Taste Life Blog

Maybe all summer you have been telling yourself, “when the kids are back in school…when I don’t have all this yardwork to do..I will.” Well, one whole month has passed. Whether your goal is to lose weight or get a new job you have to ask yourself two key questions:  Why now?  Are you ready to change? Change is a process not a state.

Did you know that there are 6 stages of change*? Once you discover that action is not the first stage of change and not the ONLY stage of change, you can forgive yourself and get on with your change. Ready! Start at the very beginning and you WILL get what you want!

1. Precontemplation – I won’t do it!

This stage doesn’t even exist in your brain. You have no intention to change anything in the next six months.  A great example is the doctor saying, “You should lower your cholesterol or lose weight!” Why? Life is going along fine and you are ok. During this stage, all you need to do is seek information or check out the new health club.

2. Contemplation  – I can’t do it

You recognize you have a problem but have many feelings that interfere with initiating change. You can still be quite ambivalent about change. You may have plans to take action in the next six months or so. What to do? Think and think some more. This is the thinking stage not the doing stage. This is a high stress producing stage for people that take charge, are Type A’s or want to accomplish and accomplish some more. Make a list of the pros and cons. Keep a list of the foods you are eating, or benefits and sacrifices of exercise. When the plus list outweighs the negative list you will move to the next stage.

3. Preparation -I will do it

You know you want to change. You weighed the benefits of change and intend to take action in the next 30 days. Now is the time you make your goal more specific. You get ready. You tell your family and friends of your plans. You clean the junk food out of your house or explore a new cardio class. After you are fully prepared you move to the next stage.

4. Action -I am doing it

Yes! Yes! Yes! You have taken the big step to put the change in your life. However, remember small steps are what gets you there. You start and stop this new behavior many times. This is called recycling not failure. In this stage you are working out on a regular basis, eating breakfast or following whatever goal that you wanted to make you happier and healthier.
5. Maintenance- I still am doing it

Congratulations you have adopted this behavior for at least 6 months. Creating a new habit may be easy but sustaining it can be the difficult part. Lapses are bound to happen. Don’t confuse a lapse with a collapse. Lapse is a little slip. Many lapses are a relapse.

And a ton of relapses are a collapse. A lapse is not a collapse!

6. Termination

Dr. Prochaska says that a small percent of people actually get to this stage where change is a habit and requires little conscious effort. As a Wellcoach® I feel we are always working on maintaining the behavior.

Start today and think about what you want to change. And, don’t forget to be nice to yourself by remembering change is a process not a state!

*Adopted from Changing for Good by James Prochaska, John Norcross and Carlo DiClemente.