Modifying Exercise Habits Through Positive Reinforcement of Self-Control

There are many people who dislike working out or doing anything productive. I personally hate working out. I’m obviously overweight and still refuse to workout. I used to run around the park that’s close from my house; however, it was hard to no eat fast food. It’s unhealthy to eat and not do any physical activity. Keeping active can help people stay at a healthy weight or lose weight. According to a 2016 article in the Chicago Tribune, “Physical activity levels are declining not only in wealthy countries, such as the U.S., but also in low- and middle-income countries, such as China. And it’s clear that this decline in physical activity is a key contributor to the global obesity epidemic” (Wade). This clearly shows that the lack of not doing any physical activity contributes to obesity. Before there wasn’t a lot of cases of obesity, but now it seems to be unstoppable. People used to ride horses or walk to get to their destination, now most of America drive cars. Driving your car everywhere you go is not healthy because you are lacking physical activity and in doing so contributes to obesity. According to Wade, “About 40 percent of U.S. schoolchildren walked or rode their bikes to school in 1969; by 2001, only 13 percent did so.” This show the decline of physical activity. My aunt once told me that before she learned how to drive, she would walk it mostly everywhere. She didn’t have a car and the only

Pedometers assist individuals with self-monitoring by providing objective and quantifiable data on steps, distance and caloric expenditure. Individuals are able to see a measure of physical activity within the day and adjust their behaviour to meet a certain goal. Many interventions have been conducted using pedometers as a tool to increase participants physical activity over a period of time. A systematic review undertaken by Bravata et al., (2007) examined the use of pedometers to increase physical activity in twenty-six studies with a total of 2767 participants. Bravata et al., (2007) found pedometers significantly increased levels of physical activity by more than 25% from the baseline. A significant predictor of whether pedometers had an impact on physical activity was whether participants had a step goal (e.g. 10000 steps) (Bravata, et al., 2007). It was found a step goal further increased the level of physical activity, which relates to the self-regulation model. The studies have shown that individual who recorded data from the pedometer such as daily steps, were more successful than those who did not keep records (Bravata, et al., 2007; Tudor-Locke & Lutes, 2009). This indicates the importance of feedback on the creation of challenges and goal

In a fast paced society filled with hurried citizens, it is very easy to forget that exercise is the most vital part of survival. In a busy environment it seems as if there are not enough hours in one day for an exercise routine. Working all day and spending time with family, most people make the excuse that there is no time for exercise. With many different forms of multimedia available, it is easy to be consumed by it after a hard day at

The decline of jobs involving high intensity manual labor, the the rise of internet, computer, and T.V. access means that we are more sedentary than in the past. Engaging in physical activity prevents and alleviated many common disorders and diseases such as: obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, depression, and type 2 diabetes. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults get 2 and a half hours of moderate exercise during a week (CDC, 2008). In the past, few years several companies have produced smart devices to help monitor and motivate physical activity.

With new technological advancements and the changing of times, people have become increasingly sedentary in their daily lives (“Pounding Away”). With all of our cars and motorized vehicles, few people are forced into strenuous physical activities that would burn the calories needed for a healthy lifestyle. With the creation of robots and mechanized devices to make working more efficient and cheapen labor costs, less than 20% of jobs in the private sector now require moderate physical activity (“Obesity in America”). What had once required for you to get up and walk to the other side of the room can now be done by writing an email or picking up a phone. This decrease in activity in the workplace would be fine if it were counterbalanced by steady leisure exercise. Sadly, many people in their leisure time do not exercise. What do they do instead? The average American spends “55% of his waking hours sitting down” (“Obesity in America”), whether it’s in front of a TV or a computer. Another outcome of the modern age is the change in eating habits. Serving sizes have steadily increased and many fast food places now offer an option to super-size their meals, e.g. McDonald’s, for just a few cents

Exercise behavior is the study of theories which work to explain actions and phenomenon’s that occur when looking at peoples perspectives of exercise. One overall theory called The Transtheoretical model (TTM), includes elements from “across a variety of theories and models behavior, some of which are social-cognitive in nature and some of which are not” (79). The TTM describes five stages of behavior change: Precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. By using TTM as the base of multiple theories, a greater picture of exercise behavior is created to understand how individuals become interested and continue to make a life style that involves normal exercise.

My short term S.M.A.R.T. goal for December of 2017 is to begin a consistent workout routine. Specifically, I would like to keep up with this workout routine long term, but right now I just need to get into the habit of doing this. I have tried before, but I could not keep up with it. I just need to try again with a different purpose to keep me going. To measure this goal, I will complete at least three 30 minute workout sessions each week of December. After completing my Time Management schedule assignment, I know that I have plenty of free time to accomplish this attainable goal. This is a realistic goal, because I have no reason not to be working out. I have no disability and it would make me feel more energized and healthy. One month is an adequate timeframe

The video “The Truth About Exercise” by Michael Mosley presents some of the interesting facts about exercise. To find the best way to achieve benefits with exercise, Mosley talked with athletes and doctors for their advice. He himself also did many experiments to test the results. His findings have some similar points with the textbook’s suggestion. First, people should check their health status and training experience before engaging in an exercise program. Without any preparation, Mosley hurt his leg by performing an activity of the athlete, and he had to confirm that “You can easily hurt yourself if you are not prepared”. Second, Mosley also pointed out the common guideline in exercise, which is the rule of thumb: 150 minutes of moderate-intensity

Many find it interesting how the media portrays exercising and dieting. America’s concern about obesity has shocked many organizations, programs, and citizens to take demand. Most seems to know how to take action, for example, they know to monitor calorie intake and exercise daily. However, these ideas have been slower to reinforce. The print media have a big part in this because the consumers read about the actions taken by models and they try to also reinforce those things but, it does not give the consumers the results they hope for, so there is often lost hope. Many think that because the text states that physical activity is the same as working out. Physical Activity is defined as “any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that require energy expenditure.” Exercising is defined as “physical activity that is done in order to become stronger and healthier.” Colleagues at The National Academies stated that there has been an overall decrease in physical activity during the past half century in the United States.

The behavior I have chosen to do my modification program on is increasing the amount of time I work out every time I go to the gym until I reach my target goal. My target goal is to work out for an hour and half every time I go to the gym in the morning. When I go to the gym I will be taking a stop watch to time the amount of time I work out to verify that I reached my goal as well as mark my calendar every day that I go stating how long I worked out for. To make sure I was committed to the goal I wrote down six reasons/benefits of making this behavior change that are both short term and long term. They are feeling better about myself throughout the day, getting to wear the dress I want to be able to fit by my birthday on July 24th, increasing my endurance for marathons, improving my mood, sleeping better, also something to enjoy doing with my husband. There are many more but these are the ones I placed on my bathroom mirror, on my desk lamp at work, on my dashboard in my car, the table next to my front door that holds my gym bag and shoes, on my fridge and in my husband’s truck in case he drives. I also let my husband know my goal and also invited him to come with me so he could monitor that I am actually sticking with my plan daily. I also had stated the table next to the door holds my gym bag and shoes so if I was to walk outside I automatically see them there taunting me to take them and go to the gym. I also put a reminder on my phone each day of my goal and why it

Both Mr. William and I choose two weeks period to measure the actions. The reward would be experienced by Mr. William such as reduce the feeling of sluggishness and increase of energy from exercise regularly. If he follows through by limiting empty calorie snacks, it would be beneficial in his weight loss as well. As the counseling process progressing, my client would like to upgrade his reward by treating himself with a seasonal ticket to the game of his favorite football team. It is a great decision because the higher the reward, the harder he would try to accomplish his goals.

After looking back at my behavior for the past three days I noticed that I have the mentality of wanting to do physical exercise, but lack the motivation and the discipline. I realized that I was stuck in the contemplation phase of as the transtheoretical model of behavior change explains. In order to to improve my behavior as emphasized in class, I needed more to work on the pros and cons that come with the behavior change and set a specific goal. The goal I decided to place for myself is to engage in some sort of physical activity for at least 30 minutes every other day. I included some self-reinforcements as in the book titled Health Psychology introduced in page 52, in order to keep the health behavior steady and not lose focus on the goal

I knew that, given my busy class schedule, I would need to find a way to make this activity a part of my daily routine or I would not find the time. Before the intervention began, I was spending 25 minutes per day walking to class at the University of Melbourne and 25 minutes walking back. I realized this was an opportunity to implement my PPI, so I instead began running to and from class each day. This experiment also allowed me to spend less time traveling, as this run only took 15 minutes rather than 25. Once I realized how easy it would be to incorporate this PPI into my weekday schedule, I had to figure out a way to implement the thirty minute daily run in my weekend schedule as well. I decided that, each Saturday, I would do a longer jog to St. Kilda. This jog would take me roughly thirty minutes each way. Since my Saturday run took me a total of 1 hour, I decided to leave Sunday as a rest day in order to not push my body beyond its limits. So, in total, my intervention involved 3.5 hours of running per

Today's world is full of modern conveniences. Communication is at the touch of a button, you can drive right to the window and get handed a greasy, hot meal, and even walking has become bothersome. Trying to find that spot closest to the door is worth driving around the lot five times. Kids play more in virtual reality than outdoors, and parents who are strapped for time settle on quick, processed meals for dinner. Unfortunately, we've created an environment fit for the lazy. Instead of having to preform physical activities to function throughout the day, we must find time for physical activity, which might not be realistic for everyone. The fast food industry and quick processed dinners feed the consumer with no time for exercise, and the

In today’s society, technology has played a big role in everyone’s lives and has taken over. Kids today stay inside and play on the computer, watch TV, play video games, or mess with tablets and smartphones. Several people find other, more entertaining things to do than play outside and be active. Some of the times, physical education in schools is the only physical activity students have on a daily basis (“Obesity”). Kids and teenagers would much rather be wrapped up in a social network than going for a job or going to the gym. Back in the day, playing outside was one of the few entertainments. Parents have no discipline and let their children do what they want to their bodies. Technology has caused people to be less active and not as self-controlled causing them to be obese or overweight later in life.