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Tuesday, June 08, 2010Two Quick Ways to Gain Control over Your Food Urges
540 words. Reading time: less than 90 seconds.
Do you feel powerless about implementing healthier food habits? A lot of people try real hard to resist the appeal of their favorite treats, only to end up depleted, defeated, and chewing away on the forbidden temptations before the end of the day. Once the temporary satisfaction has vanished, they feel guilty and resolve that this was their very last lapse… until the next one.
If your relationship with food resembles this example, my article will give you empowerment.
You see, it is common for people who want to improve their eating habits to focus on their weaknesses. They keep repeating to themselves “I know I shouldn’t have this (make it your preferred guilt-inducing food: chips, chocolate, bacon, fries), but it would taste soooo very goood! And I work so hard. I deserve a treat.” As they go through this thought process, the cycle of fleeting pleasure, guilt, and short-lived determination repeats itself.
Try New Strategies
Einstein defined insanity as the repetition of the same behaviors while expecting different outcomes. So if obsessing over your food habits has led you to nowhere in the past, chances it won't be a fruitful endeavor moving forward.
Positive psychology teaches us that focusing on weaknesses only goes so far. Rather than count on your soon-exhausted self-regulation and you overly-solicited mental energy, why not try another strategy? Here are my two favorites:
1) Physical activity: Rather than be defeated by that brownie, put on your sneakers and go for a walk. Angela Duckworth’s research shows that people who can best resist temptations are those who can successfully divert their attention. Brain scans also show that when a tempting stimulus is not available, our brain activity related to it diminishes, hence making it easier to resist. Out of sight, out of mind? Equally important to note: a lot of our dysfunctional behaviors are expressions of physical urges. Learning to shift these urges from need for comfort food to cues for exercise is a winning strategy. According to change expert Prochaska, “There is no more beneficial substitute for problem behaviors than exercise.” Certainly worth trying!
2) Emotional response: Look at that slice of pizza in a new light. Rather than see the comforting flavors, visualize its sodium content as it creates micro-lesions in your arterial walls. Then picture its cholesterol content coming in to fill in these micro-lesions, and leaving fatty deposits behind. Take 30 seconds to feel the rising blood pressure that will undoubtedly ensue, and that sweaty, out-of-breath feeling that you will likely experience just walking up a flight of stairs over a lifetime of such not-so-commendable habits. Not sexy! Change your emotional response to the foods that are hard-to-resist for you and their appeal will diminish considerably.
Save Your Mental Energy
Next time you want to avoid a certain food, preserve your mental energy for what deserves it. Go for a walk or change your emotional response to the foods you want to rid your life of, and you will free yourself from the temptation painlessly. You will also preserve your self-regulatory energy for other demands that are sure to come your way during the day!
Sources:
Temptation courtesy of powerbooktrance; Pizza courtesy of Theodore Scott.
Baumeister, R. F., Gailliot, M., DeWall, C. N., & Oaten, M. (2006). Self-regulation and personality: How interventions increase regulatory success, and how depletion moderates the effects of traits on behavior. Journal of personality, 74(6), 1773-1801.
Duckworth, A. (2007). Lecture for the Masters of Applied Positive Psychology students, University of Pennsylvania.
Kessler, D.A. (2009). The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. New York: Rodale.
Prochaska, J.O., Norcross, J.C. & Diclemente, C.C. (1994). Changing for good. New York: HarperCollins.
Roizen, M. F. & Oz, M. C. (2005). YOU: The Owner’s Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger New York: HarperCollins.
Somer, E. (1999). Food & Mood, 2nd Ed. The complete Guide to Eating Well and Feeling Your Best. New York: Holt Paperbacks.
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Tuesday, May 25, 2010How Physical Activity Enhances Productivity
This article is © 2010 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josee Salvas Shaar
There has been a lot of press about health, fitness, and obesity lately. It seems like everywhere we turn, there are new stats telling us why we need to pay serious attention. As a health coach, the most common excuse I hear for physical inactivity is not lack of information, but lack of time. In this article, I’d like to explain why spending time working out also helps people work smart. In fact, I argue that the time invested in physical activity pays for itself in increased productivity.
For starters, I’d like to point out that only moving creatures have a brain. Living organisms that build roots and stay in one place all their lives may have an intelligence, but no physical brain. Creatures that move have to think in order to feed and defend themselves and survive. Harvard psychiatry professor, John Ratey, points out that it is therefore no surprise that movement generates the brain activity necessary for synaptic connections to be formed and maintained. In other words, moving facilitates learning and remembering, both of which are certainly very good skills for anyone who wants to work smart. In Ratey’s words, exercise is “Mental Miracle-Gro.”
Biochemicals at Work
According to Ratey and Doctors
Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, two other neurotransmitters produced during
exercise are serotonin and dopamine. These chemical messengers make us feel good
and increase our energy and motivation. The link between feeling good and doing
well was already clear from previous positive psychology research by Diener,
Biswas-Diener, Lyubomirsky, King, and Seligman. But for the skeptics who still
want more concrete (physiological) evidence, research published by Subramanian
and colleagues has shown that people solve creative problems better and with
more insight when in a positive mood, probably because insight is generated in
the same brain region as positive emotions. Creative and insightful problem
solving? I say that’s productive!
Ratey and Registered Dietician, Elizabeth Somer, both
point out that another helpful biochemical change caused by exercise is reduced
cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone which modern lifestyles cause many people
to over-produce. In a 2007 opinion survey, 55% of workers report being less
productive at work as a result of stress. According to Nanette Mutrie and Guy
Faulkner, a single session of exercise can reduce immediate feelings of
anxiety.
If a single exercise session is impactful, working out
regularly compounds the benefits. In an chapter called simply
Toughness, authors Richard Dienstbier and Lisa Pytlik Zilling explain
that aerobic activity improves the central nervous system’s resistance to
depletion under stress. Toughness corresponds positively to performance in
challenging tasks, enhanced learning abilities, and positive physical and
psychological health – all good things that enhance the ability to work
efficiently.
But has anyone ever studied the direct impact of exercise on work performance? James Loehr and Tony Schwartz have, and they share their results in The Power of Full Engagement. Their work confirms that through increased energy, physical fitness produces higher engagement and better work results.
There would be a lot more to say on the topic, and I have a feeling more research is to come over the next several years. But for now, let me just add one final thought for all leaders and managers: inactivity compromises organizational productivity as much as it does employee health. Due to the contractual nature of your relationship with your staff, you are in a particularly good position to influence their lifestyles. Do something about it – it’s time to get moving!
Energy Grid - Healthy Habits Move the Slider to the Right
Note: This article was inspired by a discussion following my colleague Sherri Fisher’s article, Nurturing Your Creative Mindset. It is also a follow-up to her article, When More Work Leads to Lower Achievement and to my own earlier article, When Overworking Leads to Underperforming.
Sources:
Dienstbier, R. & Pytlik Zillig, L.M. (2005). Toughness. In C. R. Snyder & S. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of Positive Psychology, (pp. 512-527). New York: Oxford University Press.
Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press.
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131 (6), 803-855.
Mutrie, N. & Faulkner, G. () Physical Activity: Positive Psychology in Motion. In A. Linley & S. Josephs (Eds.), Positive Psychology in Practice, (pp. 146-164). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Complete book available online here.
Psychologically Healthy Workplaces specifies the types of practices that lead to psychologically healthy and high-performing workplaces.
Ratey, J. (2008). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Roizen, M. F. & Oz, M. C. (2005). YOU: The Owner’s Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger. New York: HarperCollins.
Seligman, Martin (2004), Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Free Press.
Schwartz, Tony (2008). Youtube video of a talk in the Leading at Google series.
Somer, E. (1999). Food & Mood: The Complete Guide to Eating Well and Feeling Your Best, Second Edition. New York: Holt Paperbacks
Subramaniam, K. Kounios, J. Parrish, T.B. & Jung-Beeman, M. (2008). A Brain Mechanism for Facilitation of Insight by Positive Affect. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 21 (3), 415–432.
Images
Jogger in NYC courtesy of Ed Yourdon
Stay Calm courtesy of VMOS
Another Flying Sidekick courtesy of kaibara87
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Monday, March 29, 2010When at Work, Can You Leave Your Heart at Home?
This article is © 2010 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josee Salvas Shaar & Louisa Jewell.
755 words; Reading time: less than 3 minutes.
“You can take a person out of their home, but you can’t take the home life out of the person.”
While employers would like
for employees to leave their problems at home, the reality is that
most people find it difficult to turn off stressors from their
personal life when they get to work. Similarly, research suggests that
employees who enjoy fulfilling home lives are in a better position to make
significant contributions at work. Rather than ignore the
home-life/work-performance connection, we argue that employers who
encourage and support healthy home lives see a better
return on their salary investment.
Are Work and Personal Lives Separate?
Readers of this blog already know that according to research by Diener, Lyubomirsky, and King, happy individuals are successful across multiple life domains, including friendship, marriage, health and work performance. The research suggests that the positive affect engenders success rather than the other way around. So if people are happier at home, can we expect to find a spillover of benefits into their workplace?
That is precisely what the research firm Gallup found. After
studying work environments for 40 years, their results demonstrate
that the most productive
A study published in the Journal of Managerial Psychology in 2007 further explored the importance of studying the relationships between work and home lives in HR policies. The researchers found that employee commitment is particularly high in organizations that support work-life fit practices.
A different study led at
George Mason University further reinforces this finding. This study suggests
that the degree to which job satisfaction varies is explained by
home-life factors, and family-life satisfaction
variation is partially explained by work-related factors.
To that effect, one very interesting finding in this article’s co-author Louisa Jewell’s research at Why Did You Go.com is that when we asked people why they left their previous jobs, the most common reason cited was unsupportive managers. On the other hand, when we asked people who enjoyed their work to report the reasons why, they spoke more about the work being important – that it fulfilled their purpose in life. Our informal research supports the concept that engaging employees is about truly tapping into and supporting the whole person, and allowing them to live in harmony within and outside of the company.
Insight on the Brain
Want even more compelling evidence? Here it is: research published in the Journal
of Cognitive Neuroscience has shown that people solve creative
problems with more insight when in a positive mood. The researchers believe this
enhanced insight occurs because positive affect is conducive to a more
global scope of attention enhancing the brain’s ability to make unusual associations. In an economy increasingly driven by the
creativity and innovativeness of its people (think engineering, bio/medical research, product design, process improvements, advertising,
Should Managers Get Involved?
Organizational leaders typically prefer to steer clear of employees’s personal lives. How to effectively deal with such issues isn’t taught in business school, and not everyone is competent or comfortable with it. There is also the concern that employees may feel it is intrusive, or the fear of being seen as overly touchy-feely.
However, employers can teach employees how to cope with stressors without becoming involved in the issues, which is precisely what the US Army is doing with its resilience training program. Employers can also offer tools to help their workers take better care of their health - an initiative that benefits the bottom line remarkably well. Give employees good tools, encourage participation, support them along the way, and their work performance will improve. It’s a simple equation: build positivity and resilience, get enhanced performance.
In support of this
claim, a two-year longitudinal study published in the Canadian
Journal of Behavioural Science in 2002 found that
psychological well-being reliably predicts job performance. Thus
managers would be wise to work on this.
Employers who strictly see employees as output-producers are missing one of the greatest levers they have: harnessing employee emotions for greater performance. Employees are complete human beings, and managing their full complexity is – in our educated opinion – a more fruitful and productive approach.
Images:
Many emotions courtesy of littledan
Business lady courtesy of coldironjr2003
Going home by alancleaver_2000
References:
Ford, M.T., Heinin, B.A., Langkamer, K.L. (2007). Work and family satisfaction and conflict: a meta-analysis of cross-domain relations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92 (1), 57–80.
Jung-Beeman, M., Bowden, E.M., Haberman, J., Frymiare, J.L.,
Arambel-Liu, S., Greenblatt, R., Reber, P.J., Kounios, J. (2004). Neural
Activity When People Solve Verbal Problems with Insight.
PLOS Biology 2 (4), 0500-0510.
Lourel, M., Ford, M.T., Gamassou, C.E. et al (2009). Negative and positive spillover between work and home Relationship to perceived stress and job satisfaction. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 24 (5), 438-449.
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131 (6), 803-855.
Rath, T. & Conchie, B. (2009). Strengths-Based Leadership. New York: Gallup Press.
Subramaniam, K. Kounios, J. Parrish, T.B. & Jung-Beeman, M. (2008). , John Kounios, Todd B. Parrish, A Brain Mechanism for Facilitation of Insight by Positive Affect. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 21 (3), 415–432.
Wright, T.A., Cropanzano, R. Denney, P.J. & Moline, G.L. (2002). When a Happy Worker is a Productive Worker: A Preliminary Examination of Three Models. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science.
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar @ 2:47:12 PMTop
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Saturday, March 20, 2010Wellness as a Business Process: PHWPC Day 2
This article is © 2010 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josee Salvas Shaar
The Psychologically Healthy Workplace Conference held in Washington, DC on March 5th and 6th gave everyone concrete and reliable evidence to make wellness at work a priority. The conference showed that creating a psychologically healthy workplace means more than promoting good health; it means simultaneously enhancing employee and organizational performance.
Stress in the Workplace
Matthew Grawitch, Ph.D. and David Munz, Ph.D. from Saint-Louis University presented a systematic approach to minimizing stress in the workplace. Citing a 2007 public opinion survey, they explained that:
- 74% of workers report that work is a significant source of stress
- 55% are less productive as a result of stress
- 20% have missed work as a result of stress.
Despite these vivid stats, most organizations ignore prevention initiatives and rely on their employee assistance programs to pick up the pieces once damage is done.
The comprehensive process Grawitch and Munz suggest includes four steps: identifying and reducing stressors, building resilience, facilitating coping, and providing remediation if and when all else has failed. Two of their key messages were the following:
1. The little nagging stresses are often more damaging that than the overarching issues. Reducing stress can therefore be much easier than imagined. It is often a matter of getting the conversation started, and taking proper, simple action.
Their research also demonstrates that lack of sleep is positively correlated with increased work stress – a finding that is no surprise to those of you who have followed my past articles.
Wellness as a Business Strategy
I also had the pleasure to hear from Tonya Vyhlidal, Med, CHPD and Director of Wellness, Safety and Life Enhancement at Lincoln Industries. This manufacturing firm has included the following formal statement in their core business beliefs and drivers:
Wellness and healthy lifestyles are important to our success.
Yes, health is truly an integral part of Lincoln Industries' identity: from employee selection to morning stretching, quarterly check-ups, paid on-the-clock smoking-cessation programs all the way to performance reviews and a yearly mountain climbing trip as an incentive for top performers, this company takes wellness seriously, and has it covered from all angles.
And it pays off. The company spends over $400,000 each year on wellness, and gets a return greater than five times that amount. Says Hank Orme, President of Lincoln Industries: “We’d like to get a return like this in anything that we did because the return is extraordinary!”
Work-Life Balance or Work-Life Fit?
Cali Williams Yost, MBA, led a workshop showing how work-life flexibility is a global strategic success strategy. Reminding us of the numerous snow storms that have reduced the speed of business in the North East of the US over the course of the winter, Yost argued that flexible organizations were least affected because employees were better equipped to accomplish their tasks from home. Work flexibility is a process bringing advantages to employer and employee alike.
As the CEO and Founder of Work+Life Fit, Inc., she insists the term work-life balance is misleading and outdated. More than balance, it is a better fit between the demands of work and those of our home-life reality that we need.
Yost also explained that flexibility is not a concern solely for “mommies-at-work”. In her experience, males and single people have a harder time finding the work-life fit that is right for them than women or married people do. A counter-intuitive finding that is worth thinking about!
Last but not least, Yost insists flexibility should not be a perk that is granted or discontinued at will. “When it is an ongoing conversation with periodical reviews, it is much easier for everyone to understand and accept changes,” she says.
All in all, I found the PHWPC to be a much needed, highly informative, quite inspiring and beautifully realized event. Hope to see you there in 2011!
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar @ 12:21:26 PM
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Monday, March 15, 2010Building the Business Case for Employee Well-Being
This article is © 2010 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josee Salvas Shaar
In my work as a wellness consultant, one of the comments I hear most often is “Wow! I love what you do! This is so important, and so needed ! What kind of ROI can a company expect for its wellness initiatives?”
But not anymore. The Psychologically Healthy Workplace Conference held on March 5th and 6th in Washington, DC gave everyone concrete and reliable evidence to turn the topic from "nice to have" to priority. Organized by Chair David Ballard, Psy.D., MBA, the conference showed that creating a psychologically healthy workplace is about simultaneously enhancing employee and organizational performance. Indeed, organizations that actively promote healthy lifestyles achieve lower health care costs, higher productivity and healthier bottom lines.
Health and Productivity
In the pre-conference session, Nico Pronk, Ph.D., FACSM explained how a work site health promotion program optimally provides practical applications based on existing research, and also is the basis for new research questions and results. As the Vice-President of Journey Well, he has applied this model and found that there is an explicit connection between worker health and business performance. More precisely:
- 4 behaviors cause nearly 40% of all US deaths: tobacco use, poor diet, physical inactivity and alcohol use.
- The greatest opportunity to improve health lies in personal habits (as opposed to social or environmental circumstances)
- The cost of productivity loss (including absenteeism and presenteeism) for employees who have poor diets, are physically inactive, smoke and abuse of alcohol is about 5 times higher than that of employees who adopt the reverse, healthier habits.
Engagement and Productivity
Benjamin Schneider, Ph.D., then entertained the conference participants with a presentation relating employee engagement and organizational financial success. He started by exploring how engaged workers are more active than those who are merely satisfied. While the satisfied individuals are happy about and focus on what they get out of their job, the engaged people's happiness takes root in what they contribute to their work environment.
The greater adaptability, focus, persistence, proactivity and enthusiasm of the engaged employees leads to significant financial benefits. A 2005 study of 96 companies indicated that firms whose score was in the top 25% for engagement enjoyed ROAs 12% higher and profitability 11% higher than firms that scored in the bottom 25% on engagement.
For those who now wonder how to foster engagement, Schneider warns that building trust is an essential prerequisite. Your efforts are doomed to failure if your employees feel that all you want is more work for the same pay. On the other hand, if jobs are redesigned to demand and develop more skills, to challenge workers and provide meaningfulness, and if the effort is based on effective cooperation, teamwork and feedback, the initiative is indeed promising.
Getting the Ball Rolling
It is one thing to recognize that wellness is a sound business strategy; it is quite another to have a sound strategy to go about it! Michelle James, MBA of Intel and Fran Melmed, MEd of Context Communication Consulting joined forces to explain how to reach employees with our wellness efforts effectively.
Their advice? Don't try to make it a perfect pretty picture where everyone is expected to fit the same mold. These are real people we are working with. For smaller organizations, see where the employees truly stand, understand what influences the decisions they need to make, and provide support along the way. For larger businesses where individual attention is difficult, think of building multiple mechanisms so employees can experiment and find what works best for them. Newsletters, chat rooms on the intranet, webinars and podcasts are all ways to reach your employees, and help them find support within the organization.
Melmed also cited a recent meta-analysis of the literature on costs and savings associated with workplace wellness programs. The Harvard researchers leading this study found that medical costs fall by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs and that absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73 per dollar invested. Equally interesting, employees in healthy workplaces miss on average 1.8 fewer days of work each year. If you have 100 employees, 1.8 fewer sick days per employee translates to 180 extra workdays per year, or the equivalent of 36 weeks of work! How many investments have given you that kind of return last year?
Good Place to Be!
The PHWPC Day 1 closed on a friendly reception where participants were able to mingle with the day’s speakers and other practitioners. I personally enjoyed meaningful conversations and collaboration opportunities. Corporate wellness is a good place to be in 2010 for people involved at all levels.
More reports from Day 2 of the conference in a few days…
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar @ 8:46:31 PM
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009Simple Leadership Tip You Can Use Today
This article is © 2009 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar.
Are your employees eager to work for you most days of the week? Too few leaders can answer this question with a confident yes. Today’s a tip will help you be one of them.
Many of us envision the "ideal leader" as someone who is physically and mentally strong. Someone who gets things done. Someone who is both invigorated and invigorating, and preferably who succeeds equally well in their personal and professional lives.
When you think about it, that's the portrait of someone who knows how to capitalize on their strengths and who has the mindset of a winner. It implies enough self-respect to cultivate sensible sleep, food and exercise habits, and enough respect for others to give them the opportunity to do the same.
This ideal leader is the opposite of the overstretched, impatient and nothing-but-work mentality that is so typical. Yet, a lot of business people still think of the overstretched attitude as reflective of good business acumen. Revisiting this whole concept is long overdue.
A Leader’s Job Is to Make People the Best They Can Be
How employees perform determines to a large extent whether companies succeed. To produce and maintain first-class performance levels, employees need to be in good mental and physical health. For that reason, positively encouraging staff members to adopt healthy lifestyles is a sound leadership strategy.
And it works. In an address to the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), Barbara Fredrickson shared the results of a meditation research she led in a corporate setting. Commenting on her findings, she mentioned that compliance rates amongst participants were higher than ever anticipated. Curious, I asked what accounted for such high compliance rates. Her answer? Employees felt more inclined to stick with the program because it was available through work.
In other words, not only does a healthy workforce render better results, but due to the contractual nature of their relationship with employees, leaders are in a particularly good position to encourage their teams to achieve lifestyle changes.
Concrete Application You Can Use Today
Here’s
a simple yet effective leadership tip to integrate healthy
behaviors with business strategy. Start a new spreadsheet. On the
vertical axis, write down the names of your employees.
On the horizontal axis, write behaviors you want to
encourage consistently in your staff. For example,
you might want to give recognition more often or remind your team of a
timely priority (current promotion, specific deadline, etc). Other ideas may include expressing trust, or encouraging the use of one’s strengths. Also
as column headers, write healthy behaviors you want to encourage in your
employees (sleeping enough, turning blackberries off during meetings, making time for a nutritious lunch, etc.).
Then each time you encourage an activity for a specific employee, put a check mark in the corresponding box of your spreadsheet. Samantha seems more focused than usual today? Give her kudos, then keep track for yourself on the grid.
Over time, you may notice that you fail to reinforce certain key behaviors. Or you may be really good at giving recognition to certain employees, but not to others. Assuming everyone is deserving of appreciation, this reality check will help direct your attention towards your praise-deprived team members and make it up to them.
This technique will help you adjust your practices so they reinforce the behaviors you want to see, thus making your more of the leader you want to be. Equally important, it keeps you accountable for the behaviors you are encouraging in others, which will improve and enhance your relationships with your staff.
“The leader who exercises power with honor will work from the inside out, starting with himself.” – Blaine Lee
“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi
Images:
Clock courtesy of Inno’vison
Happy employee courtesy of Edwin Dalorzo
References:
Fredrickson, B. (2009). Address at the International Positive Psychology Association World Congress.
Fredrickson, B. (2009). Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive. New York: Crown.
Lee, B. (1998). The Power Principle: Influence with Honor. New York: Fireside.
Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press.
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar @ 5:21:15 PMTop
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Friday, September 25, 2009When Overworking Leads to Underperforming
596 words, 2 minutes reading time
This article is © 2009 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar.
I was headed to a conference last week and I knew it would be a long drive, so I brought an audio tape. This time I listened to an older one, curious to see if business had changed. The author of the 1985 publication promises to deliver street smarts and to train listeners on “what they don’t teach you at Harvard business school.”
One of his recommendations in particular didn’t shock me because it is somewhat typical, but it really is shameful when considering its full and inadvertent consequences.
This executive declares, “I like it when I call the office at 10 at night and people pick up. I like it when I call on a Sunday afternoon and people are there. I like it when I come to the office on Monday morning and people know the results of sports team in distant parts of the world [his business is sports-related]. To me, this shows commitment.”
Counter-Productive Expectations
Employers still holding such expectations are in for a rude awakening. When individuals are encouraged to work virtually every waking moment, there is little opportunity for them to get a nutritious meal or enjoy a workout – two ingredients that can help boost productivity. No surprise our country is plagued by simultaneous epidemics in obesity, in physical inactivity, bringing along with them a long list of serious diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and atherosclerosis – to name just a few. The US Surgeon general declared that over 300,000 Americans die prematurely each year due to lack of physical activity and poor nutrition.
Being overworked also impedes the ability to get sufficient sleep. According to scientist William Dement, "sleep deprivation is now the most common brain impairment" Hence, when work impedes sleep, the unintended consequence is reduced performance.
Personal lives also suffer from work-life imbalance. Feeling depressed is now so common that the World Health Organization finds depression to be a leading cause of disability. Anti-depressants are now the most common drug prescription. Since we know that psychological well-being is a good predictor of productivity, lack of work-life balance is clearly counter-productive in the long-term.
For the CFOs and other “show me the money” readers, let’s take a look at the numbers. Right now in the US, health care costs are increasing faster than inflation, GDP or average organizational revenues.
Hiring more employees therefore weighs heavier on the wrong side of the
balance sheet and enterprises have a hard time growing as a result. As
if this weren’t enough, Dr. Ron Goetzel, Director of Cornell
University’s Institute for Health and Productivity Studies warns that presenteeism costs can outweigh an employer's medical costs – ever been on Facebook during work hours?
Downward Spiral
With increased costs and reduced productivity, employers are hard-pressed to increase performance, which seems to reinforce the need for long hours. Employees get blackberries so they can respond to email 24/7. Multi-tasking is now the name of the game, but it augments stress more than it does productivity. As anxiety increases, so do our depression rates, our waist lines and, our health care costs.
Now of course overworked employees are not solely responsible for these conditions, and clearly there are times where a little extra push is necessary. But overall, employers would be better served being part of the solution, not the problem.
Sustainable Success
For an organization to be successful and sustainable, contributors at all levels have to thrive long-term. To the extent that everyone’s contribution is necessary, everyone’s physical, emotional, mental and relational energy matters.
Good health is an intrinsic part of good performance. That’s what I’d like to see added to the curriculum of business schools.
Images:
Images are courtesy of Marie-Josée Salvas for one-time use with this article.
References:
Blair, S. (2009). Lecture presented at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Boyle, M.A. & Long, S. (2007). Personal Nutrition, Sixth Edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Dement, W. (2000). The
Promise of Sleep: A Pioneer in Sleep Medicine Explores the Vital
Connection Between Health, Happiness, and a Good Night’s Sleep . New York: Random House.
Quote above from p. 231.
Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press.
Ratey, J. (2008). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Wright, T.A., Cropanzano, R. Denney, P.J. & Moline, G.L. (2002).
When a Happy Worker is a Productive Worker: A Preliminary Examination
of Three Models. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science.
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas @ 3:33:44 PM
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Tuesday, August 25, 2009Training Wheels for Compulsive Multi-Taskers
769 words, 3.5 minutes reading time.
We all know one. Someone whom you are sure to find busy on two phone lines and on email simultaneously whenever you walk into his office. His desk is full of paperwork through which he scrambles furiously when he needs information he can’t remember, which is often since he’s so busy multi-tasking that he may not be able to register much. In case he ever gets bored, a muted flat screen shows the news right in front of his desk, which he checks quickly as he greets you. His typical answer after you’ve announced the reason for your visit is “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get that. Can you say it one more time for me?”
Exercise Wheel
I’d like to suggest a reality check for such compulsive
multi-taskers. Since the brain can only actively process one source of
information at a time, and 
since switching from one activity to another requires a brief second (sometimes two!), researchers have shown that going back and forth between multiple tasks actually increases the total time needed to perform them.
Equally significant, constant shifting makes no room for real engagement. The compulsive multi-tasker’s main drive is the desire to finish one thing to get on to the next – much like a hamster on an exercise wheel, minus the health benefits. The more we practice this type of mental racing, the better we get at it, and the more difficult continuous focus becomes. Lack of engagement also makes no room for work satisfaction and may drain out energy early in the day.
To top it all off, a compulsive multi-tasker’s brain is like a stress hormone manufacture. With no room for compensating interludes of peacefulness, the steady supply of cortisol and adrenaline can make multi-taskers hyperactive, impatient, irritable and, insensitive to others. Not a pretty picture.
Training Wheels
What if you agree with the disadvantages of multi-tasking, but aren’t sure how to stop. Before the vacation season ends and the rhythm of work accelerates again, perhaps you’ve chosen a good time for a healthy dose of balance and focus. Here are some quick tips – training wheels – for how to start battling compulsive multi-tasking:
1. Address the issue. A lot of multi-taskers think their busyness testifies of how important and successful they are, and they don’t consider it can also signal poor task and energy management skills. Have the present article circulate at your office. People know when a label resonates with them. If you’re asking yourself whether you are compulsive at this, the question itself is a good hint.
2. Remember the benefits of taking breaks. Far from a luxury you can’t afford, breaks help recharge your energies, keep those stress hormones under control, and improve your mood and productivity upon your return.
3. Take a Deep Breath.
The body’s natural response to stress is to contract your muscles, a
reaction that impedes the full expansion of your lungs. Less oxygen
circulating to your brain diminishes your ability to think effectively,
be poised and productive. By voluntarily taking a few deep breaths, you
can replenish your oxygen supply and get back in control.
4. Initiate walk and talk meetings. Walking not only activates your blood flow and breathing, but it also facilitates the production of dopamine and serotonin, the feel-good hormones that fight the negative effects of stress.
5. Practice mindfulness. Let me quote my colleague and PPND author Kirsten Cronlund on this: “mindfulness… enables the practitioner to choose carefully from many possible emotional, intellectual, and circumstantial inputs, to act wisely, and not be ruled by the less adaptive immediate responses that are often triggered during times of stress.”
6. Savor Accomplishments. We are constantly bombarded with new information to process, projects to tackle and clients to call. As a result, we race to the next thing and don’t take the time to experience the satisfaction of closure. To generate a more natural rhythm, initiate a ritual for celebrating accomplishments – it can be the end of each contract, campaign, deadline, even the end of each month. Recognize the importance of periodically looking back to see how much you’ve accomplished.
In New York Times Bestseller The Power of Full Engagement, authors Loehr and Schwartz write: “It is in the spaces between work that love, friendship, depth and dimension are nurtured. Without time for recovery, our lives become a blur of doing unbalanced by much opportunity for being.”
If you are anything like me, you’ll agree that friendship, depth, and dimension are all important characteristics to look for in business partners. Restless, unfocused, and irritable characters, not so much.
Images:
Rights to the pictures were purchased by the author on istockphoto.com for the sole purposes of this article.
References:
Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press.
Quote from above, p. 34.
Ratey, J. (2008). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas @ 4:22:26 PMTop
Show All » FULL ARTICLES » Balance & Fulfillment
Monday, July 06, 2009Beauty Sleep and Optimal Performance
This article is © 2009 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josee Salvas Shaar
Did you know that changing just one of your daily habits can be enough to make you more alert, efficient, energetic, productive and motivated? Would you like to implement that change?
If you’ve observed children’s natural behaviors, you’ve probably been reminded that humor and play are natural parts of life. Natural when well-rested, that is. When tired, children’s behavior is a completely different ballgame. Rather than being pleasant and interested, fatigued children’s ability to behave, learn and perform is dramatically diminished. They become restless, cranky, irritable and frankly, irritating too!
The negative impact of sleep debt is just as important for adults, except that we get better at concealing it. But make no mistake: concealing sleep debt doesn’t inhibit the dreaded results.
Brain Impairment
For one, according to sleep scientist William Dement, illustrious discoverer of REM sleep, “Sleep deprivation is the most common brain impairment.” University of Pennsylvania fatigue expert David Dinges reinforces: chronic sleep loss degrades nearly every aspect of human performance, including the ability to receive, process and act on information, he warns.
Other researchers in Australia have found that a sleep-deprived group
of participants in a study performed no better on a series of tests
after 17 hours awake than drinking volunteers whose blood-alcohol
levels were of 0.05. After 24 hours awake, the sleep-deprived group
performed at the same level on the tests as the 0.1 blood-alcohol level
group.
If you are pulling an all-nighter for the sake of important deadlines, you may want to consider taking a nap first. Stanford researchers have shown in lab experiments that the benefits of a 45-minute nap can give you as much as an extra 6 hours of productive time. Employers reading this article might want to consider providing employees with nap rooms at work – an uncommon strategy that could provide unexpectedly uplifting results.
Immune Function Challenges
Prize #2 in the category of disturbing effects of sleep deprivation goes to our immune system. According to University of Michigan sleep scientists Luca Imeri and Mark Opp, sleep debt impairs our immune function. Drs. Roizen and Oz, authors of bestselling YOU: The Owner’s Manual reinforce: in a 2-week study, getting under 7 hours of sleep each day made people three times more likely to get sick after exposure to a cold virus.
If you are sacrificing sleep in the name of productivity, being sick more often certainly won’t help you in the long run. Try the opposite strategy for a few weeks and see how you’re doing.
Crankiness Ahead
The third problem with a lack of sleep pertains to our mood. If you find yourself sweating and closing your fists in reaction to the photocopier’s paper jam, chances are you are seriously sleep deprived. We know from Barbara Fredrickson’s research that it would take 3 (or more!) positive emotions to help us back on the learning and creativity track after this negative paper jam spin.
As an added challenge, the percentage of adults who regularly shorten their night’s sleep to 6 hours or less is greater today than at any previously recorded time. According to the National Sleep Foundation, only 28% of American adults get 8 hours of sleep regularly each night. When surrounded by individuals who are equally running low on gas, three positives can be a hard-to-reach ideal.
Resilience Break-Down
As crankiness rises, so does the need for resilience. When little everyday annoyances become a source of stress, our ability to cope is solicited. Indeed, a new study headed by Eric Powell at the Research Center at Clayton Sleep Institute in St. Louis shows a bidirectional relationship between chronic stress and sleep problems. Something worth sleeping on.
When Self-Regulating All Day…
Last but not least, I hypothesize that being sleepy puts our self-regulation in overdrive. We’re cranky, but showing irritability isn’t proper office etiquette, so we put on a façade, which is a constant act of self-regulation. As we know, the more self-regulation we use, the more it gets depleted.
By the time we get home, put the kids to bed and fire off the final few emails for the day, there’s no more self-regulatory power anywhere within reach. We need a break – it’s our well-deserved TV and ice cream time! (It is no surprise to find that both increased TV watching and increased overeating are both associated with sleep debt!) TV producers know how to get us hooked, so we end up going to bed too late, and the next day we’re back to more sleep debt and irritability.
Recognize the pattern? Here’s how you can break the vicious circle.Easy Steps for Sleep Debtors
If you are sleep deprived, I know that any effortful lifestyle change has next to no chance of being successfully implemented. So I’ll keep my recommendations simple and achievable:
1- Rethink your relationship to sleep. Recognize that sufficient shut-eye time is part of the solution. Playing "tough guy" is unproductive. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can get away with 6 hours of sleep – unless you are an anomaly, you can’t. (As I wrote here,in a 2-week study, getting under 7 hours of sleep each day made people three times more likely to get sick after exposure to a cold virus).
2- Go to bed and get up at regular hours. Your body will get used to the regularity of your routine and will make it easier for you to fall asleep and awaken. If you are working shifts, adopt a very organized bedtime regimen. Your brain will pick up the clues and by the time you are opening the bed sheets, sleepiness will start settling in.
3- Cut back on the caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant, and therefore impedes sleep. It takes up to 7 hours before your cup of java has completely left your bloodstream. Start by reducing your afternoon and night-time caffeine intake and keep cutting back until you are happy with one or two morning cups.
4- Be enlightened – or not! Your brain interprets light as a signal guiding your biological clock. The more light exposure you get at night, the more you are delaying the onset of sleepiness. The flickering light of your TV is included here too. And by the way, plenty of research shows that TV watching is associated with slightly depressive states, overeating, obesity, chronic sleep debt and lack of physical and sexual activity – viewers, be warned!
5- Get comfy! In order to fall asleep, your brain needs to successfully block out all sensory input. Choosing comfortable pillows, comforters, mattress, bedtime attire and minimizing noise will help you do that. This may sound like obvious advice, but if you are in awe at how comfortable a certain hotel bed was during your last trip, your set-up at home might need revision.
6- Learn how your body functions. Keep a sleep diary for a few days or weeks. What precedes your insomnia? When do you wake up too early and can’t pass back out? When are you most rested? After a few days you’ll see patterns emerge, which will help you maintain good sleep hygiene.
Making the Most of Your Biological Clock
Once your sleep patterns are back on track, try to organize your
schedule such that moments of sleepiness and alertness are maximized.
For example, I used to try to get all the quick and easy things out of
my way so I could focus on more substantial pieces afterwards. After
paying attention to how my rhythm of alertness works, I realized that I
usually feel most alert between 10 and 12 in the morning, so I reserve
that time for what demands the most concentration. I usually hit a drop
of energy around 3 or 4, so I now use this time to return emails, run
to the post office or do other things that require minimal effort. The
result? My productivity has increased – and so did my work satisfaction.
I hope to have convinced you that the idea to frequently stay up late “to get more done” is deceiving and that sleep time is actually productive time. When it comes to beauty sleep, the real beauty isn’t related to the absence of wrinkles and dark circles, but to the splendor of optimal human performance.
Images:
Purchased for the purpose of this article.
References:
Baumeister, R. F., Zell, A. L., & Tice, D. M. (2007). How emotions
facilitate and impair self-regulation. In J. J. Gross, (Ed.) Handbook of Emotion Regulation, (pp. 408-426). New York: Guilford Press.
The Promise of Sleep: A Pioneer in Sleep Medicine Explores the Vital Connection Between Health, Happiness, and a Good Night’s Sleep. New York: Random House. Quote above from p. 231.
Fredrickson, B. (2009). Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive. New York: Crown.
Imeri, L., Opp, M. (2009). How and why the immune system makes us sleep. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press.
Roizen, M. F. & Oz, M. C. (2005). YOU: The Owner’s Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger. New York: HarperCollins.
Wagner, K. (2009, June 10). Study shows a bidirectional relationship between chronic stress and sleep problems. Paper presented at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. Abstract retrieved June 11, 2009, from http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/aaos-ssa060209.php.
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas @ 10:40:30 AM
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Show All » FULL ARTICLES » Fitness & Nutrition
Friday, April 24, 2009Personal Hygiene, Einstein, and Your Like-O-Meter
As a kid, did you enjoy taking a bath everyday? I didn’t. I remember a day when I planned a somewhat elaborate scheme to avoid it. Needless to say, my mom saw right through it and I still had to get wet! 25 years later, taking a shower is such an important habit that I could not fathom the idea of going to work without a prior healthy dose of body wash.
I developed a taste for exercise much the same way. Although I was always relatively active, as a teenager I didn't like being sweaty and out of breath. When at 18 years old, a man about 12 years older than my Dad raced by me gracefully in a 3.5-mile cross-country run, I realized that physical activity is an integral part of personal hygiene. It is not the outside we are refreshing so we look and smell good, it is the inside we are cleansing so we function well. That was when my excuses ended.
Last June I wrote an article entitled Top 10 Stimuli to Exercise Your Body (find it a few articles down) which discussed strategies to make your workout routine more compelling. The present article should have preceded my Top 10 Stimuli, because it is meant to help to people who contemplate starting to work out in the first place, a process I remember well.
Einstein and Insanity
There is more info about the benefits of exercise today than ever before, yet 80% of American adults are too inactive to reap these benefits. Also concerning, an increasing number of developed countries around the world are on that path as well.
As Einstein once said, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different outcomes is insane. So I'll avoid telling you why you should exercise. Chances are you already know it all too well and the appeal to logic has failed to motivate you. In fact, there may be so many people telling you why you should exercise that it may have killed whatever internal motivation you once had.
Rather, I’d like to explore what may cause your resistance to take on a practice you know is good for you, and then provide suggestions to help you break out of that resistance.
Your Like-O-Meter
For many, personal experience has proven that physical activity is code for clumsiness, discomfort, difficulty and pain. If that’s your case, you probably feel you have low skills to face a high challenge, a scenario sure to produce anxiety. I can’t blame your elephant for wanting to run away!
When your “Like-O-Meter” – the only real decision-making factor in an elephant’s world according to Haidt - indicates “-153,” your creativity is busy finding excuses, rather than solutions. While your excuses initially served to rationalize your gut reaction, they eventually become part of how your rider thinks. That’s when you get stuck thinking that exercise just isn’t for you.
For Each Excuse, a Solution
Having trained people for close to a decade, I’d like to offer ways to reprogram this dead-end thinking. I have paired the most common excuses people use to avoid physical activity with a possible solution to bust the excuse. Find your own excuse(s) from the list below, and see if my suggestions work!
1 - “I wasn’t made for exercise.”
In her influential book Mindset, Carol Dweck, PhD explains that there is no such thing as an athletic gene. Sure, some people may be genetically more flexible or stronger than others, but what really differentiates you from the athletes you waste energy comparing yourself to is how many hours they spent at it.
Train your elephant: Change your mindset. It’s about dedication, not predisposition. If predisposition there is, it would be that human bodies were made to be active – including yours! Up until about 100 years ago, people used to walk almost everywhere they went. So at the very least, you can start walking everyday - or find another excuse!
2 - “I don’t have time.”
Here’s the Mother of all excuses! No time, huh? And exactly how many hours of TV did you watch last week? Are there no TVs on the cardio deck at your local gym? Oh! I get it! You have to stay home with the kids. Don’t they play football or jump rope every once in a while? In many cases, the “no time” excuse just means that exercise isn’t high on your priority list.
Train your elephant: Let’s be honest. Truth is, the human brain needs down time. As much as you'd like to say you work 96 hours a week, you can’t be optimally efficient unless you rest and sleep every now and then. Now maybe exercise doesn’t fit your definition of down time. However, since we know from research that fitness increases attention, it really is a productive hobby for busy people. If you end your workouts with some breathing and stretching, you also get to relax in the process.
Equally interesting, numerous studies have shown that exercise increases longevity. So there you go. More time!
3 - “Exercise is real torture!”
Yes, if you want to build your capacity, you need to reach past your comfort zone. We tend to tense inactive muscles when trying a new exercise, which can increase soreness the next day.
Train your elephant: If you are aching for two days following each workout, maybe you're trying too hard. Use mindfulness. Pay attention to what your body says, and respect it. It doesn’t matter if other people are stronger or more agile: one day they were in your shoes, just learning the moves.
4 -“The gym is SO boring!”
Here we have the opposite situation. If you are bored, you are probably just plugging in time. Those who get involved with their sport aren’t bored. To the contrary, they get increasingly interested. The same theory applies to any workout routine.
Train your elephant: Try learning more about what you do. If you picked lifting for example, learn about muscle groups, exercise combinations, cardiac output and periodization. You’ll get mentally engaged. Author of Flow Mike Csikszentmihalyi said it best: “When we choose a goal and invest ourselves in it to the limits of our concentration, whatever we do will be enjoyable. And once we have tasted this joy, we will redouble our efforts to taste it again.”
5 - “I’m not a discipline person. I already self-regulate all day at work, and so when I’m on my own time, I want to enjoy myself.”
This excuse means that exercise can’t be fun for you - or that you’ve given up trying to make it enjoyable.
Train your elephant: Challenge this defeating belief: when have you enjoyed physical activity? Identify the root of your pleasure and build from there. Oh? Exercise has never been fun for you? Then let’s go back to Einstein: doing the same thing will perpetuate the same results. Try something else. If you’ve always been involved with solo activities, try a team sport. If you’re not enjoying high-intensity, go for Tai-Chi. Your joints are the problem? Try a water sport. Ever tried martial arts? Ballroom dancing? Maybe hiking? Tennis? Badminton? Surely, with some goodwill, you will find something that is enjoyable.
6 -“It takes too long before I get results!”
You are plagued with the Big Gain Syndrome or you can’t delay gratification. We want it all, and we want it now, and TV shows like Biggest Loser doesn't help us take it slow, which creates frustration.
Train your elephant: Move your attention towards mini-process-goals. Rather than wait until you have lost those 10 pounds to feel proud and accomplished, give yourself kudos for each section of your workout. If today you plan to bike 30 minutes and that seems like a challenge, start by focusing only on your warm-up time – about 5 minutes. Once you are through with it, think only about the next 5-minute increment, surely you can handle that much. An upbeat song is playing on your iPod? Use it to increase your pace. When the rhythm is gone, take it slower for a bit, and use that time to build in an active rest period.
Training with micro-goals will naturally create intervals of different intensity. Since interval training typically brings about faster results, micro-goals will also diminish the time needed before you attain your end goal. This technique has worked wonders for me; I'm confident it will for you too!
Tuning Your Like-O-Meter
Lastly, remember that your elephant and your body will get conditioned together. At that point, physical activity becomes very self-reinforcing. When I feel stressed or anxious, I know a good jog will get me back on track. My elephant now bounces toward the opportunity to exercise, rather than away from it.
For me, exercise has become a habit, just like showering before work in the morning. And so it can for you also!
References:
Rights to all images were purchased by the author for the sole use of this article.
Brooks, D.S. (2004). The Complete Book of Personal Training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2004). Fostering healthy self-regulation from within and without: A self-determination theory perspective. In Linley, P. A. & Joseph, S. (Eds.), Positive Psychology in Practice (pp. 105-124). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Dweck, C. (2007). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballantine Books.
Haidt, J. (2006). The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. New York: Basic Books.
Csiksentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience.. New York: Harper Perennial.
Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. Free Press: New York.
Prochaska, J.O., Norcross, J.C. & Diclemente, C.C. (1994). Changing for Good: A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward. New York: HarperCollins.
Rejeski, J.W. & Kenney, E.A. (1988). Fitness Motivation: Preventing Participant Dropout. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Roizen, M. F. & Hafen, T. (2006). The RealAge Workout: Maximum Health, Minimum Work. New York: Harper Collins.
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