Beginner's Fitness Programs

Archive for July, 2011

The summer is here and you want to look as if you spent your weekend at the beach, even though you needed to work at the office all weekend long. Well, eat your vegetables!

It is well-known that eating fruits and vegetables, especially reddish-colored ones such as carrots and tomatoes, give a sun-tanned look to skin. This is because these fruits and vegetables contain compounds called carotenoids, which give carrots their orange color. There are several supplements that capitalize on this fact, but they tend to make your skin look too orange (like a carrot) and do not produce a natural sun-tanned look.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham did a comparative study of the attractiveness of sun-tanned faces with those colored by eating fruits and vegetables with high carotenoid-content. They found that many people thought that the latter had more attractive color. For them, the skin colored by carotenoids had a healthier golden glow than the sun-tanned skin.

The researchers have some ideas as to why this is true. Carotenoids are very important for immune and reproductive systems and keep people healthy. Evolutionally, it is important to recognize whether a potential mate is healthy or not, and skin color is a good indicator. According to this explanation, a person with glowing skin color is healthier, and hence more attractive.

Culturally speaking, this may or may not be true. Before the Victorian era, white skin was a symbol of beauty because only rich (supposedly healthy) women could stay indoors and hence have paler skin. However, in the modern world, people who have more money tend to have more leisure time which they may use to get tanned, hence they are attractive. This is one reason that many young people love to have tanned skin.

Whether the researchers’ explanation is right, it is still good to know that many people think that food-based skin coloring is more attractive since we all know that ultraviolet light from the sun damages the skin in the long run. Too much sun ages skin prematurely and, in the worst case, may develop into skin cancer.

Some people think that a tanning salon is better than the actual sun since it eliminates certain dangerous UV light. However, a University of Minnesota study showed that there is a definite link between the usage of tanning beds and melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer.

If you want tanned-looking skin, you really should consider sunless tanning, especially by eating healthy meals filled with fruit and vegetables. One more thing: Skin colored by a sunless tanner or food is totally different than the changes in melanin (which protects deeper skin layers from sun damage) when you expose your skin to the sun. Neither sunless tanners nor high carotenoid-foods interact with melanin. So you get nice rosy color, without damaging the deeper skin layers from ultraviolet light. You should still wear sunscreen whenever you go out!

Sources:
Carotenoid and melanin pigment coloration affect perceived human health☆☆☆. Evolution and Human Behavior, 2010
Indoor Tanning and Risk of Melanoma: A Case-Control Study in a Highly Exposed Population. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, 2010; 1055-9965.
The Sunless Study: A Beach Randomized Trial of a Skin Cancer Prevention Intervention Promoting Sunless Tanning. Archives of Dermatology, 2010; 146

• Back to Articles
• Back to Healthy Diet
• Back to Home Page

We all have good intentions when we decide to undertake something new. We know that our health is important and that we need to take care of ourselves. We visualize looking good in a swimsuit at the beach if we lose 20 pounds. We sign up for a weight-loss program, study diets, and even join a gym. It was great for the first week, but then we start feeling hungry, our motivation weakens, and by the third week we are back at the beginning.

What went wrong? We had a good plan, a support system, and a great motivational target, but our effort failed. Welcome to the club! Sure, there are people who can set a plan with a clear final goal and don’t need anything else to achieve whatever they want, but most of us are not that way (and that is why we gain a bit of extra fat around our bellies).

According to the famous motivational coach Tony Robbins, we need to employ two emotions to achieve our goals: pain and pleasure. Our life is constructed on these two emotions. We do what feels pleasurable and avoid anything we feel as painful. For most of us, eating chocolate is pleasure, and going hungry is pain. That is why dieting is a very hard thing to do.

Between these two emotions, which is stronger? (You can probably guess.) Pain is a stronger emotion. If a given situation will give pleasure in the end, but the process is painful, most of us will avoid the situation. For example, you can make $30 per hour with easy work, but every few days, someone tries to steal $10 out of your pocket. You need to spend 10-15 minutes per hour to prevent that from happening. What do most people do? They spend 10-15 minutes every hour watching instead of working that time to make more money. Rationally speaking, if you ignore the thief and just work, you make far more money than by preventing the loss, but losing money is so painful, most of us cannot follow rational thinking. This usage of negative motivation was recently backed up by a study done at the University of Pennsylvania. They did a study on cardiovascular patients, and found that negative motivations work better than positive ones. (Tony Robbins knew this 30 years ago!)

If you can utilize these fears, plus positive feelings about your goal, you can easily achieve the goal you set. Since most of us already know how to create positive motivations, I will give you some tips on how to create negative ones.

First of all, you need to find an immediate and painful consequence you will suffer if you don’t achieve the goal you set. For example, if you set a goal to lose 20 pounds in 6 months, what bad thing will happen to you in the next week? (Most of us cannot see six months ahead, and it is very difficult to visualize the day. That is why you need to measure success in a week or less.) One way to create pain is to announce your plan to the world. For example, you may want to post your decision on your Facebook page and tell your friends to remind you if you get lazy and put off working toward your goal. You need to post progress reports every week so that everyone can see where you are. If you don’t make regular progress, you will feel guilt and shame. Visualize your friends’ disappointment about you (or see some of your acquaintances looking down on you). How do you feel?

Another way to create this “push” is to post warning signs all over the place. According to a University of Alberta study, a warning label on a food package is much more effective than, for example, an extra cigarette tax or a “fat” tax (which some states are considering adding to unhealthy “food”). Post a big warning sign on your refrigerator saying “Every extra pound will cut your life span by 3 years”, or set your computer so that every time you start it, it tells you “WARNING: without losing 20 pounds, you cannot fit into your swimsuit!!!”. The warnings must be changed regularly since we get used to specific input and our brains start ignoring it even if our eyes see it clearly.

Another popular way to push is to set a penalty. When you start your program, set a penalty for not following the plan. Make sure that you do NOT set the penalty for not achieving the goal. These are two totally different things. Even if you follow the plan you made, you may not achieve your desired result, because circumstances may change or you did not plan well. It is not your fault and you should not punish yourself. If that happens, you modify your plan, and keep going. However, if you stop following your plan, it is time to give yourself the penalty. Of course, if you don’t tell anyone about it, it is less effective, since you may ignore the penalty thinking that this was a special case and won’t happen again (but it most likely will happen again). The penalty must be really painful to be effective. For example, if you want to make it meaningful, tell the world that you will donate all your cherished collectable dolls to a charity organization if you drop out of your plan for two consecutive weeks. (Make sure, that you give yourself a chance or two before giving yourself a severe penalty.) I bet you won’t miss a day of working out!

Related to this topic, one study said that if you see overweight people eating food, most people, regardless of their personal weight, tend to overeat unless they consciously remind themselves not to. Since more than 60% of the population in the US is overweight or obese, it is probably very difficult not to see overweight people eating. It may be a good idea to carry around a picture of you after losing 20 pounds (or whatever your ideal weight is). This can be done very easily by using photoshop or any computer-drawing programs. If you are not a computer wizard, you can find someone to do that for you for less than $5. (Many services are offered from India or the Philippines). It will give you great positive motivation for sure!

Sources:
Cardiovascular patients’ perspectives on guilt as a motivational tool University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (2011, April)
Heterogeneous Consumer Responses to Snack Food Taxes and Warning Labels. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 2011; 45

• Back to Articles
• Back to Fitness Motivation
• Back to Home Page