Archive for Motivation
Meditation and weight loss
Posted by: | CommentsResearchers at the University of Pennsylvania say that practicing daily meditation (even for small amounts) can enhance focus and performance. Mindfulness training can improve the subcomponents of attention, such as the ability to prioritize and manage tasks and goals, the ability to voluntarily focus on specific information and the ability to stay alert to the environment. The results suggest even a half hour of meditation practice can improve attention and focus for those with heavy demands on their time – thereby increasing effectiveness and efficiency throughout the workday. While practicing meditation may itself may not be relaxing or restful, the attention-performance improvements that come with practice can help people to be more relaxed and less stressed. This in turn allows us to be more mindful of what we eat and more tuned in to what our body needs in terms of rest and exercise.
How to manage food cravings
Posted by: | CommentsA study in the June 2007 issue of the Journal of Psychology: Applied, showed that visual and olfactory distractions can be more effective than auditory interventions in reducing food cravings. This means that if you’re craving an unhealthy food, you could try to redirect your attention using a visual stimuli (a favorite vacation spot, a beautiful image) or use your sense of smell (aroma therapy?).
One useful principle in “craving management” is stimulus control — which means keep the temptation out of sight, out of reach, or literally out of the house. I know people who themselves allow occasional indulging but they limit it to specific situations, such as eating desserts only on specific occasions and only at specific places.
Kind of like limiting smokers to designated smoking areas. After a while, it becomes such a hassle to smoke (both the physical limitations and accompanying social pressures) that some smokers naturally lessen their consumption of cigarettes. (I don’t have the research to support this. Its just my theory.) Probably not a good comparision. It’s w-a-y harder to quit sugar than it is to quit cigarettes. Take it from me. I’ve done both. I believe sugar addiction is lot more difficult to kick successfully (and easier to relapse) than cigarettes .
Weight loss mindset
Posted by: | CommentsMost people will agree that 80% of the solution to being overweight is in the lifestyle/diet choice that is adopted, and 20% of the success is through exercise.
The key issue is whether a person can successfully envision his/her new “healthy self” as a creative goal (and here I’m borrowing from Robert Fritz’s The Path of Least Resistance) that then serves as the “driving force” (aka “structural tension”) to a new lifestyle. Most people simply are reacting to the physical, social, and emotional discomfort of being overweight or obese, and hence take steps to relieve this tension (i.e., by “going on a diet”). When this tension is relieved (by losing pounds) the “hunger/tension” to go back to eating the old way comes back, until such time as the “tension of obesity” surfaces again. It’s the vicious cycle instigated by a “reactive-responsive” mindset that keeps us in this loop — an approach fueled by a quick fix mentality.
I think that most successful “weight loss masters” are able to create a new vision/idea of themselves as healthy, slim, and energetic beings who do not have to constantly deprive themselves in their eating behavior. Rather than deprivation, they adopt a new path of sustainable behaviors and correct nutritional choices.
However, the latter is the key: without proper chemistry to help us (i.e., achieved by an optimal high nutritional/low caloric density) the “behavior” of eating will be compromised and will always be hard to sustain. The better the food, the easier it is to sustain eating the right foods and in the right amounts. I maintain that there is such a thing a the “right” diet — what I call the “nutritionally excellent” diet , and not all diets are created equal.
The closer to this “ideal” one eats, the easier I think it is to maintain over the long haul. A good example of a positive spiral.
Setting the right motivation for eating
Posted by: | CommentsThe concept of “right mind” is probably one of the most important ideas that has helped me in my own path to wellness. Whenever I flounder (and that is quite often), I turn to this wise advice:
“The correct motivation for every action is essential. For instance, we should not eat merely to satisfy our hunger. Rather, by remembering that this action is also a method of helping other beings, we should feel that we are eating in order to maintain strength, prolong our life, and thereby be able to fulfill our aspirations of benefiting others. In this way eating becomes a part of spiritual practice. In fact, all daily activities can be worthwhile if we use them with a similar motivation.”
From Geshe Rabten’s Commentary on The Seven Point Thought Transformation by Geshe Chekawa (from the book Advice from a Spiritual Friend, by Geshe Rabten and Geshe Dargyey, translated and edited by B. Beresford).
Inspirational wellness model: “The Other Dr. Ruth”
Posted by: | Comments
Ruth Heidrich, Ph.D. is a six-time Ironman Triathlon finisher, holder of more than 900 gold medals from every distance from 100 meters to ultramarathons and triathlons. She has completed more than 60 marathons all over the world and has held three world fitness records in her age group at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Texas. She was named one of the “Top Ten Fittest Women in North America” in 1999. When she was seventy years old, Heidrich had the bone mass density of a woman in her early thirties and a resting heart rate of forty-four. Since being diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of forty-seven, she has won more than nine hundred athletic trophies and medals and has been cancer-free for more than twenty years. She is the author of A Race For Life, The Race For Life Cookbook, and Senior Fitness: Empowering Your Golden Years. She has been vegan for 25 years and a daily runner for 39 years.
Here’s her daily (vegan) meal plan:
Breakfast:
”Served in a LARGE bowl. All items are raw.
Lots of greens for the base: 3-4 leaves of Romaine, 1 stalk kale, 1 stalk of celery, 10 sprigs of parsley or cilantro. Slice and add 1 large carrot, 1/2 mango, 1 large banana, and half dozen large, seeded Globe grapes. Top off with 1 rounded Tbl of B12-fortified nutritional yeast, and 1-2 Tbl of blackstrap molasses.Because I eat this after my daily workout, this is served late and I eat no midday meal.”
Supper:
“Lots of greens for the base: 3-4 broccoli florettes, 2-3 stalks of kale, 1 stalk of celery, 1/4 unpeeled English cucumber, 1/4 head of green or red cabbage, 1 large carrot, 1/2 red (or orange, green, or yellow) bell pepper, 1/2 large field tomato, half a head of garlic (about 6 cloves) Half of a yam or sweet potato, raw.On top of the above ingredients, to 1-2 cups of prepared salsa (mild, medium or hot), add 1 Tbl of regular mustard, 1 Tbl of flax seed, freshly ground.”
Dessert:
“A base of blueberries (fresh or frozen, depending on availability and season) – 1/2 cup; 1/2 cup of a second fresh fruit (e.g. strawberries, bananas, grapes,); top with a small handful of walnuts, and 1Tbl. blackstrap molasses.”
Snacks:
“For those times when the hunger pangs strike, I eat carrot or celery sticks, grapes, dates, and in the evening, plain air-popped popcorn.”
Flipping the weight loss “switch”
Posted by: | CommentsFrames, according to linguistics and cognitive science pioneer George Lakoff, are “mental structures that shape the way we see the world.” To a large extent, frames depend on language. Trying to change means trying to change how people think, i.e., change their framing, which then ultimately determines how “facts” are processed.
Correct knowlege or information has to be processed first according to how they fit our frames, which in turn is really a “synaptic structure” wired into our brains. If the facts do not fit what’s already in there, they will not be heard much less absorbed or be the catalyst for instituting change.
The framing itself has to be changed, before behavioral changes can succeed. In addition, the very quality and quantity of the proposed change has a profound effect on whether the transformation occurs. Dean Ornish, in his work with cardiac patients, found that paradoxically, dramatic and comprehensive changes can be easier for people than gradual, incremental changes. The reason is that gradual changes often do not result in significant improvement, while sweeping changes can result in clearly beneficial changes (i.e., dramatically ‘feeling better,” which becomes a very effective reinforcement of behavior).
People who make moderate changes, according to Ornish, get the worst of both worlds in that they still feel deprived and hungry (and perhaps irritable) because they are not eating what they want, and they also are not getting the full blown benefits in terms of weight reduction or cholesterol and pressure reductions. The paradox is that sometimes big dramatic changes can be easier (and more effective) than small and gradual changes.
But it all goes back to how the anticipated change is “framed” by the individual. The confound is that other issues, such as feelings of self-efficacy, self-esteem, social support, and stress all play into how malleable and open we are to positive change.
The path to permanent weight loss starts with paying attention to the “why,” before we even focus on the “how.”
The food journal as mindfulness tool
Posted by: | CommentsAn important tool in changing behavior and reaching a weight or fitness goal (e.g., losing weight, getting stronger etc.) is the act of recording the behavior one wishes to change. This action forces us to observe carefully the phenomenon we are trying to manage and improve.
According to Daniel Kirschenbaum Ph.D., one of the foremost experts in the application of cognitive therapy to weight management, self monitoring is the single most important aspect of effective weight control: “The studies show that when people write down at least 75 percent of their eating and exercising behaviors they often succeed in losing weight and maintaining weight loss. Writing down very little of these critical aspects of weight control usually results in very minimal or temporary success.”
I think that learning this habit is so effective that the behavior of monitoring itself can be effectively used as an initial goal, rather than immediately adopting a weight loss goal in pounds. Only when the act of monitoring has become a habit can we then choose what weight goal to strive for. These are two discreet goals that can be “unlinked” and treated as organic (and sequential) stages in the change process. The information gathered from the monitoring process can then be used to strengthen the resolve to lose the weight and/or adapt a more nutritious diet. In most instances, the mere act of “neutrally” recording and paying attention to what we eat (without judgement) causes a positive change in our eating behavior.
