Is there really a problem?

The benefits of exercise, a healthy diet and a balanced lifestyle are undisputed in modern life, and the positive impact these have on well-being and performance is no secret.

Yet obesity and weight problems have reached epidemic proportions globally. According to the World Health Organisation, at least 2,8 million people die every year as a direct result of being overweight or obese.

According to Prof Pieter Kruger, Director of the Institute of Psychology and Wellbeing at the North-West University (NWU) and a clinical psychologist, this is no longer a problem associated with high-income countries, as the obesity pandemic is spreading to low- and middle-income countries too.

He says that according to the UK National Health Service (NHS), obesity is something that develops over a period of time as a result of lifestyle choices, especially a lack of physical activity and a poor diet. “These lifestyle choices not only affect health, they also affect performance at work, mental health and general well-being. Although most governments and health organisations run extensive campaigns to make people aware of these problems and their solutions, these problems are still on the increase. We therefore need to ask the key question: why is it so difficult to solve these lifestyle problems that lead to health issues such as obesity? Despite the readily available information about the problem, why do people still struggle to change their health behaviours?”

Why is it so difficult to change behaviour?

“The simple answer is that information alone is not enough to change behaviour. Even if people feel strongly about a specific topic and have all the necessary information, that is still not enough for sustained behaviour change. One of our main challenges as human beings is the brain’s automatic rapid thinking processes. These processes form part of our built-in tendencies that have been with us since the evolution of mankind. These rapid thinking processes serve a very good and functional purpose, but they also include unconscious cognitive biases and systematic errors in specific circumstances. A cognitive bias can be described as the ‘glasses’ through which we look at life. These glasses are effortlessly changing what we ‘see’ and how we ‘see’ life and have a significant impact on our behaviour,” Prof Kruger says.

The unconscious cognitive biases

“One such challenge people have to contend with when trying to implement behaviour change is a cognitive bias called the optimism bias or unrealistic optimism. This bias makes people believe that they are less likely to experience a negative event or a risk than others may be. Research suggests that the bias is stronger for negative events such as believing that their lifestyle is actually fine and that they are at lower risk of becoming obese than others, or that even if they are slightly overweight, their health has always been fine and therefore they should be OK going forward. This then stops people from appreciating the severity of the problem and they therefore do not change their behaviour to deal with it. This is one of the main reasons why we find it so easy to justify not going to the gym or exercising, because we convince ourselves that we will be fine and that we can attend to it later.”

He says that another challenge in the brain’s rapid thinking processes is that the thinking processes work on the same principle as electricity – they follow the path of least resistance. Two specific aspects come into play in this area: a) easy beats difficult, in other words, we prefer to do anything that is easy and uncomplicated rather than attempt activities or tasks that are complicated or difficult. “An example would be that if you have to make a choice between sitting on the couch, watching some brain-dead TV show, or finding your gym membership card, trying to locate your gym bag and struggling to find your trainers and then heading out to the gym, the former is easier than the latter and the easy option usually wins. The other aspect to contend with is that b) now beats later, in other words, anything that feels good now is more likely to be done than anything that may be good for you later. An example of this would be that if somebody offers you a large slice of chocolate cake and you know it will not be good for you to eat it, your brain will most likely convince you that it will feel and taste good to have that cake now, although you know it may affect your weight later. Eating the cake will usually beat any delayed gratification like thinking about your weight or health next week. This stems from an evolutionary process in which early man had no guarantees that they would survive until the next day, so they had to consume food and use opportunities as and when they presented themselves.”

Prof Kruger highlights a third challenge, namely the motivation factor. People often complain about not having motivation to change their behaviour (exercise, diet, lifestyle, etc.). Prof Kruger says it is a myth that we have to wait for motivation to hit us before we can start making the changes. “In reality, for humans, the process works the other way around. Action precedes motivation. This means that we need to start doing things before we will become motivated to continue doing them. For most people, though, it is not the lack of motivation that stops them from changing – they know what they would like to do and possibly feel very strongly that they should, but the presence of obstacles, barriers and derailers are often the reason they do not change their behaviour. All the above cognitive biases are great examples of these barriers, although there may be a range of other practical challenges as well.”

Removing the barriers

In removing these barriers, we need to keep in mind which major cognitive biases affect us and in which circumstances this may happen.

1. Cognitive biases can be dealt with, but you have to be aware of the problem first.
   • Some of these errors can only be prevented if you have a cue to remind you that your brain may be seeing or interpreting a false reality.
   • Having these cues or reminders will assist the enhanced monitoring of certain activities, especially the behaviour you want to change.
   • Know in which circumstances you are most likely to be affected by negative cognitive biases.
   • Easy beats difficult: make it easy to change your lifestyle. Make sure you buy the right food so that you are not tempted to eat the unhealthy food. If it is not there it will be easier not to eat it. Decide the night before you go to the gym what you want to wear, find your bag, even put out your training kit – it will make it easy to get dressed and go to the gym the next day.
   • Now beats later: remind yourself why you want to do the right thing and not the easy thing. Do not let your brain take the path of least resistance and let you do what feels good now. Delayed gratification is one of the most important performance behaviours in life. Keep track of your exercise and nutritional achievements so that you can remind yourself now why you need to continue doing it.
   • Action precedes motivation: whether you feel like it or not is irrelevant. If you know that exercising and eating healthy will have a positive impact on your life, start making specific plans on how you want to achieve this. Start doing it and you will soon feel how you become motivated to continue doing it – especially once you start feeling and seeing the results.

2. Do more incidental exercise. In the absence of going to the gym or running more, it means that you should at least attempt to:

• Have more physical movement every day. Never sit behind your desk at work for more than 90 minutes at a time before getting up and walking around for at least a few minutes.
• Walk up and down escalators, do not just stand on them.
• Take the stairs and avoid lifts.
• Park further away from the entrance or get off the bus/train a few stops before your destination and walk the rest of the way.

3. Look after your diet.
   • Drink plenty of water or clear fluids (at least 1,5 litres per day).
   • Minimise all processed foods and simple carbohydrates (like chocolates and crisps) as far as possible.
   • Do not diet or starve yourself. Learn what is good for you and why.
   • Follow the 80/20 principle, according to which you eat extremely healthy meals eight out of every 10 times and allow yourself some flexibility for the other two meals.

4. Set specific goals.
   • A way of making things easier is to set achievable, measurable and specific goals.
   • Start with the smallest specific thing you can do to get the ball rolling.
   • Evaluate your values and identify the reason why you would like to make the changes. After all, you will only do it because you believe it will make a difference to you and because you value the behaviour. This will not happen because somebody else is suggesting that it is a good idea.
   • Getting enough sleep is just as important a part of your goals as exercise and diet.
   • Monitor your progress and keep track of what you are doing. People respond very well to visual feedback. If you can see what you have been doing and you know what you still want to do, you will be more likely to follow through and see sustained behaviour change.
   • Share this with some people close to you. People are much more likely to attend to specific tasks if they have somebody to do or share them with.

In conclusion

“There is research in abundance indicating that positive changes in lifestyle will not only be beneficial to your physical health, but will have a significantly positive impact on your mental health, happiness and psychological resilience. These are all vital ingredients to becoming healthier and more productive, and ultimately achieving better performance at work and in life as well. These are only a few reasons to start looking at the necessary behaviour changes now. What better reason to start making those changes right now?” Prof Kruger concludes.

Prof Pieter Kruger