Beginner's Fitness Programs

Archive for the ‘Fitness Motivation’ Category

Many self-motivational courses recommend writing down your goals (including this site: see Motivation,) and looking at the goals several times a day every day so that the goals are clearly imprinted in your mind, and it will be a part of you. Although I still recommend doing this type of exercises, a recent study done at the University of Waterloo showed a different approach which looks very promising.

In this study, overweight female students were recruited and presented with a list of important values such as creativity, friendship, fairness, etc., and asked to rank them. After that exercise, half of the group was asked to write down the reason why they chose a particular trait as the most important value, and the other half was asked to write down the reason why they ranked a certain value at the bottom.

These students were weighed four months later and the researchers found that the first group lost, on average, 3.4 lb, but the second group gained 2.8lbs! An amazing thing is that the researcher did not ask the participants to do any specific task after the first meeting.

They explained that this is due to the “self-integrity” tendency in humans. If the person knows what the most important value in her life is, she cannot do anything to “spoil” the integrity. Keeping that integrity also makes her feel good about herself. One of most important factors is feeling good about ourselves in any goal achievement, and it seems that writing down the most important value in our lives can give us that effect.

All of us can use this fact to achieve our healthy goals (or any other goals.) Here are some suggestions.
Think about what are the top 5 most important values in your life. Don’t think too much. Write down what you come up in your mind quickly. You can change it later if you like.

Start from the top of the list; write down why it is so important for your life. Spend 10 – 15 minutes to do that. That is the end of the first day’s exercise. The next day, write the reason about why you chose the second most important value. On the third day you do the same with the third item on the list, and so on. Then, on the sixth and seventh days, you want to write down the goals you want to achieve and why you must achieve the goals (you should have this done before if you followed the exercise described in Motivation.)

Then repeat the exercise from the top of the list on the 8th day. You can just write the same thing, but without looking at what you wrote before. You may use exactly the same sentences, or slight variations. Or, you may come up with totally different answers. You may even come up with different values when ranking them or a whole new value comes into the list. That is great. By writing about the value, you are finding more about yourself and you are expressing yourself better every time you write about the values.

It may take a few weeks until this will be a part of your daily ritual; so put some effort into doing that so that you don’t forget (or drop it). Probably it is nice to do it the first thing in the morning or the last thing before going to bed.

This will, not only improve your health, but also improve every aspect of your life. Try it. After a while, you won’t stop doing it.

Sources:
The Role of the Self in Physical Health: Testing the Effect of a Values-Affirmation Intervention on Weight Loss. Psychological Science, 2011

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We all have good intentions when we decide to undertake something new. We know that our health is important and that we need to take care of ourselves. We visualize looking good in a swimsuit at the beach if we lose 20 pounds. We sign up for a weight-loss program, study diets, and even join a gym. It was great for the first week, but then we start feeling hungry, our motivation weakens, and by the third week we are back at the beginning.

What went wrong? We had a good plan, a support system, and a great motivational target, but our effort failed. Welcome to the club! Sure, there are people who can set a plan with a clear final goal and don’t need anything else to achieve whatever they want, but most of us are not that way (and that is why we gain a bit of extra fat around our bellies).

According to the famous motivational coach Tony Robbins, we need to employ two emotions to achieve our goals: pain and pleasure. Our life is constructed on these two emotions. We do what feels pleasurable and avoid anything we feel as painful. For most of us, eating chocolate is pleasure, and going hungry is pain. That is why dieting is a very hard thing to do.

Between these two emotions, which is stronger? (You can probably guess.) Pain is a stronger emotion. If a given situation will give pleasure in the end, but the process is painful, most of us will avoid the situation. For example, you can make $30 per hour with easy work, but every few days, someone tries to steal $10 out of your pocket. You need to spend 10-15 minutes per hour to prevent that from happening. What do most people do? They spend 10-15 minutes every hour watching instead of working that time to make more money. Rationally speaking, if you ignore the thief and just work, you make far more money than by preventing the loss, but losing money is so painful, most of us cannot follow rational thinking. This usage of negative motivation was recently backed up by a study done at the University of Pennsylvania. They did a study on cardiovascular patients, and found that negative motivations work better than positive ones. (Tony Robbins knew this 30 years ago!)

If you can utilize these fears, plus positive feelings about your goal, you can easily achieve the goal you set. Since most of us already know how to create positive motivations, I will give you some tips on how to create negative ones.

First of all, you need to find an immediate and painful consequence you will suffer if you don’t achieve the goal you set. For example, if you set a goal to lose 20 pounds in 6 months, what bad thing will happen to you in the next week? (Most of us cannot see six months ahead, and it is very difficult to visualize the day. That is why you need to measure success in a week or less.) One way to create pain is to announce your plan to the world. For example, you may want to post your decision on your Facebook page and tell your friends to remind you if you get lazy and put off working toward your goal. You need to post progress reports every week so that everyone can see where you are. If you don’t make regular progress, you will feel guilt and shame. Visualize your friends’ disappointment about you (or see some of your acquaintances looking down on you). How do you feel?

Another way to create this “push” is to post warning signs all over the place. According to a University of Alberta study, a warning label on a food package is much more effective than, for example, an extra cigarette tax or a “fat” tax (which some states are considering adding to unhealthy “food”). Post a big warning sign on your refrigerator saying “Every extra pound will cut your life span by 3 years”, or set your computer so that every time you start it, it tells you “WARNING: without losing 20 pounds, you cannot fit into your swimsuit!!!”. The warnings must be changed regularly since we get used to specific input and our brains start ignoring it even if our eyes see it clearly.

Another popular way to push is to set a penalty. When you start your program, set a penalty for not following the plan. Make sure that you do NOT set the penalty for not achieving the goal. These are two totally different things. Even if you follow the plan you made, you may not achieve your desired result, because circumstances may change or you did not plan well. It is not your fault and you should not punish yourself. If that happens, you modify your plan, and keep going. However, if you stop following your plan, it is time to give yourself the penalty. Of course, if you don’t tell anyone about it, it is less effective, since you may ignore the penalty thinking that this was a special case and won’t happen again (but it most likely will happen again). The penalty must be really painful to be effective. For example, if you want to make it meaningful, tell the world that you will donate all your cherished collectable dolls to a charity organization if you drop out of your plan for two consecutive weeks. (Make sure, that you give yourself a chance or two before giving yourself a severe penalty.) I bet you won’t miss a day of working out!

Related to this topic, one study said that if you see overweight people eating food, most people, regardless of their personal weight, tend to overeat unless they consciously remind themselves not to. Since more than 60% of the population in the US is overweight or obese, it is probably very difficult not to see overweight people eating. It may be a good idea to carry around a picture of you after losing 20 pounds (or whatever your ideal weight is). This can be done very easily by using photoshop or any computer-drawing programs. If you are not a computer wizard, you can find someone to do that for you for less than $5. (Many services are offered from India or the Philippines). It will give you great positive motivation for sure!

Sources:
Cardiovascular patients’ perspectives on guilt as a motivational tool University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (2011, April)
Heterogeneous Consumer Responses to Snack Food Taxes and Warning Labels. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 2011; 45

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We are all influenced by others. Our parents, teachers, friends, heroines, and other role models probably affect much of the way we live. Some are good and some are not so good. If we want to improve ourselves, we need to choose what is good for us, and follow whatever is truly right for us.

For most of us, this is not easy. For example, a recent study done at the University of California Davis shows more and more women, at least in the Western World, think that they need to have the feminine attractiveness and, at the same time, aggressiveness of Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider. This image imposed by movies and stories was of course, created by and for mostly males, but because men are attracted by these “super” women, many women’s perceptions are also influenced.

To some extent this is good, since it can inspire women to be more physically active which benefits their health, but it also can create impossible goals to achieve which results in feelings of self-doubt and powerlessness.

Another study done at Ohio State University also indicates a similar trend. According to the study, women’s appreciation of their bodies is only indirectly influenced by measurable quantities, such as body weight and body mass index (BMI), but strongly influenced by how she believes other people perceive her body. For example, even if you are in the optimal range of BMI, if you notice your boyfriend paying attention to photos of supermodels, you might feel overweight. Yes, we know we should not compare ourselves to others, but it can be challenging.

However, the Ohio State University study also indicates that once women start appreciating their own bodies, they are more likely to eat intuitively responding to physical feelings of hunger and fullness rather than emotional needs or just because there is food available.

So how do you get to that stage? The first step is to pay attention to how your body functions and how you feel about it. For example, when you eat, pay attention to how your body reacts to that food. What happens if you look at the food? How does the body react when you smell it and taste it? How does the stomach feel after eating the food? How do you feel 30 minutes after the meal? Most people in the modern world are ignoring their body signals because of the high demands of our daily lives, and cannot feel what their body really wants. You need to retrain yourself to perceive the weakened signals sent from the body.

Second, find something about which you can be proud of yourself. Even if it is a very small thing such as organizing a to-do list, kindness toward others, or clean fingernails, it must be a part of your body, your personality, or your skills which semi-permanently belongs to you and that no one, except you, can take away.

Then accept your body as it is regardless of what others think. Every time you feel that you are judged negatively by others, go back to step two and find more reasons that you are proud of yourself. Eventually, you can ignore the feeling of being judged negatively by others, and can accept your body as it is.

Once you reach this stage, you can now respect your body, and start taking care of its real needs. This makes it much easier for you to start working out, or to choose healthier food over junk food. Since you are not forcing “workout” or “diet” on your body, it will be a lifestyle change instead of a 6-week battle of starvation.

In short, respecting yourself, your emotions, your soul, and your body is the most important step to improving your body, and your life itself. Enjoy your life every minute!

Sources:
Watching Aggressive, Attractive, Female Protagonists Shapes Gender Roles for Women Among Male and Female Undergraduate Viewers. Sex Roles, 2011
The acceptance model of intuitive eating: A comparison of women in emerging adulthood, early adulthood, and middle adulthood.. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2011

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I know it is hard to maintain a healthy diet. I wish I had more willpower, but since I don’t, I will eat another slice of cheesecake…

How long can willpower keep you going? Most people think that willpower is a limited resource; if you use it up, the only way to restore it is to physically rest (which takes you away from whatever you were doing). According to researchers at Stanford University, it is all in your head. They gave a task to two groups of students. One group was lectured that willpower is a limited resource, and the other was lectured that willpower is something you can control. For a given difficult task, the latter did far better than the former. This means that everyone can have an unlimited amount of willpower, but how?

One way to utilize this idea is with “self-deception”. (Although self-deception could lead to total distortion of reality), used wisely, it is a great help to keep you motivated and strong, according to a recently-published study. For example, even if you are not good at running, if you believe you are a good runner, you can motivate yourself to keep running and eventually be that good runner. How do you deceive yourself into believing? It is actually not difficult. Our body and mind are very closely connected. That is why willpower can bring amazing physical power, such as a grandmother lifting a car when she sees her grandson trapped underneath it.

In addition, if you physically pretend to be strong, you will be. First, stand tall and look up slightly. Open your chest, and pretend you are Wonder Woman. Breathe deeply, with strength, and smile. Don’t you feel strong and mighty, with infinite willpower?

Another trick is to make goals achievable and feel good by accomplishing them. For example, a goal of losing 25 pounds is too vague for most of people, and won’t be motivating long-term. Many people, especially in the US, prefer quick results. So what you need to do is to make a series of smaller goals, each of which is achievable within a week or two. In our example, you may want to set the first week’s goal to reduce 1/3 of sweets from snacks. When you achieve this goal, congratulate yourself, and give yourself a big “A” in your log book. The second week, replace another 1/3 of snacks with fruits, the third week, add an extra 15 minutes of walking every day, etc. It is very important to make each goal achievable. Each time you accomplish one, you will feel good about yourself, strengthen your willpower, and later when you encounter difficulties, the combination of willpower and momentum created by a series of successes will help you overcome obstacles.

By the way, there is a quick way to strengthen willpower, when it starts to slip. Tighten your muscles! A study done at the University of Chicago found that if people tighten hand, finger, calf, bicep, or any other muscles, they are able to resist temptation much better than people with relaxed muscles. Actually, we already know this, and do it unconsciously. Now you can use this technique consciously when needed. The researchers pointed out, however, that this technique does not help people who do not care about the consequences of the giving in to a temptation. For example, when you are tempted to eat another slice of chocolate cake, if you are health-conscious, tighten your muscles help keep you from eating the cake, but if you are not concerned about the effects of the cake, tightening muscles will not affect your actions at all.

Source:
Ego Depletion—Is It All in Your Head?: Implicit Theories About Willpower Affect Self-Regulation. Psychological Science, 2010
From Firm Muscles to Firm Willpower: Understanding the Role of Embodied Cognition in Self-Regulation. Journal of Consumer Research, 2010
Self-deception as pseudo-rational regulation of belief. Consciousness and Cognition, 2010

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We all have some sort of self-talk, and many motivational speakers tell us that we must talk positively about ourselves to overcome a “challenge”. They also tell us that we need to set our goals high enough; otherwise they won’t excite us and we won’t achieve those goals. This is the dogma of most motivational literature, but is it true? Psychologists have found that it is true – for people who are already motivated, outgoing, and goal-oriented. For people not in this category, this may actually lower their motivation!

One study done at the University of Illinois is interesting: Before starting a task, researchers asked students to write down a sentence which contains either “I will” or “will I.” Amazingly, the “will I” group did much better than the the “I will” group. Similarly, other participants were asked to write down “I will” or “will I” sentences several times, then were asked how much they wanted to work out the next week. Based on psychological tests administered, again the latter “will I” group had more elevated levels of motivation.

As for the second problem, researchers found that if people set their goals too high, they become demoralized by feelings of inadequacy and then cannot motivate themselves. They also found that if a goal is not “tangible”, most people have difficulty motivating themselves.

Another study at the University of Illinois shows that if a person values excellence and hard work, tasks that mirror these values motivate her most. If the tasks are labeled as “fun”, she will actually under-achieve compared to less motivated people. The reverse is also true. Less motivated people do better with “fun” tasks and goals.

Do you know when most people give up their workouts? After less than two months! Researchers at the University of Kentucky looked into a weight loss program and found that if people can get over this hump, they can keep their motivational level high and they tend to achieve their goal weight.

So what should we do? Let’s assume that you are a fun-loving person and your goal is weight loss. First, set a goal which is tangible, achievable, and measurable. The goal could be to keep working out and dieting for two months. Then ask yourself: will you achieve this goal, and how will you do it? Since the goal must be a fun one, think about what kinds of fun activities you can include as part of a workout, and what kinds of fun can you have after achieving this goal.

This is achievable, isn’t it?

Source:
Will we succeed? The science of self-motivation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2010, June
The effects of chronic achievement motivation and achievement primes on the activation of achievement and fun goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2009; 97
Prevalence and Trends in Obesity Among US Adults, 1999-2008. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2010
Motivation and Its Relationship to Adherence to Self-monitoring and Weight Loss in a 16-week Internet Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 2010

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