Motivation and Choice

My apologies for being away. I have been off enjoying the finer things in life- but not to worry I am back!

Today I would like to share with you a new program idea.

I met with a friend and colleague last week. We both had the same supervisor at school and both survived doing research in exercise physiology. Fun times!

My friend now works in a primary care network (PCN), working directly with patients who are referred to him by physicians.

As with all of our visits, the first hour is shop talk. He shared with me some new exciting things the PCN is doing, especially with the programs they are planning to offer. The program they want to implement, is to offer their patients a choice. Yes a choice! Let me explain.

They are planning for this program to be targeting patients who have weight management issues and/or type 2 diabetes. The patients who enter this program will go through introductory sessions on chronic disease management, with a focus on tools to help them with behaviour change (goal-setting, self-monitoring, etc). Once the patient completes these sessions they are given the option to have further assistance in either nutrition or physical activity. Of course, the patients can also get assistance in the other area they may not have initially chosen.

I think this is a great idea, which could be quite successful.

Motivation is a key aspect of changing behaviour. Providing patients a sense of autonomy (ie, a choice, sense that they have control) can be very helpful to maintain motivation.

I am very eager to hear about their program as it develops. I will also be curious to learn if the adherence to this program is better and of course the long term outcomes of their patients.

So, what do you think? Is offering choice useful? Have you seen programs do something similar? How can we give them a sense of autonomy and a sense of control to the people we work with?

Physical Activity Counselling Toolkit

So I feel a little like blowing my own horn today.
As some of you may know, the Centre here has launched the new Physical Activity Counselling Toolkit.

I can proudly say I headed up this project, and had some fantastic help from my co-workers and from the advisory committee. I encourage you to check out our new toolkit... but also to keep an eye out for our translated versions, likely coming this fall.

The Alberta Centre for Active Living had been approached by various practitioners (e.g., exercise physiologist), requesting a need for resources and tools that would help them do physical activity counseling. So this project came out of a direct need from practitioners.

This was tough, but rewarding project. I was shocked at how much time each resource took to create. We wanted to make sure the content was based on the latest research. Plus we wanted to ensure that the information was written to best promote behaviour change ( this meant I had to brush up on my behaviour change theories- no easy feat).

We also wanted to make sure that each resources was written in very plain language and actually useful to practitioners. To achieve this, it required evaluating the readability of each resources and subsequent drafts. It also meant having the resources evaluated by practitioners and the clients they work with.

So, yes a lot of work. But the feed back we have been getting from across Canada and even around the world (that's right, folks in UK, Australia and South Africa have contacted us), has been outstanding.

This basically shows that resources like these are needed. The sweat, blood and tears that went into these was definitely worth it. Now... we just need to hunt down further funding so we can add to this collection.

I encourage you to check out our toolkit and please feel free to share your comments with me.

Try a new approach: Step Away From The TV

Discussions about sedentary behaviour seem to be growing in the physical activity field.

Focusing on sedentary behaviours does make some sense. Obviously, when we are busy being sedentary, we are not being active. So perhaps the sedentary behaviour is one we should tackle.

Some researchers are even looking at the health risks of being too sedentary (Check out this Research Update). Other researchers have even examined interventions which focus on decreasing sedentary time, especially with children and youth.

So what are examples of sedentary behaviour?

• Driving our cars.
• Watching television.
• Playing video games (though there are now some which require some movement)
• Working or playing on the computer (which is what I am doing right now).
• Time at work. More and more jobs are sedentary. Sitting (and in some cases standing) in one place pretty much all day.
• Anything that prevents us from moving.

Many professionals in my field spend time and effort promoting and creating opportunities for physical activity. We often talk about how people can and should fit activity into their lives. Cycle to work! Go for a walk! Play a sport! Take a fitness class! Move more!

It seems simple when we say these things, but in reality it isn’t simple to achieve. Most of Canadians are not physically active to see any benefits.

Well, what if we threw in another approach? What is we spent some time on the actual behaviour we want to get rid of- the sedentary behaviour. Perhaps we could encourage people to find ways to be less sedentary during their day.

The theory of this logic: If people reduced their sedentary time, they will create more time to be active.

So what do I mean by reducing sedentary time?
• Reduce how much TV you watch
• Decrease your leisure time on the computer.
• Find ways to not be sitting all day at work. (Standing meetings, place your garbage can on the opposite side of the room, walk to your colleagues desk instead of sending an email).
• Limit the time we are in the car (i.e. try to walk more from store to store rather than drive to each one)

Perhaps re-framing the physical activity discussion to include examining our sedentary behaviour may in fact help some people to ultimately move more.

Now get away from your computer!