Valerie Evans
No Weigh
Valerie A. Evans, Ph.D. is a licensed and board certified behavior analyst and small business owner. While being a behavior analyst is a big part of Valerie’s identity, she feels most connected to her condition as a vulnerable person. Valerie’s experiences and struggles in everyday life have inspired her to work toward making applications of behavior analysis accessible to other vulnerable people who are interested in a different way of experiencing problems and solutions.
Behavior analysis is beautiful. It is creative, systematic, and compassionate all at once. Perhaps nothing illustrates the depth and agility of behavior analysis better than the concept of least restrictive intervention. Use of the least restrictive approach challenges behavior analysis to demonstrate its effectiveness with a gentle hand and with consideration for the experience of the individual. When the least restrictive approach is used, the individual experiencing the change is empowered with choice and skill acquisition that is more easily generalized to the natural environment. It is where the science of behavior and the experience of being a person meet.
Like water running down a hill, the outcome is known before the path is revealed. No Weigh was developed with a belief that restriction diets are unacceptable. Behavior analysis has all the tools for understanding unhelpful patterns, redirecting habit behaviors, and sustaining motivation. It was simply a matter of arranging these parts to create a path forward.
No Weigh is an alternative weight loss app that substitutes restriction diets for behavior analysis. However, when the functional approach is used to understand the initial motivation to lose weight, the weight loss actually becomes a secondary outcome. The primary purpose of No Weigh is to improve the daily lives of users. Using behavior analytic devices, users practice recognizing/responding to cues and strengthening responses that promote a positive mood/outlook and helpful habits. The primary intended outcome of No Weigh is a user’s enhanced engagement in their own daily life. Simply put: the behavior analysis of No Weigh gives users control.
No Weigh’s components include weekly intentions, daily polls, and interactive content for learning about the application of behavior analysis to the contexts of daily life. The most powerful components, however, are the daily reflection prompts comprising Eight This. Named to reference the familiar food logging requirement of restriction diets, these eight prompts are intended to be practiced daily until they are fully acquired and maintained by naturally-occurring cues and reinforcers.
The components of No Weigh are discussed below, organized by the behavioral techniques they utilize.
Behavioral Momentum
One Small Thing is a daily intention to complete an easy task that takes 10-min or less and is not related to weight loss. Ideally, the One Small Thing is part of a bigger goal, such as working toward cleaning out a closet or developing a leisure activity. Working on One Small Thing enhances motivation for other long-term goals.
Self-Management of Motivating Operations
Three of the Eight This reflection prompts are an opportunity to practice positivity in daily life. These prompts ask users to recognize the best parts of their day, identify a positive event in the future, and attend to experiences of connection. Managing MOs is treated as a skill that may be practiced and generalized to recognizing these events as they are happening in daily life.
Differential Reinforcement of Other Response
Rule-breaking is the No Weigh concept relating to all stimulus-response relations in operant, respondent, and rule-governed behavior. When the stimulus for an unwanted response is encountered, users are encouraged to use any novel response. Reinforcement is provided as freedom from the unwanted response and also any reinforcement provided from contacting the consequence resulting from the novel response (e.g., feeling more present).
Positive Reinforcement
Willpower is the motivation used in restriction diets and is a negative reinforcement contingency (focus on what you don’t like to muster motivation). Instead, No Weigh is arranged so that users are motivated to feel a certain way. They are guided to attend to body comfort, defined as the extent to which they feel more satisfied, as opposed to more full, when they finish the day.
Shaping
Weekly intentions are used to provide users with the opportunity to focus on one aspect of change while placing the others on hold. The first weekly intention is rule-breaking, which is an easy response that also generates motivation. Then the next week’s intention builds from there—which is a more effortful response.
Users are also taught about taking the long-view—understanding the events of today as a mid-point to change. In this way, what could have been understood as a setback is simply information regarding a need for additional support.
Functional Assessment
The ideal outcome each day is to go to bed feeling satisfied, and not full. When the user completes Eight This they are asked whether they feel more full or more satisfied. If more full is selected, the user is asked to identify the behavior that lead to more full, the context in which the behavior occurred, and a strategy (alternative response or antecedent modification) that might be useful when this context is encountered again in the future.
At its core, behavior analysis is the scientific application of optimism. Approaching situations with behavior analysis requires the belief that things can be great. The first step is identifying the spark, and from there change progresses naturally. Behavior analysts believe there is always a spark from which great things may be grown.
Are you ready for something different?
Valerie Evans
No Weigh Founder
Valerie A. Evans, Ph.D. is a licensed and board certified behavior analyst and small business owner. Valerie worked as a behavior analyst in school and home settings and also as a consultant. In addition to her clinical experience, Valerie worked in research labs as a student and also held a position as Research Associate for the School District of Philadelphia.
Experience the power of reflection and a sample of behavioral self-awareness with our free four-day email series!
Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter to be connected to No Weigh developments!