A lot of employers and health insurers are now offering wellbeing apps and portals. They're obviously hoping that giving people tools to help them manage their health conditions and nudge them toward healthy behaviors will reduce health care costs.

I recently checked out the wellbeing app offered by my own health insurance company. I actually think that some of the well-meaning but poorly-conceived prompts could be doing more harm than good.

To be fair, figuring out how to nudge people to adopt healthier habits is a hard nut to crack. In this episode, I share five ideas on how we can design behavioral interventions that are more effective as well as more inclusive, accessible, and sustainable. I also have an opportunity for you to see these principles in action.

Key Takeaways

1. People not only need to believe that what you’re asking them to do will benefit them, they also need to feel confident that they can actually do it.
2. People cannot pay attention to everything. Therefore, you need to help them pay attention to the right things.
3. Don’t just discourage the negative; promote positive behaviors.
4. All-or-nothing approaches (or mindsets) rarely lead to long-term change. 
5. We tend to over-estimate the impact of our most extreme behaviors. In fact, it is your most typical behavior that determines your results. Focus on those.

Mentioned

Nutrition GPA app

Register for the 30-Day Nutrition Upgrade

More info for Coaching Partners

The theme of treats and rewards is coming up in a lot of my conversations right now…with my coaching clients, with people who have reached out to talk about working together, even with my friends and colleagues. Specifically, using food as a treat or reward. 

This is something a lot of us have learned to do. And like any highly rewarding behavior, this habit has the potential to do harm…and can be surprisingly hard to break.

In this episode, we’re going to talk about cultivating new sources of reward and pleasure — ones that make our lives richer, and don’t have unintended consequences. I’ll also share three ways that being more intentional about treats can increase the pleasure you get from them–as well as strengthening your willpower. 

Key Takeaways:

• Treats and rewards add pleasure and enjoyment to life. However, we need to be intentional and thoughtful about them.
• Planning your treats offers several advantages, including increased enjoyment through anticipation and improved restraint against unplanned indulgences.
• Cultivating awareness and anticipation of treats in your life can counter feelings of deprivation and resentment, making your pursuit of healthier habits more enjoyable
• Develop and maintain a list of activities that genuinely reward you. Include both small and big pleasures. Consider also the costs of each treat. Does indulging in this treat bring you closer to or further from your goal?

Mentioned:

Body Image Repair and Resilience

Ep 82: Opening up your options with Dr. Michelle Segar

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How we see ourselves has an enormous impact on our mental health and wellbeing, how we function in our relationships, even what sort of goals we set for ourselves. Often, we believe that achieving those goals will improve our self-image and make us feel better about ourselves. But usually, it happens the other way around.

Our self-image is often very distorted. Others may barely notice “imperfections” that are all we can see when we look in the mirror. And, by the same token, we can also take steps to heal poor self-image without actually changing anything about the way we look. Often it starts by examining our beliefs about how we SHOULD look. 

Joining me today to talk about all of this is Cassie Christopher, whom you know from several past episodes. Cassie is a registered dietitian, workplace wellness expert, speaker, and coach. Repairing body image is a big part of Cassie’s work. She and I are also teaming up to offer a special program this October focusing on on Body Image Repair and Resilience.  

Key Takeaways:

• We form our self-image by comparing ourselves against cultural ideals, which often reflect groups with more power and/or money.
• Even those whose outward appearance conforms to the cultural ideal often suffer from poor self-image. 
• Even if we don’t have the power to change the system, seeing how it operates gives us more power to decide how we engage with it
• Self-worth that is based largely on how we compare to others is never as solid as self-worth that is based on our own intrinsic values. 
• We are often completely unaware of the degree to which negative self-perception is impacting our quality of life. 
• Accepting and celebrating the ways in which we diverge from the “ideal” can be an empowering first step. 

Mentioned:
Body Image Repair & Resilience program
Being good enough (Change Academy Ep. #28)
Body Image Self Assessment
More about Cassie Christopher’s work

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If you’ve been listening to the Change Academy for a while, you’ll remember Molly Watts from several previous episodes. But if you’re newer to the Academy, let me quickly tell you who she is. 

Molly is the host of the top-rated Alcohol Minimalist podcast and author of the book Breaking the Bottle Legacy.  Molly’s work focuses on helping people create a more peaceful and sustainable relationship with alcohol. And the approach that Molly takes is very consonant with our philosophy here on the Change Academy. 

Molly has graciously agreed to let us share an excerpt from her podcast in which she shares the three things she had to stop doing in order to finally change her drinking habits. You can substitute just about any unwanted or  problematic behavior or habit for “drinking” and Molly’s advice would be just as valuable. She's also generously offered a free digital copy of her book to any Change Academy listeners who would like one. (See below).  

As you listen, think about how Molly’s insights about changing her drinking behavior might apply to a behavioral pattern or habit loop that you’ve struggled to change.

Key Takeaways

• We often make change harder than it needs to be by setting unrealistic expectations and then beating ourselves up for failing.
• Failure is not proof that you cannot succeed…unless you choose to make it that.
• Small consistent effort ultimately gets us to our goals sooner than big dramatic gestures that fizzle out. 
• Self-judgment is toxic to the process of growth and change. Instead we need to approach ourselves and our behavior with curiosity and compassion. 
• If the behavior we are trying to change is one that we are using as a coping mechanism, we’re going to need to address whatever it is that are using it to cope with.

Mentioned

Download a free copy of Breaking the Bottle Legacy, by Molly Watts

Alcohol Minimalist podcast

Change Academy Ep 11: the Attention Intention Action Cycle

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All of us occasionally struggle with negative or overwhelming emotional reactions.  But few of us have been taught to handle difficult feelings effectively. In this episode, Dr. Bethy Campbell returns to the Change Academy to share techniques for working with our most challenging emotions–enabling us to handle stressful situations with greater resilience and to access healthier emotional responses. 

Dr. Bethy Campbell is a clinical psychologist, a marriage and family therapist, with special expertise and certification in career development counseling.  During her academic career, she also pioneered a curriculum on Helping Skills, a process that people who are not trained therapists can safely use to support others (or help themselves) when dealing with psychologically or emotionally challenging situations.

Key Takeaways

• Our emotions can be a powerful source of information, but we need to learn how to recognize and interpret the signals they are sending. 
• Although our feelings are neither good or bad, the way we express those emotions may be healthy or unhealthy. 
• Our primary emotional responses may be buried under several layers of secondary emotions that need to be explored first.
• Simply labeling and rating the intensity of our emotions is often enough to dissipate their intensity.
• The goal is not to eliminate emotions but to foster a healthier relationship with them, leading to improved self-understanding and emotional well-being.

Lab Experiment

(adapted from Helping Skills Training for Nonprofessional Counselors)

Consider how primary and secondary emotions and emotional signals apply to your own life. 
Can you think of a time when secondary emotions clouded your awareness and expression of your primary emotions? Write down your recollections of that time, highlighting primary and secondary emotions.

1. What do you believe your emotions were signaling and motivating you to do?
2. How might talking (or writing?) about these feelings help you access primary emotions and adaptive signals?

Mentioned

Ep. #107: Designing your future: How to make a successful career or life pivot

Helping Skills Training for Nonprofessional Counselors by Elizabeth L. Campbell, PhD

Feelings Wheel

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I met Kelly Howard a few months ago, when she invited me to be a guest on her podcast. 

I loved the concept of her podcast, which is that fitness is not just another chore that we’re supposed to do. It is a gateway to more freedom. Kelly takes that message beyond her podcast and into the real world, where she runs a company that offers hiking, biking, backpacking, and kayaking adventures, as well as fitness coaching programs to help people prepare for those adventures.  

In other words, fitness is not the real goal. Fun and freedom are the goals, and fitness makes those possible. 

It’s a perfect example of something we talk about all the time here, which is how important it is to have a compelling why, and to align our goals to our larger objectives.

In this conversation, you’ll hear how Kelly applies those principles to the work that she does. But these insights apply just as well to any other goals that you may be working on. 

Takeaways:

• For most of the things we want to achieve, being consistent is more important than achieving mastery.
• The value of creating a detailed plan always has to be balanced with the flexibility that allows us to pivot when plans go awry
• We need to be just as intentional about rest and recovery as we are about effort
• Specific events can be great things to work toward. But don’t forget to think about–and plan for–what comes next. 

Mentioned:
Fit is Freedom podcast Episode #95
Brock’s morning warm up
Fit: Active and Ageless for Life, by Kelly Howard
(Free copy for Change Academy members!)

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Part of living your best life involves thinking–at least a little–about how you can set yourself up to live a good life in the future. 

If you’re of a certain age, you might keep track of things like your cholesterol or your blood pressure. Or, you might keep an eye on your 401K balance, with an eye toward ensuring future well-being. 

But there’s another lesser-known metric that can also be predictive of both your current and your future health and longevity. Just like those other markers, it’s a number you should know. 

Key Takeaways

Mentioned

Life Satisfaction Assessment

Ep 48: Wisdom to Know the Difference

Happiness Curve, by Jonathan Rauch

50K Mile Tuneup

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This podcast is based on the premise that –with the right tools, insights, and support, we can create meaningful lasting changes in our habits, improve our health, and take control of our lives.  The podcast Tiny Leaps, Big Changes by Gregg Clunis is based on the same premise. But in this episode, Gregg and I explore some uncomfortable questions: 

• What are the limits of our personal agency? 
• What are the forces that lead us to believe that creating healthy, safe, and secure lives and environments is primarily up to us? 
• How do we reconcile our personal work with the need to create better systems and healthier and more equitable societies?

Things to Listen For

09:55 The limits of what we can accomplish as individuals

12:00 A loss of trust and confidence in collective action

14:25 The unintended consequences of "lifestyle medicine" messaging

16:11 The role that politics plays in our personal development

20:10 Who does our self-improvement culture actually serve?

27:06 Solving problems for fun (and profit)

Mentioned

Tiny Leaps, Big Changes podcast

Tiny Leaps, Big Changes book

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Have we put habit formation on too high a pedestal?  Dr. Michelle Segar is an NIH-funded researcher who has spent close to thirty years studying how to create healthy behaviors. that can survive the complexity and unpredictability of the real world. We talk about why healthy behaviors are often particularly resistant to habit formation, and what may work better.

Things to Listen For

02:17 Common misconceptions about habits

06:33 Why complex behaviors defy habit formation

14:40 The unrecognized influence of memory and emotional associations in determining our behavior
20:11 The role of self=control and willpower

22:17 Why building health behaviors around identity and values (rather than habit) is a better strategy.
27:37 The value of questioning assumptions

Mentioned:

The Joy Choice: How to Finally Achieve Lasting Changes in Eating and Exercise, by Michelle Segar, PhD

It’s Time to Unhabit, by Michelle Segar (American Journal of Health Promotion)

The 50,000 Mile Tune-Up

Weighless Program

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I'm convinced that watching Wimbledon actually improves my game. Granted, when you’re as bad as I am, it doesn’t take much. But there is definitely a lot to be learned from people who are good at something that you’re trying to get better at.

Which is why I want to share with you some of what I’ve observed in my most successful clients. These are qualities and attitudes that you can adopt and emulate to enhance your own progress and success, whether you’re working with me or another coach, or on your own, using this podcast and maybe some of the self-study tools that we’ve created for our listeners. Think of this episode as a roadmap for how to succeed.

What to listen for:

02:40 Having skin in the game

08:34 Taking responsibility for progress

11:00 The difference between passive and active learning

15:27 The four things coaching will NOT do for you

16:55 The six things working with a coach CAN offer

19:35 Three questions to assess whether you'd benefit from coaching

Mentioned:

The 8 Things You Need to Create Lasting Change (self-study workbook)

The 50K Mile Tuneup (self-study workbook)

Talk with Monica about private coaching

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