Is there a wrong way to promote fitness?

As a response to the rising obesity rates, the media has recently been making more efforts to promote exercise and fitness to encourage healthy lifestyles. Whether it’s a commercial on the radio or a talk show on T.V., we never stop hearing doctors, celebrity icons, and fitness experts talk about the benefits exercise has for both the mind and body. However, for decades research has shown that a solid 40% of Americans never exercise, as reported in the article “Updating the Message to Get Americans Moving.” 

Why is it then that people are still not taking the initiative to work out? Why is it so difficult for Americans to find the drive to get moving, knowing it will make them feel better, happier, and more energetic? 

The NY times article suggests that the reason is routed in the way fitness messages are delivered; they are taken to heart by people who already enjoy exercise, but go over the heads of people who don’t know how to exercise. Simply telling sedentary people that jogging 20 minutes a day will make them feel good isn’t going to make them stop being a couch potato, and advertisements for intense fitness programs are clearly not any more motivating. 

Princeton psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s research has found that people only remember the parts of their workout that made them feel best, which are the climax, when the endorphin production is at its peak, and the end, when it’s all over. Because everyone is at different fitness levels, it’s impossible to just give people an exercise prescription and expect them to stick with it. Doctors such as Dr. Ekkekakis are therefore suggesting that the key to motivating Americans to get active is to help them find the intensity level that makes them feel best, rather than just telling them to do a certain exercise. 

What do you think: what’s wrong with the media’s fitness messages and why aren’t they getting across to Americans? If people knew the level at which they get that “runner’s high” feeling, would they be more enthusiastic about working out? How do you find the motivation to exercise? 

Re-learning How to Eat

I'm pretty positive that if I said that America is the most obese country in the world, it would not come as a surprise to anyone. I'm also sure that if I said that our portions are out of control, we are surrounded by tempting food advertisements and we no longer eat to fulfill hunger, most of you would agree. Well, we individually can not change the portions we get when we order at a restaurant or the food commercials and shows that we see on the TV. However, we CAN control our own eating habits.

Clinical psychologist Jean Kristeller  started a program called Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training  to help binge eaters develop mature eating habits. It is important to strengthen and draw attention to  mindful habits because the problem that many people face is that we are not aware of our overeating until the "food coma" hits. Some Mindful Habits are being aware of hunger, chewing food slowly, tuning in to taste, noticing fullness, and being aware of negative emotions, cravings and impulsivity.

 Kristeller stresses eating to satisfy hunger and stopping once that is completed. It is proven that our taste buds get tired after the first few bites  and after eating large amounts of food, we no longer  taste the food  to its fully capacity anymore.  Once we become aware of this, we can learn to leave food on the plate when the taste no longer satisfies us. This technique can help us deal with the large portions we are served at restaurants. Since Kristeller's program does not put any particular food in an "off-limits" category, this technique will also allow us to enjoy a few bites of chocolate cake, for example, but then put it down and walk away. Another valuable technique is chewing slowly which helps us to realize when we are full and stop so we do not go beyond that point. Remember, eating food is about quality not quantity.

Kristeller also puts a great emphasis on getting out of the routine of eating.  She states that, "We eat when it's time to eat, when food is put in front of us or because we need to handle feelings of anger, anxiety, depression or simple boredom ". We wake up in the morning and make breakfast regardless of what time you wake up at or if you are even hungry or not. Another bad habit is eating while watching TV, doing homework or surfing the internet. While eating, our body must be our main focus. We need to close ourselves off from distractions so we do not accidentally over eat. For those of us you "eat our emotions", a good technique to control this is meditation. By calming our mind, we become les stressed and can zone in on our priorities and tasks at hand.

So….. How do you control binge eating? What do you think of these techniques? What other exercises can you think of to control overeating? When do you find yourself overeating? Why do you find yourself bingeing? Are these practices enough to positively affect the obesity epidemic? 

I Want To Be Famous

Admit it, at least in one point of your life you wanted to be famous. We have all longed to live the rich and glamorous lifestyle of a celebrity. Everyone knows your name and everyone wants to be your friend. You get to live in a multi-million dollar mansion, wear the most beautiful clothes and date the most beautiful people. Sounds perfect, right? However, thanks to numerous tabloids, we know that celebrities are normal people just like the rest of us.  They have their struggles, fears, insecurities, and failures just like everyone else. To make it worse, they deal with the problems we have to deal with while being scrutinized under the public eye. Their seemingly perfect lifestyle is not as great as it appears and those who live this lifestyle aren't that much happier or better off than we are. Then what is with all this hoopla about celebrities? Why do we crave fame?

 You could blame the media for this widespread fascination. However, In Carlina Flora's article, "Seeing by Starlight: Celebrity Obsession", Flora explains that our minds are responsible for our obsession with celebrities. She says that "Celebrities tap into powerful motivational systems designed to foster romantic love and to urge us to find a mate. Stars summon our most human yearnings: to love, admire, copy and, of course, to gossip and to jeer. It's only natural that we get pulled into their gravitational field."

Flora also suggests that our love and idolization for celebrities is a modern form of ritualized idol worship and  that celebrity culture is taking the place of religion. Psychologist James Houran speculates that "nonreligious people tend to be more interested in celebrity culture" because celebrities fill "some of the same roles the church fills for believers, like the desire to admire the powerful and the drive to fit into a community of people with shared values." In the secular society we live into, our longing for ritualized idol worship can be placed onto stars.

Flora also suggests that we adore celebrities because they give us the inspiration to tackle our own problems. Anthropologist Helen Fisher explains that "celebrities motivate us to make it". We are inspired by Demi Lovato who made it through her breakdown and bipolar disorder and Oprah Winfrey who made it through poverty, sexual abuse and racial discrimination to become wealthy and successful stars. If they can make it through their struggles with success, why can't the rest of us?

So do you agree with Flora? Do you think that celebrity culture could take the place of religion? Do you find comfort in engaging in the lives of the rich and famous? What do you think is behind all the hoopla about celebrities?

Anxiety Hurts, Changing Perceptions Can Help.

Performance anxiety is a major issue for students who are struggling with subjects such as mathematics in school, so much so that the anticipation of doing a math or reading homework problem causes pain. According to this article, a study was conducted on 28 adults who were asked to do math and word problems while their brain activity was being recorded through an fMRI scan. And what did the scans record exactly? Before being shown each problem, the "participants were given... a visual symbol that warned if the next problem was going to be a word task or a math task." And one of most significant results of the scans was that "individuals with math anxiety experienced more brain activity in regions linked with threat detection and physical pain." These individuals experienced more anxiety even if the upcoming problem was a word one and not a math one. This result also remained true when the participants' "overall trait anxiety and competence on math problems" were controlled in the experiment.

Therein lies one of the foremost problems for children with anxiety- the more anxious they feel about a subject, the less they practice it, the worse they do in it, and the more their anxiety increases. The interesting fact shown by the study, however, is not that anxious people fear the task when they are doing it, but only before they start it- the article states that "when these same participants went on to perform the math tasks, they did not experience elevated activity levels in the pain-perceiving parts of the brain... the psychological pain was linked only with the anticipation of the deed, not the deed itself."

So, how can we help students with anxiety do better in the subjects they fear? The article suggests "finding ways to make difficult intellectual tasks more rewarding... [by considering] what motivates professional thinkers, mathematicians, and scientists- the delights of tinkering and exploration... the satisfaction that comes from finding a deeper meaning." Personally, I feel that this is a great stepping stone to making kids feel better in the classroom, especially as one who struggles with anxiety in and out of a school setting, but that this is only a small change that can be made.

What suggestions do you have for students who struggle with anxiety in school? How do you feel about the results of the study? Do you think you suffer more from anxiety by anticipating something or doing it?

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The Dangers of Smartphones

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, many of us were left without power for an extended period of time. Personally, I just got power back today! I was lucky enough to get lent a generator this last Thursday, but the last two weeks, I have been charging my phone and other electronics at the gym like it was an absolute necessity. For the first three days after the storm, I could not get out of my plan due to a hanging wire that prevented cars from getting in or out of the neighborhood. During this period, my phone died, and I had nowhere to charge it. Little did I expect that this would affect me so much. I felt as if I was disconnected from the world. No Twitter, no Facebook, not even email to stay in touch.

            In this article by Nancy Colier from Psychology today, she talks about how smartphones are quote on quote “stealing our lives.” That we get so caught up in recording pictures and videos or keeping in touch through social media, that we are losing the present moment. She says that our need to capture every moment or document every minutes stems from our fear of losing that experience. We do not want it to end so we  capture it for perpetuity.

In some ways, this storm was a good thing, aside from the damage or loss of course. I spent more time with my family, not watching a TV, but talking and playing board games like when we were little and smartphone-less. I became aware of my need to “keep up” with everything on the internet and TV, and now I know that sometimes I let my life pass me by trying to keep in touch with everything at once. One thing I definitely learned about myself: I am a really good card player ;)

What about you? Did you have a similar experience with electronics during super storm Sandy? Do you think that our smartphones are keeping us from living our lives to the fullest?

Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy: Good or Bad?

When predictions of Hurricane Sandy were made, no one quite knew exactly how devastating it would be. States around and including New Jersey are not accustomed to experiencing natural disasters, unlike states like California or Florida. Most of us went to the food store to stock up on food, found some flash lights, and hoped for the best. Little did we know this "super storm" could change our lives as we know it.

 Hurricane Sandy has turned millions of lives on the East Coast upside down, especially in New jersey. Millions of people lost power for a week and some continue to live without power and heat. Trees have fallen on top of houses, roads, and power lines. Gas lines have waits as long as five hours. Some houses were flooded and now have lasting water damage.

The Jersey shore has been destroyed. Full houses have been ripped from their foundations and moved somewhere else. Rides along the boardwalk at Seaside are now floating along the ocean current. Houses are completely destroyed and families have nowhere to come home to. Living in north Jersey, going "down the shore" is something we can all enjoy every summer. It is truly sad to think the beloved shore where we have had so many memories is gone and cannot be fixed any time soon.

                                                                           

People's main priority for the past week has been to be safe and warm. Those things that always seem so important to us, like watching our favorite TV show or getting all your homework done ahead of time, seemed petty all of a sudden. Because of the state of panic we were all in, we had to make do without our luxuries we depend so much on.

In an article in Psychology Today "What We Re-Learn in Crisis"  Marietta McCarty talks about Hurricane Sandy in a much brighter light. Although the negatives of the storm are obvious and dominant, she suggests looking at some benefits. She said that as a community, we all stuck together and helped each other out. We got away from our hectic lives and focused on the things that are most important to us. We got in touch with our families and friends, helped a neighbor if they needed it, and showed how much we care about each other.

Do you agree with Marietta? Did we all band together as a community and help each other during this crisis? Or were we only concerned about our own well being and survival?

Sugary Drinks: How much is to much?

Obesity has always been a major problem in America and has caused millions of health problems for this country. According to a NY Times Article, "More than half of adult New Yorkers are obese or overweight, according to the city’s health department, which said it believed 5,000 New Yorkers died every year as a result of health problems related to obesity." Weather it includes over eating or simply just eating the wrong foods, New York has finally decided to think of a way to help this problem. Mayor Bloomberg is currently in the process of trying to pass a restriction on sugary drinks that contains more than 16 oz in order to prevent obesity in New York. This ban if passed in March would now watch over movie theaters and stadium concession stands but would excuse 711 and its king-sized drinks, vending machines and some newsstands.

 Mayor Bloomberg's Ban on Sugar Drinks do not include fruit juices or dairy products such as milkshakes. His plan would only have health inspectors watch over places with self served drinks and fast food restaurants. This would then avoid people going to McDonald's and getting 5 big macs and a giant 20 oz drink.  

Some argue that this will be pointless because this will not stop people from getting refills with a smaller cup that could equal the same amount as just getting a 20 oz drink. Also a few argue that the government is getting to involved with society and what they want. Another point that was raised was the fact that it could put many small businesses out of work because of this possibly new limitation rule on drinks. Although this is a problem, I believe that the fact that more that 5,000 New Yorkers die every year because of obesity is a bigger problem. Dr. Deepthiman K. Gowda, a professor of medicine at Columbia University and a member of the Board of Health said, “The same way that we’ve become acclimatized and normalized to sodas that are 32 ounces, we’ve started to become acclimatized to the prevalence of obesity in our society.” America needs to start to become active in the fight against obesity and not make it a norm for people to be 20 pounds over their expected weight limit.

What do you guys think, should all people of New York be punished because of obesity of some? Will this new ban do much for New York? Do you think that other states will pick up this consumer ban as well?