Alix Spiegel over at NPR has posted an interesting piece about a study by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer on Hotel Maids and the Placebo Effect.

Essentially, the study takes a look at hotel maids (who are of course very active) and how their perceptions of how much they exercise affect their bodies. The results are enlightening.

The maids were split into two groups. One was educated - shown how much exercise they actually got. The other was a control. All of the maids, before the experiment, counted themselves as not exercising, despite walking large distances and carting around heavy equipment all day.

A month later, the enlightened group was actually measurably healthier.

There are alternative explanations for this, but I’m rather a fan of the idea that a positive outlook on your lifestyle can help you improve your lifestyle. Certainly things like blood pressure can be affected by stress levels, so why shouldn’t they improve when you feel better about yourself?

Definitely an interesting read though - Hotel Maids Challenge the Placebo Effect.

J.D., from the excellent fitness blog Get Fit Slowly, has posted a few interesting thoughts about The Sunk Cost Fallacy (also known as the Concorde Fallacy) and how it relates to healthy eating. The basic premise is that people who are already commited to something will base their decisions in part on the commitment, rather than making a hard-headed rational decision based only on cost vs benefit.

J.D.’s example is a good one - it’s like ordering food at a restaurant - you will finish what you’ve ordered because you paid for it, even if you don’t want all of it.

I can closely relate. I’ll almost always finish what’s on my plate, at a restaurant or at home. If I reduce my food portion sizes, I’ll rarely want more - or eat more - once I finish a smaller portion. This is a strong argument for reducing, or pre-planning and measuring, my portion sizes. I hate the idea of measuring portion sizes and so continue to ignore my own advice on this point.

This actually applies heavily to smokers as well. Most smokers will always put off stopping smoking until they finish their “last pack”, even though they want to stop smoking, and just because they’ve paid for it already. Madness.

The opposite of this is the Bygones Principle, which is where all past costs are ignored when making any decision, and economists would argue that this is the way decisions should be made (especially in business).

Sinfest is one of my favourite comics. Irreverent, intelligent and always funny. Yesterday’s was a treat though - and it might be the recipe for the perfect Salad.

I’m late to this particular party, but if you’re here, you might well be a geek looking to get fit. You could do much worse than start with this simple running plan.

Plenty of people - myself included - find one of the more difficult aspects of getting fit, especially when you’ve been stuck behind a desk for a few years, the lack of direction or a tangible plan. Without a plan or a specific goal (or set of goals), running (or cycling, swimming etc) can quickly become boring. From there it is a very short step to simply not bothering doing any exercise.

Having a weight or size based goal is a good thing, but that’s not likely to be an encouragement when you are starting.

Anything over around 2lb per week is bordering on unhealthy and an average person going running a few times a week can realistically expect a sustained loss of around 1lb a week. That’s good progress if you can keep it up - but it does mean that if your long term aim is to lose, for example, 3 stones, then you’re going to be looking at the best part of a year of work to reach your goal. Similarly, size-based goals are not necessarily an effective ongoing encouragement.

And this is where the Couch to 5k plan is a winner. Rather than getting you to focus on weight or size, it gets you to focus on fitness and exercise. Long term, the trick to staying in shape is to lead a moderately active lifestyle and eat a balanced diet - and this exercise plan fulfils the active lifestyle part of that.

Not only this, but the plan gives tangible results in a very short space of time - not in terms of weight or size (which both will improve with time) but in terms of fitness. In a matter of weeks, you could be running a mile several times a week - a significant achievement for many people.

Overall, this plan looks to be an excellent starting point for anyone who is just starting to do something about their health and fitness.