Health Education 100

Mike Collins, MPH

Health Goal

Changing A Health Related Behavior

1. Objectives

In this activity, you will:

  1. List five health behaviors you wish to change.
  2. Rank them from the most harmful to the least harmful in terms of negative effects on your health.
  3. Rank them from the most difficult to change to the least difficult to change.
  4. Select one behavior to change.
  5. Reflect on your experience in attempting to change this behavior.

2. Introduction

Almost all of us have poor health behaviors that we know we should eliminate or are aware of positive health practices that we should be following. Here are a few of the areas in which you may have some negative behaviors: physical fitness, nutrition, weight control, smoking, alcohol use, drug use, sleep patterns, birth control, environmental health, interpersonal relationships, emotional health, stress, self-concept, patterns of leisure and work, sexuality and attitudes. Keep in mind that most health professionals believe in the holistic model of health; that is, what happens in one health area can affect other areas of bodily or emotional functioning.

3. Activity

  1. To practice looking at your positive behaviors as well as your negative ones, list at least five constructive, beneficial health practices you follow. Be specific.

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  1. Now that you have reinforced your self-concept, identify five negative health behaviors you practice or positive health behaviors you should be following by are not. Be specific.

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  1. Now rank these poor health habits from the worst to the best in terms of effects on your health. Put a #1 in front of the item that is most harmful to your health and so on.
  1. Next rank your poor habits according to difficulty in changing. Put a #1 after the most difficult and so on.
  1. Choose one of these five behaviors as one that you want to change. You will attempt a behavior change for at least six weeks. This may sound like a long time to you, but most behavior change, especially for adults, requires a long time. When we try to change ourselves we often get discouraged and believe all our efforts are wasted. But when we look back a few years, we can see that our behavior has changed often for the better.

One of the mistakes many people make is not being specific when setting a goal for behavior change. Being specific means defining the goal in terms that are measurable. For example:

Non-specific: I will increase the amount of exercise I do.

Specific: I will jog four days a week for one mile, either at 6:30 am or 4:30 pm.

Non-specific: I will improve my interpersonal communication pattern.

Specific: I will say one positive thing to my sister each day.

Another common mistake is setting goals too high. Setting our goals too high often results in failure, reduces our self-esteem and makes us feel like not trying anymore. For example:

Too high: I will stop smoking

Realistic: I will not smoke from 8 am to noon.

Too high: I will give up all poor eating habits.

Realistic: I will not snack between meals or I will eat two balanced meals every day.

Too high: I will never be depressed.

Realistic: I will write one sentence each night about a positive event that occurred that day.

Keeping the requirements of specific and realistic goals in mind, write a goal for the health behavior you have selected to change in the next six (6) weeks: WHAT, HOW and WHEN.

WHAT WILL I DO? (BE SPECIFIC)

HOW WILL I DO IT? (MUST BE MEASURABLE)

WHEN WILL I DO IT? (GIVE SPECIFIC TIMEFRAME)

Once you have completed this worksheet, you should have your health goal. Remember, it must be measurable. You will be asked to provide your Health Goal in class for my approval. After I approve your goal, you can begin working towards your health goal. You will need to keep a journal with at least three entries every week. You will be submitting the journal for your grade.