What Stage of Change Are You In?

About 65% of our population is overweight, ten to thirty pounds overweight, or obese, greater than thirty pounds overweight, and the number keeps climbing. Why is this a problem? Being overweight leads to a much greater risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, having a stroke and a whole host of other complications that you don’t want. It can diminish quality of life for you and those around you. It also costs billions of dollars in healthcare expenditures which everyone ends up paying for.

Exercise and increased activity in our day is recognized as the magic or silver bullet that can help us solve this problem so why isn’t everyone exercising, walking more, moving more, being more active? Well, it might depend on where they are in the stages of change.

Prochaska and DiClemente developed a model called the transtheoretical model of behavior in 1994. This is a big name for what I consider very practical guidelines for understanding how ready or not someone is to change and where they are in the process of setting up the best environment for new health behaviors and what are the best strategies for support at each stage in the process.

Prochaska and Di Clemente identified 5 stages in their model of change.

Stage 1 is called Precontemplation. People in this phase have no current intention of changing their behavior for at least six months or more or never. They may not recognize that they have a problem. They may have had bad experiences in the past with changing or they don’t think they need to change or they have given up ever being able to change.

Stage 2 is called Contemplation.  This is the stage when someone is aware they have a problem but they have not made any commitment to take action. They are willing to think about their problem and get some information about becoming more physically active. People may stay in this phase for a long time until they gather enough energy to do something.

Stage 3 is the Preparation phase. In this stage a person is intending to take action soon. They may have already started to take small steps or are making plans to start by joining a health club, buying new walking shoes, finding out where exercise classes might be or buying an exercise video. They are more focused on the possibilities for action rather than on the reasons for their past inaction.

Stage 4 is the Action stage. This is when people are actually modifying their behavior or their environment. They are following an action plan that they have developed either by themselves or with the help of a personal trainer, fitness coach, life coach, lifestyle fitness coach, their doctor or any number of potential support systems. The more thought they have put into the contemplation and preparation stages the more successful they are likely to be.

Written goals and written documentation of their actions lead people to be more successful in creating changes and in maintaining new behaviors. For example, you could write down your goals for the week in your calendar, such as walk on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 30 minutes and then write down what you actually do or you could document the distance you walk and set a goal of a mile a day, but whatever you do, set a goal and document what you actually do.

In this stage, also, there are often relapses and ups and downs which are part of the learning process of how to make exercise a consistent part of your lifestyle. They will happen to everyone so have some support to help you get back on track and don’t give up or beat yourself up.

The fifth stage of change is Maintenance. In this stage people have been active in their new behaviors for at least 6 months. They have dealt more with relapses and the new activities are pretty well established. It can take a lot longer than six months for some people and that’s OK. That’s just the time line of their process.

The challenge is to maintain the newly established physical activity as new obstacles arise such as boredom, illness, a new job, birth of a child. It’s important to know that there is always the potential for relapse so be confident in the changes you’ve established but also vigilant against dropping out after a small or large relapse.

Some examples of resources or strategies for the Precontemplation and Contemplation stages are exposure to information about oneself or the problem behavior through lectures, advertisements, articles or a health crisis, like a heart attack. External forces such as broken elevators that make people walk the stairs can help them see that their inactivity may be a problem if they are huffing and puffing. Listening to a friend without judgment can support them as they struggle to find the strength to change.

In Preparation and Action, some strategies are establishing rewards for your steps and accomplishments, making written contracts with yourself or with a coach and setting up your environment to support your goals, such as packing your gym bag the night before. In Action and Maintenance stages, you can review your goals to reinforce your commitment and to see if they need modifying or progressing.

So if you, or someone you know, are in a change process, consider where you or they are and work with that stage. People can’t easily skip stages so be aware, kind and supportive in whatever stage you find yourself or your friend.