Michelle Segar
(She/her/hers)
Biography
I am a sustainable behavior change researcher and practicing coach with over 32 years of experience investigating the multi-component drivers of sustainable behavior change as it relates to lifestye behaviors, such as regular physical activity and healthy eating. My translational research and “real world” experience pertains to decoding how to help individuals, communities, and populations, adopt lifestyle behaviors in ways they can sustain based on comprehensive integratiosn of theories across disciplines. My academic research is complimented by decades of experience marketing healthy lifestyles directly to consumers and training allied health professionals how to more effectively counsel and coach patients to make sustainable lifestyle changes. My first book showcasing the science and method for creating autonomous motivation and sustainable physical activity, No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness (AMACOM, 2015), was featured in The New York Times, has received critical acclaim across academia and industry. It is being used around the world to train professionals in science-based health coaching and counseling methods. My second book, The Joy Choice: How to Finally Achieve Lasting Changes in Eating and Exercise (Hachette Go, 2022) was named one of the "best health books experts ready" by The Washington Post (2022). My training includes a doctorate in Psychology (PhD), a master’s degree in Health Behavior/Health Education (MPH), a master’s degree in Kinesiology (MS) and fellowships in translational research and health care policy from the University of Michigan. She is a Fellow with the Society of Behavioral Medicine.
I am a behavior-change critique and am frequently interviewed in the national media about novel topics, such as the reasons why habit formation can't work for complex behaviors for most people - despite being widely popular. My newest research with colleauges is the first to dive deeply into understanding exercise-related all-or-nothing thinking, including what causes it and how to address and overcome come it.
Research
My interests reflect an intersection of basic and applied research pertaining to understanding the barriers and opportunities to creating sustainable lifestyle behaviors such as exercise, healthy eating, getting enough sleep and meditating regularly. I am an interventionist, so everything I learn about is with the lens of how can this be operationalized into pragmatic and effective interventions and communications? I also care about and pay attention to how issues like gender norms and pressures, and structural level challenges impact the ability to change behavior in sustainable ways. The theories and areas of research that are currently guiding my new thinking include: executive functioning, values-based decision making, affective forecasting, self-determination theory.
