Behavioral Modification

A friend of mine who was trying out for the football team at school recently approached me for help in developing a program to help him lose weight. I started by asking him questions regarding his dietary habits, his workout habits and how much time he has to spend working on his goal. I asked him a number of questions about what he hoped to achieve, not only for his short term goal of playing football, but for his long term goal of becoming healthier as well. Along with an exercise program that focused on the building of muscle strength necessary in sports, I also put together dietary guidelines that he followed in order to be successful in achieving his goal.
On the first day of the program, I had him run a mile around the running track and then had him exercise on the stationary bike for another hour. I encouraged his progress by offering positive, vocal input and by letting him leave fifteen minutes early to see his girlfriend. Five days a week for a month, he was to wake up and go for a run in the morning, and then have his breakfast of healthy oatmeal and fruit. Then in the afternoon spend two hours at the gym working to build his up his strength and circulatory system. Lunch would follow of a grilled chicken sandwich and a salad. In the evening I let him choose what work out he wanted to do, as long as it was within guidelines. Five days a week for a month was the schedule, and his goal was to stick to it, no matter what happened. I impressed upon him the techniques of personal behavioral modification, if he followed the exercise and diet plan, the positive feedback would be more free time to watch television, visit with friends or go to the movies. If he followed my program, hopefully it would lead to breaking bad habits he had formed over a lifetime.
I also introduced him to the diet during the first week that he would be following for the next month. The diet was designed to be a low salt, low fat, low sugar and low carbohydrate diet. That meant also