In today’s New York Times, there was an article about Self Magazine transforming itself to better compete in the crowded women’s health and fitness magazine marketplace.
One change of note is the name of their column about eating; it will change from “Eat Right” to “Smart Eating.” Interestingly, a few months back, Oprah announced that among other new things, Oprah Magazine was changing the name of its Health column from targeting “health” to “Feeling Good.”
These important changes signify a greater key shift that is happening within our healthcare system and culture. The context of “advice” is shifting from being “should-based” and prescriptive into advice that better promotes personal autonomy and individually-determined choices. Research on one of my favorite theories for promoting behavior change, Self-Determination Theory, has clearly shown that when we initiate behaviors with a sense of autonomy we “own” the behavior more and it feels more compelling to do it regularly. We know that the prescriptive, medically-based advice approach to promoting behavior change clearly doesn’t work to produce sustainable behavior for most people.
While some of us might prefer to be told exactly what to do (e.g., do the “right” exercise; eat the “right” food), in general, this approach is ineffective for creating changes that will last. It’s like trying to put a round peg into a square hole. Our lives are so complex that the only way we can successfully sustain behaviors is if we make them FIT into OUR LIVES based on our unique preferences, schedules and challenges.
“Smart eating” is a much more inclusive term and less judgmental than “right eating.” It goes beyond following prescriptions about how many grams of a certain type of food we should eat, something that turns eating into chemistry class. Being “smart” opens up the possibilities to things like “learning to listen to your body” when you eat so you can connect to feelings of hunger and of being full, or satisfied. If we are disconnected from our body’s signals of hunger and satiation we will consistently overeat.
The change in Oprah’s magazine directly reflects what I’ve found in my research on physical activity: Women are more likely to want to be physically active, and stick with it, if it reflects feeling good. (“Health” it turns out, is not a very good motivator for physical activity, almost as bad as “losing weight.”)
It’s logical that individuals will make changes to “become healthier.” But let’s go beyond assumptions about logic for a moment. Research in behavioral economics clearly shows that we don’t behave logically or make the most optimal choices for ourselves. Selling “health” doesn’t work to produce lasting behaviors for most because it turns the behavior into a chore. It also doesn’t make it to the top of our “To Do” lists because there are always more urgent things to do every day than promote good health.
The solution is to initiate behavior changes out of a desire to feel better and live as well as possible. Once we start to notice how differently we feel, how much more energy we have when we make different behavioral decisions, we will want to keep making these choices. The way to do this is to connect the behavior with something concrete that benefits our quality of life. NOW. We are simply too busy juggling life to do things because we might possibly “reduce our risk factors for disease.” And, who wants to use up our cherished leisure time doing something that feels like taking a dose of medicine? Yuk.