Postcards from the Id

Sleep Improves Athletic Performance

I know this sounds common-sensical, but this article reviews research indicating that increasing sleep for a seven-to-eight week period improved college football player's sprint times, as well as increased energy level and reduced daytime drowsiness.  From the article:

Results indicate that football players' sprint times improved significantly after seven to eight weeks of sleep extension. Average sprint time in the 20-yard shuttle improved from 4.71 seconds to 4.61 seconds, and the average 40-yard dash time decreased from 4.99 seconds to 4.89 seconds. Daytime sleepiness and fatigue also decreased significantly, while vigor scores significantly improved.

The sample was small, so replication is necessary.  However, as the article notes, the results are consistent with research into the positive impact of sleep on performance in other sports.  It also covers the observation that while getting enough sleep is important, specifics are generally not provided as part of fitness routines.  The article provides a few details in that regard.  Bottom line - as I've posted about again and again, get enough sleep.  It will improve virtually any area of your life.

Successful Dieting Depends On Cognitive Simplicity

According to this article, it is not just managing your physical environment (such as putting snacks out of sight, making healthy foods easily accessible, etc.) that impacts the success of one's dieting endeavors.  What also matters is the cognitive environment - how accessible the rules of the diet are when confronted with eating choices.  Too many rules and variations are likely to catch up with a person who is being confronted with choices, making it easier to give up.  From the article:

Dieting is not all in one's head -- environment matters, too, the professors say. The physical environment has to be set up properly, such as putting snack foods out of sight to avoid mindless eating. But the cognitive environment, they say, must also be appropriately constructed, by choosing diet rules that that one finds easy to remember and follow.

For people interested in following a diet plan, Mata suggests they take a look at several diet plans with an eye toward how many rules the plans have and how many things need to be how many things need to be kept in mind.

"If they decide to go with a more complex diet, which could be more attractive for instance if it allows more flexibility, they should evaluate how difficult they find doing the calculations and monitoring their consumption," she said. "If they find it very difficult, the likelihood that they will prematurely give up the diet is higher and they should try to find a different plan."

One thing I think is making it easier to comply with otherwise more complicated diet plans is the ever-increasing availability of technology.  Tracking calories, rules, etc. is much easier when one has various electronic gadgets that can provide nutritional info, track data (such as what you ate, caloric amounts, etc.), as well as the very rules one is trying to comply with.  The recent improvements in this area have also been seen in tracking exercise data, as GPS technology can easily record pace, distance, and other data.  This used to be far more difficult - I remember driving around in my car, measuring out various running routes with the odometer, and being frustrated that one couldn't measure off-road distances, or take improvised routes without sacrificing your knowledge of distance.  Still, keeping things simple, especially for people without a lot of previous expereince or success, makes sense in both dieting and exercise, as it increases the prospects of compliance over a longer period of time, and would seem far more likely to increase (rather than decrease) one's sense of efficiacy in their fitness efforts.

Ability to Delay Gratification Leads to Better Health

Yes, I know this is a stunning finding, but nevertheless, I shall link to it.  The gist of the research is that individuals who are better able to focus on larger, long-term payoffs with respect to their choices are typically better off, including in areas related to health.  The study focused on determining whether people were more "present-minded" (i.e. focused on immediate results), or "future-oriented" (i.e. Seeing the longer-term consequences).  From the article:

Daugherty and Brase found that it was possible to predict participants' health behaviours according to whether they were future-minded or present-minded.

For example, they found that "delay discounting and time perspective significantly improved the incremental prediction of tobacco, alcohol, and drug use, exercise frequency, eating breakfast, wearing a safety belt, estimated longevity, health concerns ...".

They also found that participants who gave future-minded answers were more likely to report healthy behaviours.

The findings could shed light on how people deal with negative health behaviours: Brase said they could help people make better health decisions. A person with a present-minded time perspective would find it easier to make changes if they could see the rewards sooner rather than later.

The article also offers suggestions regarding how to improve the decision-making processes of those who are more present-minded.  It is in this vein I chose to link to this article; while the importance of developing the ability to delay gratification is readily apparent in a wide variety of areas, the trick (both in personal efforts as well as in therapy, where this issue comes up in many different clinical goals) is how to go about improving one's ability to delay gratification.  That is, we all know it's important; the question is, how do we do it?

The article suggests that one way to improve decision-making for those who are present-minded is to emphasis the relatively quick pay-offs for the future-oriented behavior.  For example, starting an exercise regimen may be extremely important for a person with high cholesterol levels; however, the benefits may not be readily apparent in that regard.  A more present-oriented person might respond better to the associated weight-loss (or other benefits that occur more quickly), even though the primary goal is lowering cholesterol level.  This is certainly one technique that may be useful in improving an individual's decision-making processes, especially early in therapy where a focus can be on certain basic, behavioral changes.  Over time, a person may develop more future-oriented thinking through practicing in this manner (in addition to utilizing other behavioral techniques), and some cognitive techniques may also help in this regard.  As the process unfolds, the even-larger benefits of better choices made during the initial stages will become apparent, further reinforcing the smarter decisions.   

Negative Emotions Stronger Than Positive Emotions At Fitness Clubs

This article reviews recent research into how people who are clinically overweight view the experience of exercise at fitness clubs, versus individuals whose weight is within the normal range. The research was conducted with the idea of examining why so many individuals who are overweight have difficulty engaging in the very behavior that would best impact the issue (the article notes that only 30% of people considered clinically overweight meet the NIH guidelines for weekly exercise).

According to the research, overweight individuals believed exercise improved appearance and self-image more than individuals with normal weight. However, overweight individuals also reported feeling more embarrassment and intimidation when it came to exercise in general, exercising in front of younger people, and exercising in the presence of fitter individuals. There were no differences between the groups when it came to feelings regarding complicated exercises, exercising in front of members of the opposite sex, boredom with exercise, or intention to exercise.

According to these results, it is not attitude about exercise per se that accounts for differing participation levels:

Writing in the article, the authors state, "One of the most noteworthy findings of this study was that OW [overweight] and NW [normal weight] subjects did not differ in their overall attitude toward exercising at a health club. This similarity in overall attitude of the OW and NW to club exercise is somewhat surprising, in that it is often assumed that OW people do not exercise as much as NW people because the 2 groups have different attitudes about exercise.

The article goes on to point out that it is a positive attitude versus negative attitude issue that needs to be addressed, in order to facilitate more consistent fitness participation, rather than simply assuming overweight individuals do not have positive thoughts regarding exercise.

Personally, I see the value in this research, as I think this is the same issue everyone tends to deal with, but with perhaps a stronger "negative" thinking pattern to overcome. Many people, regardless of fitness level and motivation, tend to run into periods in their life where the negative thoughts begin to outweigh the positive with respect to exercise, and many fitness books and magazines (not to mention more formal therapeutic efforts) will devote some writing to strategies designed to overcome creeping negativity, such as scheduling workouts with a fitness partner in order to overcome thinking that might otherwise lead to skipping a workout. In the case of individuals with weight issues, it is important to recognize the additional issues that contribute to negative thinking about exercise (especially in a gym or club), and enact strategies designed to overcome these additional issues (i.e. the negative thoughts about exercising in front of fitter individuals).

Exercise Improves One's Body Image Regardless of Fitness Level

Interesting article here regarding the impact of exercise on one's own body image.  It seems that if an individual engages in exercise, they experience an improved sense of their body image, regardless of their overall fitness level.  From the article:

People who don't achieve workout milestones such as losing fat, gaining strength or boosting cardiovascular fitness feel just as good about their bodies as their more athletic counterparts, said Heather Hausenblas, a UF exercise psychologist. Her study is published in the September issue of the Journal of Health Psychology.

"You would think that if you become more fit that you would experience greater improvements in terms of body image, but that's not what we found," she said. "It may be that the requirements to receive the psychological benefits of exercise, including those relating to body image, differ substantially from the physical benefits."

The article also addresses the relevance of the research, in that dissatisfaction with one's body image has increased dramatically in this country over the last 20 years.  As a result, people spend tons of money on all sorts of products, diets, etc. in an effort to address their poor self-image.  According to this research, people will experience an improved sense of self regardless of whether they reach specific fitness markers, in terms of type/duration of exercise, or physiologic measurements.  Only frequency of participation appeared significant in the findings, which suggests that simply getting people to participate in some fitness-related activity regularly, regardless of length, will have a psychological benefit - one doesn't have to achieve certain thresholds before the benefits are experienced.

What is nice about this in the context of therapy is that, when exercise is a behavioral intervention (such as when treating depression), the only really important number one needs to worry about in terms of goal-setting is frequency of an activity.  The client can slide on some of the other goals (like the length of the workout, walk, jog, etc.); it is simply the act of engaging in the activity for some length of time on multiple occasions during the week that will trigger an improvement in this area.  Helping the client by adding the social/interpersonal dimension, such as "I will walk with my wife five days per week," will further increase the likelihood of initial compliance to the goal.  As improvement occurs, the other issues (such as the length of the walk) can be examined more specifically. 

In addition, this research may be important to provide as education to clients who have extremely poor body image, and/or are reluctant to initiate a workout routine due to concerns regarding "how they'll look in front of everyone."  I get that, and there can be ways to work around this issue (go for walks instead of going to the gym, for example).  However, there are certain exercise regimens that might be better for certain individuals, or certain exercises the client would otherwise prefer except for this one concern.  This research might help a client overcome their self-conciousness and facilitate their participation in an exercise routine they are otherwise more likely to participate in and enjoy. 

Mental Exertion Decreases Motivation To Exercise

According to this study, using mental and emotional resources to solve problems or cope with issues at work decreases an individual’s ability to motivate themselves to exercise.  According to the authors of the study, using willpower to address one task leaves you with less willpower to tackle other tasks.  From the article:

Martin Ginis and her colleague Steven Bray used a Stroop test to deplete the self-regulatory capacity of volunteers in the study. (A Stroop test consists of words associated with colours but printed in a different colour. For example, "red" is printed in blue ink.) Subjects were asked to say the colour on the screen, trying to resist the temptation to blurt out the printed word instead of the colour itself.

"After we used this cognitive task to deplete participants' self-regulatory capacity, they didn't exercise as hard as participants who had not performed the task. The more people "dogged it" after the cognitive task, the more likely they were to skip their exercise sessions over the next 8 weeks. "You only have so much willpower."

The authors go on to note that using up cognitive resources is not an excuse to forego other healthy activities, such as exercise. Certain activities, such as listening to music, were reported to recharge one’s batteries, and making specific plans (like scheduling exercise every night at 7 pm) also counteracted this effect.  Willpower was also compared to a muscle, in that the more one uses it and exercises it, the more it develops. 

This seems to be a researched-based confirmation of what many people have intuitively observed.  Many people struggle with maintaining a diet, working out as scheduled, etc. when they are coping with situational stressors, such as crap at work.  In fact, the technical term for this concept in the research is ego depletion.  I'm not too familiar with the various areas in which this issue has been researched, but I do think that many people have observed edo depletion in their own lives.

I personally have found that once in a groove, I am able to maintain a pattern of diet an exercise for a significant period of time.  It’s only when I’m thrown off by some situational factor (such as travel) that the pattern gets disrupted.  Of course, it may then take awhile to get back into that groove.  I also wonder if people who exercise first thing in the morning have an advantage in this regard.  That is, they get their workout in before any stressor can impact their day.  As a clinician, I wonder to what extent ego depletion impacts therapeutic progress.  First, is the therapy session itself less productive than it otherwise might be (and to what degree) due to the will power being used by clients just to get through their day?  More generally, will clients have some difficulty applying what they've learned in therapy to their lives due to ego depletion?  Certainy something a therapist should take into account...

Exercise Important in Improving Children’s Academic Performance

Interesting article here about the recent thinking concerning the relationship to physical fitness and children’s academic achievement. First, the article discusses how well children in America are doing compared to children in other countries with respect to scholastic achievement (specifically math and science). Next addressed is the problem of increasing weight gain among the children of America. An interesting argument is made to connect the two, citing evidence that those who exercise also benefit from improved mental functioning. While the connection between physical and mental fitness is nothing new, this is an interesting application of the the two ideas. Worth a read, and certainly more evidence that parents need to make sure their kids are getting enough physical activity.

Damn! Diet Becomes More Important with Age

On a personal level, I have been pretty good over the years at maintaining a fairly regular exercise routine. My routine always includes running, usually weight lifting, and intermittent periods of swimming, biking, etc. depending on my goals and motivation. I’ve maintained this regimen for three primary reasons: 1) fitness is important to me in terms of health; 2) I like to look and feel good, and; 3) I like to eat a lot of crap.

It looks like I may have to focus my energies a bit more on #3. According to this study, a focus on diet, specifically reduced caloric intake, becomes increasingly important as we age and for maintaining one’s health. From the article:

Women who participated in the study had more than twice the risk of substantial weight gain if they did not become more restrained in their eating.

“Some suggest that restrained eating is not a good practice,” said Brigham Young University professor Larry Tucker, the study’s lead author. “Given the environmental forces in America’s food industry, not practicing restraint is essentially a guarantee of failure.”

The article also discusses the primary catalyst for a reduce need of food - as we age, we need less energy:

“Because the body's energy requirements progressively decline with age, energy intake must mirror that decrease or weight gain occurs,” said Davidson, a research fellow at Columbia’s Obesity Research Center. “Dr. Tucker's observation that women who practice eating restraint avoid the significant weight gain commonly observed in middle age is an important health message.”

Now, I could remain in denial and chalk the results of this study up to the fact that it was conducted on a sample of female participants; hey, being a guy, I’ve got nothing to worry about (at least this is what many of my female friends will say, usually adding a "Not fair!" sentiment at the end). However, having read a great deal about diet and fitness, and having been to the mall recently, I think I will be honest and acknowledge this pertains to men as well, although likely in some different manner. In any event, it appears that simply getting by through exercise may not be enough for us old folks entering middle age and beyond. Time to reduce those late night snacks!

Burning Down the Hou-, Er, Handlebars

Here's a nice article on what activities burn how many calories during a given day, along with tips on how to burn additional calories here and there throughout the day.  I find this sort of article particularly important at this time of year, given how my eating habits have bordered on obscene over the last few weeks.

Recommendations for Healthy Eating While on a Budget

One of the unfortunate facts of life is that processed food, sweets, and unhealthy foods not only taste pretty good, but are also cheap. Frankly, it is hard to consistently eat healthy when one is on a budget. Here is an article with some suggestions on how to maintain a healthy, nutritious diet, even when one’s finances are impacting your grocery choices. Some of the suggestions involve some effort, but once these steps become habit, they undoubtably are easier to continue. For me, the planning ahead suggestion works particularly well, since I am often enticed by prominently-displayed snacks I would not otherwise buy. If I’m in the store only once per week, instead of three or four times per week, that’s fewer opportunities to self-sabotage...