Odysseus and Self Monitoring

26 December 2010



Odysseus

In Greek mythology the Sirens are half bird half women enchantresses that lure sailors with their melodic song. With seductive voices the Sirens would summon crews into the rocky coast and instigate them to jump overboard or run their ship aground. In order to avoid the spell of the Sirens, steersmen in the proximity of the island would cork their ears with beeswax and cover their eyes with cloth. Odysseus, however, was an exception, he choose to face the seduction and ordered his crew to tether his arms and body to his ship's mast while he navigated. As he passed the Sirens' island, he forced himself to look at the beautiful creatures and listen to their entrancing song. In the end, he resisted their temptation and the Sirens, distraught by the loss of power, plunged themselves into the sea, thus ending their wicked maritime influence.


A Lesson From Odysseus


Like the Sirens, food and easiness are seductive influences in our lives and sing their own enticing song. As all of you are aware, a lifestyle involving unregulated eating and inactivity renders wrecked health and loss of personal control. Furthermore, disorganization centered on food and exercise results in many people running aground, and in at least one part of their lives, they feel marooned. I have compassion for such people.

In my work with members of the Cameron Behavioral Medicine Network (CBMN) devoted to transformative health, I see a commitment comparable to Odysseus, especially in the area of self monitoring. That is, I have witnessed members secure themselves to a vertical spar called dedication, force themselves to look without blinders at the food they consume, and examine their personal movement patterns. Within that process, they resist the temptation of avoidance and begin recording, without judgment or self-criticism, their own patterns of behavior. Such a recording commitment is necessary since self monitoring is one of the basic and fundamental components of a behavioral weight management program. Moreover, self monitoring is the antidote to behavioral discounting, that is, the universal tendency to devalue rewards and punishers that are not immediately available. The purpose of this post is to provide some guidelines, for new members, centered on the self monitoring process.  The guidelines are based on the following assumptions:

• An effective weight control program is one that involves the systematic study and quantification of a person's patterns of eating behavior and movement.
• An effective program is one that focuses on global health and quality of life changes rather than just the dial on a body scale and calories consumed and burned. 
• An effective program is one that promotes self control, self efficacy, and self determination. 

Begin With The End In Mind 

An appropriate weight control and fitness program should produce improvements in many aspects of your life, including changes in: 1) nutrition; 2) cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood glucose levels; 3) physiological measures such as blood pressure, resting heart rate, and recovery heart rate; 4) caloric, fat, sugar, and salt intake; and 5) your scores on a Functional Movement Screening (FMS). In short, self monitoring should involve a data collection system that captures all of these measures. Some measures will be captured daily (e.g., caloric, fat, sugar, salt intake, and nutritional balance) while others will be recorded on a monthly (e.g., recovery heart rate) or a quarterly basis (e.g., FMS). However, data should be collected routinely to verify and quantify the impact of your weight control and fitness program. Therefore, "begin with the end in mind", expect changes across many aspects of your life, and begin using a self monitoring system to study the effects of your program. In addition, use a self recording method that aligns with your natural routines.


Use A Self Recording Method That Comes Naturally 

For many people, a low technology method of self recording is preferred. For example, some individuals prefer to use 3 X 5 index cards as a Daily Food and Water Tracker. Guidelines for using paper-based methods for monitoring can be found on the D*I*Y Planner website. For those individuals who work on a desktop computer during the course of the day, there are some excellent Internet-based programs that are easy to use, programs such as Calorie King and Spark People certainly fall into that category. Finally, for those that are partial to mobile computing and have an iPhone, an iPad, Droid, or Blackberry, there are many applications that are convenient; the application My Fitness Pal is a favorite among CBMN members. On a weekly basis, all health group members convert their data over to a customized Excel file and forward their spreadsheet to a group facilitator for analysis. The facilitator is a "pattern seeking" behavior analyst that identifies trends related to food, ingestive behavior, and movement.


Interesting Patterns To Evaluate

Your CBMN facilitator will look for specific patterns centered on food and movement. By way of example, your nutritional balance will be evaluated to determine whether you are maintaining a proper menu of protein, fruits and vegetables, grains, dairy, and healthy oils. Our consulting Naturopathic Doctor, Dr. Janet Beaty, evaluates the Excel files of members and provides individualized feedback on nutritional balance and the healthiness of food choices. Your group facilitator will also evaluate the amount of time between snacks and meals, this is referred to as your inter-response interval (IRI). People with healthy eating patterns will avoid states of deprivation that result in impulsive food choices and the consumption of high volumes of food. In contrast, it is not uncommon for a person with a healthy eating routine to consume a small amount of food (e.g., fruit, vegetables, nuts) every two hours. Your facilitator will look for a correlation between long IRIs, impulsive food choices, and a caloric intake in excess of your daily target.

In summary, an appropriate weight control and fitness program relies on a data-driven process for decision making and incremental changes in your overall health program. In fact, this is what distinguishes a behaviorally based program from generic programs often used by the pubic.


What Would Odysseus Do? 

If Odysseus found himself being lured by food and easiness, I suspect he would commit himself to confronting the seduction and closely examining the source of his temptation. Self monitoring is an essential part of all behavioral weight control programs that prevents us from corking our ears and covering our eyes. Therefore, it is essential that members begin and sustain the process of self monitoring and use a system most conducive to close continuous contact with essential information.

I am here for me, I am here for you.


Dr. Michael J. Cameron