The Innovative Therapist

Episode 4. Have you ever had a health scare (for you or a loved one) and been frustrated with yourself that it didn't propel you to make a big lifestyle change? On today's episode of the Motivation Made Easy podcast, I talk about our family's experience learning of our high genetic risk of cancer. I share this as one example of how external fear based motivation can be shifted to internal autonomous motivation and what this has looked like for us. A Personal Story Today we are getting personal. I talk first about about having basal cell carcinoma last year and how a recent experience brought up fears about our family history. I share that my husband has Lynch syndrome, a genetic mutation that greatly increases his risk (and potentially our kids) of many types of cancer. How to Transform Fear into Positive Progress When (Fear-Based) External Motivation Does Not Motivate Have you had a health scare in the past where you really hoped it would propel you to make habit changes in your life, but it didn't? I know this is extremely common, because I would often talk to patients about this. They might have recently had a heart attack and be incredibly frustrated with themselves that they weren't "taking it more seriously." I can relate to this, as I think many of us can. In the past, before I stopped dieting, I always hoped that health scares would motivate me to live a healthier life. I would try to use them as a reason for eating differently ("I have high cholesterol, I shouldn't have that") but really when push came to shove, it didn't work. The motivation was solidly in the external category. "A should" that was not transforming into any internal motivation any time soon. How to Merge the Eating Disorder & Weight Management Worlds in a Healthy Way We happened to find out about my husband having Lynch syndrome when I was working in a Preventive Cardiology clinic that recommended plant-based eating. Therefore, I decided to try out the Forks Over Knives Meal Planner as this was often being recommended to our patients. The Most Shocking Thing I Learned in My Plant-Based Eating Class I have written about this in the past, but I share again some of the data on how percentage of calories from animal protein is highly linked to cancer risk. This is another example of how our over focus on weight loss distracts us from the things we actually do have control over (e.g., our habits, how many fresh fruits and vegetable we have on a regular basis). Take Home Message I urge you to consider the information you have gotten about your health and your weight. Are you over emphasizing your weight and how much it impacts your health risk? If you are having a lot of shoulds or fears about your health, I urge you to just notice that, but then turn inward and ask yourself the question, "What do I really want for my life?" "Why is my health important to me?" Usually our health is important to use because of the things it will allow us to do, now or in the future. If you want more help clarifying this, download my free guide here. References Campbell, T. & Campbell, T. C. (2006). The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-term Health. Dunaif, G. E. & Campbell, T. C. (1987). Dietary protein level and aflatoxin B1-induced preneoplastic hepatic lesions in the rat. The Journal of Nutrition, 117, 1298–1302. Madhavan, T. V. & Gopalan, C. (1968). The effect of dietary protein on carcinogenesis of aflatoxin. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, 85, 133-137. Youngman, L.D., & Campbell, T. C. (1992). Inhibition of aflatoxin B1-induced gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase positive (GGT+) hepatic preneoplastic foci and tumors by low protein diets: evidence that altered GGT+ foci indicate neoplastic potential. Carcinogenesis, 13, 1607–1613. Youngman, L. D., & Campbell, T. C.

Episode 3. "I am just not motivated." "I just need more willpower." Have you ever said something like this? But actually, science does not support that. It Ain't About Amount, It's About Type Our first episode of the podcast was all about the 3 KEY psychological needs that facilitate long-term behavior change: AutonomyCompetenceRelatedness Today, we are building on this information to talk about different types of motivation. The different types listed above (ranging from external to internal) are: External: You do the behavior for the reward or to avoid a punishment. Should or shame based motivation would fall here. Also exercising for the calorie burn or to lose weight would also fall into this category. Introjected: This one is still shame-based, usually. The behavior is often motivated by guilt and should and the person is often putting a lot of internal pressure of themselves to do it, which makes it hard to keep up over the long-term. If nothing else because stress and pressure is exhausting. Identified/Integrated: These types of motivation are based in the person you want to be, like you exercise because it's personally important and/or consistent with how you want to show up in the world. You may or may not love it all the time, but often doing a certain exercise is part of who you are, part of your identity. Intrinsic: You do the behavior because something about it is inherently enjoyable. Examples of Internal Motivators for Exercise I wrote a detailed post on this in the past, that you can check out here. The idea with this list is to give you ideas about some of internal motivations for some. Remember that there are no right or wrong answers here, but the list below is just for ideas of what some internal motivators might be for you. As a reminder, here are some of the ideas: Make Exercise a Social Occasion Improve Mobility and Reduce Pain Manage Stress or Boost Your Mood Increase Focus & Concentration Improve Creativity & Problem-Solving 5 Tips to Move Towards Internal Motivation For Exercise Be on the lookout for ways to make exercise more enjoyable or fun! Time to move away from the shoulds! As children, at some point we intuitively loved to move our bodies. Many of us have lost touch with that and we need to work to get back in touch with our body and what movement it actually likes. I made a free 10 minute audio to help you with this goal. Grab it for free here! Make a realistic plan for the timing and routine that will work best for YOU. Have you heard those articles about the fact that you should workout in the morning? Yeah, me too, and they stress me out. Working out in the morning is great because you get it done and you are less likely to have things come up that get in your way, however, this isn’t right for everyone. Right now, working out in the morning sounds terrible to me. I want to sleep in, so I let myself. In the evening if a walk sounds better than a strength/cardio workout in my basement, I let that “count.” Being flexible in this way leads to better mood benefits from exercise and better long term adherence. And it’s the long-term adding up of your habits that really matters, not whether I can force myself to get up at 5:30am and workout for 21 days in a row.Find a supportive and like-minded community. We are incredibly influenced by the people around us in so many ways. If you are constantly around someone who is saying “I’m too fat, I need to exercise more” or “I need to burn off the calories from this meal” in a self-deprecating way, it will likely influence you negatively. The more we can surround ourselves with people who are exercising in a self-supportive way, the more we get inspired and find new ideas to do the same. Myself and about 10 of my friends have had a private group to provide support and accountability for exercise for about 3 years now. Most of us post several times per week about what we did along with a...

Episode 2. This episode is all about why dieting does not work and the many ways in which getting caught in the dieting cycle keeps us distracted from the things that matter. Very often, it keeps us from the good we want to do in the world. Topics Covered We talk about how dieting causes stress and very often preoccupation with food. Although many people assume that they are "failing the diet", many of their perceived "failures" (like binge eating) are 100% caused by dieting itself. But yet, we blame ourselves and start another diet or "eating plan" and keep the cycle going.Giving up dieting does not mean giving up any pursuit of your health. In fact, quite the opposite is usually true. Giving up dieting lets us see more clearly what matters and what we need to do logistically to improve our health, if that's what we choose. We just get to do it without all the diet-binge-shame BS. I talk about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment and how 36 men that were "starved" (put on a 1570 per day diet and lost 25% of their weight) became obsessed and preoccupied with food, and lost all interest in other things like hobbies, sex, etc (Keys et al., 1950). I discuss some of what this can teach us about the biological impact of dieting.I talk about the research study looking at calorie restriction without food monitoring (with pre-packaged meals) and how that increased cortisol, suggesting that calorie restriction itself inherently causes stress (Tomiyama et al., 2011) which makes us more prone to weight gain. Learn More About How Dieting Fails Us Check out my blog post for a comprehensive overview of the ways diet fails us (called "How Dieting Fails Us: A Comprehensive Guide"). Self Control is a Limited Resource We only get so much "willpower" or self control in a given day, as it turns out. People with sustainable habits they feel good about are not fighting tooth and nail every single day to keep them up. I wrote previously about how to use this knowledge in our favor and learn to make habit changes that can actually last over the long haul. Check out the post here: NEWSFLASH: No One Has Enough Willpower for Dieting. Dieting Messes with our Biology It isn't just in your head. Our body fights hard against our dieting attempts, and much of the weight regain people experience is due to this. Yet they blame themselves. There is solid research on the biological changes that occur after weight loss, and it does not bode well for the diet industry. If this does not convince you that diets are failing us, and not the other way around, I don't know what will. Check it out here: How Dieting Messes with Our Biology. Dieting Erodes the Very Things that Are Essential for Long-Term Change We know from decades of research on motivation that we all need three psychological needs met to promote behavior change over the long-term: competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Without these needs being met, sustained change in any important area of your life is unlikely. Dieting usually reduced all three, yet we keep dieting. More on this here. Defining the "Diet Mentality" An attempt to control your weight as the ultimate goal.The mindsets involved in a weight loss attempt, that comes from a place of external "should-based motivation".Often coming from a place of "I'm not ok" as I am now. Typically this is the message we get from the diet and weight loss industry. "I'm not ok, but I could feel SO great and confident about myself if I just lost weight!"It comes along with an assumption that whatever program or plan you are going on knows what you "should" eat.It is also based on the assumption that if you do XYZ steps "right" you will lose weight. Dieting attempts to give us a feeling of control, at least in the short-term. The "Dieting Overlay" Covers Up the Other Stuff This illusion of control is incredibly alluring, however, it distracts us from other important thingsOften we are so caught up in t...

Episode 1. Want to get and stay motivated for healthier habits? Have you tried every diet in the book and are beyond frustrated with yourself that you haven't had the success you want? This week's episode is for you. Welcome to the Motivation Made Easy Podcast! What to Expect This first full episode of the Motivation Made Easy podcast goes over the ways we are getting things REALLY wrong when it comes to our health and how we typically approach weight loss. My approach to motivation is rooted in Self-Determination Theory, a well-studied theory of motivation. This theory has been studied in controlled lab settings and long-term longitudinal studies across SO many areas, including health but also in education, sports, parenting, psychological treatment, and so much more. In this podcast we learn about motivation and how it REALLY works, and how to apply it to our relationship with food, and beyond! "I'm terrified I'm wasting my life." Before we dive in to all things motivation, health and weight, and I wanted to share something with you. I wrote this statement in a journal in the middle of the diet-binge cycle. And frankly, I kind of was. I was disconnected and distracted, self-conscious about my body almost 100% of the time, and generally feeling like a failure, though no one truly knew the depths of this pain. I’m here to tell you it’s never too late to gain control of your eating, respect your body, and live a life that’s TRULY consistent with your values. But you need to take the first step. One of the very first steps in developing truly autonomous and body respecting motivation is to clarify what actually matters to you. Not your mom, not your sister, not your best friend, YOU.  The more you reflect on this, the more you can connect your values to your behaviors in a sustainable and empowering way.  Grab the free guide at DrHondorp.com/goals and get started today. I promise you, it’s never too late to stop dieting and start truly living. The Field of Weight Management is Missing the Mark Let's dive in and get started with some of the MANY ways the diet and weight loss industry and the weight management field in general is missing the mark. I should know, I had been a part of it for many years now, as a researcher developing and delivering weight management interventions for NIH-funded research trials. A few of the ways we are failing (as a field) The 78 billion dollar weight loss industry (as of 2019) and the ways they profit based on things NOT working for us. Repeat customers, they need. (Said in a yoda voice).The 3 Key Psychological Needs we all have when it comes to any sustained habit changes (autonomy, competence, and relatedness; Deci & Ryan, 2012) and how almost all of the ways we approach weight loss and dieting reduce these, making is VERY hard to make changes that stick. How calorie restriction causes biological stress and increased cortisol which is one of the MANY ways dieting undermines our ability to achieve our goals and reduces our sense of effectiveness (Tomiyama et al., 2011). You see, we need to feel some degree of success to want to keep going long-term. Makes sense, right? Well, the fact is that MOST weight loss programs result in weight gain over time, not loss. At some point we need to start looking at the system, not the person.The ways we GREATLY overestimate the impact of weight on our health, and how little of a role it truly plays based on science. This doesn't mean that weight does not matter. Most people I work with will tell you it matters very much to them, however, the ways in which we are told it matters and that we "need" to lose weight, are actually not often true. In fact, there's good data that focusing on weight loss will take you away from your goals, not towards them. Most importantly, we talk about what the heck can be done about this? How can we improve things on an individual and larger systems level?

Have You Ever Asked Yourself... How can I stop emotional eating or binge eating and gain control over my eating habits?Can I truly learn to love my body?I am addicted to food?How can I get and stay motivated to make lifestyle changes?Is it possible to have a healthy relationship with food? The Motivation Made Easy Podcast is Here! Each week I'll bring you science-backed information, strategies, and inspiration to: Master your relationship with foodGain control of your habitsRespect your bodyAnd free your mind to focus on the things that truly matter What Is This Podcast All About? In this Introduction Episode, you will learn: How I came up with the title of the podcast including why I hesitated at first, but ultimately decided on Motivation Made Easy: Body Respect, True Health.How my experiences professionally and personally will bring a unique perspective to these discussions.The ways in which we will embrace uncertainty to learn from opposing viewpoints. Examples include: 1) the research and patient care world, 2) the eating disorder and obesity world, 3) the prevention and treatment world. Types of Shows: Dr. Hondorp talking about personal stories, motivation science, tips, and strategies to master your relationship with foodInterviews with experts in fields of psychology, nutrition, body image, and much moreStories from real people about how they navigated their relationship with food Subscribe So You Don't Miss An Episode! New episodes will come out each week, so make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss one! To grab my FREE audio guide to stop diet and take control of your habits, go here. Click here to join my insider's community to get the inside scoop on everything going on with the Motivation Made Easy podcast and The Psychology of Wellness.