No sweat : how the simple science of motivation can bring you a lifetime of fitness /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Do you secretly hate exercising Struggle to stick with a program Millions of people try and fail to stay fit. But what if "exercising" is the real problem, not you

Motivation scientist and behavior expert Michelle Segartranslates years of research on exercise and motivation into a simple four-point program that will empower you to break the cycle of exercise failure once and for all.

You'll discover why you should forget about willpower and stop gritting your teeth through workouts you hate. Instead, you'll become motivated from the inside out and start to crave physical activity.

In No Sweat, Segar will help you find:

A step-by-step program for staying encouraged to exercise Pleasure in physical activity Realistic ways to fit fitness into your life

The success of the clients Segar has coached testifies to the power of her program. Their stories punctuate the book, entertaining and emboldening you to break the cycle of exercise failure once and for all.

Practical, proven, and loaded with inspiring stories, No Sweat makes getting fit easier--and more fun--than you ever imagined. Get ready to embrace an active lifestyle that you'll love!

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of Figures (p. xiii)
• Preface (p. xv)
• Acknowledgments (p. xix)
• A Note to Health and Wellness Professionals (p. xxi)
• Chapter 1 It's Not About the Sweat (p. 1)
• The Health and Fitness Message Isn't Working (p. 3)
• Doing What You Enjoy Is a Better Motivator for Exercising-and It Works (p. 5)
• An Individualized Program That Changes Lives (p. 8)
• Your MAPS and How to Use Them (p. 8)
• It's Your Move (p. 12)
• The Takeaways (p. 14)
• Part I Meaning
• Chapter 2 Escaping the Vicious Cycle of Failure (p. 17)
• What Does Exercise Mean to You? (p. 20)
• The Vicious Cycle of Failure (p. 22)
• Why We Choose the Wrong Reasons for Exercising (p. 24)
• Escaping Your Personal Vicious Cycle of Failure (p. 26)
• Do You Just Need More Willpower? (p. 28)
• The Takeaways (p. 30)
• Chapter 3 Motivation from the Inside Out (p. 32)
• Our Past Experience with Exercise Builds Our Meanings (p. 34)
• Self-Determination Theory Supports the Benefits of Owning Our Choices (p. 37)
• Take Ownership of Your Exercise (p. 38)
• Framing Is Everything: The "Work or Fun" Study (p. 41)
• The Why: The Foundation of Sustainable Behavior Change (p. 42)
• How Our Whys Influence Even How Much We Eat (p. 44)
• Muddying the Waters: More Motives Are Not More Motivating (p. 45)
• The Takeaways (p. 48)
• Part II Awareness
• Chapter 4 Exorcising Exercise (p. 53)
• Body Shaping and Weight Loss Whys Guide Us to Work Out in Ways We Don't Like (p. 54)
• To Feel or Not to Feel?: Feelings Trump Function (p. 56)
• High-Intensity Exercise Feels Bad to a Lot of Folks (p. 58)
• Ignoring Your Body Undermines Your Goals (p. 59)
• How Autonomy Can Change Your Experience (p. 62)
• The Relationship Between Enjoying Exercise and Losing and Maintaining Weight (p. 63)
• Illuminating Invisible Chains (p. 65)
• How to Exorcise Exercise (p. 66)
• The Takeaways (p. 69)
• Chapter 5 Count Everything and Choose to Move! (p. 71)
• What "Counts" Is Different from What You Think (p. 72)
• The Misunderstood Ten-Minute Rule (p. 73)
• Sitting May Be Bad for Your Health (p. 75)
• To Sweat or Not to Sweat? (p. 77)
• Moving Away from the Medical Model of Exercise (p. 79)
• Everything Counts: A Better Message to Motivate More Movement (p. 81)
• Understanding That "Everything Counts" Ts a Bridge to Consistency (p. 84)
• It All Adds Up (p. 85)
• A Treasure Hunt: Discovering Hidden Opportunities to Move (p. 87)
• The Takeaways (p. 95)
• Chapter 6 From a Chore to a Gift (p. 97)
• Reframing: From the Wrong Why to the Right Why (p. 99)
• Many Right Whys: Regular Physical Activity Is an Elixir of Life (p. 100)
• Why Isn't "To Be Healthy" a Right Why? (p. 102)
• Reward Substitution Is a Very Strategic Move (p. 103)
• The Successful Cycle of Motivation (p. 104)
• Listen to Your Body's Messages and Do What You Like (p. 106)
• Wanting and Liking: The Neuroscience of Reward (p. 107)
• Men and Women Might Benefit from Different Experiences (p. 109)
• "Gift" Yourself with Movement Any and Every Way You Can (p. 111)
• Let the Games Beginl: Discovering the Gifts of Movement in Your Life (p. 112)
• Could Walking Be Your Way? (p. 115)
• The Takeaways (p. 117)
• Part III Permission
• Chapter 7 Permission to Prioritize Self-Care (p. 121)
• Does Your Mindset Have Your Best Interests in Mind? (p. 123)
• Caretakeritis Is Not Good for Anyone's Health (p. 124)
• Are You Paying Attention to Your Body's Distress Signals? (p. 128)
• Seeing Through the "I Don r Have lime" Smoke Screen (p. 129)
• Your Daily Self-Care Needs (p. 131)
• Give Yourself Permission to Stop Following Shoulds (p. 135)
• Your Brain Can Change, and So Can Your Mindset (p. 138)
• Permission Is the Gateway to Prioritizing Your Self-Care (p. 138)
• If You're Not Read, Pretend You Are (p. 140)
• The Takeaways (p. 145)
• Chapter 8 What Sustains Us, We Sustain (p. 147)
• You Are the Energy Center of Your Life (p. 149)
• The Amazing Paradox of Self-Care: Giving to Yourself Means Giving More to Others (p. 150)
• Alchemy: The Gift of Physical Movement Becomes Essential Fuel for What Matters Most (p. 151)
• The Sustainable Cycle of Self-Care (p. 154)
• What Sustains Us, We Sustain (p. 157)
• Positive Emotions Help Us Build Better Lives (p. 159)
• What Do I Need Right Now? (p. 162)
• The Conundrum: Which Self-Care Activity Do You Choose? (p. 163)
• The Takeawys (p. 167)
• Part IV Strategy
• Chapter 9 Six Big Ideas for Lifelong Sustainability (p. 171)
• Big Idea #1: Use Learning Goals to Ger Intrinsic Motivation, Persistence, and Resilience (p. 174)
• Big Idea #3: Begin with the Find in Mind (p. 175)
• Big Idea #3: Use Sustainable Self-Care as an Essential Strategy for Well-Being (p. 177)
• Big Idea #4: Integrate One New Behavior at a Time (p. 178)
• Big Idea #5: Strengthen the Core-Build Consistency Before Quantity (p. 179)
• Big Idea #6: Bring Your Learning co Life (p. 181)
• The Takeaways (p. 182)
• Chapter 10 Sustainability Training (p. 184)
• Negotiating the Reality of Our Complex and Busy Lives (p. 187)
• The Lynchpin of Sustain ability Self-Regulation and Negotiation (p. 187)
• Sustainability Training for Life (p. 189)
• Become a Skilled Self-Care Negotiator (p. 190)
• Make a Self-Care Negotiation Plan (p. 190)
• Phase 1: Planning and Previewing (p. 191)
• Phase 2: Negotiation in Action (p. 202)
• Phase 3: Nonjudgmental Evaluation and Recalibration (p. 207)
• The Takeaways (p. 213)
• Epilogue: Changing Your Beliefs, Changing Your Behavior, Changing Your Life (p. 215)
• Stephanie's Story: MAPS in Real Life (p. 216)
• The Learning Process Never Ends (p. 219)
• Your Journey Continues (p. 220)
• Endnotes (p. 223)
• Index (p. 235)
• About the Author (p. 243)

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Chapter 1

It's Not About the Sweat

When Marcia called me, she was at her wit's end. Now in her mid-fifties, she'd been carrying around excess weight for thirty years, ever since she'd given birth to her first child. "I've tried everything," she told me, "eating special foods, fasting, diet plans from my doctor, jogging, the treadmill at the gym . . . Nothing works. I can't seem to lose weight for more than a few months at a time, and then it comes back again. I'm calling you because I know your specialty is motivation. And I need to be motivated!"

"Actually," I said, "you sound incredibly motivated. Maybe too motivated." I knew this would get her attention.

"How can you say I'm motivated when I'm five dress sizes bigger than I should be?" she asked. I could hear the annoyance in her voice, but I also heard the anxious pressure of should driving her frustration. She should eat less, be thinner, work out more, take care of her health . . . Like so many of us, Marcia had come to think of food and physical movement not as the life essentials they are but as "diet" and "exercise"--a type of medicine prescribed in doses of portion sizes and reps we have to "take" or "do" to lose weight and prevent disease. But when eating and moving become something we should do or have to do rather than something we want to do, this undermines motivation and participation big time. After all, who looks forward to "taking her medicine"?

"Marcia," I said, "I'm going to ask you to do something, and I think it will be incredibly hard for you. But I want you to at least consider it." I didn't have to wait for her response.

"I'll do anything!" she replied, sounding ready to jump off a cliff if that's what I suggested. "Just give me a plan, a program--anything. I swear I'll follow it to a T."

"Good," I said. "I know you don't have any pressing health problems, so here's what I want you to do: I want you to stop dieting and get off that treadmill."

"And do what?" she asked.

"How about just living your life?" I responded. "How about deciding that it's okay to forget about dieting? Instead of watching calories and driving yourself to sweat, you'll begin enjoying your life by being as physically engaged in it as possible. How does that sound?"

"That sounds great, I guess," Marcia admitted. "But I'm not really sure what you mean by being physically engaged. And don't I have to sweat to get the benefit? Or else why do it? Honestly, I've tried just as many exercise plans as diets, and I couldn't stick with any of them. I fail with exercise too."

"That's not a problem. I'm not going to ask you to exercise either."

"What?!" Marcia sputtered. I think she thought I was crazy. I knew that this statement must have sounded downright insane coming from a motivation coach who specializes in getting people to become physically active.

"The idea of exercise has become too much of a synonym for punishment," I continued. "You hear the word exercise and immediately think that if you're not drenched in sweat and gutting it out on some kind of complicated gym equipment for at least an hour a day every day, you're failing at it."

This hit home with Marcia. "Yes! Exactly! I can't stand going to the gym. First, it's boring. I hate those machines and dragging myself through classes with perky instructors. Plus I'm surrounded by skinny young women who run on those treadmills as though they're outracing the bulls at Pamplona. It's so depressing!"

"So why not move your body in ways that feel good to you instead?"

The complete silence on the other end of the phone told me that Marcia had never stopped to consider this idea before. Maybe you haven't either, so let's talk about it right now.

I'm guessing that you picked up this book because, for the first or fiftieth time, you've gotten up your resolve to start exercising, watch what you eat, get in better shape, and improve your overall health. I really hope you weren't looking for another standard diet or exercise plan. Because just as I explained to Marcia, I'm asking you to begin by doing just the opposite: Take a break. Give yourself some breathing room to consider where your usual approach to fitness and health has taken you.

Excerpted from No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness by Michelle Segar All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Immediate, emotional rewards are more driving and attainable than far-reaching, generalized goals. That's what behavioral sustainability scientist and PhD Segar argues in her motivational behavior-change and whole-body wellness guide. With an emphasis on physical movement, the author illustrates how abstract goals such as "weight loss" and "being healthier" are less encouraging than immediate compensation. Integrating activities into your daily schedule that yield instant and noticeable outcomes are more easily accomplished, such as taking a 30-minute walk in order to clear your mind. Four distinct sections: "Meaning"; "Awareness"; "Permission"; and "Strategy" offer a guilt-free guide to readers looking for sustainable ways to feel better. A variety of evaluation tools and reflection activities are included, as well as specific examples of movement exercises. VERDICT Not merely a weight-loss guide but rather a motivational manual to self-care and sustainable change, this title is recommended for persons wishing to set goals, change behavior, and/or improve their lifestyle.-Carolann Curry, Mercer Univ. Lib., Macon, GA © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Michelle Segar, PH.D., is a motivation and behavioral sustain -ability scientist and directs the Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center at the University of Michigan. She is a sought-after expert and frequently featured in major media like the New York Times, Forbes, and Prevention. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology and master's degrees in health behavior and kinesiology. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.