Research Paper By Sherri Lukac
(Health Coach, UNITED STATES)
Introduction:
There are many topics that can be researched relevant to life coaching. The combination of personal, social, economic, and other forces that influence an individual’s satisfaction with their lives, and the goals that they have set forth in their lives, is very complex. And yet, the role of a life coach is a process that can be carried out in a very simple manner: to help people maximize their potential and achieve their goals within the context of a healthy, happy, and productive life. Furthermore, as a life coach, my role is to facilitate, not to advise or instruct. I consistently ask myself ; how can I pose questions that will help my clients come up with their own desires and beliefs? How can I use my training to help my clients clarify what they believe, how they feel, and what they want to achieve at any given time? How can I help my clients come up with their own plan of action?
My goal with this research paper is to extend my knowledge base so I can better serve my clients in this way. Given my 12-year experience as a yoga teacher, a healthy life-style and a steady fitness regime are a particular interest of mine. In this paper I will research what factors influence individuals’ perception and satisfaction with their body image. Since there is a relatively large amount of literature on this topic, I will briefly review some relevant research and draw a few conclusions.
Life and Happiness:
To begin, I will briefly describe a theory of happiness that has helped me form my own understanding of how individual choices and events add up to a satisfying whole (i.e. a happy life). Aristotle, a western philosopher, is known for the importance he placed on the role of happiness in a life well lived. Aristotle sees happiness not as the satisfaction of compulsive desires (eating that second piece of pie, for example) but as the culmination of an entire life lived in a manner that is consistent with virtues and beliefs that one holds true to oneself. The exact nature of these virtue and beliefs, as defined by Aristotle, lies outside the scope of this research paper, but it is important to note that Aristotle’s happiness requires a fulfillment of a wide range of conditions, including physical and mental well being[1]. Specifically, Aristotle sees happiness as a life lived according to rational principles and involving the steady application of reason[2]. In Aristotle’s worldview, we must think actively about how the individual moments of our lives add up to a satisfying whole. As a life coach, considering happiness in this way provides a framework in which to understand how individual decisions, goals, and achievements fit into a larger life role. A client may, for example, desire to lose weight, but is this with the end goal of improved health, or to satisfy some external definition of beauty? In terms that are more specific to life coaching, thinking about goals in this way can help alleviate underlying motivations, and help ensure they are consistent with a life of which one can be proud.
Body Image Satisfaction:
Now to the question of body image satisfaction. It is no secret that we live in a society in which how we look is often dictated, consciously or not, by ideal images created to drive consumerism (i.e. Victoria Secret billboards). Women and men often aspire to these ideals, and at times these aspirations can be damaging (eating disorders, excessive exercise, depression, low-self esteem, etc). By the same token, obesity rates in the Unite States and around the world are at an all time high and still climbing. Currently, more than one third of US adults are obese (38.4% or 78.9 million)[3] and obesity related conditions such as heart disease, stroke and type II diabetes are on the rise. An emphasis on diet and exercise in order to maximize health has never been more important in the right populations.
That being said, I think it is important to try and understand what motivates people to try and lose weight, whether through diet or exercise. Is it to lower your risk of having a heart attack? To be able to keep up with your kids? Or dissatisfaction with the way you look? As a life coach my job is to help people understand what motivates them, and provide a space in which they can discover what, if anything, they want to change. For the purposes of this research paper, I wanted to look into some of the data on body dissatisfaction and of what makes people (men and women) unhappy with their bodies.
According to Furnham et al. up to 80% of both men and women are dissatisfied with their bodies.[4] Interestingly, similar proportions of men and women were dissatisfied with their body size, but in very different directions. Approximately equal proportions of men wanted to gain weight (37%) as wanted to lose weight (43%)[5]. In contrast, only 8.0% of women wanted to increase their weight. Furthermore, a much higher proportion of men wanted to gain weight in their upper bodies, supporting the notion of men trying to achieve the athletic and muscular (V-shaped) male ideal prevalent in contemporary society.
Of note, the study conducted by Furnham et al. found that dissatisfaction with body image and weight was not significantly correlated with self-esteem for men, but was significant for women. The finding by these authors that body image satisfaction is highly correlated with self-esteem in girls corroborates previous similar findings by Lerner et al.[6] Along similar lines, Davis and Cowles report that dieting is a more common behavior among women who report that the way they feel about their bodies is important to the way they feel about themselves in general.[7] Furthermore, negative reasons for exercise (defined by these authors as weight control, attractiveness, and tone) correlated highly with low self-esteem scores.[8] On the other hand there was little to no correlation between positive reasons for exercise (mood, health, enjoyment, fitness) and self-esteem scores. It seems clear from this data that, for women, low self-esteem is an important driver of a desire to lose weight.
It is important to take a moment here to make note of the obvious. The factors influencing an individual’s perception of body image are very complex. Furthermore, differences in socioeconomic class, age, sex, country of origin and so on make it difficult to apply generalizations (even those supported by data as discussed above) to individual cases. Nonetheless, as a life coach who may be helping clients with issues related to weight loss, fitness, and physical wellness, I think it is useful to be aware of the general principle that, for example, women are more likely than men to have poor self esteem be a driver for desired weight loss.
Conclusion:
I would like to conclude with a discussion of my coaching model, and how it applies to what I have discussed above. As a life coach, I want to help my clients figure out what aspects of their lives they can change and what they cannot change, in addition to what is healthy to change. I then want to come up with a realistic program that the client can implement to bring about these changes. I designed the ABC coaching model to help clients reach their goals. 1) Acknowledge. Acknowledging where you currently stand (for example, do you have elevated cholesterol due to unhealthy eating practices?) and decide what your goals are to make a change and move forward in a healthier direction. 2) Breath (this serves to calm the body and the mind, to allow the emotional and intellectual mind to become one, and set the stage for a decision to be made). Breathing also releases stress so you are able the to accept your current situation. 3) Commit (taking small steps on a daily basis to reach your goals over time). It is very important to commit daily to making positive choices and forming habits that support your realistic goals.
It is very important when using the ABC coaching model that daily successes are recognized so that the client has the confidence to move forward. Emphasis must be placed on a daily activity so good habits are formed and successes can be seen over time. The problem that arises in our day and age is that we want instant satisfaction, and when results are not seen immediately, the average person gives up. But It is these very daily activities that takes a person from dissatisfaction to satisfaction, that if continued long enough would take a person from being satisfied with their body image to loving their body. What sometimes occurs is when a crisis is over, and the motivation that that crisis brings about goes away, and one stops those good daily habits, thus halting forward progress. Making smart choices every day, all day long, that are consistent with one’s values and beliefs will keep a man or a woman happy with their body and will ensure a happy, healthy and productive life.
This coaching model is broad, and can be applied to a wide range of scenarios. As a final act, and in the context of this research paper, let us imagine a middle-aged woman who wants to commit to losing weight to become healthier and to feel better about herself. The first step would be to acknowledge a desire for change and what the motivations for these changes are. I would work with my client to evaluate her current state of health and whether or not there were any past attempts to bring about change. Knowledge of some of the drivers of unhealthy reasons for diet and exercise (for example low self esteem) would be useful in working with my client to establish what exactly they want to achieve, and how they want to achieve it. Of course, many times, these unhealthy drivers will not be present, but knowledge of them will help avoid missing them. Once a weight loss plan was set forth, an accountability and support system needs to be in place. This is why coaching is so important when change is desired. By working with a coach on this weight loss regime, this woman would be able to work on her daily goals, and simple achievable daily routine. Furthermore, she would have someone to talk about the challenges that arose and stay motivated daily to stay on her path. Working on this research paper has taught me vitally important lessons about my own teaching model, and strengthened my knowledge base of the struggles and motivations for certain types of significant life change.
Resources
[1] http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/aristotle/, accessed on 12/23/14
[2] http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201301/aristotle-happiness, accessed on 12/24/14
[3] http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
[4] Adrian Furnham, Nicola Badmin, Ian Sneade (2002), Body Image Dissatisfaction: Gender Differenced in Eating Attitudes, Self Esteem, and Reasons for Exercise, The Journal of Psychology: interdisciplinary and Applied, 136:6, 581-596
[5] Ibid
[6] Lerner, R.M., Karabenick, S.A., & Stuart, J.L. (1973). Relations among physical attractiveness, body attitudes and self concept in male and female college students. The Journal of Psychology, 85, 119-129
[7] Davis, C. & Cowles, M.P. (1991). Body image and exercise: A study of relationships and comparisons between physically active men and women. Sex Roles, 25, 33-44.
[8] Adrian Furnham, Nicola Badmin, Ian Sneade (2002), Body Image Dissatisfaction: Gender Differenced in Eating Attitudes, Self Esteem, and Reasons for Exercise, The Journal of Psychology: interdisciplinary and Applied, 136:6, 581-596