Life Changing Journey

I found a great thread “Mind over Matter” under Weight Loss Support in 3FC. On there, following two lovely ladies posted these and I thought they were very interesting and I wanted to keep them on here.  

There are five steps to behavioral change:
1) Awareness–How many of us had to have that “aha” moment, that look in the mirror, or a picture, or bad labs, high blood pressure? We cannot address our weight as a problem until we are aware of it.

2) Motivation—we talk a lot about motivation on here, how fleeting and unreliable it can be, but that initial push has to be triggered by a bit of excitement, an “I can do this! I want to do this!”

3)Skills–we all know that we have to learn about food, exercise, our bodies. That is such a barrier for so many. We can know that we need to change, and then we want to change, and then we think “Now what?” Grapefruit diets? 500 calories a day? Running 7 miles right off the bat? So not only the skills to get started, but the skills we learn along the way. How to navigate weddings, in-laws, business trips….Improving our knowledge of physical activities….triathalons, weights, running, bicycling…

4)Trial and error. Who has ever made a misstep on this journey? We all all all have of course. We try and succeed, we try and fail, we keep trying and changing and trying again. And that is the KEY. The willingness to keep going, to keep trying.

5) Maintenance! I almost jumped out of my chair. I think the concept of maintenance in any behavioral change has been overlooked for far too long (of course, maybe it is only now that I have been looking for maintenance info!) We all know what maintenance is….continued awareness and vigilance to keep to our new behaviors.

I think that these steps do indicate a progression of sorts, but I also believe that they are somewhat fluid. I think that we can bop along maintaining for awhile and then we start making some other choices, and we are struck by the awareness step again. Regular weighing, anyone? We need tools to keep each of these steps up front in our consciousness—or at least I do! And I keep moving through and developing these steps daily. With a lot of help from you guys!One last thought from this guy (again he was discussing adolescents, but I thought–WOW—he really is talking about anyone facing changes and choices), so with credit and apologies to Ken Ginsburg, MD:

“Confidence gets it started. Shame paralyzes all efforts.”

**Posted by kaplods in 3FC**

 Stages of Change

Precontemplation (Not yet acknowledging that there is a problem behavior that needs to be changed)

Contemplation (Acknowledging that there is a problem but not yet ready or sure of wanting to make a change)

Preparation/Determination (Getting ready to change)

Action/Willpower (Changing behavior)

Maintenance (Maintaining the behavior change)

Relapse (Returning to older behaviors and abandoning the new changes)

Transcendence (Eventually, if you “maintain maintenance” you will reach the stage of transcendence, not only is your bad habit no longer an integral part of your life but to return to it would seem atypical, abnormal, completely out of character for the “new” you.)