Working From the Outside In

If you’ve ever fallen off the “diabetes control wagon” before, you may have said something like one of the following to yourself:

“I just need to buckle down and follow the plan.”

“I need to do it; no more excuses!”

“I just need some self-discipline — it’s up to me. No one can do this for me.”

Actually, all these statements are true, to some extent. Ultimately, the success of your diabetes control program rests with you. But is inner strength and self-discipline the only way to succeed? Sometimes it helps to look for help outside of yourself.

This article makes two important points:

• Self-discipline alone may not always be enough to keep you on track.
• Outside support and feedback — for instance, from a “coach” — can help you over these rough spots.

Get a Coach

Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France bike race for seven years — an amazing accomplishment when you consider that the race spans 21 days and more than 3,380 kilometers, some of it through mountainous terrain. Armstrong is a great athlete, and he has a coach. You may wonder why a person with such ability and experience needs a coach.

The answer is that human nature influences athletes and people with diabetes alike. When people try to improve something about themselves, they need feedback to tell them how they’re doing. The feedback can come from something like the scales or someone like a coach — anything that helps them keep track of their progress and on track for success.

As much as we’d like to think we can make these changes alone, we often can’t. Then we need outside help. We need a coach. In other words, if our self-discipline isn’t enough to keep us on track, just trying harder won’t necessarily work.

Use Your Feedback Tools

If you are concerned about staying on track, try going beyond personal control. Set up some source of feedback from the outside. How do you do this?

Ask for help. Enlist the support of a coach. This person could weigh you each week, if that would help you stay on course, or go to the gym with you several times a week to keep you on your exercise plan. Or share your food records with someone who is willing to lend a supportive hand. You can ask this person to hold you accountable for one program activity — for instance, keeping a food journal or activity record. If you don’t do the activity, negotiate with the person a penalty for not holding up your end of the deal.

Keep in mind that whatever penalty you choose, it needs to be something that causes you to feel uncomfortable enough that you really don’t want to do it. You might offer to give the person’s dog a bath, for instance, or to vacuum the inside of his or her car.

Does any of this make a difference? The answer is a resounding “YES.”

• People who record their food intake lose twice as much weight as people who don’t.
• People who follow a structured meal plan and lose weight in the first two weeks of a diet plan are more likely to stay with the plan and lose more weight.
• People who meet to exercise together, or who have a coach, are more likely to follow the plan than those who exercise alone.
• People who have supportive “others” to provide external support and feedback are more likely to succeed at controlling their diabetes than those who go it alone.

Being accountable to another person or guided by some kind of outside structure like a meal plan or exercise program can help a great deal. Once you have established new habits or a new routine, you won’t have to depend on the person or structure to stay in control. It becomes second nature. You will have made a lifestyle change.

Of course, when you reach this point, you don’t have to go it alone. Like Lance Armstrong, you may want to keep your “coach” for support and feedback.

Developing Your Self-Discipline Muscle

Pick one habit that you want to change this week. Then, ask one person — your coach — to hold you accountable to your goal. Pick a penalty in case you don’t meet the goal and a nonfood reward for when you do.

Summary

• Internal discipline alone may not always be enough to keep you on track.
• External support — for instance, from a coach — can help you over these rough spots while you strengthen your self-discipline.
• Eventually, you will have made a lifestyle change and won’t have as much need for external supports. But they still can help you and give you important feedback.