3
V. What about acquiring the Exercise/ Physical Activity Habit?
A. The laziness habit is hard to break.
B. Self-monitoring techniques have proven to be the most successful (e.g.
pedometer use).
C. Exercise is a hard habit to acquire because there’s no regular cue. It’s
important to find the right slot in your day, the right type of exercise, the
right location, and solutions for barriers—in order to make the habit
stick.
Good News: understanding and working with the unconscious, automatic nature of
habits can help people to make changes!
Take-away Points:
- Identify negative triggers and have management strategies at the ready.
- Work on one habit at a time and start small.
- Adapt your habits individually to fit your lifestyle for maximum sustainability.
References:
- Avni-Babad, D. (2011) Routine and feelings of safety, confidence, and well-being. British Journal of
Psychology, 102(2): 223-244. - Berridge, K.C. & Kringelbach, M.L. (2008). Affective neuroscience of pleasure: reward in humans and
animals. Psychopharmacology, 199: 457-80. - Finlay, K.A., Trafimow, D., Villarreal, A. (2002). Predicting exercise and health behavioral intentions:
attitudes, subjective norms, and other behavioral determinants. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32:
342 - 56. - T.F. Heatherton’s work on willpower: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~health/#Pubs.
- Hollis, J.F. et al (2008). Weight loss during the intensive intervention phase of the weight-loss maintenance
trial. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 35: 118-26. - Lally, P.C., Jaarsveld, H.M., Potts, H.W., Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit
formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6): 998-1009. - Michie, S., Abraham, C., Whittington, C., McAteer, J., Gupta, S. (2009) Effective techniques in healthy
eating and physical activity interventions: A meta-regression. Health Psychology 28(6): 690. - Scholz, U., Schuz, B., Ziegelmann, J.P., Lippke, S., Schwarzer, R. (2008). Beyond behavioural intentions:
planning mediates between intentions and physical activity. British Journal of Health Psychology, 13(3):
479 - 494. - Traphagan, J.W. (2005). Multidimensional measurement of religiousness/spirituality for use in health
research in cross-cultural perspective. Research on Aging, 27: 387-419. - Wood, W., Quinn, J.M., Kashy, D.A. (2002) Habits in everyday life: thought, emotion, and action. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(6): 1281.
Resources:
- Claiborn, J. and Pedrick, C. (2001). The Habit Change Workbook: How to break bad habits and form good
ones. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. - Dean, J. (2013). Making Habits, Breaking Habits. Philadelphia: DaCapo Press.
- Duhigg, C. (2012). The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. New York: Random
House. - Fiore, N. (2007). The Now Habit. New York: Penguin.
- Herbert, W. (2010). On Second Thought: Outsmarting your mind’s hard-wired habits. New York: Broadway
Books. - Lemov, D., Woolway, E., Yezzi, K. (2012) Practice Perfect. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- Ryan, M.J. (2006) This Year I Will.... how to finally change a habit, keep a resolution, or make a dream
come true. New York: Broadway Books. - Wansink, B. (2006). Mindless Eating: Why we eat more than we think. New York: Bantam.