The Problem with Dieting

Latest Science of Willpower column up on Psychology Today!

"Bad news for yo-yo dieters this week: according to a recent study, cycles of feast and famine can create fast-food junkies–at least in rodents. The researchers put rats on a cyclic diet of 5 days of standard rat chow, followed by 2 days of the equivalent of rat fast food (high fat, high sugar, highly delicious). In other words, a compressed version of most dieters' swings between self-control and indulgence....

....Another study offers hope for ending the cycle. Researchers at Laval University in Québec, Canada have been following the benefits of a unique weight control intervention for over a year. This intervention, called 'What about losing weight?' emphasized the possibility of being healthy at every size."

Read the whole thing here.

Ethical Dilemmas for Yoga Teachers

Below are the ethical dilemmas we will discuss in Avalon's Yoga Teacher Training today. We first review the yamas and niyams, then identify our own core yoga and teaching values, and use them to guide self-reflection and discussion.

1. You have the opportunity to sub a class in a style that is very different from yours. Further, you don’t personally enjoy this style. Should you take this opportunity? If you do, how do you approach the class and students? What thoughts, emotions, and behaviors do you need to bring special awareness to?

2. A student in your class invites you out to lunch “to talk more about yoga.” You suspect he or she is interested in friendship or a romantic relationship. What do you do? Does it matter whether you find this person interesting or attractive? What does your decision say about how you perceive your role as a yoga teacher? Does having an outside relationship with a student change or limit how you interact with them in a class setting?

3. You have gotten very busy teaching yoga, and are excited to have so many classes to teach! Unfortunately, this is getting in the way of your personal practice. You haven’t attended a class in a few months, and you aren’t practicing formally at home. You tell yourself that your life is your yoga practice, and you don’t really need to practice asana, pranayama, meditation, etc. Is there an ethical component to this decision? What are the risks in this situation? How will you respond if you find yourself feeling like a “fraud”?

4. You witness one of your favorite, most inspiring yoga teachers outside the classroom doing something that really strikes you as “unyogic” but not necessarily illegal (pick behavior that conflicts with your personal yoga values/ethics). How does this make you feel? Will you tell others about this? Will this person continue to be an important teacher for you? What standards do you hold yourself to as a yoga teacher? How will you feel when you fail to live up to your own or another person’s standards?

5. You are so excited! You just received a request for private yoga instruction. The potential student is new to yoga, and his doctor recommended he learn yoga to help recover from hip replacement surgery (or knee surgery, or back surgery, or heart surgery…something you don’t know much about). Do you agree to help the student? Why or why not? If you do, what are you going to do to prepare? Where might you start? Who can you consult in this situation? How can the potential student be involved in making this decision or making any yoga lesson safe and helpful?

6. You have been teaching at a few different places that pay you very different amounts. One studio pays you by the student, and your classes have been very small but building a base of regulars. Another gym pays you a very low per-class fee, but the class is full and you love teaching it. Your corporate class pays a very high per-class fee, but attendance is poor and there are few regulars. Because of time constraints, you feel like you need to drop at least one class from your schedule. What are the ethical dimensions of this decision? How would you make this decision? What factors—besides class size and pay rate—would you consider?

Can working out help you avoid or recover from a cold or flu?

My latest Science of Willpower column on Psychology Today is a response to a wonderful article in the NYT:

"A recent New York Times article by Gretchen Reynolds asked and answered the question: Does exercise boost immunity? The answer may surprise some, and its lessons extend well beyond the world of working out."

My Science of Willpower class starts at Stanford this Monday (still time to register, through 10/26) -- I look forward to blogging some of the interesting insights and questions that come up!

Pain Solutions Article on Yoga for Pain Relief

Pain Solutions put online their recent article about yoga for pain relief by Yoga Journal editor Kelle Walsh. Walsh interviewed me and Timothy McCall, MD, about how yoga can help people with pain:

Perhaps most important, yoga makes it easier to tune in to what’s happening in your body. “People learn to reject the body when they are in pain,” McGonigal says. “They feel betrayed by their body and the fact that the body is getting in the way of their life.” When you slow down and tune in, though, McCall says, you’ll begin to notice that the pain “changes all the time. It goes up and down with the breath, the time of day. You start to notice that variation. And when you go in and actually feel the pain — instead of your emotional response to it — you may begin to notice that you can alter it.”

Read the whole thing, then check out the book....Google books has the first 3 chapters!

Does being in a happy relationship make you gain weight?

Interviewed for this article on whether being in a happy relationship saps willpower to lose weight/stay at a healthy weight. (personally, I'd prioritize a happy relationship over losing weight)

"Happiness Takes the Cake" Boston Globe October 15, 2009

Unfortunately, we have been trained over the years to reward ourselves with food, says Kelly McGonigal, a health educator and PhD at Stanford University. “If you celebrate your good mood with high-fat foods, recent research suggests that the brain gets tricked by the fat molecules into ignoring signals of fullness, so you keep eating,’’ McGonigal says.

Although it’s tempting, McGonigal warns me that my ticket back to Skinnyville is not making myself miserable. In fact, she explains that stress, fear, and depression are triggers for eating even more.

Tips for Modifying Yoga Poses

Below is a handout for this Sunday's yoga teacher training workshop at Avalon Yoga Center. We'll spend the class exploring what these strategies look like in action, applying them to challenging and contraindicated poses.

Teaching Methods: Exploring Modifications and Alternatives

Strategy 1: Simplify the pose and/or offer support. (Often easy to describe while teaching without requiring demonstration or one-on-one help)

Teaching Challenge: Choose a pose and figure out 2 simple ways to make it easier. (e.g., keeping legs straight rather than bent or vice versa; putting knees on ground; taking a wider or more narrow stance; using a block or blanket or strap; changing arm position to require less strength or flexibility)

Strategy 2: Change the foundation/orientation of pose. (More complicated to explain—typically requires teacher demonstration or one-on-one help)

Teaching Challenge: Choose a pose and find 2 other foundations/orientations for it. (e.g. from standing or seated to reclining, upside down to right side up, etc.). Ex: camel, bow, and bridge are nearly identical postures, just with different foundations. Students with injuries, sensitivities, or contraindications (e.g. lying on belly or back when pregnant) may prefer one over the others.

Strategy 3: Offer alternatives from a functionalist perspective. (If the alternatives are familiar to students or easy to demonstrate, can be worked in class without much disruption; some may require one-on-one help)

Teaching Challenge: Identify four actions/benefits/qualities of a pose or movement (e.g. breath effect, what is stretched, what is strengthened, effect on attitude, effect on energy—calming, stabilizing, or energizing). For each benefit, find an alternative pose or movement.

General Teaching Tips:

• Be supportive in the face of student “failure.” Ignoring a student’s complete inability to approach or hold a pose is not responsible teaching.

• Don’t teach to the “top” of the class. Aim to offer a practice in which the “average” student can approach most of the things you suggest without having to do extreme modifications or alternatives.

• Don’t be afraid to be creative. Modifications and alternatives don’t need to look like the original pose, as long as you can explain the benefit and purpose.

• Pay attention to pose action and effects in your own practice. You will discover relationships between poses that you can use to develop modifications and alternatives.

• Use your alternatives and modifications as preparatory practices for challenging poses. This gives students a vocabulary of options if they discover they cannot do a pose with a steady breath, body, and mind.

Change Your Posture, Change Your Mind and Mood

Check out my latest column on Psychology Today-- Change Your Posture, Change Your Mind and Mood.

"Quick, notice your posture as you read this. Are you slumped at your desk, shoulders curved forward, spine rounded? Or sitting up straight, with a tall spine but relaxed shoulders?

How you're sitting may be influencing how you're feeling - not just in this moment, but throughout the day. A recent study in the European Journal of Social Psychology (Brion, Petty, & Wagner 2009) looked at how posture influences self-confidence....."

Summary of Research on Meditation and Brain Changes

I prepared this summary of research on meditation and neuroplasticity for the Yoga Service Council. We're putting together research reviews and "best practices" recommendations across a wide range of topics to support individuals in the yoga and healthcare communities. We hope that these resources will help individuals apply for funding, bring yoga/meditation into a new clinical or educational setting, and develop evidence-based interventions.

****

The brain, once thought to be relatively fixed in structure and hard-wired in function, has been shown in the last decade to be remarkably responsive to experience. Mindfulness meditation and yoga appear to have positive neuroplastic effects, supporting both structure and function related to improved attention, memory, self-regulation, and mood.

For example, multiple studies have shown that long-term meditators have increased neuron density and preserved structure in areas of the brain (such as the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, temporal gyrus, and insula) associated with attention, memory, self-awareness, self-control, and emotion regulation. (1-4) Long-term meditators have also shown increased gray matter density in the brain stem, which may be related to improved self-control and emotion regulation. (5)

Research also demonstrates positive differences in brain function. For example, experienced meditators, compared to those with less or no meditation experience, show increased activation in areas of the brain associated with attention during tasks that require focus. (6-7) Experienced meditators also perform better on tasks that require focused attention and cognitive flexibility. (8-10)

The neuroplastic effects of meditation and yoga also include positive mood changes. A single session of yoga has been shown to increase brain levels of GABA, which is associated with reduced anxiety and improved mood. (10) An eight-week training program in mindful meditation and yoga led to changes in frontal brain activation--increased left prefrontal activity--associated with positive emotions and well-being. (11) A similar training helped preserve increased left prefrontal activity in previously suicidal individuals, preventing further deterioration of mood. (12) Meditation experience is also associated with increased activation of brain regions (such as the cingulate cortex and insula) associated with empathy for others. (13) A meditation intervention has been shown to increase experience of positive emotions, and these changes in mood further predicted increased sense of purpose in life and social support, and decreased illness and depression. (14)

In summary, mindfulness and yoga are potentially valuable tools for improving cognitive function, self-regulation, and mood, in part because of how they influence the structure and function of the brain.

-Written and References Compiled by Kelly McGonigal, PhD

References
1. Luders E, Toga AW, Lepore N, Gaser C. The underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation: Larger hippocampal and frontal volumes of gray matter. NeuroImage. 2009;45:672–78.
2. Hölzel BK, Ott U, Gard T, Hempel H, Weygandt M, Morgen K, Vaitl D. Investigation of mindfulness meditation practitioners with voxel-based morphometry. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2008;3(1):55-61.
3. Lazar SW, Kerr CE, Wasserman RH, Gray JR, Greve DN, Treadway MT, McGarvey M, Quinn BT, Dusek JA, Benson H, Rauch SL, Moore CI, Fischl B. Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. Neuroreport. 2005;16(17):1893-7.
4. Pagnoni G, Cekic M. Age effects on gray matter volume and attentional performance in Zen meditation. Neurobiol Aging. 2007;28(10):1623-7.
5. Vestergaard-Poulsen P, van Beek M, Skewes J, Bjarkam CR, Stubberup M, Bertelsen J, Roepstorff A. Long-term meditation is associated with increased gray matter density in the brain stem. Neuroreport. 2009;20(2):170-4.
6. Brefczynski-Lewis JA, Lutz A, Schaefer HS, Levinson DB, Davidson RJ. Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2007;104(27):11483-8.
7. Baron Short E, Kose S, Mu Q, Borckardt J, Newberg A, George MS, Kozel FA. Regional brain activation during meditation shows time and practice effects: An exploratory FMRI study. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2007 Oct 27[Epub].
8. Slagter HA, Lutz A, Greischar LL, Francis AD, Nieuwenhuis S, Davis JM, Davidson RJ. Mental training affects distribution of limited brain resources. PLoS Biol. 2007;5(6):e138.
9. Moore A, Malinowski P. Meditation, mindfulness and cognitive flexibility.
Conscious Cogn. 2009;18(1):176-86.
10. Garland E, Gaylord S, Park J. The role of mindfulness in positive reappraisal. Explore (NY). 2009;5(1):37-44.
10. Streeter CC, Jensen JE, Perlmutter RM, Cabral HJ, Tian H, Terhune DB, Ciraulo DA, Renshaw PF. Yoga asana sessions increase brain GABA levels: A pilot study. J Altern Complement Med. 2007;13(4):419-26.
11. Davidson RJ, Kabat-Zinn J, Schumacher J, Rosenkranz M, Muller D, Santorelli SF, Urbanowski F, Harrington A, Bonus K, Sheridan JF. Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosom Med. 2003;65(4):564-70.
12. Barnhofer T, Duggan D, Crane C, Hepburn S, Fennell MJ, Williams JM. Effects of meditation on frontal alpha-asymmetry in previously suicidal individuals. Neuroreport. 2007;18(7):709-12.
13. Lutz A, Brefczynski-Lewis J, Johnstone T, Davidson RJ. Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: effects of meditative expertise. PLoS One. 2008;3(3):e1897.
14. Fredrickson BL, Cohn MA, Coffey KA, Pek J, Finkel SM. Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2008;95(5):1045-62.

New Science of Willpower Study: The Virtue of Pessimism

Check out my latest post on Psychology Today.


"Two people are beginning a weight-loss program. One is an optimist and the other a realist -- perhaps even a pessimist. Who has the better chance of losing weight?

According to a new study from Doshisha University in Japan, it's the pessimist. People who began a six-month program of nutrition, exercise, and counseling were less likely to lose weight if they had an optimistic personality.

This at first doesn't make sense. We usually associate optimism with greater success and better health. There's plenty of research showing that optimists have stronger social relationships, are happier, and even live longer. So why wouldn't optimism help people lose weight?"........ [click to read full column]

Study: Saito, H., Kimura, Y., Tashima, S., et al. (2009). Psychological factors that promote behavior modification by obese patients. BioPsychoSocial Medicine 3:9 (in press).

Mindfulness Reduces Medical Burnout

A new study from the University of Rochester Medical Center reports that mindfulness meditation can reduce burnout in physicians. And we know they need it, thanks to another recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that physician distress and fatigue significantly increase the risk of medical errors.

An important part of the mindfulness training was mindful communication. These communication skills led to an increased sense of support and connection with colleagues, as well as increased empathy for patients.

Coincidentally, my introduction to the now-ubiquitous Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program developed by Jon Kabat Zinn was in an elective class for medical students at Stanford. Community members were also in the class -- people who had been recommended to take the class because of illness or pain -- which made the experience even more eye-opening and educational.

Physicians and physicians-in-training, heal thyself first! Get thee to a mindfulness meditation class.