I’m taking an online class from the University of Pennsylvania titled “Positive Psychology: Resilience Skills.” For my latest assignment, I needed to identify a situation that frustrates me and apply the behaviors of an optimist to it.
An optimist, among other behaviors:
- identifies what they can control in a given situation,
- accepts what they can’t control,
- and takes appropriate actions to positively influence those variables.
The Frustration
The frustrating situation I identified in my life is my physical health. This problem is best evidenced by my abdominal obesity (otherwise known as “beer belly”). Scientists link this particular type of obesity to cardiovascular disease, asthma, Alzheimer’s, Type II diabetes, hypertension, and other metabolic diseases. Finally (and because of these things), abdominal obesity increases the risk of death.
In addition, my adominal obesity adds strain to my already bad back. Its weight and position increases how often I throw it out, and right now, that’s about two or three times a year.
It also has a negatic financial impact. One study found that each additional centimeter of waistline above “normal” incurs a financial costs of 2.08%.
In short, abdominal obesity is more likely to hasten my death than anything else. And it will hurt both my back and my wallet while doing it. It’s time for a change.
The Variables
The two biggest variables that influence abdominal obesity are diet and exercise. Like a significant percentage of Americans, I eat too many calories and I don’t move enough to expend those calories. These are things that are within my control.
I’ve already taken steps to change my diet. The biggest change was to drastically reduce the beer I consume. Since New Year’s Day, I’ve cut my weekly beer count from roughly 20 to roughly 0. While I haven’t cut out all alcohol, I’ve only caught a buzz (or more) twice since the start of 2018: once for the Super Bowl and once for St. Patrick’s Day. I expect that to continue for the rest of my life.
I’m also trying to reduce the amount of sugar I consume. This has been harder, mostly due to ice cream. The good news is that I’ve stopped buying gallons of chocolate ice cream to keep in my freezer. The bad news is that it’s summer time and my gals love going out after dinner for an ice cream cone.
I’ve stopped putting sugar in my coffee, stopped buying candy at the grocery store, and am trying to stop purchasing a brownie everytime I pick up my lunch (I’m being less than successful with that one, but only because I’m a brownie addict).
There are more actions to take around my diet, but reducing my beer and sugar intake are the most influential ones.
As for exercise, I simply need to start doing it. The biggest obstacle is time. There are three places where I could add exercise to my daily routine: in the morning, before work; in the late afternoons, after work but before dinner; and at night, after my daughter has gone to bed. Mornings and nights are kind of locked in as they are. I could add some minor resistance exercise to these times — push ups, for instance — but I can’t realistically (and sustainably) add a whole new regimen.
Which leaves the half hour or so between work and dinner. Right now, I tend to use that time to zone out, ideally in close proximity to my daughter. We read books or watch TV or color (usually watch TV). After a (usually) emotionally-draining workday of teaching students with emotional and behavioral disorders, I need that time to just “zone out.”
There’s no reason I couldn’t add exercise to this part of the day. Studies show that exercise results not only in weight loss, but in increased energy levels, reducing feelings of fatigue. Because exercise increases endorphins, I can replace the need to “zone out” with a workout that leads to feelings of euphoria.
I don’t even have to leave my daughter’s side to do it. She almost never says no to a bike ride, and she’d love to run around outside with me, playing tag or what have you, which I could use as a cardiovascular workout. She’ll also do yoga with me when I’m too exhausted to bike or play. During the colder months, we could replace biking with walking or snowshoeing.
The Effects
These small changes — reduced beer, reduced sugar, pushups in the morning and at night, and an active workout in the afternoon with my daughter — are completely within my control, and they’d all have a positive influence on my physical health.
This isn’t the first time I’ve had these thoughts, or the first time I’ve tried to change my diet and exercise routine. But as this class on optimism and resilience is teaching me, just having the right thoughts at the start of the process can make a huge difference, so I’m going to ignore all of the self-doubts (not to mention the doubts of others) that tell me that, once again, this won’t work, and that it’s only a matter of time before I go back to being my lazy, beer-drinking self.
Instead, I’m going to be optimistic, and I’m going to ask my support network to be optimistic as well, and I’m really, actually going to make these changes and really, actually reduce my abdominal obesity.
After all, my life depends on it.