Janine Stichter of Healthy Behavior Institute: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Evaluate your physical state each day to determine what you can and should do. Being a certain age, gender or physique does not dictate what feels good and is good for you.
As a part of our series about “5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Janine Stichter, Ph.D.
Dr. Janine Stichter has been in the field of behavior change for over 20 years as a researcher, author, educator and practitioner. She understands the importance of behavior science for client success. Her career has focused on understanding the why behind behavior and identifying clear practices that are practical and result in sustained change. Most recently she has co-founded the Healthy Behavior Institute, an educational platform for fitness professionals and gym owners that specialize in behavior modification. Their educational materials provide professionals with a clear system to add an additional service for better client results and increased revenue.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the story about how you first got involved in fitness and wellness?
I was fortunate to grow up with parents who emphasized good nutrition and they were avid tennis players so modeled for me how to add movement into their lifestyle. I started to focus on my personal pursuit of fitness and wellness in college when I was diagnosed with an autoimmune issue. I did not want to get on lifelong medication so the doctor said that exercise might slow the progression. So, I dove into learning more and doing more and have not stopped since.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
When I first started working with behaviorally challenged young boys in college, there was one that was a ward of the state and in turn did not have any family that was involved. I started including him in my family holiday celebrations and within two years I adopted him. He has taught me a lot professionally, but more importantly on a personal level.
Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?
My expertise and doctorate are in behavior science and how humans learn and modify their actions. Many practitioners in the fitness and wellness space have expertise and experience with the physiology but not much on the psychology. We need to understand the role of motivation, will power and compliance on implementation of the strategies we provide. We also need to understand how environment and individual characteristics impact habit formation and lifestyle change.
I can teach and create systems to help fitness professionals do just that.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My mentor in graduate school was a huge impact on me in college and out. He was the one that encouraged me to pursue graduate school, although I told him that I did not want to become like him- some stoggy professor. He was patient and encouraging and always taught me to persist, not let others define me and know that I am making a difference even if people did not always recognize it at the time.
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. We all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, exercise more, and get better sleep etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s often difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the 3 main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?
1) How to fit it into your lifestyle.
2) There is a tendency toward extremes in our culture. We all too often try to go from eating a lot of sugar to none at all. Cold turkey is not effective for most people.
3) Prioritization. There is so much information available on how to have better health. It’s almost too much. Focusing on the basics and picking one or two things to work on is much more effective than the traditional “New Year’s Overhaul”.
Can you please share your “5 Non-Intuitive Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”? (Please share a story or an example for each, and feel free to share ideas for mental, emotional and physical health.)
- Focus on more process goals than outcome goals. The latter are dichotomous. They happen or they don’t. In addition, they imply there is a finite spot where we no longer must work toward them. This is why “maintenance” is so boring to most, yet necessary. Instead process goals helps your brain understand that it’s not pass/ fail — good or bad. Rather, the goal is to make small incremental changes over time to feel and look better.
- Create small benchmarks (drink two more glasses of water this week than last week) that you can celebrate. Emotionally we need to feel success, reward effort not just outcome.
- Evaluate your physical state each day to determine what you can and should do. Being a certain age, gender or physique does not dictate what feels good and is good for you.
- Competition can be great to create fun and challenges. But avoid comparison when it becomes the only motivator.
- Find rewards that are both extrinsic and intrinsic. The combination will sustain you better over time.
As an expert, this might be obvious to you, but I think it would be instructive to articulate this for the public. Aside from weight loss, what are 3 benefits of daily exercise? Can you explain?
- Weight Management — activity helps us use energy which leads to working off excess food intake.
- Mental Clarity — movement increases circulation which in turn helps us think better.
- Ability — By exercising regularly we are able to do more things. For example go on a hike with a friend, play in a slow pitch softball game, or play pool volleyball at a friends house.
For someone who is looking to add exercise to their daily routine, which 3 exercises would you recommend that are absolutely critical?
Walking, (Chair, body weight, barbell) Squats, Body Weight Rows.
Walking is great for movement and is easy to do. Some forms of squats are necessary for daily living, you want to be able to get on and off the toilet for the rest of your life. Most of our life is lifting things in front of us so when we exercise, we need to work our back muscles.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?
One of my favorite books is “Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle. It highlights what makes organizations prosper by focusing on three main tenants: safety, vulnerability, and purpose. All of us function within one type of organization or another and collectively creating culture that brings out our best is a key part of my work and passion.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would have a one credit course required beginning of senior year of high school that helped young adults understand their own personality traits, how they communicate and what they are wired to thrive doing. There are many good assessments that can elucidate this with the right educator. So many people move through life choices based on the story that others have told them (you are good with people, you are smart) yet they do not really fully understand how to discern between outward appearances and inner workings. When people better understand themselves and potential impact on their environment, they have strong self-agency to pursue goals, careers, relationships and health activities that are ideal and sustainable for themselves.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens”
This quote to me is about mindset. The one thing we truly do have some control over is how we view things and what we do with the situation. Our minds are so powerful so being mindful of how we use that great tool can significantly and positively impact our lives.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
There are many, but I think I would start with Tony Robbins. His focus is motivation and getting people to execute. I am interested in how he approaches one on one conversations with clients, his perspectives on barriers and the importance of health and wellness with the leaders with whom he works.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Healthybehaviorinstitute.com
@drjaninestichter (Instagram)
Janine-stichter1 (facebook)
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Janine Stichter of Healthy Behavior Institute: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.