyone that has attempted to lose weight likely understands the competing demands between the desire to be lean and the desire to eat tempting food.
Taking part in one of these pursuits inherently means foregoing the other (i.e. you cannot be sedentary and exercising at the same time) and therefore not realizing the benefits that each activity provides.
Opportunity-Cost Scenario 1
Take for example, one scenario where an individual has strong beliefs that if they exercise their fitness can improve; thus, reducing the risk for cardiac disease. They also hold a competing belief that if they exercise time will be taken away from their family (Godin, 1993).
Perceived cost: lost health benefits vs lost time with family.
Perceived opportunity: improved health vs more time with family.
Opportunity-Cost Scenario 2
In another example, if a person has the option between a fast food dinner and a home cooked meal they must decide between the hedonic pleasure and convenience of the fast food meal and the health benefits of eating the home cooked meal.
Perceived cost: high calorie foods can lead to weight gain vs loss of pleasure and time.
Perceived opportunity: improved health vs pleasure and more time.
Reframing Choices and Resolving Ambivalence
In scenario 1 it is perceived that time can only be spent exercising OR with family. Pursing one choice will remove the benefits of the other.
Many people examine the decision-making process as the choice between one of two options (Heath & Heath). However, this is rarely ever the instance in any decision.
In the case of the potential exerciser, the opportunity-cost may seem relatively salient (this is likely different in food choice as most people do not naturally consider opportunity cost, Frederick et al., 2009) yet they remain indecisive.
The individual in this situation is likely feeling ambivalent about the decision process. They want to exercise, but at the same time they don’t want to exercise because of the cost.
This person may be falling into a decision-making mistake called the ‘limited search trap’. In scenario one the best solution would be to help this person ‘widen’ their options (Nutt, 2004).
Rather than limit the decision-making process to two options this person should think of other ways they could be active without losing out on family time. Some of these options might include:
Option 1: Exercise with the family by recruiting family members to go for walks after dinner to discuss the day.
Option 2: Exercise for 30 minutes during a lunch break. This time would not be spent with the family anyways so this time is not being taken away from the family.
Option 3: Evaluate how other time is spent. Perhaps this person spends an hour of time before they go to bed watching TV. They can cut their TV time down to 30 minutes and replace the other 30 minutes with 20 minutes of cycling, walking or running and the remaining 10 to shower.
In scenario 2 an individual is faced with the decision of eating a fast food meal or a home cooked dinner. This would be an appropriate scenario to help increase the salience of opportunity-cost to aid the decision-making process.
This person might compare the calories (1,050 vs 550), they might judge what would taste better based on the mood they are in, or they may factor in time constraints. But they don’t see that they could (1) double the healthy meal and still have nearly the same number of calories or (2) save those extra calories for something else such a 300-calorie popcorn during the movies (still 200 calories less).
They were already willing to ‘spend’ 1,050 calories. By utilizing this opportunity-cost strategy they may be able to more readily observe what other foods or ways that they could ‘spend’ their calories on.
Conclusions
If a person is struggling with making the best possible decisions for their health and well-being they may benefit from a thorough examination of the opportunity-cost of their behavior.
In other cases, opportunity-cost may seem explicit, as in the case of the exerciser but only when trapped in limited searching.
For ambivalent individuals who seem to have clear opportunity-cost increasing the number of available options can help in the decision-making process.
About the Author
Justin is a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he is studying health and exercise sciences. Justin writes at www.Justinmkompf.com.
References
Godin G. Theories of reasoned action and planned behavior: usefulness for exercise promotion. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 26(11), 1391-1394, 1994.
Frederick S, Novemsky N, Wang J, Dhar R, Nowlis S. Opportunity cost neglect. Journal of Consumer Research. 36(4): 553-561, 2009.
Nutt PC. Expanding the search for alternatives during strategic decision-making. Academy of Managment Executive 18(4), 13-27.
Smith AR, Biddle SJ. Attitudes and exercise adherence: Test of the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior. Journal of Sports Sciences 17: 269-281, 1999.
Today’s guest post comes from regular contributor, Justin Kompf. It’s a personal story, but a story many of you reading will either appreciate or commiserate with.
If You Want to Improve, You’re Going to Have to Deal With Some Shit
There was once a young man who was enrolled at West Point; he found himself absolutely miserable at the academy. Luckily, at the time his mother was friends with a smart dude. This smart dude happened to be the 16th president of the United States. He wrote the cadet and said:
“Allow me to assure you it is a perfect certainty that you will, very soon, feel better-quite happy- if you only stick to the resolution you have taken to procure a military education. I am older than you, have felt badly myself, and know, what I tell you is true. Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did.
On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life”
I highly doubt Abraham Lincoln would have thought those particular words he wrote to the West Point cadet would have an impact on a young man trying to figure his life out over 100 years later. How could he know that those words were exactly what I needed to hear at the time?
In the Summer of 2016, I was in a predicament; for a while, I had intended to apply to doctoral programs to study health behavior after completing my Master’s degree. But when push came to shove, I got scared. Irrational thoughts flooded my mind.
“My life won’t start until I’m done, and I’ll be 31”
“I’ll be so far behind everyone else”
“What if I find out I don’t want to teach and do research when I’m done?”
A PhD program would involve me devoting four more years of my life to school when all I really wanted to do was get my life going.
So, I panicked.
I found myself exploring different career paths.
I would drive down to a health and fitness center in Ithaca to talk about becoming a dietician. I drove to Syracuse to talk to my Aunt about nursing. I called my cousin in California to talk about her job as a physician’s assistant. I had meetings with Cortland faculty members to get information on how to get into PA school. Then I was calling friends who were physical therapist to talk about their jobs. PT sounded right for me; I started observing a physical therapist in town and began the application process to physical therapy school. These all seemed like safe, high paying jobs, with clear career trajectories.
Every time I thought of a new career path I diverted myself from the fear of four more years of school and an uncertain career future. There was always an instant sensation of relief from that fear.
But then a few things gave me a sense of insight.
Aside from reading sage advice from historical figures I was also exercising my ass off.
One night I was trail running to clear my head. It got dark really quick and rain started to come down, an appropriate metaphor for how I felt at the time. It was hard to see any more than a few feet in front of me. But somewhere towards the end of my run I was hit with some clarity.
None of those career paths I was looking into would give me the voice I wanted to make a positive impact on the world. If I didn’t have my voice and pursued a career I wasn’t passionate about just to be safe, I would be miserable.
And rather than the temporary misery I was feeling now, I knew the misery of not pursuing my passion would be permanent.
Fear is just an emotional construct, something that can’t really hurt you. I knew I couldn’t control that I felt it, but it was my responsibility as to whether or not it controlled my actions.
I knew that if I didn’t adhere to my purpose I would regret it the rest of my life. All those other careers wouldn’t fulfill the passion I had.
Winston Churchill once said “to change is to improve, to perfect is to change often”
What he didn’t say is that change is a scary and uncomfortable process. My modern interpretation of that quote would be:
“If you want to improve, you’re going to have to deal with some shit”
When faced with the decision of what shit sandwich I wanted to eat, I knew I could either (A) take the leap and accept fear and discomfort, or (B) live with regret but have comfort, I chose to accept the fear.
I applied to PhD programs, was accepted, and am heading to the University of Massachusetts Boston in the Summer to their Exercise and Health Sciences Program.
Whether on social media, or in real life, when people announce an accomplishment, others might look on in awe and wonder how they got to where they are now.
Well, more than likely, the answer is that they dealt with some shit.
They worked hard, stepped out of their comfort zone and got comfortable feeling uncomfortable. For me it was an eight-month process of dealing with uncertainty and fear. It was also putting in years of extra work to be a good candidate for a program like this.
In the end I wrote this because, a simple, “hey I’m going back to school” Facebook update didn’t seem justifiable and I think my experience can help people. Taking a leap is scary but I am looking forward to the next chapter in my life.
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of central NY based strength coach, Justin Kompf. Justin’s written several guest posts for this site and I always appreciate his contributions.
Today’s post is one that every coach should read. We may feel some athletes are “dogging” their workouts and get mad, and we may not like every client we work with. That’s okay. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t treat each person with respect and understand that people are often much more than the behaviors they demonstrate on any given day.
In middle school I played the trombone (and if you must know had a bowl cut too). In fact, when asked to describe my young awkward years, I often tell a story of carrying my trombone in one hand and a stack of books in the other only to have those books knocked out of my hands by some nice classmate.
I didn’t like playing this instrument, I had been doing it for a few years and just wasn’t having fun. To express my distaste for the trombone, I would intentionally mess up in practice. Rather than play to the beat I would basically play whatever the hell I felt like.
So why do I tell this story?
From the small screenshot of my behavior you might come to the conclusion that I wasn’t putting in any effort.Maybe you would think I was a bratty little kid who was just trying to be funny. But what if, given the situation I was in, I was actually giving my best effort?
When we look at s small screenshot of behavior we ignore the person as a whole. We might ignore the fact that six months prior I had tried to tell my instructor I was not having fun and would like to quit only to be disregarded. We might ignore that I would rather be playing basketball or that I didn’t enjoy being the person that lugged around a 4-foot instrument through middle school.
When we look at the fact that I felt I was being forced to do something I didn’t want to do and wasn’t having fun doing it, my behavior shouldn’t seem surprising. Maybe I actually was doing the best I could with the situation I was in.
The notion that people are doing their best in all circumstances resembles a psychological concept called unconditional positive regard (which is towards others) and unconditional positive self-regard (which is towards oneself).
I believe that holding a mindset of unconditional positive regard (UPR) is a crucial component to being a great coach.
This is especially true when we are working with people who want to change health related behaviors such as exercise and diet. UPR means holding no conditions on acceptance of an individual, caring for people and recognizing that each person is unique with different backgrounds and experiences. It does not mean you have to like everyone you work with or even approve of their behavior, but it does mean withholding judgment.
To me this mindset means the acceptance of behaviors with the capacity to evaluate and then self-regulate to make healthier or better choices.
It is the belief that once you consider an individual’s circumstances, and realize that their observable behavior does not define them as a person, that people are trying their best. This is a mindset that can be accepted not just towards others but towards oneself.
When you experience UPR towards yourself you are able to, in a non-threatening way, evaluate all of your behaviors and feelings. Negative feelings about behaviors can easily threaten our sense of self-worth and cause us to engage in further negative behaviors to avoid self-evaluation.
Being human, every coach has had negative thoughts about their clients or athletes behaviors. Maybe an athlete is having an off day and you become upset about their effort levels or listening ability. You might think, “Why isn’t this kid busting his ass to be a better athlete?”
You might be training a client who consistently breaks their dietary plans and wonder what is so hard about eating a salad or having a protein shake for breakfast rather than a bowl of cereal. You might wonder why you care more about your client’s health than they care about their own.
If you’ve been coaching long enough you’ve inevitably heard the saying “people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care”.
Often times when you are coaching you will in fact care more about a client or athlete’s well-being than they care about their own. You will have many occasions where the people you are working with will make mistakes. Your job is to evaluate how you can help without judging these behaviors.
It is your responsibility to look at the people you work with as more than just a set of behaviors.
When an athlete or client fails to give what you perceive to be 100% effort, rather than assuming that they are lazy imagine what could have happened to them that day. Maybe they had two tests, maybe a family member is ill, or they are having relationship problems.
It is your job to listen and show that you place no conditions on how you care about them as a person. Their performance in the gym or adherence to health behaviors should not affect how much you care.
‘Unconditionality,’ then, means that I[you] keep on valuing the deeper core of the person, what (s)he basically is and can become.
Once this sense of UPR is established you can help the person you are coaching work towards healthier behaviors in the face of whatever other struggles they are currently dealing with.
Summary
Accepting this mindset is conscious work and also unlikely to be maintainable every second of the day.
I’ve found working towards owning this mindset makes coaching and teaching more enjoyable.
Every day I work with people that seem to be lacking effort. I have athletes that could work harder, I have students that could listen better and I, like all humans, engage in behaviors that are in conflict with how I see the best version of myself to be. This is human nature, every single person, acts in ways that are in conflict with how their ideal self would operate.
But every person can also work towards pursing their own unique steps towards self-growth. Adopting this accepting and unconditional positive mindset can be helpful in evaluating and changing health related behaviors.
Author’s Bio
Justin is the head strength coach at SUNY Cortland. He is also a lecturer in the kinesiology department at the university. Cortland hosts a health and wellness conference each year, this year on April 8th. Speakers will include Tony Gentilcore, Dr. Lisa Lewis, Brian St. Pierre, David Just and Mark Fisher. For more information go HERE.
Note From TG: The conference linked to above is $60 to attend. That’s a steal considering the quality of presenters coming in and the information that will be shared. Students: you can’t use the excuse of “that’s too expensive” because I know full-well you’re spending that much (if not more) drinking on the weekends. Fitness Pros: this is Cortland, NY, in April, for $60. Shut up and get your butt there…;o)
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of SUNY Cortland head strength coach and lecturer, Justin Kompf. And speaking of SUNY Cortland, the annual Health and Wellness Conference is this April 8th featuring myself, Dr. Lisa Lewis, Brian St. Pierre, Mark Fisher, and Dr. David Just. For more information go HERE.
It is the easiest thing in the world to sit down after work, turn on the television and eat whatever food is most convenient.
This convenience is inherently pleasurable; for most people, alternative behaviors such as exercise and cooking for 30 minutes are not. There is no immediate reward to experience from this type of behavior.
In fact, the exercise session may actually elicit what is perceived to be painful bodily experiences, especially when compared to sitting on the couch. The chicken and broccoli meal certainly isn’t going to excite your taste buds in the same way that burger, fries, and milkshake would. Thus, there is potential for painful experiences such as bodily discomfort and future soreness when a person exercises and they are also giving up the pleasure associated with unhealthy food.
Change Is Difficult
Due to the general difficulty of change, lifestyle modification to adopt healthier behaviors will certainly result in struggling with some intrinsically negative emotions. Struggling to suppress or avoid thoughts such as “I won’t eat the cookie” or “I won’t sit on the couch and watch television after work” might actually make these thoughts more accessible in the mind and ironically more likely to occur. Additionally, if you are trying to eat healthier and exercise more and happen to have a normal human mind, you will inevitably have negative self-thoughts.
“No matter how hard I work, I will never look like her”
“Exercising every day is challenging with my schedule, is it even worth it?”
“I can’t do it”
“I can’t change”
“I’ve failed at this before, why should now be any different?”
“Acceptance means opening up and making room for painful feelings, sensations, urges, and emotions. We drop the struggle with them, give them some breathing space, and allow them to be as they are. Instead of fighting them, resisting them, running from them, or getting overwhelmed by them, we open up to them and let them be. (Note: This doesn’t mean liking them or wanting them. It simply means making room for them!)”
When these negative thoughts appear in your head ask yourself the question, “Can I work with these thoughts?”. It is not a question of whether these thoughts are true or false since this is all a matter of perspective.
For example, “I didn’t lose weight this week, I’m a failure”. Whether or not your truly are a “failure” is irrelevant. What is relevant is how this thought will guide your behavior. If you let the thought of being a failure guide your behavior will it enable you to reach your goals and help you become the kind of person you want to be?
Acceptance and commitment based strategies may be useful in promoting physical activity. Pilot research on the topic demonstrated that after an acceptance and commitment based intervention college aged women visited the school athletic center to exercise significantly more than those in an education only condition (Butryn, et al., 2011).
Further, after a 10-week study designed to promote increased walking in sedentary individuals, Martin and colleagues found that when participants were taught skills to enable the acceptance of negative feelings and unpleasant sensations that come with physical activity there was a significant increase in cardiorespiratory fitness, estimated VO2max, and a decreased avoidance of the negative internal experiences related to physical activity (no control group for comparison).
One weight loss study showed that after a 12-week acceptance based intervention participants lost 6.6% of their body weight. More impressively, at a six month follow up participants had continued to lose weight (9.6% of body weight) (Forman, 2009).
Two of the most practical tips to practice acceptance and commitment are to identify higher order values and to examine if thoughts are workable.
Let behaviors be guided by values rather than ruminating on negative thoughts
Acceptance and commitment therapy is based on the understanding that people will only continue to engage in behaviors that bring about distressing internal experiences only if these experiences are occurring at the service of some higher order life goal or value.
In their 2009 Pilot study Forman and his colleagues had participants list out the top 10 reasons why they wanted to lose weight. They were then taught to recognize the connection between the values they listed and their eating and physical activity behavior (Forman, 2009). Once higher order values are identified, meaning is now attributed to daily behaviors that once lacked importance.
I believe that this connection between behaviors and values is best exemplified by Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver:
“Pitching…determines what I eat, when I go to bed, what I do when I’m awake. It determines how I spend my life when I’m not pitching. If it means I have to come to Florida and can’t get tanned because I might get a burn that would keep me from throwing a few days, then I never go shirtless in the sun… If it means I have to remind myself not to pet dogs with my left hand or throw logs on the fire with my left hand, then I do that, too. If it means in the winter I eat cottage cheese instead of chocolate chip cookies in order to keep my weight down, then I eat cottage cheese.” (Duckworth)
A value system establishes that low order daily behaviors are in service of higher order long term goals. If you need more help finding strong values to strengthen your resolve for daily behaviors try asking yourself why each stated goal is important to you. For example:
Goal level 1: I want to start exercising more consistently. Why?
Goal level 2: Because I want to improve my health. Why?
Goal level 3: Because I have seen unhealthy relatives lose their independence with age and I want to be able to do all the activities I love for a long time.
Exercising consistently is thus linked to being able to maintain one’s independence throughout a lifetime.
Ask if your thoughts are workable
Whenever a negative thought or feeling comes into consciousness ask yourself if this thought is workable. Specifically, you can ask yourself the following:
“If you let this thought guide your behavior, will that help you create a richer, fuller, and more meaningful life? If you hold on to this thought tightly, does it help you to be the person you want to be and do the things you want to do?”
If this thought is not workable, try practicing an acceptance based skill called defusion. Defusion is the process of observing thoughts and feelings from a ‘distance’ without acting on them or trying to change them. Thoughts and feelings do not need to be believed, acted on, or even suppressed. A negative emotion is not something that will be solved analytically or with scrutiny.
For example, if you are hungry because you are trying to lose weight, that hunger is an inherently negative feeling. However, this negative feeling does not necessitate harmful action such as binge eating. You also do not need to pretend as if this feeling is not currently with you, accept that it is there and recognize that you are in control of how this feeling guides behavior.
Who can use acceptance and commitment strategies in their practice?
It is important to not overstep the boundaries of professional practice. I believe it would be important to consider acceptance and commitment as a paradigm shift in a person’s thinking process. In his book, Russ Harris states that:
“I hope to make ACT accessible to the broadest possible range of professionals- from coaches, counselors, and mental health nurses, to social workers, psychologist, psychiatrist, and all health professionals”
I would recommend that anyone who is trying to change their lifestyle start with working on identifying higher order goals and linking them to their daily behavior. Furthermore, attempt to practice defusion skills if negative thoughts or emotions well up as a result of lifestyle change. Ask if these thoughts are workable for long term goals. If they aren’t, recognize that they do not need to be accepted as truth and do not need to be acted on.
Author’s Bio
Justin is the head strength coach at SUNY Cortland. He is also a lecturer in the kinesiology department at the university. Cortland hosts a health and wellness conference each year, this year on April 8th. Speakers will include Tony Gentilcore, Dr. Lisa Lewis, Brian St. Pierre, David Just and Mark Fisher. For more information go HERE.
Note From TG: The conference linked to above is $60 to attend. That’s a steal considering the quality of presenters coming in and the information that will be shared. Students: you can’t use the excuse of “that’s too expensive” because I know full-well you’re spending that much (if not more) drinking on the weekends. Fitness Pros: this is Cortland, NY, in April, for $60. Shut up and get your butt there…;o)
References
Butryn, M.L., Forman, E.M., Hoffman, K.L., Shaw, J.A., & Juarascio, A.S. (2011). A pilot study of acceptance and commitment therapy for promotion of physical activity. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 8(4), 516-522.
Duckworth, A. Grit: The power of passion and perseverance.
Forman, E.M., Butryn, M.L., Hoffman, K.L., Herbert, J.D. (2009). An open trial of an acceptance-based behavioral intervention for weight loss. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 16, 223-235.
Harris, R. ACT made simple: An easy-to-read primer on acceptance and commitment therapy.
Martin E.C., Galloway-Williams, N., Cox, M.G., & Winett, R.A. (2015). Pilot testing of a mindfulness- and acceptance- based intervention for increasing cardiorespiratory fitness in sedentary adults: A feasibility study. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 4(4), 237-245.
A few things to hit up before we dive into this week’s list:
1) Somercore/Gentilset Last Hurrah of 2016
A quick reminder that Dean Somerset and I will be hosting our last LIVE event of 2016 together next month in Minneapolis, MN (the weekend of October 15th).
The stellar folks at Movement Minneapolis were kind enough to offer their four walls to host our Complete Shoulder & Hip Workshop. You can check out all the details along with sign-up information HERE.
The early bird rate (save yourself $100) is currently in place and will end this week.
Also, speaking of the workshop, Dean and I filmed it last Spring over in Norway and are planning on releasing it as an 11+ hour digital product titled the Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint in the next coming weeks. Catchy title, right?1
2) COREssentials
I’m going to be starting a new 6-week “beginner course” at CORE starting Monday, October 3rd called COREssentials.[footnote]I was going to go with “Pick stuff up and put them down, repeat, forever,” but that would have been a bit overkill.[/footnote]
The idea is to champion FOUR things:
1. Building Autonomy
2. Building Accountability
3. Building Competency
4. Building Community
5. BONUS: Building Biceps, Glutes, (or whatever)
Okay, that’s five things…but hopefully you get the idea. The program is going to focus on beginner and intermediate level lifters who may either be lost in their training – just kind of haphazardly piecing together workouts with no rhyme or reason – or maybe intimidated altogether, and the goal is to build all of the above and focus and purpose with training.
The Deets
START DATE: Monday, October 3rd, 2016.
1. Groups will meet 2x per week at CORE (250 Cypress St, Brookline, MA) in predetermined AM and PM time slots.
2. Sessions will be 60-75 minutes in length where the coaches (myself, along with Jarrod Dyke, CSCS) will stress the basics – teaching participants various bodyweight, kettlebell, and (sometimes) barbell based movements designed to set the stage for continued success and growth (you know, that autonomy thing mentioned above).
3. There will also be a nutrition/mindset component as well. Shannon Wheel, a Boston-based Registered Dietitian, will be holding several sessions throughout the course of 6-weeks covering nutrition as well as helping participants develop behavioral-based habits to compliment the training.
Too, my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, a behavioral and exercise psychologist, will be offering a mindset component designed to augment the process. She’ll tackle what goes on in our heads, and how to best curtail the roadblocks and negative self-talk that often hampers progress.
4. Weekly “homework/reading” assignments will be part of the process, along with email correspondence from the coaches to help keep participants on task.
5. There will also be a lot of EDM and 90’s hip-hop played (if I’m coaching anyways), and the likelihood of spontaneous dance or rap battles breaking out will be very high.
If you’d like more information for you or someone who may know in Boston who may be a good candidate for this program please use the “Contact” function HERE.
And now lets get to this week’s list of stuff to read:
Loved this post by Artemis. She gets very personal, and tells her story of what strength means to her and how she’s had several paradigm shifts at different stages of her life.
I feel like her picture needs to be next to the word “badass” in Wikipedia.
If the length of the title didn’t give it away, this is a doozy. I suggest grabbing a cup (or two) of coffee and get comfortable. This will rock your world.
Everyone has ran into a situation where they have had great intentions to eat healthy but somehow find themselves mindlessly reaching for a bag of chips or ice cream rather than the fruit or vegetables they had planned on eating.
By the time they realize what they are doing half the bag or carton is already gone!
Most people tend to underestimate how many food-related decisions they make every day.
That is to say: most of the food decisions we make happen automatically or without conscious intention(4). Behavior that occurs without conscious intention is descriptive of habit. The two important components of habit are repetition; the behaviors occur often, and context; the behavior occurs in the same environment.
Many people battle between their bad habits and their good intentions.
If the context or environment in which behaviors occur is not changed it is likely that bad habits will win out over good intentions more times than you would like.
Note From TG: Reminds me of the concept of the Elephant, Driver, and the Path[footnote]Think of the elephant as your “emotional” brain (I want it and I WANT IT NOW!!!!!!), the driver as your rational brain (no, it’s probably not a good idea to dominate that cheese lover’s pizza right now), and the path, is well, the path.
All freaking day your rational brain (driver) is trying to steer the elephant (emotional) down a certain path.
Think of it this way. Many of you reading right now are probably trying to shed a few pounds of fat, and in an effort to do so, you brought a kick-ass salad to work with you today. Hell, you even omitted the croutons.
You’re making an effort to eat healthier, and that should be commended. Good for you.
Thing is, how many billboards or signs did you pass today telling you to buy the latest snack food? Moreover, how many times has one of your colleagues brought in a baked good (Oreo mudpie!!!!!!) to share because it’s someone’s b-day or because it’s Wednesday?
And, throwing more salt on the wound, by the time you’re on your way home (after a 13 hour day no less), you’ve been fighting off the elephant for so long, that the idea of going home to grill a chicken breast sounds about as enticing as sandpaper.
You can’t fight will power forever, and the elephant inevitably wins. You violently turn your steering wheel to the right and switch lanes – Jason Bourne style – into the Burger King drive-thru.
Sound vaguely familiar?
They key, then, to fixing these horrendous default patters (hitting the fast food joint instead of cooking a homemade meal) is to give your clients another default pattern that will help them become successful.
As an example. Maybe instead of crushing Bacon Double Whoppers, you could encourage them to go to a “healthier” fast good alternative. Say, Chipolte Mexican Grill!
At least there they can order a meat salad with a heaping scoop of guacamole, which is a far cry from the heart attack they’re ordering elsewhere. Annnnnd one![/footnote]alluded to in Dan and Chip Heath’s awesome book, Switch: How to Change, When Change Is Hard.
There are many environmental contributions to behavior. However, for the purposes of this article the environment will constitute the where and how behaviors occur.
In a research study Neal and colleagues found that interrupting habits is as easy as switching the hand you eat with.
They found that individuals who scored high for habitually eating popcorn during a movie ate relatively the same regardless of if the popcorn was fresh or seven days old!
That is, they ate without thinking.
However, when high habit popcorn eaters were asked to eat with their non-dominant hand they ate considerably less when the popcorn was stale.
Participants ate slightly more than 40% of their bucket when they ate stale popcorn with their dominant hand whereas they ate slightly more than 20% of their stale popcorn when they switched to their dominant hand (1).
This small environmental disruption apparently brought behavior under intentional control and allowed high habit participants to follow their goals (to not eat a lot of popcorn that tasted like Styrofoam!).
Disrupting automatic eating may be as easy as moving unhealthy food out of sight[footnote]Moving a candy dish away from arms reach significantly decreases consumption[/footnote] (2) or changing the sequence of events that leads to automatic eating.
For example, picture that every day you come home from work and enter your home through the kitchen door.
Note From TG:Or, if you’re me, parachuting from an Apache helicopter onto the roof of the apartment complex. Same difference.
From there you open the fridge and stare at the leftover pizza slices from last night. A few minutes later you’re still standing in front of the fridge and are working on your third piece!
In this case the series of events as well as the location of the food could have been changed to help disrupt mindless eating[footnote]The book Mindless Eating provides a variety of great examples on why we eat more than we intend to.[/footnote](3). This individual could have done the following:
Walk through the front door rather than the kitchen door to avoid temptation.
Put the pizza in a less noticeable place such as the bottom shelf. Place healthy food at eye level so it is a more noticeable snack than the pizza.
Rather than eat food in front of the fridge put one piece on a plate and bring it to the dinner table.
It is easy to imagine how these concepts could apply to different scenarios.
For example, you may drive home from work past a series of fast food restaurants. It has been a long day and you’re hungry now. Rather than mustering up the willpower to say no to four different restaurants find an alternative route home.
If you find yourself engaging in an unhealthy behavior think about the series of events that led up to the behavior.
Note:HERE’s some further reading on how to go about changing behaviors.
From there think of ways to interrupt this sequence of events or make the behavior more difficult to do. The environment is an important and overlooked contributor to habit. By modifying it you may be able to bring your actions under voluntary control and perform the healthy behaviors you would like to do!
Author’s Note
This article covered one important part of how personal trainers can help clients make healthier decisions. I believe that this information is just one important aspect of how trainers can provide better services for their clients.
Because of this passion I have put together a full day conference where great coaches and researchers will share their knowledge to help trainers provide a better service.
These speakers include Tony Gentilcore, Mark Fisher, Dr. Cassandra Forsythe, Dr. Spencer Nadolsky, and John Brand. The conference is Saturday April 2nd at SUNY Cortland. For more information you can go HERE.
CEUs will be available and the cost is only $20 for students and $60 for professionals.
Also, I totally don’t have bigger biceps than Tony.
References
Neal DT, Wood W, Labrecque JS, and Lally, P. How do habits guide behavior? Perceived and actual triggers of habits in daily life. J Exp Soc Psychol 48:492–98, 2011.
Wansink B, Painter JE, and Lee YK. (2006) The office candy dish: Proximity’s influence on estimated and actual consumption. Int J Obesity 30: 871-875.
Wansink, Brian.Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Bantam Books, 2006.
Wansink B. and Sobal J. Mindless eating: The 200 daily food decisions we overlook. Environ Behav 39(1): 106-123, 2007.
Justin Kompf is doctoral student studying exercise and health sciences. He is a personal trainer in Boston at CLIENTEL3.
