Posts Tagged ‘Exercise Psychology’

Excuses & Meme’s…The Great American Way! Part II

Please read part I posted last week to shed light on what I am about to suggest in this post.  Last week I told you that all of us have meme’s and that they act to impede our fitness and nutrition goals.  Today I would like to give you some simple steps that you can apply to change your current mindset so that you can obtain the lifestyle that you truly deserve.

Step #1:  Acknowledge that you make excuses:

No, you’re not in AA but this first step CANNOT be overlooked. If you do, you will pay the price of failing.  You make excuses…yes you do.  There is absolutely nobody that is exempt from excuse making and you are no exception.  That is ok.  The good news is that you can change your mind once you identify your excuses and memes. 

Step #2: Write down all of your excuses and memes:

This is more of a process.  For the next 30 days I want you to write down all of the excuses and memes that you make to yourself.  See last weeks post for examples.

Step #3: State the opposite:

Once you have written down all of your most annoying excuses and memes you need to write down the exact opposite.  For example if you say, “I am too tired to exercise after work”, write down “Because I am proactive and take responsibility for my life, I will exercise before work to increase my energy level”. 

Step #4: Change your Sub-Conscience Mind: 

Your sub-conscience mind is the part of the brain that stores all of your habits.  It steers the proverbial ship.  This is where the vast majority of all your behaviors are stored and processed.  To change your sub-conscience mind you have to do the following things.

            a. Convince it that it is wrong:  You do this by stating the exact opposite of your memes.  The very moment that a negative or damming thought enters your head you must replace it with the opposite thought…even if you have to say it out loud.

            b. Construct a list of positive affirmations:  On this list could be something like “I am in control of my eating at all times”, or “Exercising daily is just part of who I am”. 

            c. Repeat your list of affirmations daily, morning and night: Do this when you first awake and before you go to sleep.  The goal is to be in a relaxed state where not much will bother you and where your mind can be at ease. 

            d. Be in a state of believing:  When you are repeating your affirmations, do so in a state of positivity and optimism

Step #5: Disarm your alarm system!

When you begin doing these simple steps your brain will tell you that you are crazy and that you are acting weird or like a moron.  This is normal because your brain is still convinced of the validity of your previous mindset of excuses and memes.  Persistence is the key here.  If you persist and repeat your affirmations day after day you will begin to believe the things that you are telling yourself and BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE YOURSELF YOU WILL ACT ON IT!  Yes your behavior will start to change in a way that you never imagined possible.

Step #6:  Realize that you never “Arrive”.

We live in a world of complacency, feeling entitled and laziness.  If you are not constantly reinforcing your sub-conscience mind, rest assured you will slip back into old ways.  Stay focused and realize that you have to be proactive to win the battle.  Things will not magically work out for the best if you are not constantly bathing your mind with the things that you want to accomplish.

Step #7 Action:

This is where it is time to get off your butt and get into action.  You can have the most wonderful meditation sessions of visualizations and imagery known to mankind, but if you don’t move you will never change your behavior.  It is much easier to shed your old excuses when you see yourself doing the opposite of them.  Soon you will be excuse free!

Step #8 Making it Long-Term:

Realize from the get-go that this is about lifestyle change for the long-term!  Never allow any short-sightedness to enter the picture here.  When you are planning your visualizations and affirmations make them long term.  You want to adopt a mindset of permanency.

 Well there you have it my friends!  Properly applied these principles can and will change your lifestyle for the better.  Start applying them today…there is absolutely no room for procrastination here.  Remember…life is good!

You may be asking yourself…what the heck is a meme?  The word meme is derived from a branch of Psychology called “Memetics”.  Memetics is the study of human behavior BASED on certain psychological beliefs.  In other words it is the study of mental habits.  If I believe that I am a fat, and unattractive slob, even though it may not be true, it becomes a reality in my own mind.  Take for example the victim of Anorexia Nervosa.  Although their body fat level may be fatally low, they think and believe that they are fat.  They live in an alternate reality that is fueled by their own flawed thinking.  Essentially memes are lies and excuses.  They may contain an element of truth BUT they can be altered by you.  They can be changed.

Now you may be asking the question…well what does this have to do with my fitness and nutrition goals?  The answer is a resounding: EVERYTHING!  Do you know that YOU have memes?  Yes, you have memes that are good and bad.  Here are some examples of memes to help you better understand this article.

“I can’t find the time to exercise…I am just too busy”

“My genetics have pre-disposed me to be fat…there is not much I can do about it”

“I am just naturally lazy…it is hard for me to get motivated to do anything!”

“I would like to eat healthier, but I don’t have time and it is too expensive”

“Nobody understands me…that is why I fail”

“I am too old to exercise”

“I am too important of a person at work to allow time to exercise”

“Eating healthy is boring”

“I am entitled to eat unhealthy…I’m an American” (This is more of a sub-conscience meme)”

“I would be healthier but I don’t have the support of my family”

“I am too tired to work out after my job…I just want to crash”

 I guarantee that many of you reading this are saying to yourself, “yes that is me” or, “well, yes they are excuses but they are true!”  Would I offend you if I told you that none of these excuses are rooted in truth?  Memes have a terribly insidious way of convincing you that they are indeed truthful.  Let’s take the time excuse for example.  In a recent study performed by the American College of Sports Medicine they found that the number one excuse for not exercising is time.  People feel like they don’t have enough time to exercise but what the study found is just the opposite.  People HAVE the time but they don’t MAKE the time.  Simply put it is not a priority to them.  This clearly show’s what a meme is…these people firmly believe that they don’t have the time to exercise but REALITY shows that they indeed do.  So to clarify…the meme is: “I don’t have the time”, but the reality says: “I don’t make the time”.  My friends there are a huge difference here!  Memes are nothing more than false mental realities that we create for ourselves…they are not rooted in truth.

 So how do we change our current thinking (meme) patterns?  In my next blog post I will give you a step-by step program that you can use to dissolve your current memes.  I assure you that you must dissipate your current memes if you ever hope to change your physical and nutritional lifestyle.  I have seen people succeed by changing their memes and I have seen people fail miserably because they don’t take the time to correct the mental before the physical.  In fact it has to be that way…mental before physical.  I think you can sense the truth inherent in these words.  Remember my friends; life is good…stay tuned for next week’s installment.

Written by Ryan Flint, NSCA-CPT, Sports Nutritionist

I’ve read about this very interesting Harvard University study about exercise multiple times in the past, but I was just recently reminded about this study again while reading the fascinating book called 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman.

Pay attention, because this actually shows a pretty powerful trick that you can use to literally make ANY workout or exercise program a LOT more effective and results producing.

According to the book 59 Seconds, here’s how this study was carried out:

Researchers at Harvard University studied over 80 hotel room cleaning attendants from 7 different hotels.  The hotel room attendants naturally received a lot of exercise from their daily jobs, which included cleaning an average of 15 rooms per day at about 25 minutes per room.  This work involves a good deal of exercise in carrying things, scrubbing, lifting objects, vacuuming, and so on.

The researchers knew the hotel maids led an active lifestyle from their work, but also questioned whether most of the maids may not realize that their work was actually good for their health.  The researchers set out to study the effects on the hotel attendants of making them very aware of how beneficial the exercise they got while working was for their health, and to see if this increased the results that they actually received from the exercise.

Basically, the question was… Would telling them that their work was great exercise improve their health, lower their blood pressure, and help them to lose weight compared to the hotel attendants that didn’t realize their work was in fact “exercise”?

The hotel attendants were split into 2 groups:

1. This group was informed about the benefits of exercise and told how many calories they were burning while doing their hotel cleaning work each day. They were specifically told how many calories activities such as changing sheets, vacuuming, and scrubbing bathrooms were burning each hour.

The researchers also wanted this information to stick in their heads daily, so they gave the attendants a handout showing the quantities of calories they were burning doing each activity of their jobs.  They were also shown a poster daily that reinforced how many calories they were burning.

2.  The control group of hotel cleaning attendants was simply informed of the benefits of exercise, but we’re NOT told how many calories they were burning doing their work, and also were NOT told that their work actually constituted a good form of exercise.

The researchers studied the existing lifestyles of all of the participants in both groups as well as giving them various health tests, including weigh-ins.

The study was conducted for 4 weeks.  The researchers made sure that none of the participants had actually changed their exercise habits, smoking, or eating habits outside of work.  This assured that there was no external lifestyle factor that could have accounted for the results of the study.

In addition, the hotel managers assured that the workloads of both groups stayed the same throughout the entire experiment.

Here are the VERY interesting results:

It turned out that the group of hotel cleaning attendants that was informed daily about the calorie-burning effects of their normal work routines ended up losing a significant amount of weight, lowered their body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio, and decreased their blood pressure.

The control group of hotel attendants that was not told about the calories they burned while doing their work showed NONE of these improvements.

Wow… very interesting huh! 

Remember that each of these groups received the SAME amount of exercise and did not alter their lifestyle, eating habits, drinking habits, smoking, or anything else.  The only thing that was different between the 2 groups was simply that the one group was constantly being reminded of how beneficial the exercise during their work was for their health and how many calories they were burning, and therefore their minds were busy believing in the benefits of it.

This actually doesn’t surprise me… this is classic placebo effect at work here, and reinforces how powerful our brains are in relation to the results we get from exercise, food, supplements, etc.

How to use this info to burn more fat in your workouts, build more lean muscle, and improve your health more from exercise and nutrition

There’s a good lesson in this study.  If you strongly believe in your mind that the workouts that you are doing are drastically improving your body, your results will increase dramatically from those workouts. 

The trick I’ve used over the years is to really “get mental” during your workouts and believe strongly that the exercise you are doing is transforming your body into a lean chiseled machine.  So, if you want to burn more fat, not only do you need to work out intensely (for your individual capabilities), but you also need to mentally visualize the results you’re getting, the body fat you are burning, and really strongly believe in how powerful the workout routine that you are doing really is for your body.

Along the same lines, if your goal is to build more muscle, then you really need to strongly believe in your mind at how powerfully your workouts are helping you to build muscle.

And this can be applied to your food intake too!

Don’t underestimate how powerful your mind really is… If you are eating healthy foods such as those detailed in our client binders and nutritional guide, make sure that you are also actively thinking in your mind about how those foods are dramatically helping your body, making you stronger, making you leaner, improving your energy and health, and so on.

Don’t ignore this… this will drastically improve your results if you actively think about how truly healthy the foods you are eating every day are and how they are changing your body.  This is assuming that you actually are eating truly healthy foods every day.

Another benefit of this “mental programming” is that it trains you to actually want to avoid junk foods, because you want to be able to think about how everything you eat is improving your body instead.

So there you go… an interesting study that shows how you can legitimately increase your results from your exercise and nutrition by just actively thinking about the benefits of both every day!

Last week we went over the first 5 steps in becoming excuse free in your pursuit of Lifestyle Change.  This week we continue.  If you haven’t read the first installment, I would encourage you to do so as a good preface to what you will read here.

 Step #6:  Remember it is NOT as hard as everybody tells you!

We have been cultured since our youth to believe that “change is hard”.  I would like to challenge this conventional (false) wisdom.  I want to present this to you by first having you sit down in a quiet place and have you visualize EXACTELY what your ideal lifestyle looks like.  Be very specific.  How do you feel?  What do you look like, what is your energy level like, ECT?  Now I want you to shift back into your current state and examine the exact same things.  Now contrast the two lifestyles and you tell me which one is harder to live?

The point is that we think about how hard it is to change…and yes change can be hard but it is NOT any harder than the grief our present lifestyle presents to us on a daily basis.  Obesity, low energy from lack of exercise, poor nutrition and a host of other personal habits MAKES OUR LIVES HARDER THAN IT NEEDS TO BE!  So to rectify this I propose that you take a big breath, be confident and bold as you change your habits

Step #7:  ACTION

We all know that sitting around and thinking about our goals, our plan of action and roadmap will do nothing to promote lifestyle change.  You must get off your butt and start moving as planned.  Remember your plan of attack was step # 4 from last week, now it is time to actually execute it.  You may be uncomfortable or not confident in doing it as first, but don’t fear…that will change.  Your self confidence will grow and you start to see the small changes in your life. 

Step #8: Never Blame Anything or Anyone…EVER AGAIN!

This is one of the most crucial steps you can implement.  You may be saying to yourself “well, I don’t blame anybody or anything”.  While that may be true, chances are that you use the “blame game” more than you think.  Blaming others is an indication of your maturity level.  The more you blame, then less proactive you are in changing your own life and you surrender your own ability to make choices.  Your character is dinged every time you blame.  When blaming starts, you essentially surrender your God-given ability to make choices for yourself and not be acted upon by others.  Nobody can ever take away your agency.  So if you find yourself constantly making excuses for your failures or blaming others for them, it is time for a fresh start.  You ARE in control and have the ability to make wise independent choices for yourself.

 Step #9: Positivity Activity

This can be a life changing activity if you let it be.  I want you to take the next 30 days and write down every negative comment that comes out of your mouth.  On the opposite side of you paper I want you to write just the opposite…I want it to the positive opposite.  You will be amazed at how addicted you are to negativity and pessimism.   Remember to succeed long-term you must have a positive mindset.

 Step #10: Recondition your Subconscious Mind!

This single step will take me a whole blog, so that is exactly what I will do.  Next week I will write on this subject in an easy to understand format.  Suffice it to say right now, if you can apply these first 9 steps you will already start the process of re-programming your subconscious mind.

Well there you have it my friends!  I am excited to have you try these steps.  They are rooted in timeless principles that if applied can change your life.  This is my sincere hope. Until next time remember that…

Life is good!

In my nearly 10 years of service in the health and fitness industry I have seen a common thread among those who fail at changing their lifestyle.  That thread I am referring to is that of excuse making!  We all have them and we all know deep down that they hinder our efforts to succeed in every way. 

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer in his book, Excuses Begone! states that excuses if used enough become a reality within our own minds even if they are not true.  He call’s these states of mind, “memes”, named after a branch of Psychology called Memetics.  Memes are nothing more than a certain perception, understanding, view, or paradigm that we hold in our mind that we treasure as truth.

Memes can be good or bad.  For example, in my own life I choose to entertain the meme that I am a “work-horse” and my actions follow through on a daily basis.  If kept in proper balance this meme serves me in a positive way.  On the other hand I have seen many people suffering with negative memes.  I will list a few of them below as they pertain to achieving and maintaining a healthy and fit lifestyle.

• “I just don’t have time to workout”
• “I am way too busy to get to the gym or go running today”
• “I am too stressed to eat right”
• “Eating clean is too time consuming”
• “Eating healthy is expensive and time consuming”
• “I don’t have the self-control to reach my fitness goals”
• “I have failed in the past so why try now”
• “That’s just the way I am”
• “I can’t lose weight because of my genetics”
• “My family does not support my efforts so I cannot succeed in my goals”
• “It’s just my luck”

I could go on for four more pages of excuses and memes but I think you get the point.  I can hear many of you thinking right now…”well those aren’t necessarily excuses; those are merely realities to be dealt with.  Ok, I will not disagree entirely with that contention, BUT what I want to point out in the following recovery program is that ALL of the aforementioned excuses are memes…that is they do not have control over us, and they are not foregone conclusions.  I really boils down to what our priorities are and what we need to do to change them.  In this weeks blog I will share the first 5 and next week I will conclude.

 Step: #1  Recognize that an excuse in just that…an excuse! 

This sounds simple enough but it is the hardest step of them all.  It is hard to get past our ego’s that constantly stand on guard and try to defend our self made realities (excuses) as though we are merely helpless victims that have no say in what happens to us or our ability to change our lives for the better. 

Step #2:  Recognize that your excuses are barriers to changing your lifestyle.

Once we know that we are making excuses (step #1), we are then able to be proactive and realize that our excuses are actual barriers standing in the way of our health and fitness success.  This is a step of realization and reality check.  Please use this step as an opportunity to change your perceptions of your “false realities”.  Take each excuse in isolation and put it under an magnifying glass…ask yourself how this particular excuse has helped you succeed in the past and then be honest enough with yourself to recognize that it hasn’t.  This may sound cheesy, but I encourage you to give it an honest effort…you will find this to be extremely helpful in weeding out the excuses in your life.

Step #3:  Be the opposite!

Here is where I want you to be proactive.  I want you to literally write down every excuse that you can think of.  Write it on a piece of paper with a line down the middle.  In the first column write down your excuse, and then in the second column write down the exact opposite.  For example, if you use the common excuse of “I don’t have any time”, you would then write down the opposite of, “I am creative and capable enough to find time to workout”.  The real key here is to act on the opposite statements that you are writing down.  Your subconscious mind will only start to believe the opposite statements if and when you start to live that way.   Please do not skimp on this step…it is vital to your progress.

Step #4 Create a success road map.

Now that you have all your excuses written down and you are actively trying to do their direct opposite, you will now benefit by putting together a plan of attack.  A synonym for this might be goal setting. I suggest the following steps for your road map.

            -Step #1:  Begin from the end.  What do you ultimately want to accomplish?  Take a picture of somebody you would like to look like.  Keep in mind if you are over 50 and you pull out a picture of a 25 year-old bodybuilder you are setting yourself up for failure.  Please remember to stay realistic.

            -Step #2: Have a plan A and B and Possibly C.  This is where preparation is paramount.  Say for example fast food is a weakness of yours because you like the convenience.  To overcome this you would plan your healthy meals the night before OR you can plan to eat somewhere healthier instead of a fast food joint.  Prepare daily!  There truly is no substitute for this!  I promise you that you need to have back up plans for the tough times.

            -Step #3:  Plan around your weaknesses!  It makes no sense to plan for your strengths…that is why they are your strengths!  It is your weaknesses that impede you every time!  So when making your goals plan, your attack plan directly targeted at your weakness!   For example, let’s say that you are a mid-night snacker, and it is contributing to weight gain.  A sensible plan would be to make sure that you are prepared in the day time and that you are eating more healthy frequent meals so that you don’t feel famished by the night time.

Step 5: Switch Paradigms! 

Remember that your current mindset is filled with excuses that have kept you where you are at right now…in a stagnant state filled with no victories!  What I want you to do, is to start thinking differently.  Steps 1-3 will help you with this immensely!  Be positive rather than negative.  Be optimistic rather than pessimistic.  Be happy rather than depressed!  Sometimes we like to think of ourselves as helpless little victims that have no choice in the matter when in fact we have all the say in the world.  Even your mood is a decision you make.

I promise you that you have the ability to change your mind so that all of those tired, worn-out excuses do not make it into your mind!  It will take time, discipline and hard mental work but you must do it or you will fall victim to your current mindset that has gotten you nowhere so far.

Well there you have it my friends!  Next week I will delve into the next 5 steps that can effect positive changes in your life.  Until then stay positive and APPLY what you have learned today.  Remember that life truly is good.

In good health,

Griff

Beginning in the 1960’s numerous surveys from the Federal Government have been issued to the general population about exercise.  One of the questions that have been asked from that decade forward is regarding why people DO NOT exercise.  The #1 reason each and every year from that time forward is time.  We just can’t seem to get enough time and to make it worse we seem to get more and more busy each and every year.  We can all agree that time is hard to come by but we can also agree that exercise is very important and should not be edged out in the name of being “busy”

I want to offer some simple suggestions that I have received from my clients over the last 10 years that has helped them overcome this barrier and get them to the point of permanent lifestyle change…where time is no longer a constant issue.

Suggestion #1:  Ask yourself the question (disclaimer…the following exercise may make you uncomfortable if you are new to this lifestyle but it will help)   Have I made my new fitness/nutrition program and absolute PRIORITY in my life?

This is where you need to sit in solitude and really search you soul…sounding cheesy?  This is an absolute necessity!  This is a time for you to dig deep within yourself and discover your readiness to make a lifelong change.  If you find that you are hesitant, doubtful, fearful, or indifferent to making this change then you need to stop and re-evaluate your priorities.  If you find that you are indeed able to make time to exercise on a daily basis then go for it and never look back.  The bottom line here is that you absolutely cannot start a new lifestyle while sitting on the fence.  If work/life is too busy and too important for this change then back off for a while and wait until you are in the doctor’s office dealing with Diabetes…you will then understand that this truly is a priority not just a luxury to be enjoyed at your convenience.

Suggestion #2:  Map out a Plan!

This is where 95% of Americans fail in there endeavor to exercise…they never schedule in a time to exercise.  I have two suggestions here.  Make a hard copy of your schedule and make a softer flexible one.  Many have a set schedule and others do not but we all have a general sense of what we are going to be doing from day to day.  On your hard copy write out what days and time during the week you will be working out and keep it on you at all times.  On the soft copy, which could be a planner, an I-Phone, or other electronic device, you can write out your week and schedule exercise in.  If you need to be flexible do it!  The key point here is to make sure that you are making a plan and sticking to it.  It is now more than a wish; it is plan of attack, your roadmap, your compass to get you where you need to be.

Suggestion #3:  Take an inventory of your EXCUSES and then throw them out the window!

This is a great exercise that is imperative to do before starting your program.  While still in the same solitude of soul searching I want you to physically write down ALL of the excuses that you have that stand in the way of you accomplishing your goals!  Each and every last one of them!  I don’t care if you think they are “valid” or not, write them all down.  I am not saying that you are not busy…please do not misunderstand.  What I am saying is that all of these excuses are just miss managed priorities.  Nobody is telling you to quit your job or abandon your family…quite the contrary.

Suggestion #4:   Re-Prioritize!

Now I want you to write down your Daily schedule.  I understand that it may fluctuate…that is not the point.  I want you to FIND the time that will work best for you to exercise and make that your permanent time if possible.  If your schedule fluctuates you are going to have to make some omissions to make time for exercise.  Not possible you say?  NONSENSE!  I want you to be a grown up here and MAKE EXERCISE A PRIORITY!  Stop fooling yourself with every excuse that you find yourself making. Do you see what I am saying here?  All of those excuses may be important but if they are more important than exercise then what you are telling me exercise is not important and I cannot buy that one.  It is time to make a paradigm shift and make exercise a priority.  One last thought…do not skimp on writing this one down!  Physically writing it down into your planner will give you the psychological benefit of knowing that you are indeed making it a priority!  Write out your Dailey and weekly schedule with exercise included. Now I want you to RESPECT it!  I don’t care how busy you are, when it comes time for your exercise time it is time to put those important things aside temporarily and fulfill your obligation period…no excuses…just do it. 

Suggestion #5: Realize that you really DO have the time! 

In the governmental surveys mentioned earlier, it was concluded that time was the major barrier to exercise.  But subsequent studies have proven that NOT to be the case.  What the studies found is that people really have the time if they want it, but they don’t know how to manage their time and they also found that they do not know have to manage their emotions.  In other words millions of Americans come home from work each day and they feel tired…so they then opt not to exercise.  Another common situation is that we feel stressed so we opt for more leisure or comfortable activities to the expense of exercise.

Well there we have it my friends.  I apologize if I get a little too passionate about this topic, but I do know that there is ALWAYS time for fitness if we allow it.