A lot of interesting new observations as we wrap up filming…trying to get the last remaining bits of potential out of our documentary subjects, without actually demanding that they do anything.  It can be a tricky thing!

This week, we learned a great deal about how important encouragement can be to our mindset, and our ability to stay on course…or to stay motivated.  Again, as most of what I write here falls within the category of “common sense” – I often have to remind myself of these things and how important they are.

No matter what we are trying to accomplish, doing something really great takes a lot of hard work — sometimes for an extended amount of time.  Day in, day out, we try to eat the right things, exercise, and while we may find a lot of personal satisfaction in doing things right, we ALL need to have some sort of confirmation that what we are doing is worthwhile (or at least the majority of us).

What we have found, is that it is critically important to revitalize our motivation periodically, and this often comes in the form of positive and sincere encouragement from others.  If we’ve worked hard to achieve something, like fit into a new size of clothing, and a friend or spouse says, “just a little bit more and you will fit into a smaller size” – we can take this to mean we haven’t done a great thing…yet.  So in many ways, we must all pay attention to our ability to propel someone forward, or to pull them down.

The difference between providing encouragement that involves constructive criticism and encouragement that is pure and simple, is sometimes very subtle, but it can make all the difference.  For example:

“It’s great you fit into a size 6, you should definitely be able to get to a size 4!”

and

“I am so proud of you for reaching such a great goal.  Let’s celebrate by going shopping!”

Even though our intentions with both are positive, and meant to be encouraging, we have seen a profound difference in the impact on a person’s motivation to keep going.  It has something to do with our own feeling of being in control of our own goals, and if we feel like someone else has set goals for us, that we may rebel against these, even if they are in line with our own goals.

So even though we agree with what a person is saying to us, we may not like the fact that a new goal is imposed upon us without our consent.  This often depends on who is saying it, since a mentor who we look for very critical feedback might push us no matter what we do.  A spouse or friend however, we do not expect such judgement at times.

In the end, we cannot control what is said to us – so the best we can do is to realize how the words we choose impact the motivation of others to keep going harder than ever, or to lose motivation all together.  So encourage someone today, and you can more difference than you think.

The universal nature of this idea is evident in our own journey to create this film.  When a friend tells us they are so proud of what we are doing, or when a stranger sends us an email of encouragement, it re-energizes us, and propels us to work harder, which is a pretty basic, yet amazing part of life.

What we say matters.

We continue to learn even after two years of filming, that often the things we don’t think should really matter much at all, matter more than we can imagine.  As with so many things in the film, there is so much common sense that goes along with these things, that many people will think that we haven’t really uncovered much at all.

I’d disagree.

Often, because of a bit of laziness, we forego a few things that we know are beneficial to what we are trying to do, unaware that these subtle things can make all the difference.  I will try to give a few examples of this:

Food containers: There are so many levels to “eating good” – most of which is relative to the way we each “used to” eat.  A couple years ago, my wife and I met Jenn Hendershott at a seminar she held in Atlanta.  I remember sitting in on one of her talks where she discussed how she ate.  Now for most average people, these talks are the ones that define what we may feel is on the “extreme” end of eating.  I guess that is because this was a discussion on how to eat if you are trying to become Ms. Fitness Olympia (another topic).  The interesting thing I picked up from her habits was the size of her food containers.  They were pretty small as I recall. 

Up until this point, we never really paid much attention to this.  We had a few different shapes and sizes of plastic containers, most of them medium to large size, and we didn’t always use them (because we just ate what we prepared).  We decided that we were going to “stock up” on a smaller size and try to use them more often.  We purchased a lot of 9 oz. containers.  When we show these to most people, they gasp at how little it is…mostly because people in general are so used to eating too much!

It wasn’t long before we’d make food for work or for the day, and we would put our portions in these small containers.  We’d keep some in the fridge, and Mariah would take them to work with her.  Although we were already in pretty decent shape, we always try to improve each year (a mindset I’d suggest everyone adopt because it keeps you going in the right direction).  We found that our eating and portions were more consistent, and we noticed how much easier it was to make progress or maintain.

While it may sound a bit extreme to some, by using these smaller containers to control our portions, we were no longer storing large amounts of chili, mashed sweet potatoes, grilled chicken, etc. into larger containers, where each meal we’d serve ourselves into another bowl or plate.  We were separating our portions out in advance.  We still do this – and it ultimately becomes someone natural to us to do this.  We do not think about when will stop this habit — because this habit is aligned with our goals…it is part of our current lifestyle.  This may change someday, but for now, it fits.

Purchasing the right size, and enough of the right food containers can change your life? Subtle, I know.  It wasn’t until a year later when we met Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating, and we realized what we had learned was scientifically studied in a research lab.  Pretty cool!

So we have learned that, a simple action that seems insignificant, can make all the difference.  This is something I remind myself each day and it always applies to some aspect of what I’m trying to do.  Other actions that can impact our health more than we think…

Music: If we are not listening to our favorite music that is fast paced, we are missing out on the incredible difference it makes when we are exercising.  You do not need an iPod – any 20 dollar mp3 player will make us walk or run faster than normal, and make it seem easy with the right music.  I once watched Rocky IV on my portable DVD player and the visual stimulus even made the workout more intense.  The right music affects exercise profoundly.  I know common sense.  Do you follow it?

Food journals: I hate doing it too…but it always boils down to how badly we want something.  If we can try a new habit, such as writing down what we plan to eat, and what we eat each day, it can soon become habit, and not so annoying.  Most of us (me included), believe that we can keep all of this in our heads, and that it is not really necessary.  However, the subtle difference of knowing we have to write it down when we have 10 french fries, will change what we do.  Don’t forget those 2 pieces of candy you ate…and the handful of nuts…if it’s really possible to understand how such small changes in our daily routine can affect our focus and consistency, then we can use these “tools” to get us where we dream of going.

Training logs:  What speed did you walk at yesterday?  Was it challenging?  How fast can you run a mile?  Are you improving over time, or just doing the same thing everyday?  A training log, just as a food journal, impacts what you do in the gym, or wherever you exercise.  It allows you to see more clearly what you are doing, and most of the time, this is telling you to stop doing the same thing every day!

Proper shoes: Prevent injury, right?  Most of us procrastinate to buy the right ones until we’ve already felt some pain.

Heart rate monitors, enough exercise clothes, pre-planning meals, the list goes on…the point is, when you come across a tip that you feel you do not need to succeed…first try it for a couple of weeks to be sure.  You may be overlooking the subtle, yet profound impact it will have on your life.

None of this is groundbreaking, I know.  Or is it? 

Have a great week, and try something new!

A lot of times we seek absolute answers – the best diet, the best abdominal exercise, the best type of cardio…I guess this is probably just in our human nature to want to quantify things in some way.

What we have come to learn is that from a bigger picture, these classifications of absolutes often don’t help us with our consistent behavior, so there is so much variability on what we get out of any diet or exercise program.  This holds true for our motivation as well.  There are so many factors in life that affect our motivations to focus on one thing or the other, in this case, our physical condition and lifestyle…

We have seen one person be extremely motivated to eat the right thing, for a single meal, a single day…even as long as several months.  But the truth is that motivation is a difficult thing to predict, and it has so many different variables which affect it.

For example, if we turn our cameras on a documentary subject who hasn’t been eating right for several days, suddenly the motivation to eat properly or exercise a little bit harder increases, because of the external factors in our environment.  When we turn the cameras off, and the kids start screaming for McDonalds, it can be a different story.

So ultimately, our motivation has a tendency to ebb and flow, and we must accept this to a certain degree. We will see periods of intense motivation, where we do everything right, and then we see other times when there is little to no motivation to do the “right” things that will advance us closer to our goals.

How then, can we change this unpredicability?  (remember, that these are only theories we are constructing as we continue to piece together this film)

Remember how our mindset affects what we do?  As our motivation ebbs and flows, we can try to practice a couple of things:

1) We must remember that no matter what our last bad action was, that each new day represents a chance to change the direction of our lives.  It is sometimes a difficult thing to change our direction, but we must remind ourselves that despite our lack of motivation to eat right and exercise for the past week or month…this can change instantly.

2) We must remind ourselves of the long term outlook.  The longer we prolong our decision to change, the worse the problem can get…and our depression or unhappiness will persist.  In other words, the problem will not go away unless we attack it with a new strategy, NOW.  Common sense of course…but sometimes we need to be reminded of this I think.

3) Sometimes we are not capable of pulling ourselves out of a rut (ok, well most of the time).  We must realize this ourselves!  We must then, take specific action to change our own mindset, which is an extremely difficult thing to do.  Sometimes this means finding a friend, mentor, or coach who we know always can motivate us.  These people challenge what we do, create interesting perspectives that help us rationalize positive behavior, and give us a little boost in times when we are not too interested in doing the right things.  When we can do this, we can improve our ability to stay motivated or to get remotivated. 

4) During our motivated “state”, we must take specific actions that will reduce the chances of us losing motivation.  The most powerful way to do this is by creating an environment for ourselves that improves our chances.  Making little bets with friends, joining a community of other forward thinking individuals (weight watchers, overeaters anonymous, running clubs, boot camps)…these are steps we should take when we are motivated, even if we feel we do not need them at the moment…mostly because we must remember that our motivation, while very intense at one moment, can be lost very quickly.  When we go to dinner with friends that are trying to be healthy and motivate each other, our ability to resist temptation is far greater than with friends who don’t particularly care.

5) Remember the things that lift us up.  An inspirational movie, website, or book of positive sayings.  Often when I get stuck during this filmmaking process, I go back to the documentaries that inspired us in the first place.  Sometimes this is hard to do when we are feeling negative or in a rut.  Keep a list of these things, to remind us when we forget!

We can rationalize away why we shouldn’t do these things, why we are waiting for the perfect moment.  Just remember the perfect moment is rare.  We might wait for the perfect moment for a long time. 

Today is the perfect day to get remotivated and set some new goals for ourselves, that make us excited about our future.