I am the kind of person who...

A discussion in one of my Health Behavior and Health Education classes recently got me thinking. Not that my classes don't always get me thinking, but this one really stuck with me.

We were in my Sticky Health Communications class, and we were talking about why New Years resolutions don't work.

There were a number of ideas thrown around by students, and there isn't really one right answer. But the professor, Dr. Brian Zikmund-Fisher, posed this as an explanation:

If you don't convince yourself that you're the kind of person that does something, you won't stick with it.

I have kept this idea with me for over a week now, and I have spent a little more time considering it than I should probably admit. I first tried to think about it in terms of my own behaviors, and previous attempts or successes in behavior change.

It wasn't hard to see how this idea applied to some things in my own life, like making the transition to not eating meat, the trials of committing to diet and exercise, something as simple as actually flossing every night.

So then I started looking for it to pop up as a theme in TV. Tuesday night it popped up right on The Biggest Loser. Not too surprising that this would be the first place I see it.

Some of the things I think this can be most easily applied to are:

• resisting food temptations, ex. "I am the kind of person who can walk away from the cookies in the break room at work, and know it's not worth it to indulge on low quality cookies"
• adding small amounts of exercise to your day, ex. "I am the kind of person that parks a little farther from the store to add some extra walking in to my day"

These are relatively simple behaviors, but unless you have convinced yourself that they are a part of you, it is sooo easy to say "well I just can't resist."

This by no means make this system flawless. You can end up off track. In my opinion though, every time you get off track and realize you need to work on it harder next time, you make yourself stronger in your convictions. You also learn what you should feel bad about, and what is really just a one-time indulgence that you know doesn't need to lead to other indulgences.

This all comes at a time when I realize I have gotten horribly off track for just over a week, after losing 12 pounds. Time to recommit, and get back on track, stronger than ever.

If anyone out there reads this and has a reflection of something in their life that took changing self-concept to change behavior, I would love to hear about it.

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Additional note: In my field we talk a lot about self-efficacy as a key predictor of behavior change. Self-efficacy is the belief in oneself to be able to perform a specific behavior, in a specific situation. I don't see the concept discussed above as being the same. I think this is much more self-concept/personal identity based.

think about your food

Reading this recent New York Times article, and talking to Matt about it, really got me thinking.

As someone who has struggled with wanting to lose weight since leaving high school (and really, even before that) who will soon have a Master's degree in the field of Health Behavior, I've actually thought about this in my own life.

Overall I eat a quite healthy diet. I am a semi-vegetarian (I eat fish), and I am careful to eat fruits and vegetables. I don't eat fast food (maybe some fries on the run once every 6 months or so), and I have cut back drastically recently in the amount of milk and cheese that I let myself eat.

I have historically struggled with sugar though. I love sweets. I used to love to drink Coca Cola (a habit being with my husband hasn't helped), eat chocolate, ice cream has had a hold on me in recent summers, and cookies, cake, you name it - I loved it.

Days before my most recent birthday I ate an ice cream sandwich of my husband's from the fridge. After eating it, I felt disgusting. I started to reflect on what led me to pick up that ice cream sandwich, unwrap it, and eat it. There was no reason. I had absolutely no reason to eat it. And what's worse, I didn't even feel good after eating it.

It was then that I decided sugar COULD NOT have this "power" over me anymore. I decided that after my birthday, I would not eat dessert until Christmas. There have been a few minor exceptions along the way. Some very low-fat frozen yogurt, some pudding a friend made, half of a slice of pumpkin roll at Thanksgiving. I also stopped drinking soda with sugar.

Setting all these restrictions on myself has had me thinking, what the hell is the point of all those things I was eating. I know what they taste like, I know exactly what I am in for when I pick it up. I also know that there is NO health benefit to them. They don't provide long term benefit, they make you feel good for what, like, 5 or 10 minutes?

I have thought about food a lot the last few months. And I am by no means saying it is easy, I still like sugar, it tastes good to me. I am learning to rationalize it away though. I am learning to use moderation when I do choose to indulge. A friend made one of my favorite cakes recently for a party, and being that it was a Christmas party, I said ok and had a piece. One piece. Later I wanted a pop because I was exhausted and wanted a little bit of caffeine to help get me through the night, but there was no diet pop. I almost said what the hell, I am just going to have this Dr. Pepper, it's just one night. But then, I stopped and reminded myself that's another 140(?) calories. Not worth it. Instead I poured a glass of water, and went to sit down.

By no means do I think this breakthrough means that I will be perfectly in control from hear on out, but thinking about reasons for doing things, and thinking about how you feel and think about them (metacognition anyone?), is important.

So even if you don't think about taking 30 bites of a food before eating it, every time you're eating a guilty pleasure food, think about why you're eating it. Does the benefit outweigh the cost? Do you need 140 extra grams of sugar? Do you need the extra grams of fat? Do you need the second cookie - what does it give you? A moment of happiness. How are you going to feel next time you are trying on jeans?

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Happy Thanksgiving

No long, drawn out, self-aware entry here. Just stopping to say how incredibly thankful I am for everything in my life. Any complaints or whining sessions are purely superficial, and just venting in the moment.

Life is good. I couldn't ask for anything more.

And thanks to all the family and friends who are always there for me. You're the best.

My Food Pyramid Results!

For the last week I have been keeping track of how many fruits and veggies I eat during the day. I wanted to see if I was meeting the recommendations of the MyPyramid site. I tried really hard to not change my eating habits this week, because I wanted to find out how I was doing on my own.

Here's a fun little graph a created to show visually how I did. 

Purple represents the fruit recommendation of 2 cups/day. 

Green represents the veggie recommendation of 2.5 cups/day. 

The peaches are how many fruits I actually ate, and the carrots are how many veggies I actually ate.

I love how this gives a visual of what my eating habits were over the week. 

Can you guess which day Matt and I went grocery shopping? Sunday

Can you guess which days I was at school all day and packed my own foods? Monday and Tuesday

Can you guess which days I ate at least one meal out (a whole other issue of it's own)? Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

So the verdict is clear I think. I NEED to eat more veggies. And, I need to work harder to eat we rounded all week long, not just the days that I spend all day on campus. Oh, and I obviously favor fruit over veggies.

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Now, for the next week I am going to track how I do trying to even out the recommendations with my actual intake, and find more of a balance between fruits and veggies.

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Did you know the fruit and veggie recommendations are now measured in cups/day, not "servings?" Did you know that recommended amounts vary based on your age, sex, activity level, and weight goals? To find out your recommended amounts, check out the MyPyramid site for yourself!

Examining MY "food pyramid"

As and MPH student, I spend every day learning about, talking about, and thinking about health. Recently I was using MyPyramid.gov for a work project, to look up the general fruit and vegetable intake recommendations.

Now we've all heard that Americans aren't eating enough fruits and vegetables. In 2005 about 33% of U.S. adults ate fruit two or more times per day, and about 28% ate vegetables three or more times per day.

I am not doubting that we need to eat more fruits and veggies as a country, I mean look at those around you. Very few people have a circle of family and friends in which EVERYONE eats and ideal diet. On the  other hand, I wonder how accurate these statistics are. Especially because there is so much confusion about how many servings of fruits and veggies you should be getting, and what a serving actually is.

As a student of health behavior and health education I am fairly well informed about healthy eating, but I am no expert. I don't have have a background in nutrition or dietetics. While my professional interests separate me from the general population, I was curious how well rounded my own diet is. I try to ensure fruits and veggies in my diet every day, but lately I have been noticing that I eat more fruits than veggies.

So I decided to look at my typical intakes, and see how they compare to the guidelines set forth by MyPyramid.gov. I am using MyPyramid because it is often used to teach students in school, and is known as the simple "go to" source for basic nutrition guidelines.

There is a feature on the MyPyramid site to enter your age, sex, height, weight, and activity level. A personalized recommendation list is then generated based on your current weight, or for losing weight if you are above the "healthy range" for your height and sex. Here are my recommendations based on my current weight.

Some time next week I will post how I measured up for the days that I tracked. I am going to work hard to not do anything different because of this, but to instead just stick to meals that have been typical to me recently.

Stay tuned for the results...I can't wait to find out myself!

I am terrible at blogging...

...let's see if I can change that, because it's a nice way to get thoughts out sometimes.