Did you know there are five specific tenets for supporting lasting behavior change? 🤔
Did you know a lot of popular approaches to health do NOT focus on what we know works? 🤯
Today, we're talking about the following keys to promoting health sustaining behaviors:
Spark intrinsic motivation to inspire and maintain change.
Reinforce behaviors over outcomes – focus on what they can control.
Teach practical and scalable skills emphasizing flexibility and personalization.
Promote mindset shifts to prioritize sustainable behavior change.
Build self-esteem and self-efficacy by creating opportunities for success.
We'll leave the diets and financial bets at the door, focusing instead on what truly fosters lasting change.
Join me on this enlightening journey as we emphasize the significance of intrinsic motivation and reveal how all-or-nothing thinking can undermine your progress.
As a national board-certified health and wellness coach and certified personal trainer, my insights into focusing on the controllable aspects of behavior over unpredictable outcomes will shift your perspective on what it means to lead a healthier life.
We'll speak to the importance of skill-building and cultivating self-compassion and self-efficacy, celebrating the small victories that culminate in transformative change.
Equip yourself with the mindset and tools necessary to revolutionize your approach to health and habits. Take advantage of this compelling episode that could redefine your wellness trajectory.
Did you know there are five specific tenets for supporting lasting behavior change? 🤔
Did you know a lot of popular approaches to health do NOT focus on what we know works? 🤯
Today, we're talking about the following keys to promoting health sustaining behaviors:
Spark intrinsic motivation to inspire and maintain change.
Reinforce behaviors over outcomes – focus on what they can control.
Teach practical and scalable skills emphasizing flexibility and personalization.
Promote mindset shifts to prioritize sustainable behavior change.
Build self-esteem and self-efficacy by creating opportunities for success.
We'll leave the diets and financial bets at the door, focusing instead on what truly fosters lasting change.
Join me on this enlightening journey as we emphasize the significance of intrinsic motivation and reveal how all-or-nothing thinking can undermine your progress.
As a national board-certified health and wellness coach and certified personal trainer, my insights into focusing on the controllable aspects of behavior over unpredictable outcomes will shift your perspective on what it means to lead a healthier life.
We'll speak to the importance of skill-building and cultivating self-compassion and self-efficacy, celebrating the small victories that culminate in transformative change.
Equip yourself with the mindset and tools necessary to revolutionize your approach to health and habits. Take advantage of this compelling episode that could redefine your wellness trajectory.
Hi and welcome to the Air we Breathe. I'm your host, heather Sears-Laman. I'm a national board certified health and wellness coach, certified intuitive eating counselor and certified personal trainer. I help you get organized and consistent with healthy habits, without rules, obsession or exhaustion. The Air we Breathe a finding wellbeing that works for you is a podcast created to help you establish a trusted foundation of doable healthy habits and smart self-care skills that can endure every season and last you a lifetime. My guests and I will share ways that you can focus on your physical and mental health with purpose, flexibility and ease.
Speaker 1:
This podcast may contain talk about eating disorders and disordered eating. We minimize mentions of specific behaviors and numbers, but it's still a topic nonetheless. There also could be some squares and or adult language here. Choose wisely if those are problematic for you. Hi everyone, today I'm going to talk about the keys to promoting health-sustaining behaviors. Does that sound boring enough for you? Hopefully you will nerd out with me for a little bit, because basically, when I talk about promoting health-sustaining behaviors, I'm talking about promoting healthy habits. But there are ways that we go about it that seem helpful, that are not helpful and actually make it harder for us to perform these habits. But there are real tenets of behavior change at play and it's important that we are able to ask some questions to see if this is going to support sustainable behavior change.
Speaker 1:
Now, why in the world do things exist that promote quote unquote healthy habits or behavior change? In theory, but it doesn't work out that way. Usually profit, because if I'm trying to sell you something, I need to package it and I need to have everything that you need. It's all complete, everything's in there and it's got all the details, because then that makes a comprehensive product that you can buy. It does not mean that this works at all. There are tons of incredibly profitable things. I'll say whole authority is a great example of completely unsustainable practices that then now people are convinced. Oh, I did it for 30 days, of course, what are people dreaming of? They're dreaming of day 31, which is pancakes and pizza and dairy milkshakes. But it's also packaged as, oh my gosh, it's going to really help me change my behaviors. It's not Good luck making it to 30 days anyway, but that's not its design and it doesn't follow any tenets of sustainable behavior change.
Speaker 1:
I want to. If we're looking at a kaleidoscope, am I turning the lens a little bit because I want things to look different and I want you to be able to ask questions as you're looking to pursue healthy habits, to see is this a route? I want to go in the first place Because we all know how much time, how much energy we put into trying to create habits and behavior change, and nobody wants to waste their time or their money and I totally get it, I don't either. So I have on my websites the keys to promoting health, sustaining behaviors. So if you go to overcomingyoucom, just the letter, you, and there's a bar on the top where you can download keys to promoting health, sustaining behaviors. If you go to heathersayerslaymancom backslash white dash paper you can download it there as well, and basically it's just got questions to ask, because I think that when we are kicking the tires and thinking about something, we don't know what questions to ask to be able to suss out if this is even effective or not, and so I'm giving you some questions that you can ask to see if this is going to be helpful or not. So do download that.
Speaker 1:
Obviously, this information is going to be in the show notes as well, but I think it's handy to have into my corporate wellness peeps when you are looking at new programming. Let's just say you've got a vendor coming in and they're talking about this. They've got the razzle, dazzle, slides, all the outcomes, blah, blah, blah. Fine, you can ask these questions to see if it's going to support sustainable behavior change and who doesn't like to get some questions. But also your vendors should be able to answer these questions and you should have that information as you move forward to make a decision. So I use this also for myself to vet anything that I'm building, because I need to make sure I'm helping people create sustainable, healthy habits. So, whether you create content, whether you are just a user, whether you're a corporate wellness person like all five of these pieces will be very helpful for you.
Speaker 1:
Okay, diving right in the first. So there's five keys. First key spark intrinsic motivation to inspire and maintain change. So basically, if I'm talking about intrinsic motivation, I am going to contrast that with extrinsic motivation that is happening from outside of us versus motivation that we are creating ourselves. So extrinsic motivation can be many things. We may have someone in our life who gives us feedback that we need to be changing. I don't like that one at all.
Speaker 1:
In corporate wellness, we may have an employer that looks like you've got some health conditions or looks like your BMI is out of whack. You need to change that extrinsic motivation. Also, it's characteristic as well. It could be ooh, we'll give you an incentive if you change it, and the other side of the stick of oh, we'll charge you more if you don't change it. So we see extrinsic motivation everywhere and a lot of people like just listening to something about that stupid diet bets, where then you bet someone about losing weight. I can't say enough bad things about that as a concept. But also, clearly, it's relying on extrinsic motivation because you're betting someone that you can change something. And again, I guess people do it over and over again because it doesn't work. I don't know who's using that. Anyway, intrinsic motivation that we have from ourselves for ourselves, creates much longer lasting, more inspiring change. Extrinsic motivation can lead to burnout, but it also leads to attrition of just quitting.
Speaker 1:
So I worked many years ago at this company, very briefly, and they had this big weight loss challenge. I feel like I should date this 2011. So it was a long time ago. Do these things still exist today? They do so anyway. The winner, and again, this is 2011. The winner got six grand. So obviously that's a bunch of money. Who wouldn't want that? And I had started right before this. So I got thrown right into it and I was like, wait, what? What was happening? Is this what we're doing? And oh boy. So I had 120 people sign up, which is really a pretty big chunk of their employees, and it was long I won't remember it was at least like three months long, for sure. So again, it's just riddled with problems from the jump. But the extrinsic motivation here is cash. People are going to win the sixth grand. So 120 people sign up, how many people do you think finished? 12. Okay, so they had 90% attrition, 90% of people quit, 10% of people actually finished.
Speaker 1:
And then it was an actual subjective review of whoever they thought finished the best and wrote the best essay. It was a mess top to bottom and many people lost a lot of weight and still didn't win which. There was one person in particular that I knew was so angry and bitter that they had worked so hard to win this thing that they were literally like spite eating Forget my employer F this so stupid and really taking all of their results because they were mad at their employer. I will also say I shouldn't say taking their results. They were probably super hungry from restricting their diet for months. And this is what happens when you restrict your diet for months, like you're going to bench, absolutely so anyway, long story short, that extrinsic motivation that on the first day people were so jazzed about was not enough to make people press the finish line. But then, certainly of the people who did finish, their results were not sustainable because of the way that they went about them as well, mess top to bottom. But people really like to think, oh my gosh, if I had that hanging in front of me. No, and we've certainly seen from biggest loser results and the research they've done on that no, people don't. That type of weight loss is not sustainable. Most weight loss is not sustainable. So, anyway.
Speaker 1:
So there are questions you can ask and what is the why here and how is that supported? Because if I want to look to myself for intrinsic motivation, so I have been an exerciser. So that makes me a poor example of to talk about how you keep exercising, because I just do and, just like people, just do other things and I think sometimes that. So my reasons are. So I just suppose I like being active. I did dance and sports and elementary school and then I moved to the gym when I was 15 because I don't have any athletic ability or dance ability apparently. So off to the gym I go because I like being active. And then there's all kinds of like diet, culture stuff messed up in there over the years and so when I had to go through eating disorder recovery and get real with myself about like why are you exercising anyway? I was like I like it. I like to lift heavy stuff.
Speaker 1:
I feel better once I'm up and mobile and moving around. I like to do it in the morning because I like to start my day that way and I feel more loose, less tight, and I also feel like I wake up pretty anxious. So I feel like, okay, now I did something and I feel good about what I've accomplished. So my why really is about supporting my health. I have health conditions. I worry about that because if I look at my family lineage or look at my mom's health conditions, it was nothing but a downward spiral and I don't want that. I'm trying to do the best with what I've got and being active as part of that.
Speaker 1:
Also from a mental health perspective, I think it's extremely helpful. So, anyway, like going down your own rabbit hole about why and how does that link to you and your inner self, and not just, oh, I want to be able to always fit into these genes or another extrinsic. I don't want this person saying something to me about my size or my weight, but what are your reasons for wanting to do this? Because, again, it's not like anybody's walking around all day asking you like what's important to you, what do you think? So it's important to ask yourself have you ever felt like the do-it-yourself approach to improving your healthy habits ends up doing nothing except making you feel overwhelmed, guilty and defeated? Have you been struggling to find sustainable routines that work for your responsibilities, lifestyle, budget and personal preferences? You don't need more rules, influencers or structured programs. Let me help you discover what you want, what works for you and how to maintain healthy habits during the ever-changing circumstances of your life. If you're ready to create systems that stick head to heathersayerslaymancom, backslash health dash coaching and click, let's do it.
Speaker 1:
Also, the questions of things that support intrinsic motivation are autonomy, purpose and competence. So autonomy is you getting to choose what you want to do? Purpose is why is this meaningful to you and competence is feeling as you have some sort of mastery over what you're doing. So these things can be incredibly motivating because when I have learned something new I did box pre-pandemic and it was great because I had to learn Like, yeah, we hooked All of that Like I didn't know. And it had more excitement for me because I've worked out for a long time and I got to learn something new. So really looking at those pieces I think can be helpful when we are looking at intrinsic motivation, but just asking the question to yourself of what is my intrinsic motivation.
Speaker 1:
Again, if you download the keys, you'll have the questions in front of you and be able to answer those a little more thoroughly as well. So the second key is reinforcing behaviors over outcomes. So focus on what you can control and I talk about this a lot because, again, outcome my genes, fitting my weight, lowering my A1c, dropping my blood pressure I cannot directly control if that is going to happen, but if I'm talking about my blood pressure, I can control if I'm trying to have less sodium, I can control if I'm trying to get in more vegetables, if I'm trying to move more, if I'm trying to lower my stress. All of those things I can control and that should be my focus. Because, let's just say, I am dropping my blood pressure slowly over time, which is great, but focusing on the behavior piece of that is much more helpful in the big picture. Because what if I did those things for my high blood pressure and I didn't lower it? Does that mean what? Give me a salt lick, I'm just going to have salt all day. I'm not going to be active. Forget these veggies. It didn't work. Hopefully not, because again, if we have a health condition and we can't move the needle and then perhaps we need medication because hello genetics, environment many times we need a medication I still want to do the health sustaining behaviors to support what is helpful. So a behavior focus.
Speaker 1:
Third piece teach practical and scalable skills, emphasizing flexibility and personalization. So a big part of this is finding what works for you, what works for you, but really looking at skill building. So if we look at something like planning, shopping, cooking, that has a lot of skills in it and people underestimate that, they judge themselves. They're like why can't I do this? Why is this so hard? And a lot of the skills. There are so many skills that I do not have and, for me, organization is one skill I do have. Please don't ask me to back up a truck with a trailer on it, because I can't do it. Don't ask me to help on taxes no, thank you, can't do it. And legal things like contracts I can't even read that, but I can't do organization. So, overall here, understanding that as I start this new health, sustaining behaviors, I'm going to need to build skills, and that's okay. Just like when I started boxing, oh boy, these are skills that I need to learn now because I need to learn how to do them, but I also need to learn how to do them safely and making sure I'm taking care of my body in the meantime, while I'm building up these skills. Looking at the skill building piece, am I learning things and in what way do I need to teach? So again, if I'm looking at planning shopping, cooking like I love, certainly an Instagram account that does like meal prep I don't even cook anymore because my husband cooks and I still enjoy watching that, but there are places that we can learn mastery over some skills.
Speaker 1:
Fourth key promote mindset shifts to prioritize sustainable behavior change. So mindset is it. Mindset is so important and I really find that that a lot of programs the mindset it's like backwards. It's having you focus on the outcome because you've got to get on a scale. Okay, I'm supposed to be focusing on behaviors, not the outcome, but many of them will really push towards things that you can't control Not helpful. So I am always trying to walk people away from things like the all or nothing, the perfectionism, because those keep us very stuck in not pursuing health, sustaining behaviors because we are quote unquote not doing them right. We are not doing enough. Every sort of mean self-talk thing that you can think of is something that goes into the mindset shift piece and when we're looking at behavior change, having a helpful, kind, supportive, self-compassionate mindset is the way to keep doing those behaviors. So our final key is build self-esteem and self-efficacy by creating opportunities for success.
Speaker 1:
I said this before. I think I've said everything before but really doing things in a way that you feel good about yourself and also checking that inner voice to have a voice that's saying to you good job, you did it, you showed up, you laced your shoes, that's something. But being so mindful of the negative voice of you missed again or you sure didn't work very hard or that's not the food that we prepped last night that you're eating here, or you're letting all of your stress get to you and now you're acting out, but not being that voice and being a voice that is supportive. So self-esteem and self-efficacy is feeling like you are competent. And again it takes a kind voice to tell ourselves like, oh my gosh, do you remember when you first started and you couldn't do this at all? Do you remember when you first started cooking and you would have one thing done before you even started the other thing? You remember how bad that timing was. Look at you Like now you're getting it so much closer, but it's really being a cheerleader, someone in you that's observing your progress and is proud of you for it.
Speaker 1:
And I like to talk about self-esteem and self-efficacy because this bleeds into the behavior focus as well, because I'm doing the things. I may not have an outcome that I set out to get, maybe the scale isn't moving or my blood pressure isn't changing, but you know what I'm doing the things and I'm taking care of myself, I'm treating myself as a friend and I feel good about that. I think that the self-kindness and self-compassion needed for all of these pieces is so helpful. And it's also uncommon, because I feel like, especially like the world of biohacking, where there's something new you need to be doing, there's something different from what you're doing now. There's something better out there, like the whole thing is just a blaring, like you are not enough, you are not doing enough and you're not doing it right, not helpful. Some people love it and go ahead and go for it. I feel like I hear not enoughness in that all of the time, and people that may not be very happy and they are chasing happiness, contentness, peacefulness by doing this.
Speaker 1:
Next newest thing Also before there's even a lot of evidence on that. Next newest thing Fasting became the big biohack. Next newest thing Now that people have been studying it long enough, when you get to a year, there's really no difference in health benefits with fasting, between fasting and caloric restriction, and everybody was convinced like this is the way. So I just don't even listen to a lot of those. Well, here's the newest thing, because 30 years in the business, everything comes around again and there's really nothing new under the sun. So any who? So those are the five keys to promoting health, sustaining behavior. So again, you might have listened, because you're changing it and you have to like the language when you download the sheet is towards people who are asking if they are more in the corporate wellness realm, but you can absolutely modify to ask these yourself. I'm going to repeat them.
Speaker 1:
So spark intrinsic motivation to inspire and maintain change. Reinforce behaviors over outcomes. Focus on what they can control. Teach practical and scalable skills, emphasizing flexibility and personalization what works for me. Promote mindset shifts to prioritize sustainable behavior change. Build self esteem and self efficacy by creating opportunities for success. So do look that over and think about some of the things you're doing, or maybe some plans you have, and look, am I going about this in a way that is going to promote long term change? Because, again, you can do anything you want to promote short term change. I think it's more effective if you're focusing on long term change, because we don't want to be weight cycling, we don't want to be dieting, we don't want to do something Again. That's why, like a 30 day, whatever is not it because we want to do something that we can be doing in five years, in 10 years.
Speaker 1:
So hopefully that's good reading for you and also a great opportunity to journal Heather Sayerslaymancom backslash journal for my 3D journaling guide, to be able to walk your way through these questions, because each of the keys on the sheet has three different questions you can ask yourself. I hope this is helpful as we all keep trying to march towards our healthy habits and holding those for ourselves with kindness and compassion. Good luck to you. Thanks so much for listening today. Do you know what would be really fun if you popped over to my Instagram at Heather Sayerslayman and dropped me a DM and let me know what topics you want me to cover? Anything bugging you, something holding you up? Please just let me know and I will tweak some content and get an episode out just for you. As always, please follow, show, or you can leave a five star review on Apple or Spotify. That would be fun too. See you in the next episode.
