I want to lose weight, but . . . . .
We’re entering that time of the year when we‘ll resolve to change something in the next year. For many of us, it will be our health. Most of us won’t make a New Year’s Resolution to get healthier. The chances are that we will resolve to lose weight in 2023, which of course, will make us healthier. Or at least, we’ll resolve to take off those extra pounds that we gained over the holidays.
This brief summary of James Prochaska’s book, Changing for Good, will give you some insight into why so many of those good intentions never happen.
In the beginning, we don’t want to lose weight. We want to want to lose weight.
After alcoholism killed James Prochaska’s father, despite the family’s best efforts to help, Prochaska resolved to find a way to help people break their bad habits.
Prochaska, a renowned psychologist at the University of Rhode Island and author of Changing for Good, hit the streets to find ordinary people who had dropped bad habits (like smoking and overeating) on their own. After years of studying these successful changers, Prochaska detected a pattern. No matter what habit they’d broken, self-changers had all progressed through the same six stages along the way. What’s more, they used a unique set of strategies at each stage.
Prochaska’s approach, commonly known as the “stages of change” model, is simple but powerful. Find your stage, and the model tells you what to do next. Sometimes Prochaska’s self-changers would fall back a stage or two, but once they resumed the strategies specific to their stage, they’d be back on track. “The only mistake you can make is to give up on yourself,” Prochaska says.
Though Prochaska’s studies focused on drug abusers, researchers are finding that his approach is a powerful tool for anyone trying to develop healthier habits in their life. Here’s how it can help you get moving.
Stage 1: Precontemplation
Precontemplators haven’t yet decided to make a change. You know weight loss is healthy, but you aren’t quite convinced the benefits outweigh the trouble of getting started.
Strategy: Put On Your Thinking Cap
• This isn’t the time to “just do it.” Instead, start educating yourself about how weight loss will benefit you. Start with a tip from Prochaska: “Your couch can kill you.”
• List your reasons for wanting to lose weight and weigh these benefits against the consequences of staying sedentary. Once your pluses outnumber the minuses, you’ll be ready to move forward.
Stage 2: Contemplation
Now you’re seriously considering change, but you’re not ready to start yet. This is a stage of inertia; some people spend years stuck here. Relax. Your next step is planning. If you keep sliding back to the contemplation stage, it’s probably because you flung yourself straight into action too soon — don’t.
Strategy: Figure Out What’s Blocking You
• Take an honest look: what’s really preventing you from getting started?
• Get committed. Promise yourself you’ll overcome those obstacles.
Stage 3: Preparation
You’ve made a commitment and you’re planning to take action soon, probably within the next month.
Strategy: Make Yourself a Plan
• Think through all the details: How are you going to lose weight? There’s an old story about a man who read Napoleon Hill’s classic book, Think and Grow Rich. He said he thought for two years and nothing happened. We know that we can’t think away those pounds. Get a plan.
• Draw up a contract with yourself. Set three goals: one for the next month, one for six months, and one for a year. Reward yourself for each goal accomplished. Set an initial goal you’re sure to attain; early success will propel you onward.
• Develop a detailed contingency plan. What will you do when you find yourself pulled back into the old habits?
• Make a public commitment. Ask for support from your friends and have them follow up on your progress.
Stage 4: Action
Now it’s time to “just do it.”
Strategy: Put Your Plan in Motion
• Find an environment that supports your goals. Work with a coach or find a community of people who will help you. Be aware that our culture does not support good health. If we hang out with unhealthy people, we’re likely to be unhealthy as well. This is not to suggest that we give up on our friends and family. Just find an oasis of support that you can go to regularly to re-commit.
• Reward yourself for sticking to your plan.
• Think long-term. You’re forming a lifelong habit here. No need to fret about a missed day; you have the next 50 years to make it up.
Stage 5: Maintenance
You’ve reached your goal. You realize that you can do it.
Strategy: Work Out the Kinks
• Create a mental image of yourself as you want to be and think of it often. This new identity will help the habit stick.
• Learn from your mistakes, and figure out how to avoid them next time.
• Watch for the benefits to happen — less huffing and puffing, more energy — and relish them.
Stage 6: Termination
You’ve done it! You’ve developed healthy habits, and you’re realizing the full benefits of your work. You’re healthier and happier. You have created a new you.
Strategy: Pat yourself on the back!
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