Health Behavior Change Reflection Paper PDF

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Becca Watters HPS 430 Professor Martin 14, March 2017 Health Behavior Change Reflection Paper During this health behavior change experiment, I attempted to workout for at least 30 minutes at a time for 3 times a week. I used the first week to explain my health behavior and what my plan was going into it. So I had attempted to perform my health behavior change for 5 weeks. Out of the remaining 5 weeks, I was successful 3 of those weeks; week two, four, and six. Going into this experiment, I was very confident that this was going to be a task that I could manage relatively easily. This proved not to be true, especially as the weeks progressed. One thing that I noticed from week to week, was my change in attitude towards my behavior. During the first week when I was looking prospectively on this assignment, I was pretty positive about the whole process. I talked about what resources I was going to utilize in order to achieve my goal. When I officially started my journey on week 2, I stated that I was having a positive change towards my behavior and that working out was becoming easier the more that I was engaging in the activity. During the next week, I only worked out once, falling short of my goal. I think this is what caused a more negative attitude in that weeks post. For week 4, even though I accomplished my goal, I still had a more negative change in attitude. I stated, “For some reason, even though I accomplished my goal this week, I do not really feel that good about myself. Maybe it is because I didn’t do exercises that made me sweat and workout really hard, like the yoga? I am not sure if that is it, but I kind of feel down about myself, even though I accomplished my goal.” However, even though I fell short of my goal by one workout,

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my attitude was starting to look up on week 5. On the last week, I met my goal and even went above and beyond, working out significantly longer than any other week. My attitude was definitely lifted this week. I know that this week was easier because I was on spring break of U of M, so I had more time to accomplish my goal. Either way, I definitely ended this experiment with a bang. This health behavior change experiment was a roller coaster of ups and downs. Social support play a huge role in my experience. The support and comments that I got from my peers was very encouraging. I hope that my peers felt that my comments were supportive and encouraging as well. It was also nice being able to read their blogs and see that we all had mutual struggles. Self-efficacy also played a role in this behavior change. My selfefficacy started off high, had some wavering throughout the process and ended high. Without confidence in myself, I think that this experience would have gone been much worse. My initial motivation for choosing this health behavior was to get back into shape. As I started to discuss in my first post, I was very active my whole life in sports; all-star competitive cheerleading and horseback riding. I have been riding horses since I was able to sit up and have been doing cheerleading since second grade. Once I started college, I had to stop doing competitive sports due to time restraints. When I stopped having a reason to stay in shape and active, I began to stop working out and caring about being in shape. This caused me to gain some weight and I am not as comfortable with my body. I seem to go in cycles of eating healthy and working out, then I get busy and neglect staying active, then a couple months later, the cycle starts over. While learning about the different health behavior theories while going through this behavior change, I tried to apply the different theories to what I was going through. I also got to apply some ideas from No Sweat to my behavior change. During week 4, I was asked to think

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about and discuss the idea of “caretakeritis” and changing health behavior based on fear. When applying this to my health behavior change, I definitely believe that I have “caretakeritis” and this does hinder me in being able to set time aside to focus on myself. For models based on perceived threat and fear appeals, I do not think that I related to these as much during my health behavior change. For example, the Health Belief Model discusses perceived susceptibility and perceived severity. In my particular situation, the health behavior I was trying to change would help me health, but without the behavior change, I am not in imminent danger. I eat rather healthy, and even if I am not working out all the time, I am still always moving and on my feet. So I really did not have anything to worry about if I did not workout 3 times a week. I resonated more with the Stage Models for Health Promotion. According to the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TMC), before starting this I believe I was in the preparation stage. The preparation stage is when you have the intention to change in the immediate future. I believe that this is the stage I was in because although I was not working out three times a week, I was still participating in physical activity a couple times a month, and was preparing to make my behavior change in the very near future. During this experiment, I was in the action phase. I was actively participating in my behavior change. Even when I did not meet my goal, it was because I was short one or two workouts, so I still engaged in my health behavior, just not as many times as I needed to meet my goal. I am hoping that I can continue my health behavior change so I do not relapse and fall back into one of the previous stages. I am striving to maintain the behavior for 6 or more months to get into the maintenance stage. Another stage model that I related to my behavior change was the Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM). According to this model, before this experiment, I was in the deciding to act phase. I had all of the information I needed to start my health behavior, and I decided that I needed to start my

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behavior. After I started this experiment, I was in the acting phase. This is very similar to the acting stage of the TMC. This experiment really showed me just how hard a health behavior change can be. I have tried to engage in this behavior change a lot of times in the past, and I always seem to relapse and have to start over. School, family, work, and other emergencies that came up during these six weeks have hindered my ability to meet my goal during certain weeks. I have always struggled with this behavior change, but for some reason, documenting it and looking back on my struggles really just validates why I probably relapse everytime I try to get back to working out. I am going to do my best this time to make it to the maintenance stage. I know that everyone always says that it takes 21 days of doing something for it to become a habit and you will continue doing that behavior, but I definitely do not agree with that, especially after this experiment....