Best Practices

It's often tempting to think of health in the same way we think of talent: some have it, most do not. You're either born a genius or you're destined to live a life of at best above-averageness. However, Malcolm Gladwell points out in his book Outliers that talent is not so much about possessing a supernatural disposition as it is about living within the right environment and having access to the right opportunities. Despite our western perspective which places the responsibility of success on the choices of individuals, success actually lies in the details of our situations. My hunch is that the same environmental determinism applies to our health. In other words, our health is much more a product of our environment rather than our innate will power.

Which is good news. Psychologists are learning that using our will power exhausts us and that we only have so much of it to expend each day. Needing to make constant choices which we'd rather not make simply frustrates us, absorbs our attention, and, even if we do make the right choice, there's little payoff since we didn't get what we wanted anyway.

So, if we're not willing ourselves towards health, what are we doing? We're reshaping our environments to promote health. The National Weight Control Registry tracks people who have lost significant amounts of weight and have kept it off over a long period. The Registry has found that people who are successful at weight loss do three things:

1. Eat breakfast daily
2. Weigh themselves weekly
3. Exercise on home equipment

Interestingly, these three things have little to do with specific diets, workouts, or mantras. Instead, they focus on creating an environment which is conducive to weight loss. By owning exercise equipment, people are giving themselves the opportunity to lose weight. Regular weigh-ins provide just enough feedback to keep folks motivated without feeling burnt out.

Additionally, big changes often begin with smaller scale adjustments. Tweaks known as "micro-habits" require little work but can have big results. However, such habits may be difficult to develop because they require mindfulness - the ability to pay attention to details we are accustomed to overlooking. Often, there's a win involved in ignoring these details (e.g. if we don't schedule workouts ahead of time we'll probably have a bit more time for socializing). But, we can retune our environment if we find that such simplifications are merely making us lazy rather than getting us where we want to go.

For example, I flirt from time to time with being an early riser. Waking with a burst of energy, I head to the closet to pull on my running gear. However, I often have to sift through my clothes to find the right shorts, the right shoes, and some type of outer wear which matches the foggy, damp brew often rolling over San Francisco before sunrise. Of course, fumbling around in a dark closet quickly saps what little energy I have and before I know it I'm dreaming of crawling back under the covers, a dream which often becomes reality. Thus, I get my "reward" for having my gear strewn about. Then, after a few mornings of crawling back into bed, I've ditched my high-minded goals entirely, writing early mornings off as something reserved for "Type-A" personalities. However, if I spend five minutes before bed arranging my gear for the next morning in a neat bundle in the hallway, I don't waste my motivation during those first previous moments of the day. And, as soon as I start lacing up my shoes, I find my motivation growing, bringing on a surge of energy that gets me moving out the door. And, with such motivation, it's much easier to keep up the early-rising habit. Thus, a small change like setting out clothes the night before can have a snow-ball effect leading to a much larger overall change.

Finally, I'll leave this post with my own personal goal for overall weight loss. Right now, I weigh 210 (gasp!). But, I'd like to get down to 180. If I lose at least 5 pounds per month, I'll hit my target in 6 months. Not bad right? There's nothing too systematic about this goal so I'll be making adjustments along the way as I discover more.

Here we go!

Atabet

p.s. obligatory disclaimer: always consult your physician before starting a fitness or weight loss routine.