Our daughter has discovered the delights of one certain water fountain at Macalester College.  We head over to their swimming pool each afternoon for lessons water bottle in tow.  This water fountain is one of those that you set your water bottle at the back and it is filled from a dispenser at the top.  No messing around with getting your water bottle at the right angle to fill it.  Our daughter likes it simply because she feels cool filling her water bottle at a fountain.  Unbeknownst to her there is a little counter at the top of the fountain that tells us how many plastic water bottles she has saved by filling her Kleen Kanteen.

These water fountains are a plenty these days and I admit to feeling a sense of momentary pride when I fill up my water bottle.  ”That’s right, I’m saving the planet.  What are you doing?”  Yesterday I thought about that little counter and wondered if it was motivating.  Does the fact that you get an environmental pat on the back every time you fill your water bottle make you more likely to do it again?  Does it make you more likely to make similar decisions throughout your day?  Or is it simply a fleeting feeling?  Rather than calorie counts or fat grams on food I wonder what a pat on the back would do for our food choices.  Not the “Less Sugar” or “Heart Healthy” claims we see, but rather something more visceral.  I have no idea of what this would be yet, just wondering.  Because when it comes down to it we make choices based on feelings.

Following this line of thinking I happened across a piece in yesterday’s New York Times by Gina Kolata.  Serendipitous timing.  Ms. Kolata asks the question “What makes someone a committed exerciser? And how motivating are the much vaunted improvements to health?”  That is to say what makes a person keep exercising?  Is it a little plastic bottle counter in their head that motivates them?  Or rather, as Ms. Kolata discusses in light of a recent study that states 10% of people may have an “adverse” response to exercise, is it a “feeling.”  A feeling of energy, of pride, of ego, that may keep people committed to exercise?  Here is an interesting clip from her article:

‘“When a physician tells a patient, ‘You need to make a change for your health,’ that can be motivating, especially if the person has a health problem,” said Rodney Dishman, director of the exercise psychology laboratory at the University of Georgia. “But it usually wanes over time. People don’t feel their bones getting stronger, they don’t feel lipids changing, they don’t feel their blood pressure changing.”

Most who start exercising say the goal is to lose weight or improve their health. But those who begin on the promise of imperceptible health effects often stop, Dr. Dishman said, saying they do not have time, or are too tired after work, or they just lost interest.’

“…but those who begin on the promise of imperceptible health effects often stop,” so true and so scary.  Have you seen a marketing campaign or fitness center advertisement lately that doesn’t include some mention of health gains?  Yet if these don’t motivate people maybe the approach is wrong.  Try convincing today’s college students they should exercise in order to keep their lipids and blood pressure in check.  You can imagine the looks.  Imperceptible.

So if it’s not promises of health that motivate people to exercise what is it?  ”Biological traits, Dr. Dishman says, “seem to play a bigger role in both the choice to be active and the outcomes of being active than folks — namely public health advocates— have been willing to admit.”  Darn it, and I have the sitting gene.  If left to my own devices I tend to want to sit and read.  (However, at work I stand all day,  standing desk, the whole bit.  Talk about environmental influences, geez).

Health promises don’t sustain exercise.  Too imperceptible.  Biological traits may help us (if we the active gene) or hinder us (if we have the sitting gene).  Why do some people keep on exercising?  How are they able to do that?  What a gift!

We are back to that “feeling,” says Ms. Kolata.  That feeling of pride, of ego, of an energy and mood boost.  To be able to tell everyone at work “Yeah, I worked out this morning,” to be defined as a jock, a runner, or simply active.  Maybe that is what drives us.  What drives me?  The fear of gaining weight.

Talk about perceptible.

Now, off to get that plastic bottle counter implanted in my head.