.png)
Your Checkup: Patient Education Health Podcast
Ever leave the doctor’s office more confused than when you walked in? Your Checkup: Health Conversations for Motivated Patients is your health ally in a world full of fast appointments and even faster Google searches. Each week, a board certified family medicine physician and a pediatric nurse sit down to answer the questions your doctor didn’t have time to.
From understanding diabetes and depression to navigating obesity, high blood pressure, and everyday wellness—we make complex health topics simple, human, and actually useful. Whether you’re managing a condition, supporting a loved one, or just curious about your body, this podcast helps you get smart about your health without needing a medical degree.
Because better understanding leads to better care—and you deserve both.
Your Checkup: Patient Education Health Podcast
92: The Motivation Checkup: Episode 1 Understanding Motivation
New year energy fades fast, and that’s exactly when most health plans fall apart. We’ve been there—patients telling us “I can’t stay motivated,” and our own early alarms that sometimes lose the argument. So we take a fresh, practical look at motivation: not as a trait you’re born with, but as a state you can design by meeting three basic needs—choice, capability, and support.
We start by ditching the willpower myth. Fear and guilt can get you moving once, but they rarely carry you through February. Instead, we walk through how to create autonomy by making health changes feel like your choice, not a chore. Then we shrink the mountain with competence—tiny, repeatable wins that build evidence you can do this. Finally, we highlight relatedness, the social fuel most of us ignore, from a partner’s quick “you got this” to a clinician who helps you tailor goals to real life.
You’ll hear everyday examples that translate theory to action: reframing exercise from “the doctor said so” to “I feel clearer after a 15‑minute walk,” turning “I need to lose weight” into “steady meals give me steady energy,” and linking medications to the life you want to lead. We cap it with a fast self‑audit you can do today: Does this feel like my choice? Do I feel capable most days? Do I feel supported? Wherever you answer no, you’ll learn how to adjust the plan rather than abandon it.
If you’re ready to turn external pressure into internal purpose and make habits stick without white‑knuckling, press play. Then share this with someone who could use a gentle reset, subscribe for next week’s deep dive on building systems that support your goals, and leave a review to tell us the one small change you’re making first.
Send us a message with this link, we would love to hear from you. Standard message rates may apply.
Production and Content: Edward Delesky, MD, DABOM & Nicole Aruffo, RN
Artwork Rebrand and Avatars:
Vantage Design Works (Vanessa Jones)
Website: https://www.vantagedesignworks.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vantagedesignworks?igsh=aHRuOW93dmxuOG9m&utm_source=qr
Original Artwork Concept: Olivia Pawlowski
Hi, welcome to your checkup. We are the Patient Education Podcast, where we bring conversations from the doctor's office to your ears. On this podcast, we try to bring medicine closer to its patients. I'm at Delesky, a family medicine doctor in the Philadelphia area. And I'm Nicola Rufo. I'm a nurse. And we are so excited you were able to join us here again today. These weekends have um, you know, they're great. They're great because there's time well spent with good people, but they got to slow down. And um, happy birthday. We celebrated AJ's birthday, his 30th birthday, got a place in the Poconos. His fiance, Lindsay, set up the whole thing. It was a really nice event. Happy birthday to him. Um, great to catch up with people and spend quality time. Um, those mountains can be cold. I was walking back at the end of the night, and my hand was the coldest it could have possibly ever been. Um, and we've also been re-watching Stranger Things in preparation to watch the newest season. Please, no spoilers. I realize that this is a one-sided communication. And you originally slept on it, but what do you think? Stranger Things.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it's really good. I watched the whole first season, loved it. And then I watched the second season, I think up until like the number eight girl, kind of like around there, because I remembered some of that. Yep. And then I just stopped and I never went back. And I don't know why, because it's really good.
SPEAKER_02:I'm glad you think so. Um, you know, obviously we love a show, and we do we did have one that we recently watched um in between, a limited series that we can it's like really disturbing that we can talk about.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, what was that called? Oh that was freaky. That guy was a total freak.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, good acting.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Really, really good acting. Um, yeah, that was a limited series, you know, episodes. That one, I know we're all over the place here, so we're switching up a little bit, talking about the beast in me. Um, I wouldn't watch it if you don't have a strong stomach.
SPEAKER_01:Um yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Whatever. It was good. Um, we liked it. Keeps us entertained. And then back to Stranger Things. Um, you know, so we are I didn't think we were gonna do it. I thought I was gonna be one of those people who just like watched the episodes that the Duffer brothers recommended to rewatch, but here we are. I mean, might as well, right? We have a lot of good TV coming up.
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah, we do have a lot of good TV coming up.
SPEAKER_02:Something to look forward to for the winter.
SPEAKER_01:We have Traders.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I forgot about that. Is that coming up? I think on Thursday it comes out. Thursday. I like it. It's fun. It is fun.
SPEAKER_01:Um apparently Traders UK also comes out soon. I don't know if it's this week. But Traders US is coming out. Um, I forget exactly who is in it, but I think there are good people.
SPEAKER_02:Donna Kelsey.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I know Mama Kelsey's in it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And um, I think is someone from Love Island on it?
SPEAKER_02:Is this the season that Rob is on it? The snake guy?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah, I think it is. Should I look real quick?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01:Traders US season forecast. All right. Natalie Anderson from Amazing Race. We don't know like the Amazing Race and Survivor people.
SPEAKER_02:No, some people do. Some people really like this.
SPEAKER_01:Uh Mark Ballas from Dancing with the Stars. Rob Sestertino. Is that his last name? Sesternino from Survivor. Don't know him. Oh, yeah, Steven Colletti is on here. He was on Laguna Beach.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:Steve Ben. Um, Candace Bassett. She's a housewife. Ron something.
SPEAKER_02:Burgundy.
SPEAKER_01:Funches is an actor slash comedian. Mara Higgins, she's from Love Island, UK. She does a lot of the one. She's this girl.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, this one I know.
SPEAKER_01:She does the after its son. After sun. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Mama Kelsey.
SPEAKER_02:Big time.
SPEAKER_01:Kristen Kish from Top Chef. Oh, yeah. I remember I like this one. Tara Lipinski's in this one too.
SPEAKER_02:Who's Tara Lipinski?
SPEAKER_01:The Olympic figure skater. Oh, cool. Um, Durenda.
SPEAKER_02:Back again. Yeah. Early exit last season. Sorry, no spoilers.
SPEAKER_01:From Big Brother. Someone from RuPaul's Drag Race. Monet Exchange.
SPEAKER_02:We got any uh Bravo people?
SPEAKER_01:Summerhouse? There was a housewife. Michael Rappaport.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, he's like a oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Rob from Love Island, Lisa Renna.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Uh Caroline Stanberry.
SPEAKER_02:What is Lisa Renna known for?
SPEAKER_01:She's from Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills. Housewife. Oh, okay. Um, someone else from Big Brother Ian. Oh yeah. Also Colton Underwood. He was from The Bachelor.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:But he's gay now. Interesting. He was with Cassie for a long time. Cool. Yeah. I think he's got himself like a hot older man, too. I have to look more into it. Oh yeah. Johnny Weir, who is Tara Lipinski's like figure skating partner.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. They'll have some alliance there or they'll be pitted against each other.
SPEAKER_01:Portia Williams. She's a housewife from Atlanta. And yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_02:Cool. No, it's gonna be a fun season. Um their production value has gone up incredibly. And you know, the first season was the best. Yeah. They had like normal people.
SPEAKER_01:I know. I do think it's better with normies. But then, because like that one girl with like the short hair. Remember, she got all like emotional at the end and was just like cry. And then at the reunion, she was like, I was so upset. I was crying for like 20 minutes. So, like, what's production gonna do with that? Film someone crying for 20 minutes.
SPEAKER_02:Uh, I know. Yeah. Nah, when people are.
SPEAKER_01:But it's better with the normies because I what's the reward?
SPEAKER_02:It's like$200,000 or something,$250.
SPEAKER_01:Which, like, I feel like it could be more.
SPEAKER_02:I feel like they should like maybe it's like a peacock production thing, but like I feel like what's it to these people?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. What's it to these like what's it to like these, especially like these TV people once they're like on reality TV and like they can get$200,000 probably from doing an Instagram ad. You would think they don't care, right? But like a normie, I would love to win two hundred thousand dollars. Exactly. It'd be great.
SPEAKER_02:No, they should either up it, move it to charity, or like, I don't know, they have to like do different contests to like get the the money, build the pot anyway. So that's something we're looking forward to. The pit comes back soon.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm so excited for that.
SPEAKER_02:Me too. We love that.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's the following week. Uh that was eerily accurate. What?
SPEAKER_02:The pit. In in a lot of ways. I mean, some time some ways are like for TV and stuff, but like otherwise, like whoo.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um, we get something else.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, tell me lies. Oh my god. Is that the name of it? Tell me Lies?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I feel like I need a refresh. I think Tell Me Lies comes out in the following. Should we do it? Honestly, we might, because like I'm ready to get gaslit by Steven DeMarco again. Ready to be in a toxic relationship with this fake character. Did you know him and Lucy are dating in real life?
SPEAKER_02:Are they really? That's better for the, you know, television. Yeah. They um well, the plot is so twisty and based off of like, you know, previous relationships with people.
SPEAKER_01:So I do think it might be worth uh because then we have to go back to like I don't know. Because I know the cliffhanger it ended on with uh what's that girl who was getting married?
SPEAKER_02:Wow, no shot that I didn't know.
SPEAKER_01:The short hair, and then she got the voicemail or like the voice message from Steven.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that like the husband, the husband to be cheated on her with Lucy. Uh spoilers of upcoming a few words.
SPEAKER_01:To listen to but he waited like eight years or something. Oh my god, the whole thing. They like recorded it in college and it was like fast forward. That's crazy. So she's like about to walk down the aisle, and then he sends her this message that's like, Oh yeah, I cheated with Lucy, blah blah blah.
SPEAKER_02:Crazy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:This is a trope that I think that was like one of the first ones, like well, well planned out voice memos recording someone when they say something incriminating and then pulling it out later.
SPEAKER_01:But I feel like there's a plot hole because Steven recorded this. It was like, when was this? Like 2008 or something on his like BlackBerry or like Motorola cell phone. And then you extracted it from that. Like, where was it all this time? How did you get it off of that phone?
SPEAKER_02:Maybe he had it on a thumb drive.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe. And then you sent it now it's on your iPhone.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So we're looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we are. And something else. Summer House. Oh, yeah. I think that's next month, though.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's coming back.
SPEAKER_01:I mean I feel like there was something else this month. The Pit Traders. Tell me Lies. Tell Me Lies. Maybe that was it. Is Love is Blind coming out with a Oh, probably on Valentine's Day. I love that that's like our Valentine's. That that's part of our Valentine's Day tradition. Because we watch Love is Blind and we order poly G's, and it's like the best night ever.
SPEAKER_02:It's great. We love it. We love that piece.
SPEAKER_01:I love, I don't know why I love that show so much because it's like so bad, but it's good.
SPEAKER_02:It's gotten so bad.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I don't care. I'm gonna watch it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Some people like I've heard a lot of people would be like, oh no, I'm taking a break from it. And I'm like, could not be.
SPEAKER_01:Literally, why? No, I'm like, what else are you doing?
SPEAKER_02:Honestly.
SPEAKER_01:The middle of January or February.
SPEAKER_02:Truly. Like, oh, we were discussing this earlier that like um January's fine because both of our birthdays are in January, and you have like the post-holiday like come down, which honestly we need because I'm so busy. It feels like we haven't slowed down since the wedding. Yeah. But then February, I don't know. I just like I think it's a it's not a fake month, but like it's fake, it's quick. Hype yourself up.
SPEAKER_01:You got a little mid-month fake holiday thrown in there to get through, but then um March. March.
SPEAKER_02:The worst month.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my god. Yeah. The worst. The worst. Because it's well, I guess depending on where you live. If you live in like Florida or like South Carolina, they don't care. The weather gets great. Here in the Northeast, Philly. It's still so cold, and then you randomly have like a 50-degree day, and then you like feel happier, you think things are looking up, and then the next week there's like six inches of snow on the radar. And and this is probably the perception because by March you want winter to be over, but we were talking about it earlier. And I feel like when it snows in March, that snow specifically sticks around for longer, even though it's like supposedly warmer out.
SPEAKER_02:It does. We need to get in touch with the meteorologist because this it does feels like it sticks around.
SPEAKER_01:When was that? When did it snow last week, two weeks ago? And then we had like a little bit of snow a couple days ago, and now it's like nothing.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Where is it? If that happened in March, it'd be here until like Memorial Day.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. It would be there, it would linger. I guess that's why they have spring break. How can you even have spring break in March though, when it's that cold? I guess that's why people flee and they leave. Yeah, I feel like like the third week, like March 20th-ish is like spring break.
SPEAKER_01:I guess it also depends where like when like Easter is, right?
SPEAKER_02:I think it's somewhat dependent on that too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I don't know. All right. And then you are working on your puzzle here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I made so much progress. I would you say I'm like 50% done?
SPEAKER_02:I think I think a little bit over. And you're engaged here today, though, which is nice. But obviously, like, you know, if you have to tap out to get in there, you can.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm always visualizing, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Those things stress me out. I don't understand how you do it. All right. Um, what do you think? Should we well do you have a Nikki's corner or not this week? A holiday. Maybe we'll do next week.
SPEAKER_01:No, it was a holiday. I took PTO from Nikki's corner this week. Okay, cool. Oh, wait, did I have something? No.
SPEAKER_02:Alright. That's okay.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, there was something about like MTV shutting down.
SPEAKER_02:Is it back?
SPEAKER_01:I don't think MTV MTV like as a whole did. I don't know. I like said I was gonna look more into it and then I never did.
SPEAKER_02:All right, well, we have something to look forward to next week.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, maybe I will. Well, I think they like you know, they like like music television, and then it evolved to playing like ridiculousness 24-7 and like no one, you know?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm I never really was a big MTV guy, but you know, such is life. Um, all right. Well, why don't you know if this episode will be coming out? It's our first episode of the new year, and this time last year, we did a an episode about goal setting and how to be uh this is funny because we saw it like when on New Year's Eve they like had some sort of like health course.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my god, I know that dweeb was up there stealing our ideas. I know, it could have been us.
SPEAKER_02:He was up there like in a tux, and he was like, Here's how your goals are gonna be done.
SPEAKER_01:We're like half falling asleep on the couch, and we're like, wait a second.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, I'm reading those captions, and that looks like something we've talked about before. Um, but this time of year, I think is always great to recenter ourselves and talk about behavior change. And we have two episodes. We have one episode about changing your behavior where we do the you know, trans theoretical model for change. What the heck is that? That's like how we view people coming around to changing a behavior. It's a great episode. Um, I it's one of the most listened to episodes that we have, actually.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, really?
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm. And then the goal setting episode, um, which is about making smart goals. But for a little while here, and I don't want to put a number on our, you know, if in case we wanted to be creative and do something different, but for a number of episodes in a row here, I really want to unpack motivation and changing behavior again. Um, now that I've spent more time independently practicing and seeing patterns, I think it's important that we really get into this. And so today we're talking about motivation. Um, I'm gonna get started. And if you want to jump in at any point, you can.
SPEAKER_01:If you want to let me just I love when I just pick up a piece and I know where it goes and it goes there.
SPEAKER_02:And if you just want to let me run, that's fine. So I want to start with something I see all the time when I'm seeing patients. People come in frustrated, they've tried to eat better, they've tried to exercise, they've tried to stick with the plan, and somewhere along the way, it just falls apart. And almost always they say some version of I just can't stay motivated. And, you know, maybe you felt like that, maybe you know someone who's felt like that, but I want to say right up front that this instance, this type of feeling is not a character flaw. It's not laziness, it's also not a lack of willpower. So we're gonna unpack all of that and talk about like what motivation is, how it works, why understanding it can be it can change how you view your health and all of that. Seem okay? Okay. So I want to take a second to reframe the problem that this issue is not about willpower. I think we tend to think about motivation like a gas tank. Like if you just had more, you'd be fine. But I would argue that, and I think a bunch of people who study this in psychology would argue that motivation doesn't work that way. Motivation goes up and down. I think that's a realistic thing. I've noticed that. I feel I feel that all the time. Like, even like when it comes to exercise, motivation depends on the context. And motivation is shaped by how we feel supported, how capable, and how in control we feel of the situation. So when motivation fades, it's not because you failed. It's usually because the type of motivation you were relying on wasn't built to last. So in this next part, what we're going to do is introduce two broad strokes, two main categories, two types of motivation. To understand this though, we need to talk about the two types. So uh Nikki, can you uh take us through what the two types of traditional motivation people understand?
SPEAKER_01:I sure can. The two types are extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. So X say it. So these are things like I guess we'll kind of use like exercise or weight loss as this kind of general theme. Sure. Those are kind of like the two driving factors, I feel like. Um, so extrinsic motivation could be like a doctor telling you you need to lose weight. Maybe an external motivator is that you want to see a number on the scale change, or like a measure body measurement fitting into a smaller size clothes. Um, a lab result that's scary could be a really good extrinsic motivator, um, or any sort of like pressure guilt or fear that kind of goes along with all of those things. Um, this is something that often gets people started, but then this is also something that can fade quicker once that kind of pressure fails, or maybe like the doctor you get bad labs, the doctor tells you you need to lose weight. So then you're really gung-ho, you go to the grocery store, you buy all this healthy food, you make a workout schedule, you start exercising more, and then maybe you do start to lose a little bit of weight and you do start to feel better. And then I feel like at that point it can kind of go one of two ways, and you'll either kind of like ride that and keep going with intrinsic motivation, which we'll talk about, or then that can fade when kind of like the the old behaviors settle back in, maybe.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And intrinsic motivation is comes from inside. So this is can be things again, going along with diet and exercise, just feeling better when you're moving your body, or feeling better when you eat healthy and you like stop eating fast food for lunch every day. Um, getting into a routine that you really like, or just kind of like feeling better and proud of yourself that you're taking better care of yourself. And this is a movement. Motivation that's quieter, but more like doable and long lasting. Yeah. I think.
SPEAKER_02:I think so too. Thank you so much. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You're welcome.
SPEAKER_02:And what what I'll add to that is motivation isn't all or nothing. And I think this is when people get tripped up. So it's not either extrinsic or intrinsic. So now that we understand the two types of motivation and we have a framework to build off of, you know, one concept to introduce is that it probably exists on a spectrum and it bounces back and forth between the two in different situations. And also allows us the opportunity to introduce an additional framework of motivation that we'll name later, but we'll just explain what it is now. So the big idea of this third type or this third concept of motivation is it's something that psychologists have studied for decades. And they've found something really consistent. People stick with behaviors when three basic needs are met. People stick with behaviors when three basic needs are met. They feel like it's their choice, they feel capable, and they feel supported. And I think this would make sense to a lot of people. But this is an actual thing. It has structure. And when those needs aren't met, we tend to find that motivation collapses. But this specific framework has a name. It's called self-determination theory. And it what matters is the concept and the idea, not the label. So I think it's important that we break it down. So let's go through each of them. Maybe we can go back and forth. We'll see how the flow goes. So the three things that motivation needs: the first one, autonomy. This feels like my choice. Autonomy itself doesn't mean doing whatever you want, it means that you have ownership. You can think about the difference between these two things. You need to start exercising versus let's find a way of moving your body that actually fits your life. The two sentences are wildly different, I would say. And one actually tries to look forward and incorporate some part of the structure that is inside someone's life to introduce a behavior. And if you try to introduce the behavior into someone's already existing life, then it's more likely to work. Those two things, those two sentences offer the same goal, but a very different experience. And I think when people feel forced, they tend to resist, is my opinion. Like what I've noticed. Do you agree? Yeah. I don't like it when people tell me what to do. But if someone makes it, I mean, this is a classic thing, right? Like women say this all the time about men. They're like, well, make it his idea. And then it'll be Yeah, classic. It's classic. And is there? So if when if people feel ownership, they engage and they feel like they can be a part of it and it's their idea. And so that's why when like plans look great on paper, but in real life, oftentimes they fail. So the second piece of this is that competence or the feeling of I can actually do this matters. When the mountain seems too high to climb and too steep, it makes anything seem impossible. And what we know in self-determination theory is that this matters. Motivation dies quickly when something feels impossible. Meaning that if the plan is too complicated, if it's too restrictive, if it's too aggressive, if it's, I'm gonna change my everything that I'm doing in the kitchen. I'm gonna eat 800 calories a day, I'm gonna exercise for three hours a day, it's unrealistic and it's not gonna work. And motivation will wane and fail. And not only that, people don't lose just motivation, they lose confidence. And so instead, the idea is to appreciate and celebrate that small wins matter, progress matters, make things attainable. And that feeling of feeling capable, that sentiment of feeling capable matters. And it really anchors around the sentence I'm not perfect, but I'm getting better. It doesn't have to be every week that you get 30 minutes of five times a week of 30 minutes moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise. If you get one that week, that's something. And then maybe the next week you try to build on that and get better. And so, in a way, that second arm, the feeling of I can do this, it really does matter. So the third piece is feeling supported or relatedness, the sentiment that I'm not alone in this. I think this one gets overlooked all the time. Humans are social creatures. And so feeling supported by a clinician, a partner, a friend, a spouse, a loved one all makes a huge difference. And so when people feel judged, dismissed, or alone, motivation shrinks. When they feel understood, when they feel seen and supported, it grows. This isn't just me saying this. This has been studied by psychologists for decades. And this is why relationships matter just as much as that first sentence of let's find a way to move your body in a way that fits in your life. And so, why does all of this change how we think about motivation? The big takeaways I want you to think about so far are that motivation isn't something you force. It's something that you have to build the conditions for. It's something you build a system around. And and this gets at the piece of what we were saying earlier, right? That extrinsic motivation can really get things started, but that intrinsic motivation maybe help build a longer lasting behavior change.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, I also think I don't know if this is like formally in this theory that we're talking about, or if this is just a Nickyism. I feel like part of intrinsic motivation is a lot of like discipline in that you know just you like using the example, like if you're waking up at 5 a.m. to work out before you go to work, your alarm goes off, you hit snooze, you kind of argue with yourself or like bargain with yourself if you're gonna stay in bed or not, but then at the end of the day, like no, I'm gonna feel better if I work out. I won't have to do this later when I come home from work.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Just like doing it, or like doing what you say you're gonna do. Not to be like a Debbie John or like sound too much like tough love, but like I don't know, just do it, you know?
SPEAKER_02:Right. Just do it. Nike.
SPEAKER_01:Just do the thing. It's okay if you don't want to, you know?
SPEAKER_02:I think, and we may be covering this in later weeks when we talk about this, but this starts about building, like, you know, building the system of behavior change for yourself. Like, like you just said there, like if someone, like I've talked to countless people who are like, oh yeah, I get up at I like go to work at 9 30, maybe. And if they were willing to get up early, I know it's so late for us. And like if you were willing to like get up earlier and exercise, and if you needed like a spark in the beginning to get that done, then you would realize the benefit of all the things we've talked about and waxed poetic on this show about how you would feel better.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I don't know. Like I used to be a workout after work girly, but now for like a long time now, I've been before work and now I do sometimes, like when I don't want to get up in the morning, like that feeling of coming home from work and all I have to do is like walk Ollie and like make dinner and hang out, and I don't have like this thing hanging over my head. I think about that.
SPEAKER_02:It's huge.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Or like, I don't know. I guess I started it because I was getting headaches every day, and for some reason, exercising makes it better. So I'm like, uh, do I have my head to pound all day or do I want to feel better?
SPEAKER_02:That's another one that I do lay out there.
SPEAKER_01:Get me out of bed.
SPEAKER_02:I give my my headache talk, and you're the center of it. No, it matters. And that, you know, the we're not saying that like external motivation or extrinsic motivation is bad because it can get you moving. It can create urgency, it opens the door to start the conversation. But I think what we're trying to say here is that long-term change happens when external reasons turn into internal ones. Even if it was like, oh, I'm gonna do this so that I don't have to fix my headache, I don't have to have a headache anymore. But then it converts into, wow, I love the way I feel after I do this, or the sensation I even have when I'm like, if I'm running in the morning and I'm like, wow, I feel like I had seven cups of coffee and it's I've been on the treadmill for 10 minutes and I'm like, wow.
SPEAKER_01:It's actually annoying sometimes when like it is like I I genuinely have so much more energy during the day if I like start my day doing that, and everyone's like, exercise will give you so much energy. Like you guys are annoying because it's right.
SPEAKER_02:I know. Same thing with the sleep hygiene, too. Yeah, and I feel it too when like throughout the day, and like if I don't do it in the morning, yeah, I feel it.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's why I was I think we were talking about it like last weekend or something, because actually this weekend, I'm like up early working out. I have a whole day before 8 a.m. before like you wake up. Yeah. But like, I don't know, sometimes on like the weekends, if we kind of like sleep in a little, have coffee, hang out, have a morning, and then it's like 10 a.m. and we're like antsy.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And like need to go exercise or like go run or something.
SPEAKER_02:It's so true. No, it's a pretty crazy, like reproducible thing that we go through. Oh that's like a someone's at the door bark. And like there's a key shift that happens when you start saying to yourself, like initially, like I have to do this, but when it transitions to I understand why this matters to me.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Or maybe it turns into just like something that you want to do.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Something I like to do. So maybe let's take some real life health examples. Maybe we've already um uh come out with a few, but we're gonna talk about three. There's um three simple ones. One's exercise, one's nutrition, one's medication. So the first is an external motivation for exercise. I should work out because my doctor said so. I think all the time that like I say this to almost every person. They could come in for a cold and I'm telling them this. And that's great. Like, I hope I have some measure of like respected authority in their life that they would consider listening to that advice. But when that's internalized, it'll echo a lot of the statements that we have here. I feel better mentally when I move, even if it's just for a walk. That's the transition. The I should work out because my doctor said so. Two, I feel better when I move, even if it's just for a walk. The second is nutrition. An external example is I need to lose weight. But an internalized motivation is I have more energy and fewer crashes when I eat differently. So you feel more level and you feel better when you eat better. That's another one. Any thoughts or okay. And the third is about medications, an external motivation. I think of people who have diabetes maybe and looking at the A1C and they think, I don't want my labs to look bad. That's an external motivator. But if they flip and you bring taking that medications into an internalized motivation and say, this helps me stay healthy for the life I want to live. That's powerful. That takes a look at the tools that you have, lifestyle, exercise, medications, and makes you say, the thing I'm doing here helps me live the life I want. You don't have to love the behavior, but if you connect it to your values, I think you would be so much more likely to do the thing.
SPEAKER_01:I think a lot of people will like connect with something if like they have kids. Or like I I'll exercise more because I want to be able to run around and play with my kids, or I'll try to eat better so to like make my A1C better so I can live longer for my kids, like those sorts of things.
SPEAKER_02:Do you think that's more ext extrinsic or intrinsic? I think so too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I agree. Is this why in debate shows they often have them disagree so that they can keep the conversation? Because we're two Ps in literally the same pod.
SPEAKER_01:Same stupid pod. It says two brain cells rubbing together.
SPEAKER_02:Making this episode. So here's a a quick exercise. If you're still listening right now, here's a simple exercise I want you to think about. Pick one health behavior you're struggling with and ask yourself why do I want this to change? Does this feel like my choice? Do I feel capable of doing it most days? And do I feel supported? And if the answer to any of those questions is no, that's not a failure. That is information, that is data to get you going to see how you can fix it. How can you reframe it? How can you look at this in a different lens and build the system that can be lasting motivation, lasting behavior change? Motivation isn't static. It comes and goes. We feel this even here as we're talking to you today. Like motivation to make these episodes comes and goes. But we build systems, which we'll talk about next week, so that we come back and we make it easy so that we can keep doing these things. Yeah. The goal isn't to be motivated forever. The goal is to keep reconnecting to your why, especially when things get hard. Health isn't about being perfect, it's about building something that actually fits into your life. And so next week, we are going to talk about those specific things and why and how practical things to build a structure and a framework that is easy to incorporate healthy behaviors into your life. But this week, don't overhaul everything. Just notice when you're relying on pressure, you're relying on the have-to's. I have to do this in your life. And where you could invite a little bit more choice or confidence or support in your life for these things you're trying to accomplish, because that is where the real change starts. Thank you for spending time with us. Thank you for coming back to another episode of Your Checkup. Hopefully, you were able to learn something for yourself, a loved one, or a neighbor, an unmotivated neighbor. You can find us on our website. You can share this episode or any of them with a loved one or a neighbor. You can find us on Instagram and check out our great new graphics from Vantage Design Works. Um, you can find us on Threads where we're probably most active on social media. But most importantly, stay healthy, my friends. Stay motivated this week. Until next time, I'm Ed Deleski.
SPEAKER_01:I'm Nicole Arufo.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you and goodbye.
SPEAKER_01:Bye.
SPEAKER_02:This information may provide a brief overview of diagnosis, treatment, and medications. It's not exhaustive and is a tool to help you understand potential options about your health. It doesn't cover all details about conditions, treatments, or medications for a specific person. This is not medical advice or an attempt to substitute medical advice. You should contact a healthcare provider for personalized guidance based on your unique circumstances. We explicitly disclaim any liability relating to the information given or its use. This content doesn't endorse any treatments or medications for a specific patient. Always talk to your healthcare provider for a complete information tailored to you. In short, I'm not your doctor.
SPEAKER_01:I am not your nurse.
SPEAKER_02:And make sure you go get your own checkup with your own personal doctor.
