Behavior change doesn’t happen by
accident. If you want to make lasting
changes to your eating and activity
habits, you need a plan.
There are many strategies for how to
change to healthier behaviors. Everyone
has his or her own approach and his or
her own pace for making changes. And
it’s likely that you won’t follow the
same plan for every change you want to
make. What’s important is that you
clearly identify and examine the
behaviors that interfere with your ability
to lose weight and find healthy ways to
deal with them.
Here’s a list of steps that you may take
to change an unhealthy behavior:
1. List those behaviors that you feel are
unhealthy. Common examples include
eating too quickly, snacking throughout
the day instead of eating regular meals,
eating when you’re under stress, and
skipping your walk when the weather’s
not perfect or if the television beckons.
2. Select one behavior that you would
like to change. Trying to change all the
behaviors on your list at once can feel
overwhelming and increase the chance
that you won’t be successful. Focus on
changing one behavior at a time.
3. As you think of strategies for change,
consider how you developed the
behavior. Are there underlying causes
for the behavior that also need to be
addressed? For example, is your all-day
snacking related to constant stress? What
benefit do you get from the behavior?
Are there healthier ways to obtain this
benefit? What are the negative
consequences of this behavior?
Identifying these factors can help outline
the reasons for change.
