How many times have you heard this story? Probably more than you can count. And you may have noticed that those around you are facing a similar struggle with their weight—your sister, your children, your coworkers, or your neighbors. The ironic part is that, if this were any other problem that affected you and so many others you know—indeed, so many of the people living in this country—nearly all of us would immediately look to the underlying factors that contribute. During the most recent financial crisis, for example, individuals who were affected did not just scrutinize their own budgets and bank accounts; they looked at the home mortgage bubble, the practices by lending companies, and the policies of the federal government. Put another way, if the power goes out in a hurricane, you don’t place all of the blame on your own fuse box. You’re probably on the phone with the power company and looking out the window to see if your neighbors are experiencing the same issue. The country finds itself in the midst of an obesity crisis, and so many other countries are already following suit. And yet, for most of us, when it comes to solving this problem, the approach we take is to “go it alone”—whether it involves a fad diet, an extreme exercise regimen, or some other narrowly focused strategy. Clearly, the way we as individuals, as well as our society as a whole, should be engaging this problem is in a way that is completely opposite to the approach we have been taking. The personal lifestyle habits that we use to get to a healthier weight—and change it for good—should be supported within our families and homes. Our relationships outside of the home, too, should be more conducive to healthful choices and activities. Workplaces should be safe havens that foster health and healthy weight. And government entities should be responsive to the problem, enacting and enforcing policies that give all citizens, regardless of their socioeconomic background or geographical location, a better chance at being at a healthy weight. Instead, unhealthy weight has been framed as an issue of individual responsibility, stigma, and personal shame. It is a portrayal that has seeped into the messages we get from the media and, hence, the myopic approaches that have been offered as solutions. As Americans, most of us carry too much weight. Yet, there is little that is more isolating than trying to lose it. What is the real solution? It is the thread that has the potential to connect all of the now disparate elements that contribute to our ability to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. This thread is influence—both the individual influence that we wield as well as the external influences that hold sway over what and how much we eat, the degree of physical activity we get, and the messages and policies that define the norms within our society. Your Weight Is Not Your FaultYou have probably heard the following mathematical equation many times in the past: Calories consumed minus calories expended equals the deficit that you need to achieve your weight goals. Technically speaking, this is absolutely true—if you burn more than you take in, you will lose weight, and if you burn less than you take in, you will gain it. It’s simple math. The problem is this: Few, if any, of us live our lives like a mathematical equation. While certain situations may make it easy for us to count calories in and calories out, this strategy becomes much harder to follow during holiday visits to the in-laws, where second helpings at the Thanksgiving table are de rigueur, or when a late evening at the office means skipping the gym and going in with your colleagues on delivery pizza. Other factors beyond diet and exercise make it more difficult for us to exert control over our weight. Start by taking a look at the elements of your environment. Consider your kitchen pantry or fridge. When you open either of them, are you presented with healthy yet satisfying options for meals and snacks? Or are you more likely to find bottles of sugary soda staring back at you? Notice how close your television is to the area where you eat your meals. Is it positioned in a way that fosters TV watching while you eat, a distraction that can lead you to eat more than you intended? Look out your living room window. Do you see a sidewalk? A busy thoroughfare? How far is it to the nearest grocery store? The answers to these questions may be more impactful to your weight and health than you realize. Many other things that hold sway over your weight may be even more surprising. These could include your paycheck, the politics of your local and national government, and other seemingly external factors. And there is science to prove it. For example, in a landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers demonstrated for the first time that simply moving out of a neighborhood with a high level of poverty into one with a lower level of poverty was linked to a 13% reduction in the risk of moderate-risk obesity—in other words, having a body mass index greater than 35. We encounter influences like these and more every day. They are often so commonplace and subtle, they have become invisible—until they hit our waistlines, that is. These “blind spots” affect our efforts to lose or maintain our weight. And their impact is considerable. The good news is this: By realizing that these spots exist, you are halfway toward bending them in your favor. Think about it—what would you be able to achieve in terms of your weight, your appearance, and your health if your family and close friends reinforced what you were doing? Or if your workplace became conducive to exercise? Or if you were routinely able to cut calories from your diet before entering the grocery store checkout line? These approaches may not come to your mind first in terms of improving your weight, but they are vital to consider. Your Circles of InfluenceFor you to come up with strategies to improve your situation, it is crucial that you have an easy way to visualize the things that are influencing your decisions and actions. This is where the “Circles of Influence” come in. This model is adapted from a framework pioneered by Dr. Lilian Cheung of the Harvard School of Public Health. It is an elegant concept that lets us visualize the impact of various external influences on our health-related behaviors by plotting each of these external factors in orbits around the middle point of the graph—a point that represents ourselves. Similarly, the Circles of Influence model places you, the individual, in the middle of the figure. Your family connections reside in the next circle, and in the next one are your social influences, including your friends and work colleagues. The next circle contains environmental influences, such as your physical environment and what we term your food environment. The outer circle represents broad, societal factors such as government policies and global economic forces. The principles that govern this graph are simple:
The inner circles represent areas over which you have the most direct control.The factors in the inner circles have the most direct impact on your weight and health.The farther out a circle is from the center, the less direct control you have over the factors it contains.The factors in the outermost circles have the least direct impact on your weight and health, but they still likely play an important role.
You wield a certain amount of influence in the various areas of your life, and while making changes in some of these areas might be easier than in others, you do have the power to turn the tables on the factors in your life that are leading to an unhealthy weight. In other words, there is a practical side to the current research on social and environmental factors and our weight, and you can take full advantage of these findings to conquer your own weight battle. But here’s the really cool part: Influence is a two-way street. In fact, just for fun, let’s think about what would happen if you inspired others through your own healthy changes to make healthy changes as well. What if those you inspired, in turn, inspired others? In its loftiest form, a bending of the curve on unhealthy weight in this country could follow. You have taken a positive step in picking up this book, not just for yourself, but potentially for countless others whom you will never meet. They all have a stake—and society in general has a stake—in your health and weight. It seems incredible, and yet this is really the central message of Thinfluence. The goal is simple: to help you find the tools and strategies you need to become a force for positive lifestyle change not just in your own life, but in the lives of those you know and love, and in turn the ones they know and love. Once you understand the social and environmental influences that lead to weight gain, you will be able to spread your own positive influence through your social networks and physical environment—leading your family, your friends, and your coworkers to a healthier weight as well. From
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