Americans love stuff, and they want stuff now. We are a culture of instant gratification; the greatest payoff in the least amount of time. That drive for more immediate rewards manifests in a lot of ways. We're one of the most innovative countries in the world, our drive to get better now driving entrepreneurship and invention. We're also a highly consumerist country, buying and selling more than anybody else. The United States is the fattest country in the world as well, because we are able to instantly gratify ourselves with everything from fast food to video games and satellite TV. Conversely, we often expect the same results from weight loss; fat-burning diet pills, extreme exercise fads, and self-described boot camps all advertise dramatic weigh loss in very little time. Unfortunately, says fitness guru James Fell, this doesn't contribute to a healthy lifestyle, but fits and starts that can have potentially damaging lifelong effects.

     Fell warns those of us looking to make real and lasting fitness and diet changes in our live to watch out for the "reward mentality". It's the idea that we decide we're more deserving of the unhealthy things that we like because we're making healthier choices for ourselves. He remarks that some people actually increase their caloric intake when they exercise, wiping out benefits of said exercise. "These people will burn off 300 calories on a treadmill and reward themselves with a 500 calorie piece of cheesecake, and that’s just bad math."

     I think of Fell's "reward mentality" more like a little mental negotiations where I'm constantly making "deals" with myself. We generally arrive at a place of self-loathing deep enough to get us to commit to some kind of healthier lifestyle change in the first place. This is our long-view brain saying, "Yes, I understand that eating healthy and exercising is going to make me feel and look better, live longer, etc." However, after getting into this plan for awhile our short-view brain comes to the table and starts negotiating. "You've done a good job this week exercising, so you can take a couple of days off next week." Or even worse is when you miss out on exercising because of other obligations and you tell yourself, "It's OK, because I'll make it up next week."

      The problem is two-fold. First, these "deals" are basically broken promises to yourself, and as any psychologist will tell you, the more times your break a promise to yourself or others, the easier it is for you to allow yourself to do it again. Second, Fell describes the issue of priorities. Prioritizing word over exercise, fun, or even family is not an uncommon practice in our country. However, as Fell says, "No one lies on their death bed wishing they’d spent more time at the office, but almost everyone lies on their death bed wishing they’d spent more time exercising. Especially since they might not be dying just then if they had." A little dramatic, maybe, but more true than not.

     According to Fell, it's important to start with exercise, not diet. He makes the point that exercise is a motivational issue 3, maybe 4 times a week for 30 minutes to an hour. The truth is once I can convince myself to start, I generally don't mind going longer if I'm not completely spent. Thus exercise because a battle of wills between your short-view and long-view brains maybe 3 or 4 times a week. Diet, on the other hand, is a 24/7 contest of wills. Do I eat the healthy choice or grab the donut? I really want McDonald's. I'll just have one more beer. At any time of the day or night a craving can hit and you can completely succumb to a "deal".

     Instead start with exercise, and then start monitoring your caloric intake. Don't try controlling it, Fell advises, just monitor it. Eventually you will start to develop a little self-hate. Fell calls this "counter-conditioning" or "learning to hate what you love," but let's just call it what it is, OK? You more than likely already know the caloric content (roughly) of your favorite foods, but decide not to actually sit down and look at the number because it will make it much harder for your short-view brain to rationalize a "deal" the next time around. You're developing some self-hate for loving your high-calorie everyday foods and your Big Gulp "diet" soda.

     Once you've started exercising in small increments several times a week and you're educating yourself on just what a sloppy-ass eater you are, you can start to take the next step, according to Fell. That is building a routine. This is the part that generally gets all of us, because it's the part that is most difficult to do in a busy life. Regular, high-priority physical activity. However, Fell's advice for helping us to make this a high priority is to actually condition the way we think. Rather than seeing exercise as a little pain before a reward; see it as constantly reviving our ability to eat better, feel better, and live longer. Sounds like a pretty fuzzy piece of Zen, but I'm willing to try anything.