Just Do Something

Besides being the title of an excellent book on decision making by Kevin DeYoung, "Just Do Something" may be a wise understanding of exercise as well.  Too often, we get bogged down worrying that we do not have just the right exercise routine.  We are unsure if we should focus on cardio, strength training, flexibility, balance, and on and on and on.  We want the perfect program.  Is P90x right for us? How about TRX training?  Should I join a Crossfit gym?  All of these are excellent options, but the important thing for most normal humans is not the program you are following, but that you are doing something. 

How do you start?  Pick a time.  Tell yourself that for 20 minutes today, you are going to exercise.  Try pushups and squats if you don't know where to begin.  Or walk out your front door.  Or stretch.  All of these are wonderful options to get your body moving.  Eventually, you may have more directed goals, but if you are a couch potato or really struggle with the concept of exercise, just do something. 

If you are not dieting...

If you are not dieting, you cannot "break your diet." 

If you are not dieting, there is not wagon to fall from.

If you are not dieting, there is no cheating.

If you are not dieting, there are not forbidden foods.

If you are not dieting, there is no getting back to normal eating.

Stop dieting. Learn instead to make better, healthier choices.  When you find yourself in a pattern of choosing poorly, reassess and choose again.  Learn from your body. Learn from your circumstances. Begin to ask yourself why you choose to eat the way that you do.  With practice, you can learn to make the Better Choice.

What is "Make the Better Choice"?

Every day, we face numerous choices.  When to wake up, what to wear, how long to shower, how early to leave for work, what to eat are just some of the many choices we encounter. Several years ago, while I was doing Weight Watchers, I began to think about the notion of making choices as it applied to eating. 

I am an all or nothing thinker.  If the choice I make is not perfect, I instead throw in the towel, which has led to lots of extreme thinking, extreme eating, and extreme weight fluctuations. As a psychologist--as a human--I understand that people don't routinely choose perfectly.  Rather, we consider our options and make choices accordingly. 

Thinking about all of this led me to coin the phrase "Make the Better Choice."  I decided to start thinking about my eating not in terms of perfect choices, but rather instead of better choices.  Sometimes, the better choice is a salad, but on other occasions, perhaps it is something different.  Perhaps you choose the low fat mayonnaise or decide not to go with it all.  Perhaps you choose to eat one burger instead of two.  Perhaps you forgo the appetizer and the dessert.  There are many ways in which we can make wiser choices with our eating.  The more often we make those better choices, the better long term outcomes for our health. 

Perhaps more than anything, maintaining the mantra "Make the Better Choice" allows you to be more mindful about how you choose to eat.  Greater awareness is definitely an asset to healthy eating. 

After conceptualizing of this idea, I began to post a daily thread on the Weight Watchers "Guys on a Diet" message board.  It quickly became a popular daily thread as people would share their successes.  Later, we got together a group of people who ordered green bracelets reading "Make the Better Choice" on them.  They were very popular as they served as a daily reminder of the importance of making wise choices.

I also soon realized that the MTBC concept applied not just to eating, but to many other areas as well.  Parents were ordering them for their teens, encouraging them to use the phrase to help them make better choices as well. 

I have made use of this phrase for a long time.  I think it can be beneficial in many areas of your life. Won't you join me on the journey?

Getting moving

A few days ago, I was helping my daughter work through her physics homework.  Part of the lesson was understanding friction.  It turns out that it takes more energy to start something moving than it does to keep it moving.  In other words, the coefficient of friction (static) > the coefficient of friction (kinetic).  The author rightly pointed out that the same thing seems to be true in our lives when we want to get moving.  It has been a while since I exercised consistently.  I know that I enjoy exercise.  I know that I feel better when I do it.  With that said, it is hard for me to get moving.  I make excuses like "there is no time in my day."  Well, this morning, I mapped out my time and it turns out that there is plenty of time before work to get moving.  If I plan to spend 45 minutes each morning exercising, I will have plenty of time to get going. 

Make a new trail

It's easier to stay out than get out.--Mark Twain

Behavior change is often a difficult thing. We have been following the same path for so long that we wear deep ruts in the paths of our lives. The deeper the ruts become, the harder it is to steer out of them. Our natural tendency is to stay in the rut. It takes a forceful and deliberate decision to steer out of them. But we are not in the clear. The ruts are still there and it is so easy to fall back into them.  It takes daily, intentional choices to stay on the new path.

In my own life, I have seen several areas where the ruts have been worn deep. Pornography was a very deep, dark rut for a long time. I found it nearly impossible to overcome the temptation to look at porn. Looking at porn became my normal.  Through prayer, being accountable to good friends, and the grace of God, I am on a new path, though I admit I still feel the wheels wanting to fall back in from time to time.  Anger toward my kids is another area where there are deep tracks.  In the past couple of years, I have begun to find a new way, but my default setting has been anger.  I have learned that I respond much better when I slow down before I respond to my kids' misbehavior. I am following a different trail.  Finally, poor eating has been a well-worn trail.  Many times over the years, I have fallen back into those deep ruts. I am again on a different trail but it is new for me again.

Making a new way is often difficult. We may need to steer out again and again, but the more often we do so, the easier it becomes. 

The righteous falls seven times and rises again.-Proverbs 24:16

Make the better choice.

How often do you weigh?

Most weight loss programs, including Weight Watchers, generally recommend weighing once a week. However, I was observing something last week on the Guys on a Diet board.  People I know who have been successful over the long haul weigh every day.  I started to look into a little bit. It seems daily weighing may not be a bad thing.  According to WebMD, daily weighing may help dieters lose weight twice as fast.  So, I put batteries back in.  Time to weigh daily again. 

Book Review: Mindless Eating

I just finished reading Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating (2010) for the second time.  Wansink is a food and consumer psychologist who seeks to understand why people eat the way that the do. In particular, he seems to be particularly interested in environmental variables. 

On the opening page are just these words, "The best diet is the one you don't know you are on." Wansink the proceeds to lay out small environmental changes that you can make that will affect how much you eat. 

Although there are numerous interesting studies described in this book, one of my favorites has to do with the size and shape of our dishes. People will eat more off of larger plates, even if they are told that they will.  People also drink less out of tall skinny glasses, even when they are told that they will. 

His concluding chapter deals with how to adjust our eating in small ways to lose slowly. He talks about the benefit of "food trade offs."  For example, "I can have chips if I don't have a morning snack." He talks about the benefit of making 3, but not more, small changes at a time because they will be barely noticeable.

In many ways, this is different from a lot of diet books. It will help you to look at eating in different ways, many of which you have not considered.  It is probably my favorite food-related book.