Prof. Jennifer La Guardia, a clinical psychologist with an expertise in motivation and emotion regulation, has joined the PANO research group. She comes from the University of Rochester Medical Center where she was a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Senior Research Associate in the Center for Community Health's Healthy Living Center. She uses Self-Determination Theory to design interventions to help people navigate lifestyle health behavior change, and she will participate in designing the EuroFIT intervention.

A research team from the UK, Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal, including Prof. Pedro Teixeira, was awarded nearly 6 million € to study physical activity and health in middle-aged men. European Football Fans in Training (EuroFIT) is 5-year study that will target male football fans at risk to participate in a lifestyle change program at their local clubs (FC Porto, Sporting CP and SL Benfica) in order to improve eating habits, increase activity and reduce sedentary time. The project kicks off in November 2013.

A new book titled “ACSM’s Behavioral Aspects of Physical Activity and Exercise” was recently published. It provides information for practitioners and students on how to communicate to and motivate individuals to become more active and describes theories, techniques, and strategies for the promotion of exercise and physical activity behaviors. Pedro Teixeira is a contributor on the chapter “Communication Skills to Elicit Physical Activity Behavior Change: How to Talk to the Client”. More details HERE.

Between November 22-23rd, the III Galician-Portuguese Conference of Physical Activity and Sport’s Psychology / XIV Conference of the Portuguese Society of Sport Psychology took place in Maia, Portugal. Pedro Teixeira presented the final keynote lecture, titled “From self-control to self-regulation: Why we do what we do?”. An overview of the conference is available HERE.

The PANO research group was represented at the International Sport & Exercise Nutrition Conference 2013 on December 17-19th, in Newcastle, England. Pedro Teixeira gave presentation titled “Mustivation” vs. “wantivation” to exercise and lose weight: why does it matter?” More information about this conference HERE.

Marta Marques was appointed co-editor of The European Health Psychology (EHP), the official bulletin of the European Health Psychological Society. The EHP publishes a variety of scientific contributions such as reflections on professional items, methodological issues and current changes and directions in health psychology.

On January 27, Eliana Carraça presented a seminar titled "The influence of physical activity on eating behavior" as part of the doctoral program in Human Movement at FMH. The talk described the influence of physical activity on physiological and psychological processes of eating behaviors, and was attended by 20 doctoral students at FMH.

PANO was represented at the 10th National Conference on Health Psychology in Porto (February 6-8th). Marta Marques facilitated a workshop on "Introduction to systematic reviews and meta-analyses in Health Psychology", and presented the FCT-funded project "An Open-Access Repository of Self-Regulation Measures for Exercise, Eating, and Weight Control". More information about this conference HERE.

Pedro Teixeira gave an interview to the European Food Information Council (EUFIC) at the 20th European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Liverpool (May 2013). The interview provides an overview of his talk titled "A systematic review of self-regulation mediators of success in obesity interventions: The SPOTLIGHT project".

On March 7th, Pedro Teixeira participated as an invited speaker in a symposium on "Examining the Motivational Processes that Foster a Sustained Healthy Life Style and Well-being in Clinical and Non-Clinical Populations", hosted by Ghent University in Ghent, Belgium. His talk focused on Self-determined motivation and weight control.