Mind Your Body: Doctors' Orders—Without Distress

How to stick to diet, exercise, or worse. Modern medicine can work wonders, but only when we actually use it.
By Jay Dixit, published on January 01, 2008 - last reviewed on February 27, 2008
  • Pay yourself. Give a friend $1,000. Every day you eat healthfully (or exercise, or take your medicine), you get $50 back. For every day you miss your target, your friend donates your $50 to your least favorite political party.
  • Create if-then plans. Making an if-then plan—if I get off work, then I'll go straight to the gym—makes behavior automatic so there's less chance you'll slip.
  • Compete. Setting up a contest with a friend—such as agreeing that whoever loses more weight has to pay the other—can add competitive fuel to your motivational fire.
  • Watch your stress level. Willpower is a limited resource, so be extra vigilant during stressful times, when it may be depleted.
  • Use external monitoring. Keep a written record of how well you're doing. Or better yet, get someone else to keep track for you.
  • Make social contracts. The buddy system is powerful. Find a friend in the same boat and make an appointment to work on your task together.
Tags: blood transfusion, colonoscopy, diet, doctors orders, exercise, exercise regimens, experimental medication, flare, forthcoming book, health, hepatitis, hepatitis c, interferon, medical adherence, mind your body, modern medicine, plan b, routine, tainted blood, Tel Aviv, three times, triumvirate, unpleasant task

Current Issue

Everyday Creativity

How to start living creatively and reap the benefits.

Find a Therapist

Search our customized Directory for a licensed professional near you.
 See new therapists