Professor David van Bodegom on nudging
A healthy lifestyle is not always easy. Eating healthy every day, going to bed on time, exercising more… You can try to do all this on your own willpower. But professor David van Bodegom says in the podcast Healthy Conversation: it is much more efficient and easier to change your environment in such a way that you automatically start living a healthier life.
nudge
David van Bodegom is professor of Vitality at the LUMC and Leyden Academy On Vitality and Aging. He conducts research into ‘nudging’. Loosely translated, that means ‘give a push’. By nudging your environment, you give yourself pushes in the right direction, towards a more healthy lifestyle. You can organize every room in your home to make it easier to live a healthier life. And that goes for your work too! In this podcast Van Bodegem gives numerous examples.
kitchen
Take the kitchen for example. If you put the cookie jar on the counter, you’ll see it every time you walk into the kitchen. Your brain registers those cookies and thinks: “Hmmm nice”. You can ignore that for a while, but sooner or later you will go for the axe. Van Bodegom says: “Get that cookie jar out of sight and put a bowl of fruit or vegetables on the counter. Also rearrange your fridge. Put raw vegetables, such as carrots, in plain sight and put the cheese and sausage or other fatty snacks correctly. in the vegetable drawer. This way you help yourself to not have to fight against temptations all the time – and tempt yourself to eat healthy things.”
Bedroom
Sleeping well is one of the cornerstones of a healthy lifestyle. Are you a bad sleeper? Also customize your bedroom. Remove screens from the bedroom, because before you know it you’re checking the news or social media before going to sleep – and that affects the quality of your sleep. Also ensure fresh air and a sufficiently dark bedroom. Those relatively small steps really make a difference to your sleep quality.
keep climbing stairs
Maybe you’ve considered moving to a house without stairs when you get older one day. “Not a good idea,” says Van Bodegom. Climbing stairs is an excellent leg muscle exercise. As you get older, you should continue to climb stairs. Also, don’t hire a cleaner and gardener if it’s not really necessary. Pay for the effort and effort it takes to maintain your own home and garden stands out twice as much because you stay in shape.”
At work
Talk to your boss about a healthy workplace design. Standing desks, standing meetings, fruit in the workplace, healthy canteens… every euro an employer invests in healthy employees is an investment that yields more than it costs. And doesn’t your boss see the need that way? Then go and see what is possible with a group of colleagues. The drop pot, moving the printer a room away (so you have an extra walk), a walk for lunch and a bowl of apples at the coffee machine: it all has a beneficial effect.
Working out together
Another example of nudging is enlisting the help of your social environment. Van Bodegom conducts research into groups of people who exercise and exercise together, without coaches or trainers being involved. “Those people come together in the morning in the neighborhood and go outside for an hour of exercise. It costs nothing, but it has an amazing and long-lasting effect. Why? Because people feel socially connected with the group. They think it is moving together especially nice. That they become fitter and healthier is a bonus. Another example of nudging: you don’t need your willpower, because it’s just nice to do.”
Small steps
Our society is set up in such a way that we can buy food anytime and anywhere, that exercise is not really necessary and that we always experience stress due to the many stimuli around us, for example from e-mail or social media. Isn’t nudging your own environment a bit of fighting against the beer quay? Van Bodegem: “Of course it would be better if we lived in a healthier environment. But we simply cannot change this system so quickly. Then I would rather look at what we can already do today. Nudges are easy, because you You don’t have to use willpower if your environment cooperates. And all those small steps ensure that you really start living a healthier life.”
You can find more information about nudge in the book “10 years gift‘, which David van Bodegom wrote together with fellow professor Rudi van Westendorp.
You can listen to the podcast below:
