When it comes to making behavior change around diet and exercise, it's no secret that many people fail in their efforts. My guest would say that's because too often we only concentrate on the things that drive us towards that change — whether willpower, or motivation, or the rewards that turn behaviors into habits — and that we need to think more about the obstacles keeping us from making the decisions we desire.Her name is Michelle Segar and she's a behavioral science researcher and health coach, as well as the author of The Joy Choice: How to Finally Achieve Lasting Changes in Eating and Exercise. Today on the show, Michelle explains why exercise and eating aren't conducive to becoming habits — at least of the automatic variety — and why it's more helpful to think of these behaviors in terms of "life space" and "choice points." She makes the case for why we shouldn't just focus on what drives behaviors, but also understand what disrupts them, and unpacks four of these disruptors: temptation, rebellion, accommodation, and perfection. Michelle then offers a three-step decision tool for dealing with these disruptors, and explains how to develop the flexibility to choose the perfect imperfect option that keeps you consistent and even celebrate and enjoy the decision to do something instead of nothing.Resources Related to the PodcastMichelle's previous appearance on the show — Podcast #575: Counterintuitive Advice on Making Exercise a Sustainable HabitAoM Article: How I Finally Made Flossing a HabitAoM Podcast #782: Anxiety Is a Habit — Here’s How to Break It (With Judson Brewer)Kurt LewinFreakonomics episode that includes Daniel Kahneman referencing LewinGrounded cognitionAffective–Reflective Theory of physical inactivity and exerciseConnect With Michelle SegarMichelle's Website

Hey! On today's ep I'm interviewing the incredible Michelle Segar. Michelle is an award-winning, NIH-funded researcher at the University of Michigan with almost thirty years studying how to help people adopt exercise and physical activity in ways that bring meaning and joy, and can be sustained within the complexity and unpredictability of the real world. We talk about self-control, good “whys”, how to get motivated to workout, flexibility in behaviour change, reframing shoulds and how to enjoy exercise. TAKE THE TRAP QUIZ - https://michellesegar.com/joy-quiz/ RECCS OF THE WEEK ✨ The Joy Choice by Michelle Segar - https://amzn.to/3v9QuT2 ✨ No Sweat by Michelle Segar - https://amzn.to/471AxMj ✨ Elastic Habits by Stephen Guise - https://amzn.to/3RkvDEh ✨ The Life Map - Part eBook, part digital workbook. Use The Life Map (2.0) to create your most incredible year yet ⇢ https://www.muchelleb.com.au/the-life-map SHOP ✨ The Intention App - Manage Your Mind to Create a Life That Feels Good ⇢ ⁠https://www.theintentionapp.com/⁠ ✨ The Life Map - Part eBook, part digital workbook. Use The Life Map (2.0) to create your most incredible year yet ⇢ https://www.muchelleb.com.au/the-life-map CONNECT WITH ME 🧚 On Instagram ⇢ ⁠@muchelleb⁠ 🧚 TikTok ⇢ ⁠@muchelleb⁠ 🧚 Website ⇢ ⁠http://muchelleb.com.au/⁠ 🧚 Get Product / Service Support ⇢ ⁠https://muchelleb.com.au/get-support⁠ 🧚 Collaboration Enquiries ⇢ ⁠https://muchelleb.com.au/work-with-me CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction to Michelle Segar and her research on sustainable habits 02:49 The limitations of using reasons like health and weight loss as motivation 06:36 Reframing shoulds into more helpful and meaningful choices 09:29 Immediate and noticeable changes that sustain motivation 11:44 The importance of flexibility in behavior change 16:25 The research behind flexibility and its adaptiveness 20:32 Developing flexibility and making it a part of your identity 22:47 Using flexibility at choice points and reframing unworkable plans 25:14 Noticing rewards and practicing mental flexibility 30:53 Feeling unmotivated as a smoke screen for deeper reasons 38:05 Tips for neurodivergent individuals and practicing flexibility 43:56 The time it takes to embed the habit of mental flexibility 52:33 This weeks recommendations 53:24 Mini moves segment

This week I was privileged to welcome Michelle Segar to the show to discuss her new book The Joy Choice: How to Finally Achieve Lasting Changes in Eating and Exercise. Michelle is a researcher at The University of Michigan who studies sustainable behavior change and the science of habits. In this conversation Michelle unpacks the science behind our choices and explains how thinking around behavior change has often made the mistake of an all or nothing approach to changing our habits and lifestyle.The Joy Choice offers a fresh, brain-based solution that turns the old behavior-change paradigm on its head. This groundbreaking book liberates you from the self-defeating obligations and rigid requirements of past diet and workout regimens and reveals what emerging research suggests really drives the consistent choices that power sustainable change.Michelle Segar, PhD is an award-winning lifestyle coach and sustainable behavior change researcher at the University of Michigan. For nearly three decades, she has pioneered methods to create sustainable healthy behavior changes that are being used to boost patient health, employee well-being, and gym membership retention.  Website: https://michellesegar.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Context heavily influences our behavior (regular listeners of the show know our “context matters” mantra well!). Sometimes, because of what life throws at us, we have to re-evaluate our options. The best choice isn’t always the perfect choice. For instance, in an ideal world, we might be planning a 5 mile run after work. But instead we need to collect our sick child from school early and have to settle for a 2 mile run on the treadmill in the basement, or some dancing in the kitchen while we unload the dishwasher. It’s the perfect, imperfect choice, or what our guest, Michelle Segar calls The Joy Choice. Michelle Segar PhD is an award-winning lifestyle coach and sustainable behavior change researcher at the University of Michigan. For nearly three decades, she has pioneered methods to create sustainable healthy behavior change that are being used to boost patient health, employee well-being, and gym membership retention. “My approach to creating sustainable change is fundamentally grounded in changing people's mindsets.” ~ Michelle Segar PhD In this episode, we are lucky enough to talk to Michelle about her new book, “The Joy Choice: How to Finally Achieve Lasting Changes in Eating and Exercise”. We discuss why Michelle steers away from habits as a way of framing behavior change, the role of the executive function, and of course, how music influences her life.   Topics (3:20) Welcome and speed round questions. (7:31) Why we all need to find The Joy Choice. (14:26) Why do we beat ourselves up about missing exercise and diet goals? (17:35) How our identity can motivate our behavior change. (20:22) The shortcomings of the habit loop. (25:10) The role of the executive function in our decision making. (30:45) To what degree do mindsets, belief systems and branding play? (35:58) How the TRAP and POP models help us with selecting The Joy Choice. (43:36) How Michelle finds joy in music. (48:02) Grooving Session with Kurt and Tim on The Joy Choice.   © 2023 Behavioral Grooves   Links Michelle Segar: https://michellesegar.com/  Michelle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellelsegar/ Michelle on Twitter: @MichelleSegar   “The Joy Choice: How to Finally Achieve Lasting Changes in Eating and Exercise”: https://amzn.to/3GTve6m  It’s Time to Unhabit and Think Critically About Whether Habit Formation Has Been Over Valued as a Behavior Change Strategy Within Health Promotion: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08901171221125326f  Episode 277, No Regrets? Really? Why Regrets Actually Bring Us Hope | Daniel H. Pink: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/why-regrets-bring-us-hope/   Episode 327, A Proven Way Expectations Can Unlock A More Positive Life | David Robson: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/why-regrets-bring-us-hope/  Episode 307, Groove Track | Mind Over Milkshakes: Why Expectations Matter A Lot: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/mind-over-milkshakes-groove-track/ Zingermans in Ann Arbor, MI: https://www.zingermansdeli.com/  Musical Links  Earth, wind and fire “September”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYk   

It's a new year and like many people, you may have set a goal to exercise more regularly. But like most people, you've set this goal before only to give up on it after only a few weeks. Why is it so hard to make exercise a habit? And what can you do to make it stick? My guest today argues that more willpower and discipline isn't the answer. Instead, you need to completely change the way you think about exercise. Her name is Michelle Segar, and she's a behavioral scientist and the author of No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness. We begin our conversation discussing Michelle's counterintuitive finding that common reasons for exercising like losing weight or even getting healthier aren't effective motivations. And she shares research on how our ideas of what exercise should look like, as well as the propensity towards an all-or-nothing mindset, also set us up for failure. We then discuss why sheer discipline isn't very effective for staying on track either, and why exercise needs to have an immediately positive impact on our lives if we want to stick with it. Michelle and I spend the rest of our conversation discussing the research-backed framework she's developed to help people make exercise a sustainable habit, which includes less emphasis on willpower and more on changing the meaning you lend to physical activity and its priority in your life. Get the show notes at aom.is/nosweat.