Procrastinating Motivation

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What is my barrier to change from adding that third day of exercise you ask? Myself. I’m a stumbling block to my own progression. My barrier to change is procrastination. I've been habitually putting off a third day of exercise until another day or time. Why, lack of motivation is a key factor in procrastination. Wait a minute...now that I think about it, I do have one good motivator. You see, I have a close friend and confidant who enjoys my exercised booty. She calls it my “new-booty” because last summer I wasn’t exercising at such a high-intensity and therefore had saggy booty. Now, booty rides high!

What motivator are you procrastinating? I recommend making a list of your motivators and the barriers to change. Then post it somewhere you can see it daily. This is the contemplation stage of Behavior Change. If two weeks go by and you are still procrastinating, change your list. Write it in a different order or on another color of paper. Keep this up until you're motivated by something on your list. Timing is key and spontaneity works great.

Next post I’ll talk about “motivation and locus of control.”

Contemplating Change

Before reading this post, please review my 5/30/09 post The Stages of Change. It will provide the background you need for this post.

During the precontemplation stage, a person has no interest in changing a behavior. So let’s move on to those who have identified the need for a change. Let’s say you’ve been thinking for a couple months about starting an exercise program. This is the contemplation stage because there has been some thought about making a behavior change. Next, you make a plan to call up a friend who is a student at Bastyr University majoring in exercise science and ask her what to do next. This is the preparation stage because you seriously considered the behavior change by making a plan. The next day you call your friend. This is the action stage because you made the call. The action stage is the most difficult because it takes energy. Sometimes it may be embarrassing to take action. Let’s say your co-workers see you in your spandex work-out attire and they all laugh. Yikes, there go the stages of action, preparation, and contemplation down the drain.

Getting as far as the contemplation stage where you begin to seriously consider a behavior change is a big step. If you have a behavior you want to change, take a moment to think about a day in your life where you change that behavior. For me, I want to add a third day of exercise per week. I’ve been going back and forth between the contemplation and preparation stages for weeks now. As of this post there has been no action. Hey you know what, chicken butt. No seriously, it’s ok if it takes a long time to get to the action stage. If you’re serous about change, I encourage you to keep thinking about it. One day the motivation will come if you seriously want change. I really want to add that third day of exercise. For me, it will be spontaneous and I’ll just start doing it. Besides, the timing hasn’t been right.

Remember, behavior change is the most difficult part of creating new healthy habits. Next post I’ll discuss barriers to behavior change.

The Stages of Change

Today I’m talking about behavior change. This is the most difficult part of creating new healthy habits. Timing is probably the single most important part of behavior change because timing promotes commitment to change. Take for instance making a New Year’s resolution to change unhealthy diet behaviors. This usually begins in December but can occur months prior. Once a person makes a decision to resolve behavior change on January 1st, they usually indulge in the bad behavior prior to having to change on New Year's Day. Where is the commitment to change 6 months later? It was lost because the timing was not right for the individual. The behavior change came with a set date however nothing was done prior to the date to support the commitment to change except for indulging in the unhealthy behavior due to a fear of not being able to indulge in it again.

For most people, changing chronic unhealthy behaviors into stable healthy behaviors is a challenging process. Change usually does not happen all at once. It is a gradual process that involves several stages. The Transtheortical Model of Stages of Change describes underlying processes that people go through to change most problem behaviors and adopt healthy ones. Understanding the 6 stages will help you along your road to attain stable healthy behaviors.

The 6 stages of change are Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, Maintenance, and Termination/Adoption. In the Precontemplation stage the individual is unwilling to change behaviors; Contemplation stage the individual is considering behavior change in the next 6 months. Using the New Year’s resolution example fits here. In the Preparation stage the individual is taking initial steps to make a change with the next month. Processes in this stage may include purchasing running shoes, culinary equipment or looking up classes and goal setting. The Action stage requires the greatest amount of commitment of time and energy because here is where the individual is actively doing things to change or modify unhealthy behavior. For instance, if the decision to eat more whole foods is a goal, writing a shopping list and meal planning is taking action to establish new habits. The Action stage lasts for a minimum of 6 months. In the Maintenance stage the individual has maintained behavior change for up to 5 years. The last stage of Termination/Adoption is where the individual has eliminated the unhealthy behavior and has maintained the healthy behavior for more than 5 years.

My next posts will begin to breakdown each stage into its processes.

A Definition of Diet

People have asked me what my definition of “diet” is. I often considered it to be what I regularly eat to support my nutrient needs. When I looked up the definition in Mosby’s Pocket Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, it has this definition, “the customary allowance of food and drink regularly provided or consumed.” So then what does “going on a diet” mean? Well, going on a diet can be for many reasons but in this context it would be for the purpose of reducing body fat. It is possible to maintain a healthy body weight just by paying attention to what is being eaten.

Taking time to pay attention to what I’m eating has given me satisfaction with my body image without having to work too hard for it or “go on a diet.” If you’re telling yourself that you need to go on a diet be ready to go off the diet and gain back all the fat you lost. Additionally, going on a diet means you will likely become deficient in essential nutrients because of the food you are omitting. Take for instance the Atkin’s Diet with little to no carbohydrates and high protein and fat. I did this diet in 1996 and lost 20 pounds. But I was unhealthy with no energy and became deficient in essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients required for normal body functioning. I looked sickly with dark circles under my eyes and when I realized that this was not a healthy diet I told myself “no more diets” and I’ve kept the fat off ever since.

So, if you’re considering going on a diet, I offer this suggestion; modify your current diet by analyzing what you’ve eaten in a day. Try to keep a three day journal of all the food and drink you consume. It’s far easier to make changes when you can see your diet on paper. Using the Fitday Log is a great place to start.

Misuse of the Orange Mocha Frappuccino

Today I was sitting down to post a new blog on my definition of “diet.” After I opened up my internet browser I noticed this article “They Did It: Weight Loss Success Stories.” One success story reads “…I strongly believe that addressing the psychological reasons for misusing food is absolutely critical to long-term weight-loss maintenance."
Misusing food? As in this success story, during bouts with stress people often misuse food, although people who handle their stress just fine misuse food too. Who doesn’t occasionally misuse food? For instance, an Orange Mocha Frappuccino with all its processed whipped cream, milk, and orange syrup yummy goodness, who can resist? Especially people who need help!
In times of stress one of my new favorite foods to misuse is the Medjool date. It used to be the Orange Mocha Frappuccino but not anymore. Starbuck's got rid of the orange syrup. I did a comparison of the Medjool date versus the OMF and here is what I came up with:
A container of Medjool dates has 11 servings and only 110 calories per serving. 2 dates is one serving. They cost about $10.00 for a container at Whole Foods and I can use food stamps too.
In my neighborhood, a 12 ounce Orange Mocha Frappuccino (only one serving!) is 310 calories and costs $3.40 plus tip. Multiply that by 11 trips to Starbuck’s and I was spending $37.40 plus tip and gasoline for the truck.
So when stressors in your life cause you to misuse food, reach for a whole food to snack on instead of a processed food. Apples, oranges, and bananas topped with melted Theo's chocolate. Now that's how to misuse food.

Reading Labels

So you think you’ve found a diet that appeals to you. Let’s say this diet tells you to reduce your intake of fat calories. When shopping anywhere looking for a meal or a snack, you really need to read the labels. Then, you need to think about what you will be eating if it is labeled “fat-free.” Dave Zinczenko and Matt Goulding of Men's Health say that food manufacturers think you’re stupid. In fact, their marketing strategies rely on it. For instance, it may be that the packaged food manufacturer is hoping you’ll equate “fat free” with “healthy” or “non-fattening” in the hopes you’ll forget about all the sugar or salt these products contain. It’s a classic bait-and-switch.

Let’s face it, fat-free food just plain sucks. So it has to be made to taste good and that’s where sugar and salt make up for the loss of fat. Don’t forget, sugar is turned into fat if it is not used up in the body immediately after a meal. Next time you’re considering “low-calorie” or “fat-free” read the nutrition label and ingredients. This is where you will find-out what your food is really made of.

Mindless Eating

Let’s say you want to reduce your caloric intake because doctors everywhere are telling you to, here is a good place to start I found by Brian Wansink, PhD, a professor at Cornell University and the author of Mindless Eating. He explains that munching while watching TV or even reading can be a bad idea for two reasons: First, you don't pay attention to how many chips you've eaten, 14 or 40? Second, most people keep eating until the end of their favorite show and by then they’ve consumed a whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia” mmm…my favorite. If a snack attack hits during your must-see T.V. show, reach for low-calorie, high-fiber foods, like fruit or air-popped popcorn. Better yet, scoop out a couple tablespoons of ice cream instead of bringing the whole carton to the couch.