Busy People Make Healthier Choices

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Do you ever feel like there is just not enough time in the day? You have a checklist of things that need to be completed which involves all of your attention throughout your day, and grabbing a bag of chips to snack on is much easier than grabbing a fruit. Meal-prep on Sunday for you meals during the week?? When will I ever find the time to do that?! Your friend asked you to try a new workout class with them, but homework definitely trumps. Do you find that you are just "too busy", therefore your health takes a backseat? Well actually, this is not the case!

According to usnews.com, people who perceive themselves to being busier than others actually make healthier daily decisions than people who believe they have all the time in the world. This is all due to an elevated feeling of self-esteem which ultimately leads to better self-control. When someone is constantly worried about that checklist they need to fulfill there is a delay in gratification, leading to decisions that have better long-term benefits according to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research. 

In this study, researchers looked at people who claimed to have had a "busy mindset" or the "subjective perception of busyness" and how this influenced their daily decisions. The results were that those who continuously had this mindset had greater self-importance in decisions leading to greater self-control. This greater sense of self-esteem helps us to have better control over our decisions, which may include making healthier decisions that are of better benefit to ourselves and future well-being, rather than self-indulging. So, basically if your more inclined to complain about how busy your life is, the more likely you are to make yourself a healthy, nutritious dinner instead of ordering a large pizza. 

I know for myself, I am constantly feeling pressed for time which makes me feel like I am not always making the best decisions for myself. As dietetic interns, I think my classmates would all agree that time is not our friend at this point of our lives. Looking at this study though, we should take comfort in the fact that even though we feel like we are juggling 1,000 different things at once, we have the education to make better decisions for ourselves. And now we know we have the evidence to back that up as well!

AG 


References: 
Kim, J. C., Wadhwa, M., & Chattopadhyay, A. (2018). When Busy is Less Indulging: Impact of Busy Mindset on Self-Control Behaviors. Journal of Consumer Research. doi:10.1093/jcr/ucy069

Ladieri, A. (2018, September 19). Study: People Who Think They Are Busy Make Healthier Choices. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/health-care-news/articles/2018-09-19/study-people-who-think-they-are-busy-make-healthier-choices


Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 2, 2018 at 10:35 PM

    This topic is really interesting! You would really think that people who are less busy and have more time on their hands would be able to be more conscious regarding healthier decision making! But like research has stated, the mindset of being busy leads to greater self-importance which in turn would lead to greater self-control! We are fortunate enough to have that education to support our decisions, so I guess it's time to give ourselves more credit that being busy we are still consciously being healthier than we think!

    EB

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