I enjoyed reading a recent interview of our U.S. Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin, in the New York Times.
Some officials did not support her nomination for this key role because of her weight. They felt she would “perpetuate” obesity instead of battling it. Her response to this concern in the interview was right on the money: “People should be healthy and fit whatever size they are.”
Our businesses, health care, and even government are making a grave mistake by shining a bright light on “being overweight” and turning health behaviors into prescribed medication.
By focusing on overweight/obesity individuals feel badly about themselves and like moral failures. These feelings harm long-term behavior change and on-going motivational processes – so it’s very counterproductive. Also, turning behavior into medicine instead of promoting it as a way to express yourself and proactively nurture yourself and your life will not produce lasting motivation and daily decision making for most.
To make losing a certain amount of weight the primary outcome of interest also sets most up to fail given that no one has invented an approach to weight loss that can be sustained over time by most individuals. Yes, it may be an important “clinical” outcome but it shouldn’t be what individuals are focused on achieving.
Instead, we should be socializing folks to how much better they’ll feel and live their lives if they make different choices and add certain behaviors to their lives. When individuals connect a behavior to feeling better than they did and to having more energy to achieve their numerous goals and responsibilities – now that makes it compelling to continue.
If you are skeptical of this idea, know that other professionals who have been working with behavior change, like Dean Ornish, have come to advocate this same principle. See his Huffington Post article and scroll down to his 5th point.
It’s important to keep in mind that many helpful outcomes can be achieved from doing things like becoming more physically active or meditating regularly, without any weight loss occurring. Moreover, if these behaviors MEAN feeling good, peace, or freedom they become gifts individuals desire to keep giving themselves instead of chores to accomplish.
Anyone interested in behavior change will likely never sustain their goals (individuals or organizations) if their primary focus isn’t on how to produce motivation and facilitate decision making that will successfully lead to behavior 2-5+ years from now.
I think the Surgeon General’s last response is a great idea for what we should be thinking about!
When asked “what sort of exercise do you recommend for people who don’t love it?” She said:
“Maybe we need to dance more as a nation. Yes, I love to dance, and whenever I’m at events and places with music, I will dance…”
Despite the fact she ended her comment with “…That exercise is medicine. It’s better than most pills,” and thus, medicalized dancing, she definitely is sending out a better message than most. Also, see novel initiatives by creative health care groups, like Spirit of Women, to create Days of Dance as a way to engage individuals.
Hey, let’s just stop at the idea of getting up, putting on some fun music, and moving our bodies! We need to do a much better job educating Americans that things like dancing at home for even five to 10 minutes really DO COUNT.
After working with individuals on this issue for almost 20 years I can tell you that even the most educated and powerful still need to be given permission to move away from the out-of-date and passe recommendations to “do it ’till it burns” and “all or nothing.”
If we really want to connect with Americans in more compelling ways, then health professionals and exercise advocates need to stop talking like researchers and/or heath care providers, they need to stop “prescribing dosages” and instead start talking in an emotionally engaging way as Regina Bejamin started doing.
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