Health Behavior Change Interview Summary

In this report it will investigate at least three recent health education campaigns and use them to explain two models of behaviour change. The three recent health education campaigns will be ‘Smoke Free’, ‘Change4Life’ and ‘FRANK’. The two models of behaviour change will be the theory of reasoned action and the stages of change model.

In everyday life many people develop habits, but it is never too late to attempt to change that bad habit to live a healthier life. For this behavioral change project, I was asked to choose a health behavior that I would like to change for the better. So, I decided that I wanted to increase the amount of water I was consuming each day. The standard recommendation on how much water an individual should consume is about 64 ounces daily. However how much a person should drink is more individualized then one might assume. Therefore, for this particular project my goal was to at least consume 64 ounces of water daily as a baseline starting point. I also had to consider days when I worked out. So, I decided that I would attempt to increase that amount

This behavior change project has become a huge part of my everyday life. I lost sight of how important staying in shape affects my overall mental state along with my physical well-being. Having a life that consists of so many activities such as going to school, working, and maintaining a full and happy relationship with the people I care about is hard to balance with just making time for myself. That is why keeping this three day a week workout regime over the past five weeks has been so important; it made me realize that I can make time to focus on just working on myself, and in turn, improve all other aspects of my life. Realizing of course that there are many people in this world that have real life health problems that they seek professional help for. These changes in their lives require a system or a theory that must be applied to develop a strategic an organized way to regulate or change their behavior.

There are a wide array of benefits aligned with physical activity and exercise. Exercising can impact a person’s mood and psychological personality as well as improve their immune system and overall wellbeing. Throughout the essay, the psychological benefits of exercise, the benefits of exercise on the human body and the recommended level of physical activity for an average sized adult will be investigated and explained. Exercise is a vital aspect of a person’s daily regime and should be included within all lifestyles.

The change models are change agents that could explain the ways of implementing a change process. These models explain the reason for the change, what to expect during the process and the way a change occurs. Thus, these models help one understand the various aspects of the change process (Agriculture & Life Sciences: Texas A & M University, n.d.). The transtheoretical model of health behavior change could explain my evidence-based practice (EBP) project implementation plan.

A new year, a fresh start, an opportunity to overhaul the habits we fall into. Year after year, folks reevaluate their lives and desire a change in how they about their day. Some decide to change their diets and eat healthier, while others decide make it to gym more frequently. Whatever the person’s attempted alteration may be, the common theme that everyone experiences a process of change. Along with this attempt at change, individuals making the change will often be challenged to return back to old habits. Although persistence shines for some, others will fall back into old habits once they experience the trade-off to abandoning a habit. Simply denoted as behavioral change, this process by which an individual

Sudden realization has proven the benefits of reducing sedentary behavior; health improvement is a priority as a goal, shifting from pre-contemplation to contemplation. Once enter the contemplation stage, people will try to engage and stay in their behavioral change for at least six months. Even thought my behavioral change has only started in the past 3 weeks I’m confident that I will be able to complete six months. The contemplation stage was achieved when I decided to begin my journey to reduce my sedentary behavior. After initiating the contemplation stage I initiated the preparation stage, in which my schedule was developed and routines were created.

For the very first time in my life, I had executed a series of behavior changes in order to lose fifteen pounds by this semester. I am pleased and more than grateful to see that my customized plan is successful, and took effect in different aspects of my well-being. “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become”, I believe this quote by Carl Jung encapsulated why my health improvement plan would work – determination incorporated into a personalized plan. Hereinafter, I would like to discuss in details what and why had my behavior changes improved both my short-term and long-term health.

After looking back at my behavior for the past three days I noticed that I have the mentality of wanting to do physical exercise, but lack the motivation and the discipline. I realized that I was stuck in the contemplation phase of as the transtheoretical model of behavior change explains. In order to to improve my behavior as emphasized in class, I needed more to work on the pros and cons that come with the behavior change and set a specific goal. The goal I decided to place for myself is to engage in some sort of physical activity for at least 30 minutes every other day. I included some self-reinforcements as in the book titled Health Psychology introduced in page 52, in order to keep the health behavior steady and not lose focus on the goal

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2014), only 21% of Americans are sufficiently physically active according to the guidelines set forth in 2008. Thus, living a sedentary lifestyle has become an epidemic, and one that is not without consequence. The CDC (2014) further states that one’s risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, stroke, depression, some cancers, and early death is noticeably higher for those living a sedentary lifestyle. Certainly, then, promoting physical activity is a simple intervention providers should practice to prommote overall health and prevent or delay the onset of disease. A motivational interview was conducted with Cherish Brown, a 22-year-old

Some findings from this study included “change-experimental and change-behavioral processes that contributed to the transition from pre-contemplation stage to contemplation stage, factors that contributed to the change from the contemplation stage to the preparation stage were change-behavioral processes and decisional balance-cons; and self-efficacy played a part in the transition from the preparation to action stage” (Jeon, Kim, and Heo, 2014). In general, it is important to exercise routinely, but especially in college students because they are living on their own and no longer have the security of their parents to rely on and must fend for themselves; this can lead to unhealthy food choices and lack of activity which can result in gained weight or obesity. Family Nurse Practitioners assist patients with health promotion and this study shows different ways that TTM can aid the college generation with increasing their exercise. Jeon et al., (2014) showed in university students that “when exercise behavior change is low, strategies such as giving one-to-one training, having the subjects read relevant books, and providing information are needed; and when exercise behavior change is high, it is necessary to heighten self-efficacy by having subjects select and freely conduct appropriate kinds of

Thanks for the response. You make a lot of great points about change being hard for people. The transtheoretical model of health behavior change is a great example of how people move through behavior change. People move through five stages of when dealing with change. These include precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, adn maintance (Melnyk & Fineover-Overhalt, 2014). Individuals can move through the stages in order and they can also move backwards. I was at a conference a couple of years ago where they were talking about how people move through change and how to help people be successful in dealing with change. Change is very difficult to deal with. I found it interesting that people always say that it takes 21 days

On individual level changes in health promotion and ecological approaches target and influence multiple health behaviors. This is because the individuals living in the environment are embedded in temporary change of behaviors. Therefore it is very important to consider ecological approaches, changing health behaviors and environmental factors while designing operational and supportable health promotion plans.

Health, wellness, and fitness are affected by many factors, some of which we have learned we can control and others that offer us little or no control (Corbin, Welk, Corbin, & Welk, 2016). The environment is influential factors regarding our health, whether that be the physical, spiritual, emotional, social, or intellectual environment. One strategy that I can use to improve my physical environment is to force myself get up from my desk throughout the day and commit to a physical activity program.

There are many personal self-care activities that are extremely important to our health. As a college student I chose an activity that I believe is one of the most important as well the most difficult for college students to do, exercising. I believe physical activity to be one of the most important personal self-care-activity a person can do to help improve their overall health. As a college student I have experienced what most college students or soon to be college students dread the most; “the freshman 15” which could easily be avoided with simply some exercise. Although many things lead to the freshman 15 such as irregular eating habits, stress, and lack of sleep I am going to discuss just how important exercise is as well as how it could help improve your overall health.