Stages of Change
By admin on Jun 10, 2010 in Health and Fitness
My last post was about setting SMART goals to help manage your diabetes. But just because you are
setting goals does not always mean that you are ready to make changes in your behavior.
In order to change behavior you need to know what stage of change you are in. This will determine your readiness to take on new healthy behaviors.The "Stages of Change" model comes from the "Trans-theoretical Model of Change" which was created by James Prochaska.
The stages of change are:
- Precontemplation – being unaware that change is needed or having no intention of change
- Contemplation – intentions of changing in the next 6 months and awareness of the cost and benefits of change
- Preparation – ready to make changes in the next 30 days and taking the beginning steps to make change
- Action – for the past 6 months has been making changes
- Maintenance – has had successful change for the past 6 months and making the necessary efforts to avoid returning to old behaviors
You might be in different stages of change for the different areas that change is needed for diabetes management. As you are writing out your SMART goals for making diet changes, exercise, managing your medications, and monitoring your blood glucose see if you can determine what state of change you are in for each area.
If there are areas that you need to work on then think about the benefits of making change in those areas to help motivate you. For those areas where you have made change and are in maintenance congratulate yourself on your hard work and efforts to better your health.
Credits to:The ND Blog: Notes from the Nutritionista by Monica Reinagel