Club Blog

by: Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D

In only a few short days the holiday season begins, challenging anything that a fitness psychologist can teach.  Complete with festive meals, parties, and seeming non-stop food and drink, it’s a healthy body’s nightmare.  All of those hours at the gym can go “poof” in practically no time.

Most people don’t ever lose the pound or two of weight they put on during the holidays, according to a report in The New England Journal of Medicine. But it sure doesn’t have to be that way.  Not if you know how to “THINk THIN.”  It’s the program I’ve been talking about and teaching for quite some time and simply put, it works. 

Don’t get me wrong, continuous exercise is an essential ingredient in maintaining your fitness and weight goals through this holiday season.  In fact, in a study published in New England Journal of Medicine the lead researcher stated that: “The finding that study volunteers reporting more physical activity had less holiday weight gain suggests that increasing physical activity may be an effective method for preventing weight gain during this high-risk time.” (source: nichd.nih.gov)

But exercise alone won’t insure that you will resist that apple pie with heaps of ice cream on top, or that triple chocolate cake at Extraordinary Desserts, handfuls of chips and rich dips, pizza, French fries, and of course Starbucks.  With “55 million people every year resolving to lose weight” after the holidays according to Prevention Magazine, we need to be armed with more than just exercise.

While reducing saturated fats, drinking less alcohol, eating more protein and less carbs, avoiding buffet chat, eating a healthy breakfast every day, eating the turkey light meat instead of dark meat, not eating turkey skin, skimming the fat off the gravy, and sharing every dessert you have may also help you stick to your holiday weight plan, again, by itself, it won’t do the trick.

The key to successful weight reduction and maintenance is to “THINk THIN.”  Irrational dieters think differently from healthy weight maintainers.  They may believe:

• It’s okay to eat [this food I hadn't planned] because I’m upset, I’m happy, I’m tired/I’m celebrating/everyone else is eating it/it’s free/no one is watching/I’ll make up for it later.
• I cheated! Oh, well, I may as well eat whatever I want for the rest of the day and start again tomorrow.
•  Hunger is bad, abnormal, intolerable and it’s to be avoided.
•  If I’m upset, I deserve to eat. (Or, the only way I can calm down is through eating.)
• If I have a craving, there’s nothing I can do except give in.

If these sound like you or someone you know, you need to learn to “THINk THIN.” Here’s how:

1. Write down all of the reasons you have for maintaining your weight goals through the holiday season, one reason on each 3×5 card.  Be sure to rate each reason with a level of importance, 1-4, with 1 being most important and 4 being least important.
2. Read each card twice every day between Thanksgiving and New Year’s day.
3. Select a diet plan that is reasonable for you to stick with.  Then choose another as a back up.
4. Never eat standing up and when you do eat, be sure you are mindful of what you are eating to increase the satisfaction you derive from the taste, smell, texture sight and feeling of the food.
5. Learn to THINk THIN through hunger.  You may THINk that you will feel horrible if you don’t eat and can’t stand feeling the “awful” feeling of being hungry.  Or you may THINk that it is unfair that you can’t eat what you want and foolishly THINk that life is unfair and it shouldn’t be.  Or you call yourself names for wanting to eat.
6. Counter these erroneous and irrational thoughts with something more accurate.  Ask yourself if this is the worst situation on the planet?  It is worse than 100% bad?  Can no good possibly come from this at all?  Realistically remind yourself that you can, after all, stand feeling hungry, that it’s not really awful but rather “too bad,” or “no big deal,” and hunger tolerance is a good lesson to learn.  Also remind yourself that life certainly is not fair, that you really can’t dictate how life SHOULD be, and finally that you are only human for wanting to eat something that looks tasty, not weak, bad or some other negative label.
7. Understand that the more you wait out your cravings, the less intense they become and once you decide you are going to ride it out, you are already diminish in them. 
8. Avoid unplanned eating by reminding yourself, “I can eat this surprising dessert that I had not expected, or maintain my weight.” 
9. Use a response card for when you do, inevitably, slip.  After all, you are only human. Judy Beck, famed author of the wonderful “Beck Diet Solution,” suggests that this card say, “It’s not the end of the world. I can start following my plan again right now. Just because I made a mistake doesn’t mean I should keep eating. That makes no sense. It’s a million times better to stop now than to allow myself to eat more.”
10. Give yourself a “breather” one day each week.

There you have some idea of how to start to “THINk THIN.”  Along with increased exercise time at The Sporting Club and healthy nutrition choices, these steps will have you looking as good after the holidays as you do going into them. One more benefit — you’ll have one less New Year’s resolution to make this year

(ARA) – Part of the excitement of travel is the thrill of the unexpected, never quite knowing what will happen. While most of the time that’s a good thing, every now and then, surprises can be less than enjoyable, especially if it involves getting sick or hurt while away from home.

All it takes is a little foresight and effective planning to ensure that your trip – wherever you’re headed – is safe, fun and memorable in all the right ways. Below are some essential tips for staying healthy while traveling away from home. 

Don’t forgo first aid
You might think it’s a waste of space in your already tight suitcase, but a small first aid or medical kit is always a smart idea. You’ll want to stock it appropriately for wherever you’re headed, but some good general items to have on hand are bandages, gauze, disinfectant, pain relievers, tweezers, allergy pills, antibiotic cream, sunscreen/aloe and medicine for stomach upset.

Protect against problems
Whether you are traveling 50 or 5,000 miles from home, there is always a possibility that you’ll get sick or be involved in an accident. Purchasing a membership from a travel and medical emergency assistance company like On Call International before you leave will help eliminate your worries. Travelers can purchase a single-time trip or annual membership which include medical and travel assistance services like a 24-hour nurse helpline, emergency medical transportation, 24/7 emergency travel arrangements, worldwide legal assistance and more.

Watch what you eat
While it’s particularly true when you’re traveling abroad, being careful about what you eat and drink is often applicable on trips within the United States as well. One common culprit is buffet food. While a vast array of edibles laid beautifully out for your indulgence seems inviting, it is notoriously difficult to keep foods at their proper temperatures on a buffet line. Make sure that the hot foods are hot, and the cold foods are cold. If you’re traveling to a country where the water supply is not potable, make it a rule to only eat foods that have been peeled or thoroughly cooked – skip the salads and go for the sautees.

Don’t fear the needle
When you’re traveling to destinations with endemic diseases like malaria or yellow fever, make sure that you do your research and make an appointment with a travel health clinic. Some shots only need to be updated after quite a few years (like tetanus, with boosters recommended for adults every 10 years), but it’s always a good idea to face your fears and take the jabs. If you’re staying within the country, flu vaccinations should be a priority, since disease spreads easily in busy airports and on airplanes.

By planning ahead and making smart decisions, your travel plans are even more likely to go off without a hitch. When your trip is free of health-related hassles, you can be sure it’ll be one to remember. For more information about safe travel and medical assistance memberships, visit www.oncallinternational.com.

by: Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.

So you think if you could only increase your will power, you’d do more workouts, lift more weight, do more cardio and improve your overall fitness.  Well, that’s one theory.  Problem is, it doesn’t seem to always work.  And it sure doesn’t work for everyone.

Here’s why.  Will power works best, it seems, after you’ve started on your plan.  The old, “I will,” is a fine piece of self-talk after you are on your way to showing up more and doing more. 

But if you are looking for the kick-start, it’s all about true desire more than just will power.  It’s more about self-empowerment and less about feeling overpowered.  Not too many of us enjoy doing things we have to do. In fact, powerlessness usually leads to resentment.  So forceful change loses out to “desirous” change. 

Research demonstrates that we certainly can talk ourselves into doing more exercise.  But as soon as our self-talk leads us to feel forced to continuing, will power, “I will,” ceases to work. 

Think about how you feel after you say, “I will.”  It begins to feel like coercion if you say it enough—even if it’s your own words. And coercion is a nasty concept when compared to choice. 

The point I’m making is there is a difference between self-discipline, “Will I?” and will power “I will.”  One allows us to get started in overcoming laziness and procrastination.  It helps us control our impulses, up to a point.  The other keeps us going.  It adds perseverance, and the ability to overcome difficulties that otherwise blocks us.

Will power keeps us going. Self-discipline gets us going.  The former is following an order, “I will.” The latter follows our heart, our desire, and our choice.  The former is force.  The latter is autonomy.

Here’s the simple way to develop your choice.  Don’t say, “I will.” Instead ask yourself, “Will I?”  Then the answer is your choice to make.  You create a decision not a declaration you may feel forced to live up to.

Surprisingly we all have, according to research, a limited amount of will power.  Roy Baumeister, a psychology professor at Florida State University, noted that it is, “…a limited resource. People make all these different New Year’s resolutions, but they are all pulling off from the same pool of your willpower. It’s better to make one resolution and stick to it than make five.” 

Strategies to improve your “stick-to-itness” recommended by Boston psychologist Eric Endlich, PhD and exercise scientist Kathleen Martin Ginis, PhD, of McMaster University include:

• Schedule exercise. Plan your exercise, including trips to the gym and the classes you want to take, ahead of time and have everything ready to go to avoid that 20-minute search for your running shoes. “If you’ve planned what you are doing and have everything ready, you avoid the big debate with yourself about whether you will do it or not,” Endlich says.
• Get a trainer or an exercise buddy. Being accountable to someone else is a great motivator.
• Get it over with. If you know you can’t make yourself exercise after an exhausting day, do it first thing in the morning.  I’d add, ask yourself if you will do it the first thing in the morning.

Get in a good mood. Studies suggest that people can muster more self-control when they are in a good mood. So listening to music that makes you happy or watching something funny online could be just another motivator you need.