El Rincon del Dr. KakaWate

  In a recent post I mentioned on how healthcare professionals recommend  their patients      working out 3-5 times per week.  The reasons behind it are; improve glucose control, hypertension, cholesterol levels, and weight just to mention a few.  All extremely important points,  so… Why is it so hard to get patients to exercise?

   I have the answer now.  It is not difficult to convince patients to exercise. It is difficult to convince anyone to do so.  Yes, it depends on the place you live in, but in general, it is difficult to get people to start doing something if they do not have this habit.

I recently started a health/fitness campaign in my institution called “MoveYourGlute”.  Guess the name is self explanatory.  I have been trying to get people to exercise and with all honesty it is more challenging than I thought. What I came to realize is that even convincing my colleagues to workout is a difficult task. It would be logical to assume that it would be easy to get my friends and colleagues to workout right? Well, think again. I have been trying to do this for 3 weeks now and even though I got 114 people enrolled in the group. Out of those I can say 15 are working out appx 3 times a week when they did not do it before. But, one important point needs to be highlighted. I did not get them to workout I got them to do FUN activities (Keypoint #1) Today for the first time nurses and students started asking me “What is the deal with this” and their final answer was “This is  Great” so word is spreading around, slowly but surely.

Key points from my experience so far: Before we proceed let me define two concepts that I came up with
– FUNout= An exercise that is fun and enjoyable to do
– VANout= An exercise that you do because you want to look good. You want to be attractive and while doing so you are also becoming healthier.

1)      Activity needs to be fun, if not it becomes a chore. It becomes more work in an already busy day and therefore doomed to fail. I like to run but many do not enjoy it, they do not see it as FUN experience, and due to this reason  I only got 3 people to run with me so far. I will keep trying and keep you posted.
2)      So what now? Make it FUN!  I incorporated Beach Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball, Flag football, Basketball and still asking for opinions and the response increased. Word is getting out now. People are asking me about the program and want to add more people to join.
3)      Someone needs to be the SOUL, the LEADER of the group at least in the initial phase. If you do not have someone pushing others at first this will not happen.  I consider myself a fun intense person and this has helped me create a group. I may be annoying to some but my final goal is HEALTH so forgive me if I don’t care about their opinion.
4)      Last but not least… Do not underestimate the power of VANITY.  Vanity is one of the most powerful incentives for someone to workout that I have witnessed over the years…  I know few people that workout to improve cholesterol, glucose, htn, etc but know 100s that workout to be in shape. As superficial as it may sound, everyone or at least almost everyone wants to look good. Looking good makes you feel good and feeling good makes you want to workout more leading you to a  VANcycle.  Maybe the goal that we set for someone should not be a number in their labs but how they will look in 3,6,12 months??? How much time can they endure an Activity that is fun for them? As Ray William Johnson would  say “ Hey, I’m just saying…”

In Summary, it is difficult to incorporate workouts to the lifestyle of people who don’t have this habit. Few people want to work more after work and that is basically what a workout is, more work to be in shape. Not very appetizing or attractive is it?  Therefore FUNouts or VANouts are likely to be better options.  Healthcare providers have tried for years to improve health for everyone, not only patients.  From my experience we as doctors have failed miserably in getting patients to workout and implement a healthier lifestyle when they never have done this before. Maybe its time to change our approach. As you can see I am currently working on this and hoping to figure  out a better way to get my colleagues to workout. In a future, the idea is to incorporate patients into the equation and have healthcare providers and patients push each other to be in better shape and therefore healthier.

I Could be Naive and know many could think I am crazy. If that is the case this would not be the first time I get that, and it will not be the last time I prove them wrong.

It is simple… Not one person wants to WORK all their life but almost everyone wants to have FUN and look GOOD all their life. Therefore stop with the workouts and start with the Funouts or Vanouts!

So… What do you want to look like in 3 ,6, 12 months?

Some Sites that kind of share my opinion:

http://skinnymom.com/do-you-exercise-for-vanity-or-health/
http://drdalearcher.com/imjustsayin/Health-or-Vanity
http://www.thatsfit.ca/2010/09/17/vanity-as-fitness-motivation/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/health-vanity/