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.

Why?

Why try?  Why continue trying?  Why open yourself up to failure?  Why?

Because you only have a couple options:

1. Do.-- you'll get there if you keep trying (although it will probably take longer than you would like it to)

2. Don't do. -- and accept that you're weight will keep heading in the direction it's heading right now.

It won't ever be easier -- it will just be later.

Thought for the Day...

No one ever won a race looking sideways.  --Chris Brogan

Doesn't matter what other can eat, how little they exercise, or that they are naturally gifted.  You have to do what you have to do to get where you want to be.

Moderation

One of my fav sayings in the whole world:

Moderation in all things -- including moderation.

I'm pretty sure we (as a society) are not putting the value on moderation that we should.  My example:  the rise of "Extreme" as a marketing tool.  Seriously!  Tonight when you are home watching TV, pay attention to how many times the word Extreme is used in commercials and TV trailers -- Extreme Doritos, Extreme Razors (do we really want our razors to be Extreme??), not to mention Extreme Sports...and the list goes on.

We like the end points of the pendulum swing -- they are entertaining.  But as a lifestyle, doesn't it get exhausting to live on the extremes?  Too much food and you are soooo stuffed you can't move (and all you can think about is how much food you ate and the berating of yourself that goes along with that) -- swing over to the soooo hungry you think you just might starve to death before you get to eat again ( and all you can think about is what you are going to eat or not be able to eat).

Moderation in eating is a good thing.  If you are eating moderately (think level 7 or 8) most of the time, you can over eat occasionally and it won't matter because your mindfulness training will help you eat less at the next meal (because you will be less hungry...or maybe not hungry at all).

We are coming into the season of extreme eating excess (and maybe we don't ever really leave it any more).  Moderation in your eating might be just the freedom you need to get you through the holiday with your sanity and pants that still fit.

Starting a journey

 Have you ever put any thought into how much fun it is to start a journey?  When I was a kid I loved packing, planning, getting my bag of toys ready to go -- starting is inherently positive!  Somethings gonna happen!!

I just opened up a post at Productivity 501 and the first picture to draw my attention was this one:

Just looking at this picture inspires me to write some kind of "set out on the journey of your new life" kind of post.....but what happens after???

Setting out on a journey might not seem that daunting -- but what happens when the exciting start of a new journey becomes just real life?  I am pretty sure that the crew of this ship have crabby work mates, days where the bank messes up their paycheck deposits, times when they are sick of sleeping in a teeny, tiny room.  That's real life for them -- not a vacation.

And you?  What happens after you set out on your new weight loss "journey of a lifetime"?  How do you keep your motivation when a journey of a lifetime starts looking like it's going to take a life time???

No....seriously!  I'm asking you.  How do you do it?  What keeps you going -- either losing weight or getting back onto track -- what is a more powerful motivator than inertia?

If you don't have 3 quick answers to these questions, it's time for you to do some exploring in your "own backyard".  You don't need to set out on an epic adventure just yet -- you need to figure out why you're doing what you're trying to do and why what you're doing is important to you.

How does your year run?

Does your year run January to December?  Do you run on the same fiscal year as your company? 

I haven't ever given this any kind of thought (because obviously my calendar runs Jan-Dec ...so of course I do as well).  Except I don't.

I just figured out my year runs along side the school year.  Which means tomorrow is my first day of the new year.  I could make my goals for the fall and get a jump start on them before the craziness of the holidays. 

This is especially helpful when you are working on your eating habits because right now there is some time when you aren't exhausted from the holiday hustle and bustle and the pace of life might just be a little bit slower.  You've gotten your vacations out of the way, summer parties are done, kids are out of the house and back to school.

Perhaps now is the right time to tackle those new year behaviors.  A clean slate starting tomorrow.

Thought for the Day....

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today." -- Japanese Proverb

The same can be said for changing your eating behaviors.  Start today.

Ruthless assessments

I got my "corporate wellness check up" today. I have earned 50 point (out of 450) for agreeing to get my BMI calculated, having a non-fasting cholesterol and blood sugar test and letting them take my blood pressure.

Good news: The tests came out fine.

Bad news: They aren't as fine as last year. I am not an over-achiever any more. Crud!

Now I am all in a crank because I am not where I think I should be -- total cholesterol is up (probably diet related) and HDLs (good cholesterol) is down (probably because I am not exercising as much as I was last year. Double negative!

The upside to the down news: this has lit a competitive fire under me. Where I have tended, as of late, to rest on the laurels of "I am healthy enough", I now have proof that I am not where I want to be -- and it is within my control to get myself there.

This is motivating to me.

What motivates you? What can push you to make better decisions for yourself?

When the chips are down, what is going to motivate me to get out for a run before work when the day will be too busy to fit one in later? Cholesterol numbers.

What will motivate you to put down your fork a couple bites earlier? Is it being able to write in your journal that you ate to an 8? Is that the gold star you need? Would it help being able to tell your success to someone?

Figure out what really motivates you. What beckons from the other side of the finish line? Use it to get you through the tough decisions.

For the past week, I have woken (every morning) to the sound of a spring-crazy robin repeatedly flying into my sliding glass door. Over and above how much it irritates me to be woken up when I could be sleeping -- more than how frustrated I am that the window now looks like a wet St. Bernard has jumped up on it and stood there -- what really drives me crazy is that the bird just doesn't get it!

Hour after hour each day, the bird runs into the window -- hitting the glass with its beak making an irritating pecking noise.

This morning, I got up and snuck out to look. The bird was so (tired? sore?), he wasn't even flying into the window -- he was running at it. I stood magazines on the side he was running into (non-bird friendly magazines, it seemed to me)and he still kept running right into the glass. I am starting to have fantasies of sending it flying with a tennis racket!

As I stood and watched this, I realized I had seen this look before. Bird motivations aside, this is the same behavior I encounter when I talk about mindful eating. Those who have been steeped in the diet mentality the longest (which by definition means those who have been unsuccessful the longest using diets) holding tight to all of their diet "beliefs" like it is their religion.

If what your doing isn't working (again and again and again) maybe the fault doesn't lie with you!

Maybe those diets have promised something they can't deliver -- the same way the robin is seeing the promise of a mate (or competition -- I am a coach not a robin psychologist) in the reflection of the glass door -- but after a time of bashing your head against the wall, perhaps you should let it go and try something else.

Yesterday, I posed the questions:

What if you only had 10 pounds to lose?

Would that change how you felt about losing weight?

Over the weekend, I have been reading Switch. The whole book is about change -- how to create it in ourselves or others, how to get it to stick...

One of the points the authors make over and over again is that changes must be small or people get overwhelmed. They like concrete starting points and a vision for how things are going to end up. But the steps in the middle (the actual change) must be small and incremental.

So what did you come up with? What if you had 10 pounds to lose and that was it. Would you be more confident in your abilities to complete this task in a timely manner?

Would you be less stressed about tackling the prospect?

If you have more than 10 pounds to lose, here is something to think about:

Clients that have a lot of weight to lose (whatever "a lots" is because it varies from person to person) have all lost 10 pounds in the past. They know, from experience, they can do that much. What if I renamed Mindful Eating to be the "The 10 Pound Tool".

To lose 10 pounds, you would use The Tool (reducing how much to eat by 9 bites per day). You would do this until you had lost the 10 pounds.

If you have 30 or 60 or 100 pounds to lose, you would use The Tool 3 or 6 or 10 times. Instead of tackling the whole amount, the weight loss is broken down into a series of smaller, do-able, attainable-in-the-short-term victories. Keep racking up the victories until you get where you want to go.

This has you completing your goal (10 pounds) pretty quickly. Clients feel successful after using The 10 Pound Tool the first time and they want to use it again. Once you've used The Tool once or twice, others might start noticing and commenting on how healthy you are looking. It provides positive feedback for your use of The Tool and next time The Tool is even easier to use.

You get to where are want to go by stringing a series of 10 Pound Tool successes together. How simple is that?

Mind Shift

I am doing some research for an upcoming presentation (more on that in a while) and picked up a copy of the book The Intrinsic Exerciser. I have read the book a couple time but what struck me this time was how parallel the author's point about exercising is to mindful eating.

In the book, the author states that a person must find some reason or reasons that he or she can find "mastery, learning, curiosity or enjoyment" in exercise in order to be successful as a life-long exerciser.

Mindful eating is like that. You will never achieve perfect mastery of mindfulness while you eat -- but if that is your goal, you will have immediate feedback about how well you are doing. You will either be mindful of a meal or snack or you won't. And you will have another opportunity to practice in a couple hours.

Whereas, if losing weight is your primary measure of how successful you are being, it might take a couple of weeks to feel successful because you have lost a pound or two. If you have a lot of weight to lose, this victory might feel too small to sustain over the long haul.

So here is the author's idea:

Motivational Mindset Shift

Extrinsic (focusing on the product)
reduce risk of disease
control/lose weight
enhance fitness
goal happens in the future
have to

Intrinsic (focusing on the process)
mastery
feels good
enjoyment
goal happens in the present
want to

Could this mind shift help you??