Attempts to make healthier food choices often fail, particularly for people who are actively trying to diet. Distanced self-talk—using one’s name and non-first-person-singular pronouns (vs. first-person pronouns) to reflect on the self—provides a relatively effortless self-control tool that enhances goal pursuit. We investigated whether distanced (vs. immersed) self-talk would enhance goal pursuit to eat healthier using a novel experimental design (N = 244). Findings indicated that dieters benefited the most from the combined use of distanced self-talk and a health prime. Nondieters made healthier choices when using distanced self-talk regardless of whether they were primed with a health goal or not. These findings suggest that distanced self-talk may constitute a self-control strategy that encourages healthier eating and highlight the need for future research to examine its translational potential.

The COVID-19 pandemic altered daily life in the United States and disrupted how people engage in routine health behaviors, such as physical activity (PA). This study investigates factors that may have helped people sustain recommended levels of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) during this time. Using a cross-sectional design, we recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk in April/May 2020 a sample of individuals who reported that they had met recommended PA guidelines (≥ 150 weekly MVPA minutes; N = 397) prior to structural changes brought about by COVID-19. We assessed via self-report whether these individuals were meeting recommended levels of MVPA during the COVID-19 pandemic, their intrinsic motivation and identified regulation for exercise, exercise self-efficacy, perceived disruption to their exercise routine, and access to resources for PA. Higher identified regulation, self-efficacy, access to PA resources, and lower perceived disruption were associated with meeting PA guidelines during COVID-19. These findings provide insight into factors that may be important for continued engagement in MVPA when one experiences major disruptions to their exercise routine. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08964289.2021.1929811 .

This study examines the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on exercise routines and engagement in moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Individuals (N = 397) who reported meeting recommended guidelines for MVPA prior to COVID-19 completed an online questionnaire during the United States’ COVID-19 lockdowns in April/May 2020. Participants reported their MVPA currently and before COVID-19, and answered questions about five contextual cues (e.g. time of day, interaction partners, type of workout, surrounding events, location of exercise) that characterized their exercise routines currently and before COVID-19. Contextual cues were perceived as highly disrupted and less consistent during COVID-19 (vs. before) and these changes were associated with greater declines in MVPA. For each cue, distinct effects predicting MVPA declines also emerged for perceived disruption due to COVID-19 restrictions, perceived importance of cue in getting one to exercise, and cue consistency over time. Building on prior research, COVID-19 restrictions affected the context in which people exercised, and changes in these contextual cues were related to declines in MVPA. Re-establishing consistency in certain cues (e.g. time of day) after a disruption may help to forestall declines in MVPA compared to others (e.g. type of workout).