Do something Friday

What if you could make the world a healthier place -- every day -- with very little extra effort?  Would you?

The other day, I got to hear Rob Lillie, of Gazelle fame, speak about making the world a healthier place.  His view (to paraphrase), is that when a customer buys a Gazelle product, they are supporting Girls on the Run, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and lots of other local events  that encourage people to get outside and move more, be more active, and be a positive influence on others.

Like it or not, we are our brothers (and sisters) keepers.  How we live our life is part of the tone of what's acceptable in the lives of our loved ones, friends, neighbors and community at large.

Your eating and activity patterns matter because we are pack animals and take our cues about what is socially acceptable from those around us.

So getting back to the original question -- you do shape your world.  Whether your stuffing yourself on a giant Blizzard or lacing up your shoes for an after-dinner amble around the block, others are watching.  When you choose to make healthy decisions for yourself and your own body, you are adding to social pressure for us all to make healthier behaviors part of our norm. 

You can make your world a healthier place.  What kind of a world are you going to create this weekend?

Herd immunity

Here's an interesting post from Jay Parkinson, a doc who is big into Public Health.  In it, he talks about immunizing children for chicken pox.  According to him, chicken pox deaths are way down! Especially, in kids less than one year old.  The interesting part of that is that kids don't get the chicken pox vaccine when they are less than one year old.....older kids who are vaccinated are keeping these young ones free of the disease!!  This is because there aren't as many carriers and all children are less likely to come into contact with the virus in the first place.  The more kids get vaccinated, the healthier all of them will be.  They call this herd immunity -- neat, huh?

The thing about it is, even for our weight control, there is a bit of herd immunity that could protect us from the lifestyle diseases that come along with overeating.  If you have a group of friends that likes to play tennis, you are much more likely to spend a larger percentage of your time together on the courts and not a Applebee's.  You might do Applebee's too -- but the time you spend there will be less.

Have you noticed that the number of runners, bikers, and walkers is greater this year than in years past?  It's my unofficial assessment, so take it with a grain of salt, but I really think there are more people outside moving this year.

What that does for all of us is raise our awareness that we, too, could be out there moving.  It might not impact your behavior right away but you will be influenced by it as the trend grows.

Same goes for when you serve you and your family on small plates.  It becomes normal for you all to eat less -- there is less of a chance you will get up and fill your plate for the third or fourth time when you aren't hungry (it involves too much work vs. the amount of pleasure you get from the food you don't want).  It won't take long before small plates are the norm and everyone is eating a bit less because of it.

Herd immunity.  The more you engage in healthy behaviors, the more you create a world I and others can be successful in our attempts at healthy behavior changes.

Local Norms

I am reading Connected by Christakis and Fowler right now.  If you read Blink or Freakonomics -- this is that kind of book.  The kind of book that takes a bunch of studies and mashes them together and talks about things I wouldn't think I would have the patience to read -- all in a way that is fun and entertaining.

One of the behaviors that authors talk about is how we (humans) like to be better (in whatever way is important to us) than those around us.  For the most part, we don't see ourselves in competition with the supermodels in magazines -- we see ourselves in competition with the woman next to us in the checkout line, our group of friends, and/or the person in the cubicle next to us.  This is true, according the authors, not with just how we look but also how much we earn, how bright our children are -- whatever we personally value.

It's like that old adage we have all heard a thousand times -- if you and a friend are running away from a bear, you don't need to be faster than the bear -- just faster than your friend.

Remember a few years ago when a study made all the news channels that said, if your close friend becomes obese you have a greater likelihood of becoming obese, too.  Yeah, that study was done by the authors above.

When I went back to college (as an adult), all of my classes were in the building next to the college field house.  The building housed the University Recreation Center, the Physical Education department, the Exercise Science students, the Athletic Training department -- you get the picture.  Think hundreds of kids (people) walking around carrying Nalgene bottles.  No soda machines in the whole building.

In this environment, people looked at you weird if you were carrying a bottle of soda (don't even think about carrying in a McDonald's bag -- you might end up with no willing  lab partner for the whole rest of the year).  As a result of this environment, I could drink 2 liters of water (out of my super-cool Nalgene bottles, of course) easily throughout the day.  I probably would have drank more but the campus water is gross so my super-cool bottles were filled with water from home and when it was gone, I was done).

Now, it's a mighty stuggle to drink 2 liters a day and I am exceedingly pleased if I can get 1.5l down.  The difference is that nobody says/looks/acts one way or another whether I am drinking water or sheepishly sipping my beloved 32oz. fountain Coke.

I have to provide my own peer pressure to drink water because nobody at work is going to do it.  And ,while in some ways, I should think this is liberating, I don't.  I don't because it would be so much nicer (read easier) if someone was helping me do the things I know I should do.

Okay, we've talked enough about me --  Let's think about your eating.

How do the people you surround yourself with (or those who just surround you whether you would wish them to or not) -- how are those people effecting your eating behaviors?

A while ago, I talked about the perfectly paced Tapas meal I had and how wonderful that whole experience was.  I don't think I wrote about the exact opposite experience I had with a speed eater several months ago and how when the food came, my eating companion took off at the speed of light and I was matching bite for bite until I realized what  I was doing and made a conscious effort to slow down.

How are your people effecting you?  Which ones effect your choice of food (in the helpful direction and in the unhelpful direction -- important to note both)?  Which people do you look to when you need to justify your size (or beat yourself up because you are on the losing end of that competition -- important to note both)?  What changes would you be willing to make to your external environment to maximize the positives and minimize the negatives?  If you can't (or are unwilling) to modify your external environment, what might you be willing to do to change your mindsets to maximize the positives and minimize the negatives?

Don't be a mindless victim of your environment -- there are always choices to be made.