Week 8

My computer did NOT publish my last blog entry on Friday!

I'm an organic =] I went through some ups and downs but I think I could officially call myself an organic. This past month was met with relapses, but it was also met with many successes. In choosing my behavior change, I looked back at myself a year ago, and I remembered how well I ate, how well I felt, and how well I was doing in school. And I thought all of that was correlated to what I was eating. In changing this behavior, I was looking for that feeling of well-being again, and I found it. I found my well-being of body and soul, and in turn, I lost my self-doubt. The weeks seemed like years, but I stayed on course with my dieting and had my punishments well in mind when I would eat what I was supposed to. I also made sure to make the change gradual. Jumping into a new habit and breaking an old one isn't something that happens over night.

In looking back at my blogs, the thing that really worked for me was my goal setting. I established goals for the week that weren't out of reach and I set out to attain them. One thing that I WOULD fix about the behavior change process is the punishments I gave myself. They were only realistic part of the time, and that made it hard sometimes to stay on track.

What's important to note is that targetting a behavior I disliked reeally made it easier. I know that a lot of times when a person wants to change something about themselves, it comes with a list of things. And a lot of times, we overwhelm ourselves and eventually end up where we started. What I learned is that since I just targetted my eating habits, it became a lot more easier and I became much more aware of what I was putting into my body. With this heightened awareness alone, the change process became a lot more easier.

To make any change I made long-term, I would have to keep my heightened sense of awareness and also realize the long-term benefits I would receive if I stuck with the program. I mean long-term seems like a really long time, but I think you have to take it like a short-term goal. Just take it week by week. Theres bound to be some times where I will relapse, but the important thing is if I decide to get backon that wagon of eating organically.

The most challenging aspect of this behavior change was, as aforementioned, getting back on the program after relapsing. Once you've relapsed, you feel as if all the work you've done prior to thr relapse has just went down the drain, but you can't think that way. If you think that way, it will just make it that much harder to get back on. One thing that helped is when I did relapse, I went back to the start and looked at why I wanted to change this behavior in the first place.

The most important aspect of this assignment is to see for ourselves that operant conditiong, when used right, CAN work. It also shows that we can change anything we don't like about ourselves. All it takes is a few precautionary measures, an isolation of that behavior, and careful planning!

Week 7

My fellow bloggers,
The problems I had with my punishments/reinforcements are all a thing of the past. This week went really well. This outcome came to be because I planned out this week last week. I bought all my meals for the week on the previous Sunday. Not only did I buy them, but on discount also because they recognized me from the past six weeks =] There wasn't a need for operant conditioning because I did EVERYTHING right for the week. I thank you all for your support and hope things went as well for you as it did for me.

Week 6

My fellow psychologists,

This week has been the hardest yet... From this point in time, progress was made without any hindrance. But this week with a lack of planning, things fell apart fast. I didn't bring any organic bars to school with me, and I had to eat SOMETHING at school before my workout class.. so I succumbed to eating a tuna sandwich :/ Yes, a tuna sandwich was my demise. This started somewhat of a snowball effect where I went home and ate a box of chewy bars. This in turn gave me a HUGE positive punishment. It probably added up to a marathon of running, but I settled with five miles. I feel I can get back on track though! At least my running made me somehwat regret binging for another week...

Week 5

This past week has been somewhat bittersweet. The organic-eating lifestyle is becoming more and more habitual, and I ate organically for the whole week. I also started to log what I eat for the week just to keep track; the bitter part is mainly the positive reinforcement/punishments... Although I should of rewarded myself with a movie this week, there was nothing to see. And the punishment of running/workiung out is what I ended up doing instead. So in a way, I punished myself for doing the right thing for week 5. Hmm. I'm thinking my positive reinforcement is a bit too specific. What I had in mind is keeping it general. I can just go out and do something I feel I would enjoy at that point in time. Any better ideas?

Week 4

Well here's the situation... I forgot to post "week 3" because it was my birthday last week, and to be completely honest, last week is fuzzy to say the least. I did however keep track of my eating habits from that week (April 18th to April 23rd). To be completely modest, I think I did pretty damn good for it being my birthday and all (I had to go out to eat a lot). I made my family go out to this organic restaurant in Pasadena (which they hated me for) but it was a success on my part. I only failed to eat organically on ONE occasion, but it was Benihanas! Who eats organically there? But the good thing is.... my positive reinforcements/punishments worked out to my benefit. I ran like I said I would if I didn't follow the plan. So actually, as opposed to the lateness of my published post, i'm pretty much on track =]

Week 3: Design Your Program

The modification of my behavior would surely fail if I didn't give myself valid punishments and reinforcements; but I think I came up with some good ones. First off would be the reinforcements. A postive reinforcement that i've given myself is to go to the movies every week I eat solely organic food. Another reinforcement would be my health and well-being, but that comes much later. A negative reinforcement would be loss of self-doubt. Now on to the punishments... A positive punishment would be to make myself run the Mt. Wilson trail if I fail to eat oganically that week. I was thinking to run a mile for every day that I don't eat organically. And if you've never been on the Mt. Wilson trail, trust me, it's not fun. A negative punishment would be to also deprive myself of the movie night at the end of the week. I found some effective strategies on how to stay the course, and also save some money when buying organic:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cheap/20040901a1.asp
http://njaes.rutgers.edu/sshw/message/default.asp?p=Health&m=108

I'm assuming this is a fixed-ratio schedule because if I eat organically Sunday-Friday, the reward comes Saturday night. So this means the positive response comes every 7th time I eat correctly.

Week 2: Baseline Behavior

In researching my behavior change, I not only found places close to my home that sell organic foods(such as whole foods and a farmer's market in Monrovia), but I also came across some health benefits. I ate organically for three months during my wrestling season and found I was in a better mood and also felt generally well. So this past week has been a little hectic, and one thing you need as an organic eater is organization. I set out a plan to wake up 30 minutes early everyday to pack myself an organic lunch. One way operant conditioning can come into play here is that I make myself follow the general rule that if I don't pack myself an organic lunch, I don't eat; and i'm a man who likes to eat, so this negative reinforcement is a harsh one. My mom has also pomised to buy an abundance of organic stuff for me so that should help a lot =]