Blog post / Blog | Peter's CCBC

Here is the blog post page of my CCBC. Follow my steps, let's start the journey!

25/09/2025 | The START of CCBC

This is the first day of my Changing Consumer Behaviour Challenge (CCBC). I set up a goal to lose my weight to 70kg within 1 month, which will be end on 25th October. Before I started my challenge, I went to platforms like YouTube to learn some basic knowledge of losing weight through simple exercise. My time and energy is limited because of I am studying and working at the same time. As a result, I decided to jog 3 times a week, while watching my daily diet. I recorded my weight in the morning which showed 71.3kg on the scale and I will keep recording my weight once a week.

26/09/2025 | Buying New Running Shoes: From Problem Recognition to a High-Effort Decision

On the second day of my challenge, I went to Nike and bought a pair of new running shoes after I went through its website for research where I compared cushioning, weight, and price. It is not only a shopping, but also a process of high-effort decision: I realised the problem of ankle pain from the old shoes then conducted information research and plan evaluation (Hoyer et al., 2024). Eventually, I used compensatory decision model, letting good cushioning complement the higher price. My motivation for jogging was even higher after the purchase, which aligned with the Maslow’s safety and self-actualisation needs (Hoyer et al., 2024).

29/09/2025 | YouTube Workouts: From Exposure–Attention–Comprehension to Mere Exposure

After bought the shoes, I started watching relevant YouTube videos. Such as the video called ‘Running For Weight Loss! | Run Tips For Losing Weight’ (Global Triathlon Network, 2021 January 2). Its cover page and title captured my attention, while the description image shaped my perceive and comprehend better, which mentioned in the ‘EAPC model’ (Hoyer et al., 2024). Besides, the more I watched an influencer, the more I believe him/her, it is a kind of illusory truth effect. I will make notes on these tutoring videos and try to apply them into practice.

01/10/2025 | Running with Spuddy: Turning Social Influence into Motivation

At the beginning of October, I started bringing the dog Spuddy for jogging because I noticed that he was always wagging his tail when I went for a run. Besides, his excitement waiting also became one of my motivations. I identified this kind of interaction as a social influence from my closest ‘reference group’ (Hoyer et al., 2024). Spuddy has become my jogging partner, just like friends who cheer each other on in fitness app. When I felt lazy, I saw his disappointed look, so I put on my shoes and go out. Then I realised that normative influence does not only come from people, it can also come from emotional bonds.

05/10/2025 | Birthday Dinner Guilt: From Cognitive Dissonance to Reframing

On October 5^th, one day before my birthday, I have a dinner party with friends and ate a lot. The next few days, I noticed my weight increased again and instantly felt guilty. The post-purchase dissonance and the feeling about ‘did I do something wrong’ made me struggling, I even started finding some way to lose weight quickly in one week, which is a typical confirmation bias. After settling down, I reframed my mind and told myself one meal does not equal to failure. According to Gilbert and Wilson (2000), people often overestimate how long negative feelings last. As a result, I set up a rule that add one more jog if I have a big meal and it made me feeling back in control.

15/10/2025 | Exam Season Stress: Heuristics under Low Motivation and Opportunity

Final weeks came in October, while my exercising plan has been affected. Limited time and distraction were the biggest enemies, which is a typical low-MAO state (Hoyer, et al., 2024). The heuristics started influencing me, such as ordering takeout when I saw others did it and buying dessert if I saw it. I was making quick and cue-based decisions rather than rational analysis, which aligned with the peripheral route model (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986). Later, I realised this is not good for my challenge and forced myself to keep jogging after a certain period of studying, tried to fight back against low motivation with these micro rules (Cialdini, 2009).

18/10/2025 | Impulse Buying at Night: A Wake-Up Moment about Anchoring

On the night of October 18^th, after finishing a tutorial at late night, I went back home but my friend invited me to have a dessert with him. The physical fatigue and hunger drove me to the dessert shop and attracted by the shining package and the limited discount. An anchoring effect made me feel like I would be missing out if I did not buy (Hoyer, et al., 2024). However, my rational stopped me and pulled me back, I realised that it was just emotion but not hunger. Finally, I chose fruit and yogurt instead. That moment taught me a lesson that self-control is not suppression but it redefines what counts as a reward.

25/10/2025 | The END of CCBC

On October 25^th, I finished this challenge with my weight at 70.7kg. Unfortunately, I did not achieve the goal I set to lose weight until 70kg. At the beginning, I noticed weight losing very slow so I adjusted the plan and enhanced self-control. As a result, in the last 2 weeks of the challenge, there was a significant drop in my weight. Although I failed in achieving the target, I still learned a lot from the challenge and experienced how these consumer behaviour concepts applied into our daily life. Moreover, even the challenge is already finished, I kept exercising with the dog to live in healthier life.

Weekly Weigh-Ins: Positive Reinforcement through Learning

I recorded every jog in a fitness app and weighed myself on every Thursday morning during the challenge. On XXX, I noticed that I had lost 0.5kg and felt happy all day. This is actually operant conditioning in action, where the reward of losing weight progress reinforced the behaviour of consistency (Hoyer et al., 2024). At the beginning stage, when my weight kept at one level, I changed the plan and avoided upsetting myself. Instead, I reduced the difficulty and kept consistency. I have learned to enjoy the process rather than fearing the scale during this reinforcement-adjustment-reinforcement cycle.