Biggest Winner: Mindset key to long-term success
Kettle bells are used in weight training for the O-R’s Biggest Winner team.
Dr. Natalie Hogan
Dr. Anne Murphy
Frank Crockard, front, and Christopher Dorsey, members of the O-R Biggest Winner team, take a lap on the track at the Wilfred R. Cameron Wellness Center last week.
Team O-R member Nikki Phillips runs on the track during the team workout at the Wilfred R. Cameron Wellness Center last week.
Christy Rowing, an O-R team member, does sit-ups as part of Biggest Winner training.
Frank Crockard, left, and Amanda Valancius do push-ups during the O-R team workout.
Wellness center trainer Shane Bombara instructs the O-R team during its first Biggest Winner workout.
The sixth annual Biggest Winner contest being held at the Washington Health System Wilfred R. Cameron Wellness Center is about to enter its second week. This year’s competition includes 10 teams, including a team of Observer-Reporter readers, and is the most intensive weight-loss program yet. Using the four pillars of nutrition, movement, recovery and mindset, the program is designed to bring life-changing results.
Dr. Anne Murphy, psychologist with the Washington Health System, and Dr. Natalie Hogan, family medicine resident physician with Washington Health System, designed a program to help the contestants with mindset.
“This new series of sessions includes brief, interactive PowerPoint presentations along with workbook exercises to be completed each week at home by all contestants,” Murphy explains. “Our sessions combine medical and psychological aspects of mindset that we believe will help contestants achieve and sustain healthy weight-loss and fitness goals.”
Murphy and Hogan trained the professional staff at the wellness center to present the sessions to their teams. This year, mindset will be mandatory and incorporated into the program rather than being optional.
“We had many meetings and worked together to integrate a stronger mindset presence for the competition to see if this could change the outcomes of weight regain that has been typical for participants in years past,” Hogan said.
She adds that medical literature shows 80 percent of people who lose weight will regain it in the next year. “New research has supported a behavioral component integrated with traditional diet and exercise to be the most effective method for keeping weight off in the years following a significant loss,” she said. “The mindset portion of our program aims to address the most common barriers to permanent lifestyle change, such as habit formation, emotional eating, sabotaging thoughts and the transition from the weight-loss phase to the weight maintenance phase, which often catches people off guard.”
Murphy believes the mindset pillar is important because falling back into old habits and regaining weight is such a common problem.
“Cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness skills are needed to help us sustain the healthy lifestyle changes in nutrition and fitness that the Biggest Winner program promotes,” she said. “Without these skill sets in place, we tend to revert back to old habits when we encounter stress and/or losses that are a normal part of life. In order to sustain healthy habits, we need a strong mindset to help us manage stress, emotional pain and social pressures that can cause us to put on pause or abandon healthy habits.”
Mindset sessions will cover topics such as emotional eating, the power of positive thinking, self-esteem and sabotaging thoughts, mindful eating, motivation and cognitive behavioral skills.
“The over-arching message of the mindset program is that a participant holds the key to his/her own outcomes,” says Hogan. “Our thought patterns and bad habits are the reason we all don’t look like models. It is very tricky to override years of destructive behavior. But with the help of professionals trained in this field, anyone has the potential to go through a true lifestyle renovation.”
Murphy says the sessions will focus on ways to help competitors avoid emotional eating, change habits and manage stress. “I emphasized in my sessions that overeating or eating for the wrong reasons can occur when we do not have adequate ways of soothing ourselves and managing stress,” she said. “Self-soothing methods provide a foundation for maintaining healthy lifestyle changes that so many of us desire.”
In addition to these methods, readers may wish to consider the importance of their own thinking patterns. So often how and what we tell ourselves determines whether we stay on track toward our health goals.”
Hogan also adds that true weight loss and maintenance of a new lifestyle take work and commitment. “Do not be fooled by products, pills, diets or workouts that claim weight loss to be effortless,” she warns. “This is a red flag that your results will not last. Obesity is a sincere problem in the United States and something that needs to be addressed in a more matter-of-fact way by physicians. Food and behavior can be the most powerful medicine or the slowest form of poison. Make good choices to restore quality in your life.”