Personal Narrative: My Behavior Change Contract

The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (TTM) was created by Prochaska and DiClemente. It is based on “(1) the stages of change, (2) the decisional balance scale, (3) the strong and weak principle, (4) self-efficacy, and (5) the processes of change” (Kelly, 2008, p. 149). A person’s progression through the stages depends on their perception of the advantages of adopting a healthy lifestyle (Kelly, 2008).

Even though for the health behavior change assignment I was asked to choose only one behavior to change, I felt that altering a few behaviors at the same time would facilitate more

Adhering to my health behavior change ended up being much more difficult than I thought it would end up being. I wanted to change my behavioral by going to the gym more often, more than three hours a week, and on a weekly basis. In the first week, I started off poorly and did not end up going to the gym once. The second week of my plan is when I was finally started to go to the gym and taking my plan seriously. I was available to meet my goal and spent three and a half hours at the gym that week. By week three, I only went for 2 hours that week at the gym.

This week of my behavior change project went more successful than the past week. I noticed that this week I worked on my time management and balanced my time between school, community service, and myself. It was much easier to be motivated and do exercise because of the time change. Before daylight savings by the time I completed my shifts it was already dark outside and windy. However now that I have more time at 7:00 pm it is still sunny and warm so the weather definitely motivated me to do at least a 30-minute exercise. By the time I complete my shifts it was already dark outside and windy. However now that I have more time the afternoons are slightly longer and it is still sunny and warm so the weather definitely motivates me to do at

This behavior change project has become a huge part of my everyday life. I lost sight of how important staying in shape affects my overall mental state along with my physical well-being. Having a life that consists of so many activities such as going to school, working, and maintaining a full and happy relationship with the people I care about is hard to balance with just making time for myself. That is why keeping this three day a week workout regime over the past five weeks has been so important; it made me realize that I can make time to focus on just working on myself, and in turn, improve all other aspects of my life. Realizing of course that there are many people in this world that have real life health problems that they seek professional help for. These changes in their lives require a system or a theory that must be applied to develop a strategic an organized way to regulate or change their behavior.

Formulate plan for successful behavior change in lifestyle (i.e., increase work outs, yoga or meditation classes)

I want to continue drinking more water every day rather than drinking a lot of sodas, because I felt a positive change in my body within the first two weeks of tracking my behavior change. Being in a better mood and having more energy has allowed me to accomplish, without getting tired, more in one day than I have since I was a little child. Before this behavior change project, I always told myself that I needed to drink more water because I know that it is better for me than sodas, or other drinks with a lot of sugar in them. Although I did not completely reach my long-term goal of drinking eight glasses per day, I still feel very accomplished and proud of myself. I was able to get up to drinking seven glasses of water per day rather than only drinking water when I ran out of sodas in the refrigerator. Without completing and reaching all of my short-term goals, I most likely would not have gotten so close to my long-term goal of drinking eight glasses of water every

There are several interventions that correlate with increased physical activity, goal-setting, self-monitoring, and feedback. Several studies have examined the

I chose to do my behavior change project on improving my diet. I put my own little twist on it with the way I measured my success and I had to supplement it to reach my goals, but I feel that it was done really well. My goal was at the end of the four weeks to be able to run 3.1 miles in 18:45. I have run times close to this before, but that was a couple of years ago. At the beginning of this project my time for 3.1 miles was 20:36. I knew that if I was committed and worked really hard that I would be able to do it though. I chose to measure my behavior change this way due to the fact that I have a very busy life and I am on the high school cross country team. I figured I would already be running each week and I have a race every week that I can measure my time against my goal. So I was just trying to save some time in my schedule by partially combining two activities.

Week two has been a bit of a rough week for my behavioral change project. I became sick and was stuck at home for three days this week. This caused me to have a bit of a relapse because when I am not feeling well I turn to things that comfort me. A big comfort for me is technology and I hate to admit it but I binge watched a lot of television this week and I used social media quite often. The worst part is that now that the binge has started I am having a difficult time stopping again. I am so stressed now because I missed a great deal of class and as a result I feel extremely far behind and anxious about if I can make it up successfully. Yet, all I want to do is watch Netflix and in all honesty that is all I have been doing this week. After the first week, I felt so strong (naively so) but now I only feel defeated by my own mind. That is a hard concept for me to grasp because how is it that something that feels so good, relaxing, and happy is so detrimental to my life in the areas of education, work, and relationships? I suppose though that part of the reason we do this project is to see what will make us relapse. For me and

While behavior change isn't easy, it can be made more manageable through the use of effective time management and scheduling. I have a bad habit in the form of procrastination, and I tended to procrastinate and postpone a lot of things in my life, including the activities I undertook for my behavior change project. By taking part in this project, I have learned that in order to accomplish my goals and fulfill my obligations, I need to set times aside for doing my different activities. By applying this attitude to both the project and other aspects in my life, I have managed to mitigate my procrastination and accomplish my objectives in a timelier

The behavior change model that is most conducive to my goal is the theory of planned behavior. The theory of planned behavior emphasizes the role of intention when changing a behavior but it also covers the factors that the person does not have control of . For example, in my behavior change goal I can control the foods I choose to eat and where I want to eat, however there are external factors that I cannot control such as what food is available in the dining facilities on campus as well as how much spending money I have at the time since I am currently in between jobs and work study does not pay all that much.

The agency that I visited for my placement is called Positive Change Academy. This academy is located in Wilmington Delaware. Wilmington Delaware is a city where about 17,000 of its residents are living below the poverty level. Positive Change is an alternative school for children in 1st through 8th grade. Children are enrolled in this school usually due to behavioral issues. The goal is to equip the children with the appropriate resources to help reintegrate them all back into public, or private schooling systems. I had the pleasure of interviewing with Mr. Miller: Director of Education. Mr. Miller stated that he is basically the assistant principal at the school.

The behavior I have chosen to do my modification program on is increasing the amount of time I work out every time I go to the gym until I reach my target goal. My target goal is to work out for an hour and half every time I go to the gym in the morning. When I go to the gym I will be taking a stop watch to time the amount of time I work out to verify that I reached my goal as well as mark my calendar every day that I go stating how long I worked out for. To make sure I was committed to the goal I wrote down six reasons/benefits of making this behavior change that are both short term and long term. They are feeling better about myself throughout the day, getting to wear the dress I want to be able to fit by my birthday on July 24th, increasing my endurance for marathons, improving my mood, sleeping better, also something to enjoy doing with my husband. There are many more but these are the ones I placed on my bathroom mirror, on my desk lamp at work, on my dashboard in my car, the table next to my front door that holds my gym bag and shoes, on my fridge and in my husband’s truck in case he drives. I also let my husband know my goal and also invited him to come with me so he could monitor that I am actually sticking with my plan daily. I also had stated the table next to the door holds my gym bag and shoes so if I was to walk outside I automatically see them there taunting me to take them and go to the gym. I also put a reminder on my phone each day of my goal and why it

My overall experience with the behavior change project was positive, as I was able to successfully change my sleeping habits. Although there were times when sticking to my behavior change plan was extremely difficult, I was able to stay on track and change my sleeping habits. As a result of my behavior change, I now feel healthier and less fatigued. Because of these physical improvements, important areas of my life, such as school and sports, have improved also. My performance in the classroom and on the basketball court has noticeably become better after making this behavior change.