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Are you ready to change?
Filed under Healthy HabitsMar 19So you say you’re ready to get healthy, makes some changes in your life, right? Maybe it’s time to renew your commitment to your New Year’s resolutions, or you simply want to feel more energetic and alive and you know that eating healthier and exercising can only help things. Change can be very simple and when it’s related to your health, we often hear that “it’s not that complicated”… “just move more and eat less”… “everything in moderation”. All of these statements are true, but just because something is simple, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s easy.
Implementing healthy behaviors is a learning process, one that requires information gathering, problem solving, practice and feedback. Although the broad principles of healthy living are universal, such as “eat more fruits and vegetables” or “get more exercise”, the strategies involved in actually doing them in your own life are highly individual and personalized. It’s going to take some effort on your part. It’s going to take a willingness to practice new behaviors in familiar situations. It may be uncomfortable, it may make you feel self-conscious when you bring your own food with you, or defensive when someone implies that you just lack willpower. You have to be willing to go through the discomfort of change before you can relax in the comfort of habit and routine.
While a lot goes into determining success in health management, it is always a process of change for anyone developing new healthy habits. Learning to deal with the process of behavior change takes practice in itself and it helps to know where you are on the road to change.
Let’s look at the different stages of change and think about where you might find yourself today:
- Neutral – You are engaged in unhealthy behaviors and others encourage you to change, but you see no reason to change or doubt your own ability to change.
- Contemplation – You see and acknowledge a need for change, contemplating whether change would make a difference, or questioning whether you can be successful or not in making the change.
- Preparation – You decide that change is necessary and decide which changes can be made and what methods to use to change. You begin mentally preparing for success and looking for help. This process can take weeks or months as you get ready to take action.
- Action – You start taking the necessary steps to reach your goal, evaluating the effectiveness of the changes and taking additional or different steps as needed. You are implementing new behaviors that do not yet feel like habit.
- Maintenance – You meet your goal and continue with behaviors that led to change and to your goal. Healthy behaviors become habitual and seem effortless where decisions are not questioned.
- Relapse – a return to any previous stage. Can be met with feelings of failure which may then lead to earlier stages and the sense that you are “starting over”.
No matter where you are on the journey of healthy living, it helps to have support and to develop the confidence that you can make changes to get to the point of maintenance. You can do it!! If you are feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of getting there, remember that it can begin with tiny changes that will propel you forward into even more profound changes in your health. Relax and decide to make one tiny change today… add vegetables to your next meal!
What stage are you in as it relates to your health? What is your confidence level in getting or staying healthy?
Tagged as: Habits
One Response to “Are you ready to change?”
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[...] What stage of change you’re in: Especially if you’re in the neutral or contemplation stage, we’ll talk about things to move you along to the action stage. If you’re in either of those stages and need additional motivation, post a comment here or email me at rachel@veggiebee.com. [...]
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