Eating Healthier (Cutting out Sweets)

Behavior Change Journal

Eating healthier (cutting out sweets)

Kale Hintz- Health Psychology

I have decided to decrease the amount of junk food (specifically pop and sweets) and incorporate a running regiment two times a week. I have made this change in order to help control my weight for wrestling over the summer. By running and improving my diet I will remain to stay in somewhat decent shape and will keep myself from putting on weight over the off season. Some problems that I can see coming up is that I have to take a sack lunch to work every day and I will have to resist the urge to put a snickers or a pop in there for the day. I will try to substitute these with a tea or apple slices. I feel that I let myself eat junk food and be less active in the summer because during wrestling season I lose 10-20lbs and I am doing intense workouts every day, in the off season I am able to relax and I tend to take advantage of it.

Research-

My first journal that I researched was studying the diets and eating habits of the typical college student. In this article they were looking at college students that are trying to do close to the same behavior change as I am attempting to do, eating healthier and losing some weight. The research team conducted a national survey to see what the eating habits were of the typical college student is, and this is what they found. The survey revealed that 20.5% of the college students were overweight, and 73.7% failed to eat five or more fruits and vegetables daily. The data also showed that nearly half of the college students were trying to lose weight and that many students, 54% of the female students and 41% of the male students, reported they participated in both diet and physical activity for weight management (Soo-Kyung Lee, Debra Palmer Keenan, and Ho Kyung Ryu 2007) This shows me that the change that I have chosen is very typical of people my age and that many people go about trying to complete this change in the wrong way. Many people just try to eat less of everything. I feel that in order to complete my change to the full of its potential I will have to eat more healthy food to fill the void of the junk food that I was consuming.

My second article was from the International Journal of Behavior Nutrition and Physical Activity. In this article the research team was looking at the effects of a change in diet alone. In this study the team took in a group of adults and had them do a two year experiment on weight loss die to diet change alone. All of the participants were volunteers ranging in age and gender and race, and everyone was asked to eat healthier (with a general diet plan) to see if eating healthier truly did cause weight loss. After the two years the participants were given a survey on whether they followed the plan for two years of weather they stayed away from it after a while of participating. The results were as follows, a two-year weight loss trial the female mean weight loss was 15lbs. Men were found to have a mean loss of 19.5 lbs. Every six months, participants completed a questionnaire assessing frequency and duration of weight loss strategies (calorie reduction, fat reduction, increased fruit/vegetable intake, increased exercise, elimination of sweets, and consumption of less food). (Jennifer A Linde, Darin J Erickson, Robert W Jeffery, Nicolaas P Pronk and Raymond G Boyle 2011) Overall this study found that a change in diet alone was enough for almost all participants to experience a substantial weight loss, and with added exercise regularly the results were even greater. This was good for me to read, after reading this article I understand that by just changing my eating habits I can truly make a difference in my health.

My third article was also studying the effects of different weight loss systems. This article looked at three methods: cutting out sweets, lowering carbohydrate intake, and increasing fruits and vegetables intake. This study surveyed the eating patterns, and weight control practices, reported in 3,063 women and 2,082 men. Like my second article the study found that diet change alone can prove to make a substantial difference in weight and overall health. Participants that continued the program for 20 weeks or more had a .81 avg of BMI decrease. Participants that added exercise on a regular basis for the entire program had a .91 avg of BMI decrease. This data supports the second article that I wrote on and yet again proves that my behavior change will be beneficial if I continue to keep with it.

Week 1

I am planning to do an intervention for myself. I am realizing that I am letting myself eat unhealthily during the off season because I am able to stray from my diet. I feel that I need to make a change in order to make it easier on myself to get down to my competition weight for wrestling season. I am going to add a running regiment to my summer workout plans, and add a stricter diet of more vegetables and fruit, and less sweets. These changes will allow me to be able to control my weight and keep me in somewhat decent shape.

Running- I ran one time this week 1.5 miles

Diet- I am attempting to make changes but I allowed myself to have two pops this week

Stage in the in the Transtheorretical model- I feel that I am in the preparation stage this week

Week 2

I am trying hard to make the changes. It is going well but I am still finding myself going back to some of my old ways because its easier, than what my change is.

Running- I ran twice this week, 1 mile each

Diet- I had two pops this week, but I feel that I made a major step in cutting back the sweets

Stage in the Transtheo. Model- I feel that I am still in the preparation stage but I feel that I am very close to moving up to the next stage.

Week 3

This week wen well I feel that I am making so major steps to making my behavior change a normality for my lifestyle.

Running- I ran two times this week 1.5 miles each

Diet- I limited myself to one pop this week and I am starting to eat fruits and sometimes vegetables on a regular basis.

Stage in the Transtheo. Model- I feel that I am in the action stage now because I am actually making the changes that I had originally decided on without and fall backs.

Week 4

So far my behavior change is going according to plan with only a few setbacks. I have started to eat salads and am eating at least one apple a day. I am finding that it is becoming easier for me to eat healthier as I become more accustomed to it.I did have one set back for a couple of days, that was because it was my birthday, my 21st birthday. I don’t think I need to go into that any further but I made sure to drink plenty of water and went running the days after I celebrated. Overall the change is coming with ease and I see it getting easier by the day.