Losing 30 lbs is the Key to the Hardest Part of my Job

No, it wasn't Giardia. I mean, it was. I did have giardia, but that didn't create a major change in my weight. Stomach illnesses aren't the hardest part of a Volunteer's job. The hardest part of my job is the same challenge presented to any overweight person, alcoholic, oversleeper, compulsive liar, smoker, or obsessive hoarder. It is the hardest part of the job for any corporate manager or supervisor or therapist or parent.

Creating behavior change. A Volunteer can build as many latrines as he or she wants, but if at the end of the day they become glorified storage closets and the people continue using the river, what was the point? You have to get them to make the SWITCH. I read a book, ergo I am now a behavior change expert, clearly. (Not sure if the sarcasm came through strong enough in that sentence.) The book, from which I will quote unabashedly without proper citations throughout the rest of this post, is called Switch, written by brothers Chip and Dan Heath. It was life changing in regards to my service and explained to me why my clothes magically started growing.

I first realized I was fat in third grade when the school nurse weighed all of us and announced our weights to her assistant who wrote it down. When it was my turn, instead of announcing 84 lbs in front of my classmates, she went over and told it to the assistant more discreetly. It was the first time I thought that maybe it was something to be ashamed of. Growing up I was taught about healthy weights, nutrition, exercise, and the dangers of obesity. I knew there were things I could do to lose weight and be healthier. I tried a few things, drinking diet soda, going to the gym occasionally, picking salads over burgers. There were so many different 'programs' and 'diets' and 'exercise regimes', each one contradicting the other. I did not have the time to commit to the calorie counting or daily hours in the gym for most, so I tried the middle of the road stuff. Eating healthy and exercising sometimes kind of stuff. But life always intervened. Not enough time to cook, not enough money to buy produce instead of ramen. Not enough time to sleep, let alone get to work out. Not to mention, I was still a kid.

 Besides, I never wanted to be one of those image obsessive girls who starved themselves, complained wildly about needing to lose 5 lbs and nitpicked tirelessly over their appearance. While they fretted in front of the mirror, I had a life to live!

It does not mean I quit trying. Even the most self-confident 14 year old girls tremble when confronted with co-ed swimming classes, or shopping trips to the mall for school dances, or picking teams for gym class. Appearance always became an issue. If you have ever watched your friends pick out cute dresses and left empty handed because 'none of them were really your style' meaning none of them fit you; or sat in the sun and sweated it out at the pool party insisting you didn't want to swim so that you wouldn't have to take the t-shirt off; or laughed off getting picked last again for kickball, then you understand my motivation. It was there. And yet...even when I did try, there were very little results.

So I would give up, live my life how I wanted to, and act like it was never a problem. Every so often I would try again, and it wouldn't really work, and I would keep on living my life. Hold that thought.

Imagine that inside every person there is an elephant and a rider.

To create behavior change, first you need to Direct the Rider. Give them the information and knowledge they need to make the better decision. The information must be clear and concise. Too many options or ambiguity and the rider starts to spin her wheels and get bogged down in analysis. Focus on the moments of success, the things the rider is already doing correctly, and try to replicate and reproduce those. Point the rider to the destination, a concrete, tangible result of making this change. Something to inspire the effort it takes to change.

The rider may have great directions, but she lacks the strength to tug your elephant in the right direction forever. While it will work for awhile, her arms get tired and the elephant wins. To create change, you need to also Motivate the Elephant. By creating a concrete image of the destination, giving the elephant a taste of the advantages to come by creating this change, and by boosting the confidence of the elephant, you can 'grow your people' to make them feel bigger than the challenge they are facing. Make them feel like they are the kind of people who make this change and who are capable of change, make them identify with it. Because if they have the confidence to believe they will succeed, they more than likely will. Shrinking the change down into smaller pieces, tiny adjustments that aren't too difficult will help grow their confidence and allow them to start making change one doable step at a time.

Finally, the most effective method, shaping the path. Climbing an uphill battle full of rocks and sink holes makes the road to change much harder. But if you can change the environment, remove the rocks, put up road signs, set them at the top of a downhill slope and give them a push, change will seemingly come on its own. If you are on the right path, it doesn't matter what your rider or elephant are doing because you only have one path to follow anyway.

My rider was informed. My elephant was motivated, but I had an identity problem. I associated weight loss with unhappy, superficial, skinny girls. Fortunately for me, I was put onto the perfect path. Nearly media and temptation free, I had no choice but to follow the path. There is no association between being skinny and superficial here. There are no fast food places within 8 hours of my hut. There is no ice cream hanging out in my buckets of food. I have no choice but to eat "organic" rice, fruits, and vegetables. I don't have access to beef so fish, eggs, and lean jungle meats it is. I don't need a gym if I am already sweating 14 hours a day sitting in a hammock. And hauling, mixing, and blocking with concrete is a real workout.

I created for my community a health seminar based around the ideology of this book. When it comes to hand washing, drinking clean water, using a latrine (bathroom), and not littering, all Americans rely almost exclusively on the shape of their path. No American has to haul water to their house and filter every drop to drink, cook, and clean. It is far easier to use a bathroom than to go poop in the yard. The country is covered in trash cans almost obsessively. There is no need to cover every bit of food and water to protect it from bugs that carry diseases.

We have none of those advantages, which is the challenge. But even with our limited resources I am hoping for some minimal successes by directing riders and motivating elephants. While rebuilding and shaping the path is for the most part beyond my means, we can remove some of the rocks from the road and put in a few more road signs. I hope to grow my people with the health seminar and show them how to shrink the change.

I am excited to see how it goes.