RWL Newsletter #106
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! This is the last Friday of winter “break”. The students will be rolling back into town this weekend – probably earlier than planned because we are expecting a big snow storm on the scheduled move-in day. I put "break" in scare quotes because I have been extremely busy with my research. I wrote one paper, did 10 more interviews for two different research projects, and did two more podcast interviews. And… I released my first podcast in 8 months on Tuesday! Super excited about that! See Listen below, because I can’t not share that with you. Since the interview is with a clinic system that specializes in integrating behavioral modification into primary care, I’ve focused the other two articles on behavioral issues as well. So that’s the theme this week – behavioral approaches.
I’ve got my classes all set and ready for the students to come back – first class for me is Wednesday. I’m teaching finance and organizational behavior this semester. I am especially excited for my OB class because it will be my third year using an open pedagogy approach. We’ll continue to build on a text book that my first two classes created from scratch. I am hoping we’ll really take it to the next level this year.
I hope you enjoy the links below – let me know what you think!
(Picture above is me reading my copy of Livy this past Sunday in my kitchen. Love the winter light we get in the morning.)
Read
What: The Atlantic, Weight Loss is a Rock Fight
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/01/weight-loss-essay-tomlinson/579832/
Why: Like many of you, no doubt, I was telling myself as soon as the New Year hit, I would get back on the diet, lose the weight I gained over the holidays (after losing it, again, in the fall). But I haven’t quite got there yet. In fact, I have been on a diet yo-yo over the last four years since I left the Army. When I retired, I weighed 175 pounds, just 10 pounds heavier than when I joined in 1992. Doing my Food Desert simulation, I got down to 164 pounds, which is right about what I weighed when I joined the Army. Then this summer I ballooned up to 202 pounds. It didn’t happen overnight, of course. It took a long time, and was a slow creep over a couple of years. But this summer was the apogee of my weight gain – I hope. I’m down a bit, but not as much as I would like. I’ve been thinking a lot about my own behaviors and beliefs, as well as how I reward myself (See the Power of Habit in Watch below).
Anyway, I found this first person story about battling weight loss both powerful and feeling a bit too close to home. Here’s a quote:
“Eat less and exercise.”
What I want you to understand, more than anything else, is that telling a fat person “Eat less and exercise” is like telling a boxer “Don’t get hit.”
You act as if there’s not an opponent.
Losing weight is a fucking rock fight. The enemies come from all sides: The deluge of marketing telling us to eat worse and eat more. The culture that has turned food into one of the last acceptable vices. Our families and friends, who want us to share in their pleasure. Our own body chemistry, dragging us back to the table out of fear that we’ll starve.
On top of all that, some of us fight holes in our souls that a boxcar of donuts couldn’t fill.
The whole thing is worth reading.
Do you wrestle with weight loss? Or do you have another demon?
Watch
What: The Power of Habit: Charles Duhigg at TEDxTeachersCollege
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMbsGBlpP30
Why: I’ve shared things about this book before, but I really like it, and I just found this particular TED Talk about Duhigg himself. His approach of habit substitution intuitively makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve substituted coffee and seltzer water for Diet Coke, which I substituted for full-octane Pepsi (I was never a Coke fan). Now I need to find some way to substitute carrot sticks for beer.
I’m curious if you’ve successfully substituted a better habit for a bad habit. Tell me about it!
Listen
What: Health Leader Forge, Joel Hornberger, Chief Strategy Officer, Cherokee Health Systems
https://healthleaderforge.blogspot.com/2019/01/joel-hornberger-chief-strategy-officer.html
Why: Like I said, I am super excited to be back to producing the Health Leader Forge. I heard Joel speak at a conference I went to back in November, and invited him to be on the podcast. Cherokee is known nationally for its ability to integrate behavioral health consultants (usually masters level, licensed social workers) into primary care. What this means is if a primary care provider sees a patient who seems to have an issue, such as weight loss, that could benefit from a behavioral approach, the provider can bring in a consultant on the spot to give the patient some behavioral modification approaches. Joel tells some good stories about how this works in the interview.
While the Health Leader Forge is a career-focused podcast, much of this interview focuses on how Cherokee does what it does. Cherokee has a really inspiring mission – one of their slogans is “To go where the grass is brownest”, which I think is awesome. I hope you check this interview out.
Are you familiar with integrated behavioral health? Is there an organization you know of that does it well?
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
Have a great weekend and do amazing things!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau