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The Cycle of change (Prochaska and Diclemente)

Any lifestyle change involves a thought process that follows the above cycle; whether it is quitting smoking, changing your diet or increasing your activity levels. It is important to realize that all parts of this cycle are quite normal and hence it is common to relapse, but this does not mean failure. Any unsuccessful attempts to make a change are merely learning experience to increase your chance of long-term change next time. Perhaps before you heard of LiVfit you were thinking about changing your lifestyle, but now that you have started the program you are in the action zone, actively making improvements to your diet and activity levels. Think about what support you will need to maintain your motivation to change, for example support from family and friends. Motivation to change incorporates perceived importance of the change and confidence to change. Rate yourself on the following:
  • Importance to you of making lifestyle changes: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
  • Confidence to make the change: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
With 10 being very confident or very important to you, and 1 being very unimportant/confident. If you have scored yourself below 5, what would it take you to move up the scale? Is it knowledge or support perhaps? If you have scored yourself as 4, well that’s not as low as 3, so be positive. Take time to think through your individual confidence and motivation to change. Often when we consider a lifestyle change, we focus on the cons of changing. For example, when making dietary changes to lose eight, you may think that this means missing out on your favourite foods or going hungry. Once you increase your knowledge of healthy eating for weight loss, you will realize that this is not true and see the real pros of change, for example; sleeping better or simply fitting into your favourite jeans. To finish off this week why not make yourself a list of pros and cons of changing your lifestyle and you will see that you only have so much to gain!