One of the most embarrassing things for anyone is incontinence. As people get older, both men and women can suffer from it. If you watch television you will now see several commercials about the problem and how drugs can assist with it. This is a nationwide problem for many people.

In a recent clinical trial that was funded by two departments in the National Institute of Health, it was found that obesity can be the cause of some incontinence. The suggestion is that if some people, particularly women, lose weight their incontinence will stop.

The clinical trial called, The Program to Reduce Incontinence by Diet and Exercise (PRIDE) was conducted with 338 women who found they were incontinent at least 10 times each week. They choose women in Providence, Rhode Island and Birmingham, Alabama. They assigned women to one of two groups: a 6 month weight loss program that included nutrition, behavior modification and exercise, or a group that only received information about diet and exercise with no training.

The results of the trial were stunning, but not surprising. The group that received the diet, exercise and nutrition training lost more weight than the other group and decreased their episodes of incontinence by 47%.

According to research on incontinence, more than 13 million women in the United States, suffer from it. According to the study a large portion of healthcare cost — $20 billion annually — is put towards treating incontinence. Up until this study the link between obesity and incontinence wasn’t known.

The researchers continued to monitor the women for six months and they found that the women in the first group that were trained around nutrition and exercise were more satisfied with their results than those who only received information. This is to be expected we would think since the second group wasn’t given a way to fix their challenge.

Behavioral Interventions and Weight Loss
There is a strong body of research that shows that weight loss responds to behavioral interventions. In most studies that interventions have to change with modifying the way that people think about dieting, exercise and food as well as learning to eat differently. Those programs that work actually help people understand the difference between eating well and eating poorly.

Within the process they are educated about diet and exercise and how the lack of it can lead to other types of health problems like high blood pressure, type2 diabetes and heart disease. With this information and changes in the way they think about diet and health many people are finding that weight loss is easier.

The bottom line seems to be that if people are going to lose weight they need more information about nutrition and exercise. They also need to modify their behaviors around eating and about the choices they make with food.

This study about obesity and incontinence also supports the fact that the more information an individual has about weight loss the better equipped they are to make behavioral changes.

A question that many people wonder about when they are undergoing weight loss challenges is, “Does self-control really supersede temptation?” This is a long debated question by many people who deal with weight loss and weight training.

There have been studies done around the area of will power, and most say that weight loss isn’t a matter of whether a person has the will power to withstand eating nutritionally; it is more about the choices that people make in what they eat.

So the question still remains, “Does a person’s self-control give into temptation or does self-control make it possible to not give in?” This is rather like the chicken and the egg question. This question has finally been proven through a study done by three psychologists that was reported in Psychological Science Journal. What the three psychologists found was that if given a choice, most people will take what is healthier than what is not, if they have a strong reason for doing it.

Their study looked at temptation through the eyes of counteractive control theory which says that desire is deflated when temptation is available, but there is also an ability to pursue more important goals. In the case of the girls in the study, their goal of being healthy was stronger than their desire to eat chocolate; hence the choice of healthier power bars over the chocolate.

What the psychologists found interesting was that even when they gave students in another study a chance to blow off a boring course by choosing a fun leisure activity, the students stuck with the course. It seemed that they were more interested in completing the course that was required for their degree.

This phenomenon has the psychologists baffled because in one sense, this could mean that dieters need to have food available to them, so they do not eat it. However, it could mean that they just need to have a desire that is greater than the need for the sweet, or the binge.

Obviously, this is a study that needs to be looked into more because people are different. Perhaps they are on to something, and it just needs to have more information brought forward. Everyone has a desire that is unfulfilled, and it could just be that the desire for weight loss isn’t as great as the need to binge on foods that aren’t available.

Dealing With Temptation
There are many ways that people deal with temptation. Some people have learned that if they get into situations where food becomes an issue they can make the situation more fun. As an example, if you have family members that push you to eat, find other ways to be with them. Start a garden or go out once a week with them to a movie.

Also look for supportive friends who want to change their lives. You can both exercise together or eat nutritional foods together instead of hanging out with friends who don’t want you to change. You will find that this strategy has you feeling better and looking great.

Obesity has become a great problem in the United States as most people know. Statistics show that Americans are carrying more weight than they need to and most are living more sedentary lives.

Most people understand that something has to change in their lives in order for them to lose weight and now Health Advocate ™ has created a white paper to discuss weight loss in the workplace. This report gives details of the most important research on how obesity has impacted the workplace and gives guidelines to show what other employers have done.

There are a variety of successful workplace programs that the white paper gives acknowledgement to because they are cost effective programs and are impacting their employees to lose weight. According to this paper there is a reason why workplaces should be concerned about obese workers:

An obese worker is twice as likely to be the one who files a worker’s compensation plan than one who is not obese.
Often medical costs are higher to the point of seven times higher for an obese worker.
Obese workers lose about 13 more days of work because of injury or illness (according to Duke University Medical Center Analysis)
Many firms are spending about $285,000 per year in extra costs because of obese employees (based on a firm of 1,000 employees).

The programs that are working for employees take into consideration the fact that people need more education on nutrition and other aspects of good healthcare. Employers recognize that they must help obese employees find the resources they need, in order to help their weight loss.

Employers also understand that obese employees can cost them money over time because they are prone to problems like high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. By offering programs to address the health issues in their workplace employers can have a larger impact on obesity.

The challenge for the workplace is that employees tend to eat unhealthy snacks, and they are more sedentary now because they sit in front of their computers. Some of the things that some workplaces have found effective to help their employees lose weight include:

• Installing vending machines with healthier snacks
• Offering incentives to employees who become active with Health Risk Assessments
• Giving two half hour exercise breaks twice a week which helps them decrease blood pressure and increase productivity.
• Creating on-the-job employer based weight loss programs
• Providing access to coaches to help in individual weight loss programs.
• Working with community resources to initiate weight loss programs.

Since employees spend most of their time in the workplace than anywhere else, it stands to reason that employers would want to help.

Health Advocate, Inc. founded in 2001, leads the nation in independent health assistance and advocacy. They help 4,300 employers who represent over 14 million Americans. They provide information about various aspects of healthcare and wellness solutions for employers and their employees.

This white paper titled, “Obesity in America: Workplace Solutions” is available from Health Advocate.

It’s going to happen.  There is going to be a point in your weight loss efforts in which progress slows down a bit.  Progress may even stop completely.  There’s a good chance that you will even regress somewhat.  It’s going to happen.  Plateaus are a part of life.  They are a part of achievement.  How you deal with them will determine the degree of your ultimate success.

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes.  It is an ancient Chinese proverb: “Our greatest glory comes not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

If you are working on accomplishing something substantial, you must keep this idea in mind.  You are going to trip up and fall somewhere along your journey, but you must get back up.  You must dust yourself off and get right back on that path toward your goals.  If you let the fall keep you down, then you are accepting defeat.  You are accepting momentary failure as an end rather than roadblock.

Some things along your path to success are going to slow you down.  If there wasn’t anything there to slow you down then you would have gotten to where you were going a long time ago.  You must accept these temporary setbacks for what they are and move on.  You must not let them defeat you.

That reminds me of another great quote from the classic book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  Hill states, “We are not defeated until defeat becomes accepted as a reality.”

Think about that one.  Defeat is an end.  It means you are never going to succeed at what you are currently trying to accomplish.  It means you are done.  You have given up hope, so there literally is no hope left.  That is defeat.  If there is some hope left and if there is a chance to get back up from your temporary setback and return to your path, then you are not yet defeated.  You are not yet defeated, that is, as long as you recognize that hope still exists.  And if you recognize that hope still exists and are willing to give it another push of effort, then you are refusing to accept defeat as a reality.  If you are refusing to accept defeat as a reality then you cannot yet be defeated.

There are going to be times when you check the scale and notice that your weight loss has stopped.  You may even have times when you see that you have put on a couple pounds.  This is the biggest reason why I recommend only looking at the scale every two weeks or so.  Still, you are going to have minor setbacks.  But that is great because that makes your ultimate success even sweeter.  There are going to be days when working out is a struggle.  There are going to be days when you feel like ditching your nutrition plan.  By not letting your frustrations get the best of you, in the long run, you will be almost guaranteeing great success for yourself.

Keep up the great work!