Ever wondered why you just won’t do the right thing despite having all the knowledge and facts right before you? Perplexed why effecting change requires a strategy or ploy? The mindset shift paradigm, ‘new me, new goals’ mantras rather become wishy-washy if the core of the matter isn’t approached the right way.
The story isn’t any different with adoption of a healthy lifestyle changes particularly if it is all alien to you. You have a routine; you’re used to doing things a certain way, you’ve been eating a certain way for decades, you’ve been raised and conditioned to perceive certain things including nutrition, rest or living an active lifestyle a certain way. How the heck do you expect to just go cold turkey over night?
It is no secret that it takes time and effort for people who have health, fitness, or wellness goals to achieve them. It’s not enough for you to just exercise couple of times per week. You also need to adopt the right behavior to stay motivated and make lasting changes to your lifestyle.
This calls for behavioral modification – stopping specific, unwanted behaviors and replacing them with more desirable ones. How do you do this? Do you have the capacity and will-power to do it alone? How do you sustainably keep up?
Typically, you can expect to go through a myriad of phases or at least some of them in an attempt to modify behavior from undesirable to desirable. These may include:
- Pre-contemplation: During this stage, you may not even be thinking about making any changes to your lifestyle. You have no intention to change behavior in the foreseeable future and are most likely unaware of the implications of your current lifestyle or health and wellness condition.
- Contemplation: At this point, you are aware of the problems and likely risks associated with your current lifestyle and overall health and wellness. You are seriously thinking about overcoming such but have not yet probably made commitment to take action. By now, you are cognizant of the significance of healthy living and might be considering making some changes. It is more of a cogitation stage, characterized by a myriad of thoughts and deliberations about odds of making the necessary lifestyle changes. Are you thinking of embarking on your fitness and wellness journey, here are a few tips on what you can look out for.
- Preparation: This stage is characterized by intention and behavioral changes. During this stage, you may start to actively take steps towards developing new habits; for example, you may start to buy more vegetables from the store/market, actively look for and sign up at a gym, increase your daily water intake or take walks. These behaviors may not necessarily be consistent though.
- Action: This stage involves consistent action with regards to very specific habit(s). There is noteworthy intentionality to modify behavior, experiences, or environment in order to improve the quality of your health and wellness. Action involves the most overt behavioral changes and requires considerable commitment of time and energy. You’ll have to maintain consistency for perhaps a period of not less than six (6) months, to give the habits chance and time to fully develop and form.
- Maintenance: At this point, you have maintained particular habits, formed behavioral patterns for a reasonable time-frame for instance above the six (6) months’ mark. You work to prevent relapse and consolidate the notable gains attained during the action stage. The gains could look like – a significant drop in inches around your body, a reduction in kilograms/pounds in your weight, increased energy and speed levels, improvement in your productivity or quality of sleep.
Many a times, when we first meet with our clients at P3.8, they’re either in the contemplation or preparation stages. We actively support and propel them to move into action and maintenance stages using different coaching practical tools and techniques. Regardless of a client’s current stage, our ultimate goal is to help them get to a place of maintenance. Which stage are you at?