Behavior + Fitness = BehaviorFit
We are what we do. How fit and healthy we are boil down to our fitness behaviors that repeat…every, single, day.
Health and fitness are general categories, rather accumulations of these behaviors. We say that we have good health when certain metrics align (e.g., desired weight, normal blood pressure). Of course, bad health arises when these metrics are out of alignment.
At any given time, our current health is mostly the result of the things we did in the past days, months, weeks, and years. The controllable things like eating and moving. Some uncontrollable events like our genetics, having a chronic disease, or traumatic events affect our health too.
HEALTH CHOICES ARE BEHAVIOR
We are responsible for our choices. These choices made daily put us on a path of desired health outcomes or not. Choice-making is just another type of behavior.
I am healthy because I engage in A, B, and C.
I am healthy because I work out 3 days per week, eat fairly well, and have a regular sleep schedule.
I am unhealthy because I engage in X, Y, and Z.
I am unhealthy because I do not exercise, eat like a glutton, and have an irregular sleep schedule.
Do your habits sound more like A, B, and C, or X, Y, and Z? Could they be better?
We repurpose a familiar quote, saying:
“The greatest predictor of future health choices is past health choices.”
Every choice produces immediate and/or delayed consequences. Life requires us — rather being a responsible adult — to fight a constant battle between what feels good now versus what will feel better later…or at least will help us feel the best we can.
All behavior produces some immediate change in the here and now. However, the changes compound over time and will take weeks, months, or even years to realize.
BEHAVIOR AS THE CORNERSTONE OF SUCCESS
Behavior change is the cornerstone of any health success. You may have the best intentions, but until action meets a meaningful outcome, nothing will happen.
If our behavior is the center of our health, then it is worthwhile to constantly measure, monitor, and maintain key health areas to produce the life that we want. With an emphasis on what we do, our everyday behavior, we can begin blending the meaningful findings in research and practice into our lives.
Enter Contingencies and Rules
We do things because we learned to (a contingency) or by following rules. Health and exercise behavior are no exception. We either have a learning history with a fitness behavior (e.g., coached to work out) or are following some rule (e.g., “The American Heart Association says…”).
Take these examples:
Contingency: Are you eating salad because it tastes good?
Rule: Or because they are associated with better long-term benefits than deep-friend onion rings?
Contingency: Are you lifting weights because you “feel the burn”?
Rule: Or because increased muscle mass is linked to improved mobility?
Contingency: Are you sleeping more because you hate the cranky feeling the next day?
Rule: Or because more sleep often yields better performance in the long-term?
Most health behaviors are a combination of both a rule and a contingency, so they are difficult to unpack. And sure, we will learn things first by doing, and then following rules, back again, or the other way around…It’s a vicious non-linear circle.
Remember: there is nothing inherently good or bad about behavior that gets shaped up. We do things because our environment selected what we do. With good form comes bad form. Some people follow wacky rules (bad advice) and may never accumulate meaningful results. And others contact some contingency presenting us with a habit that leaves the rest of us scratching our heads…
We have all seen viral videos like:
- A guy eating pizza on the ab machine (the result of bad advice)
- People with bad or outright weird exercise form. The man getting a pump but putting himself at risk for serious injury (he “feels the burn” so keep on doing it)
Having the right rules and contingencies in place guide us to a healthier (and in some cases safer) life.
BEHAVIORFIT’S FIVE PILLARS OF HEALTH AND FITNESS
Enter BehaviorFit’s set of rules.
With the right foundation, you are bound to get your behavior moving in the right direction. BehaviorFit’s pillars of health are selected for playing the long-game.
No shortcuts.
Notes on the rule selection: These pillars are based on spending 100’s, if not 1000’s of hours reading research articles and books, listening to experts on podcasts, attending webinars and conferences. I required each source to have a scientific basis, and most sources had Ph.D. in the respective areas.
Move Often
This is the hidden, dark world of physical activity and the expertise area of BehaviorFit, moving regularly is essential for both short- and long-term benefits.
Lift Weights
Exercise science does the heavy lifting here (pun intended), the more muscle the better as we are all racing against the aging process; the more we age, the more that muscle wants to disappear and bones get weaker. Lifting helps strengthen our bones.
Sleep and Recover
If your body doesn’t have time to recover and heal, you are operating sub-optimally every day. Find a number that works for you. Let’s not get tied up in how many hours are ideal. Recover to the extent you can make it happen the next day.
Avoid Extra Calories
It’s okay to have treats, just not abundantly. And if you do indulge, then let that be just one data point and not an entire trend. We live in an abundance of processed foods and too much sugar, just leave out all the extras.
Enjoy The Process, Have Fun
At each new step in your journey, you are operating from a new baseline. A new set of experiences. Your preferences and environmental supports will change so enjoy each part of the process. Meaningful change will take time. Why? Because we have to move a lot a behavior around!
HEALTH REQUIRES HARD WORK
If your health and fitness is not a priority, then it is not a priority
or…
If you are not doing anything about it, then you are not doing anything about it.
There are no magic bullets to health. Just following one rule, may be great, but that success interacts with other areas. Expecting sleep alone to cure your ills is short-sighted. You work out more, but if you are not eating enough, then gaining muscle is unlikely. The process and the ingredients need to complement each other.
You might say, each of the rules is a magic bullet. You will need each bullet, but the most important bullet of all is…our behavior.
BehaviorFit is rooted in behavioral science. A science that lets you understand how and why things occur. And most importantly, different things matter to different people. It’s an approach that addresses individual behavior, on an individual basis.
Following BehaviorFit Pillars of Health may require you to learn something different, or even develop an entirely new skill. Success depends on this individualized approach to good health. And success is a process.
Just as it takes time to develop BAD habits, it takes time to develop good habits…and get rid of the old ones.
While rules are not everything, they can be a great start. The Pillars of Health shape the core foundation on what BehaviorFit views as a key principle to living a happy, productive, and meaningful life.
How strong are YOUR pillars?
What pillars are missing?
What pillars can be improved?
Join me in making everyday healthy choices a priority.
Keep moving my friends,
– Nick
