Tag Archives: framing

Is it time to start planning your next vacation?

Posted on September 20, 2011 | Comments Off

From Joe: That looks like an odd question to find at TheFittestLoser. But I recently encountered some information about vacation planning that made me wonder if thinking and planning about vacations might be similar to thinking and planning other journeys – real and metaphorical – we take in life. In a recent “how to” article giving tips for planning vacations, Michelle Higgins summarizes what scientists have found about how your happiness is affected by vacation trips. It turns out that your anticipation of the vacation plays an extremely important role in the effect your vacation will have on your overall happiness. In many cases, the anticipation and planning of the vacation will create more happiness than the vacation itself! Hence, Ms. Higgins advises us to relish the anticipation of the event:

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Cupcake fantasies = diet disaster

Posted on August 3, 2011 | Comments Off

Dreaming of a cupcake to reward yourself for all that dieting work? Well, you may have to reframe your fantasies.

From Eileen:  A friend of mine started a big-time diet and exercise program last week. She jumped in with her typical gregarious enthusiasm, setting up sessions with a personal trainer, reading food labels, packing her lunch, counting her calories … and telling everyone “This is it, guys! This is it!”

 After the first week, she stayed on course, losing a pound. Not a smashing success, but a great start nonetheless. She was pretty pleased with her progress. Slow is OK because this was it, the real deal.

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Learn to like what you see and, eventually, you will like what you see

Posted on July 29, 2011 | Comments Off

A new study shows improving your self image can help you reach your fitness goals.

From Eileen:  We at the Fittest Loser often talk about how your thinking strongly influences your doing. In other words, how you focus your attention has a lot to do with how you behave.
 
  A new study by the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity shows that if you can improve your body image, you can actually improve your body.  Basically it goes like this:  If you like your body, you are more likely to do right by it.

As reported in Science Daily:

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Wanting Fitness Benefits, Hating Fitness Effort

Posted on June 24, 2011 | Comments Off

If you want to change your life, you have to change yourself. Or, at least part of yourself.

From Joe:  We’ve talked about it before: Converting lifestyle changes into permanent improvements is a major potential stumbling block for everyone who wants to develop better health and fitness practices. That’s why I’m always harping on the importance of framing the issue as one where you change your life by changing your self. Or at least a part of yourself. In the final analysis, that’s the only thing over which you might truly have control.

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Get going with your fitness pre-mortem!

Posted on May 6, 2011 | 1 Comment

From Joe:  In a prior post about candy jars in the office, I urged you to think seriously about the states of mind that characterized people who voiced opinions about whether or not candy jars were acceptable artifacts in an office setting. If you have already done that, you probably noticed that most commentators – no matter whether they approved or disapproved of such jars – framed the issue in moralistic terms: Candy jars are not a problem in themselves, they said.  Instead, the problem was in the people who lacked self-discipline, suffered from feelings of inferiority, had issues hanging on from their childhood or, as one commenter put it, need therapy. As far as I can see, this kind of moralistic discourse does nothing to address the practical concerns of people who are trying to devise lasting changes in life habits.

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Use the Part-of-Me Protocol to battle discouragement

Posted on April 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

From Joe: In several posts and a recent column, Gerry nicely illustrates how we fight ourselves when it comes to making serious personal changes. She started her training camp thinking that losing a few pounds would be a surmountable challenge, she says, only to find out that her new regimen was creating many daily problems that were far more complicated than she expected them to be.

 So what’s a person to do when a new regimen creates challenges that were never anticipated at its beginning?

Two important practical hints can be extracted from Gerry’s material.

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