There is a great article in the New York Times today. Diet betting is all the rage. Go ahead, bet your friend or a member of your family that you can lose more weight than they can and, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, you will lose more weight than you would if you just tried it without gambling. Apparently, the financial incentive greatly increases the likely hood  for success. Hmmmmmm. That doesn’t quite explain all the people who bought annual memberships for gyms a month ago, only to go two or three times and then retire. Their checking account still has that automatic debit for the next eleven months. That would strike me as financial incentive. So maybe its not the financial incentive that does the work. Maybe its the thought of losing a bet, having someone you know point a finger and say “ha ha I told you that you couldn’t do it.” If our friends and loved ones try to go and lose weight and then fail, odds are we would try and be positive, maybe suggest that they try again only this time they should use this trainer and that diet. But if we are winning their money becasue they have failed where we have succeeded, that’s usually a different reaction altogether.

 

I’m not saying we have to go negative in order to inspire people to become healthier. Everybody’s favorite, Bob Harper tried to go a little negative on a recent episode of NBC’s The Biggest Loser. The incident got a lot of play because the normally sweet Harper went off the deep end, shouting expletives at a contestant in a crowded gym. This isn’t necessarily the way to go either.

I think Harper, the fitness professional (or at least he plays one on TV) betrays a trust by hurling foul language at his client. He belittles the woman which will do nothing but cement her attitude. His frustration got the better of him and sure enough, accomplished nothing in terms of getting the woman to reach any of the goals that he had set.

 

So where do you go? I think it is important to set goals but to make them very specific and small. Build a goal for this month and then build off that goal for next month. But, even more important, and I’ll say it agin, it comes down to community. Ages ago we were living in tribes in caves. The sense of community is deep and instinctual. Within the community, there can be jabbing and teasing as a means of pushing members further, but in the end, there must be a sense of trust amongst the members. The gambling isn’t what is creating the change. The gambling is heightening the stakes. The coming together of community members toward a common goal, in this case, to lose weight, is what is bringing about results.