| Mar. 1st, 2011 @ 07:32 pm Applying Training Methods to my Weight Loss |
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Current Mood:  accomplished
It's easy to train an animal to do something. Positive reinforcement at the moment the animal does the behavior. It's much harder to train an animal to STOP doing something, especially when it comes to something that is intrinsically reinforcing.
I have decided to apply operant conditioning to myself to accomplish two goals: 1. Exercise more, and 2. Eat less/eat healthy.
The first one is pretty easy. Tim and I have set up a schedule of rewards based on how many times per week I accomplish certain goals:
Walk 10,000 steps in a day
Do knee and back PT once (or better yet, twice) a day
Use the exercise bike for 30 min. a day
Do some sort of additional aerobic exercise for 20-30 min. per day: circuit training, step aerobics, or swimming
I am also being rewarded for eating meals made at home, which are healthier than eating out, especially since I cook low-sodium, low-fat, low-calorie meals. We do not keep tempting food in the house any more (unless we're having a party), like sweets, snacks or fat-full foods. We do keep some low-calorie snacks, but not many.
The rewards include: head-scratch from Tim, foot-rub from Tim, Tim feeds the cats, Tim cleans the litter box, I get to order a BigFish game, or I get to buy stuff from Thinkgeek. The rewards are scaled based on how successful I am in a week. There is NO punishment for when I fail to meet a goal, other than I missed that opportunity for a reward.
I am also going to say "Yes!" or "Way to go Jenn!" or other such things as a way of instantly reinforcing the behavior whenever I finish an exercise goal in a day. Most of the above rewards require me to finish the goal several times in a week.
Now for the hard stuff. How do you train an animal NOT to eat? I'll be using the guidelines set out in Karen Pryor's Don't Shoot the Dog.
1. Shoot the animal.
Ok, we're not going to do that, although it WOULD solve my eating problem. :-) Instead, we are keeping bad-for-me foods from being in the house. Tim is doing more of the shopping, so that limits my opportunities to buy that junk, because I am just lazy enough not to go out and buy it unless I absolutely have to go to the store anyway. This will not completely solve the problem, though, so let's look at the other methods.
2. Punishment.
I think this method sucks, so we're not using it. I don't want to slapped every time I eat something unhealthy, or I eat too much of something. It might stop the behavior, but more likely I'd start sneaking it, and at the same time resenting Tim for slapping me (or whatever).
3. Negative Reinforcement.
Punishment's little brother. I already have plenty of negative reinforcement, and it doesn't help me do anything but feel bad about myself. I can't fit into clothes or look good in clothes. I can't get the job I want. I can't move and dance like I used to. I get pain in my knees and back. This is all negatively reinforcing, but it isn't immediate enough to have an effect. Tim could give me a dirty look every time I was about to do something bad with my diet, or I could put an electric buzzer on the fridge and pantry handles, or something like that. It's not as bad as punishment, and can be effective in places, but I can't think how it can be effective in this situation, so we decided to skip it.
4. Extinction
Well, clearly this behavior is not going to go away on its own, so this method will not work at all, or it would have by now.
5. Train an Incompatible Behavior
Ah...this I can use. For example, when I'm craving something bad for me, I eat a pretzel stick instead. It's a lot less bad. When I'm hungry for something crappy at home, I will try to eat something healthy (or at least healthier) instead. Another thing I could do is go for a walk whenever I feel peckish and it isn't a regular meal-time. Sometimes I will do this, but I've gotten pretty good at not snacking between meals, and it's usually the late-night cravings that get me, where I'm not likely to go out for a walk. So instead, I stay where I am and I don't get the snack. Staying where I am (away from the snacks) is incompatible with snacking. One thing I do pretty consistently is try to play a computer game that involves both hands. This makes it very hard to eat and play at the same time. It's a great way to keep myself from eating for a while. And for eating healthy, finding healthy foods that also taste good (fresh cut fruit with fat-free, calorie-free Cool Whip is a favorite of mine) can often (though not always) be a sufficient substitute for the unhealthy food. If I've gotten full on healthy snacks, it's harder to keep going and eat the unhealthy stuff.
6. Put the Behavior on Cue
This is another one we are working on. A big problem for me is that I eat in front of the TV or in the living room with my computer SO OFTEN that I frequently just get hungry for sitting down. This is a Pavlovian response, and we are changing it by not only sticking to general meal-times, but making it a requirement that I sit and eat at the kitchen table for every meal. Eventually this will apply to every snack, as well, but we are taking baby steps. In fact, for the first few days, I frequently forgot and like a zombie just took my food out to the living room with me. So, the cue for eating will become sitting at the dining room table. This is especially convenient because the only other thing we use that table for is playing board games during parties. Ok, I might get overly snackish during a party, but that's a lot better than being overly snackish every single moment of every day.
7. Shape the Absence of the Behavior
We're not so great with this, but I'm trying to remember to tell Tim when I've stuck to my diet: healthy food, correct portions, etc., so he can give me a verbal or tactile reward. I also need to remember to tell myself, "Great job for eating that healthy breakfast!" and "Awesome! You haven't eaten anything in four hours!" Or such-like. Once again, there is no punishment for eating, eating at an inappropriate time, eating something unhealthy, or eating too much. Just praise and reinforcement for not eating, eating at the right time, eating healthy, and eating a proper portion size.
8. Change the Motivation
This is complicated. To do this, I have to know, why do I eat too much? Why do I eat unhealthy foods? Why do I hate to exercise? Well, for the first two, food is comforting. It makes me feel good. So my depression is a key factor in my unhealthy eating habits. To use this method, I would need to address the underlying depression. So I need to work on finding personal fulfillment. For me this is a bit of a catch-22, because I think I'll find a lot more personal fulfillment if I could just lose weight, but since it's a long-term goal, I'm going to keep trying for a job I love, keep trying to get that mew built, keep trying for a baby, and keep doing the escapist things that make me happy: rpging, TV, computer games, reading, surfing the net, etc. As for the exercise one, frequently I'm either bored or in pain, so I'm working on making exercise both more interesting and less painful. For the pain, I've added physical therapy to my exercise goals, complete with their own rewards, and I have a knee brace and I take Aleve on a daily basis. For the boredom, I have an exercise bike in a room with a TV with a Netflix connection, and that helps. I decided to incorporate geocaching into my lifestyle because it helps me get my steps in in a fun way (I'm a sucker for a game!). I'm thinking of hiring a trainer who can help keep me motivated and improve the efficacy of my work-outs. I'm also thinking about getting a Y membership so I can swim all year round, but I'm not sure I'd have the energy to go...but then, I could always train the behavior. :-) |
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