Description
Personal Behavior Change Discussion
Throughout the course, you have learned how influential our behaviors are on our health outcomes. Now it is time to think about how you might apply these concepts for your own health benefit.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING PROMPTS AND THEN MOVE ON TO CREATE SMART GOALS:
- Explain changes that you have made during the course to improve your own health and wellness as you have learned about various topics.
- Consider what behavior changes could contribute to improving your health and well-being in the future. What is one behavior change that you feel would be beneficial and realistic for you to make.
Take your healthy behavior change and turn it into a SMART goal. You will have to make it really specific.
Many times in life when we set goals they are too vague and they lack the specific information that will actually help us move in the direction that we want to go. Using the strategies of setting SMART goals and shaping goals helps us to set achievable goals with a plan of how we will reach them.
SMART is an acronym for:
Specific
Measurable
Action-oriented
Realistic
Time-stamped
For example, for someone with the healthy behavior change of losing weight, their smart goal may look something like this: I will lose 5 lbs. in 5 weeks by increasing my daily walking by 3 miles per day, and reducing my caloric intake by 300 calories per day (by removing 3 high-sugar beverages from my daily intake- sodas, juice cocktails, sweetened coffees, sweet teas).
Let's check the goal:
Is it Specific? - Yes, I specified that I will lose 5 lbs.
Is is Measurable?- Yes, I can measure how much I weigh
Is it Action oriented? - Yes, I mentioned that I will accomplish the goal through the actions of walking an extra 3 miles per day and reducing my current caloric intake by 300 calories per day. These are actions.
Is it Realistic? - Yes, I am able to walk 3 miles per day (I have the time and the physical capability, and a safe environment to walk in), and I can remove 300 calories from my diet while still adequately meeting my nutrient needs. Also, walking 3 miles per day should burn approximately an extra 240 calories per day and reducing my caloric intake by 300 calories will create a 540 calorie deficit each day (240 burned through walking + 300 fewer consumed through food and beverage). This would hypothetically create a weight loss of 540 calories x 7 days = 3,780 calorie weekly deficit. 3,780 calorie weekly deficit x 5 weeks = 18,900 calorie deficit in 5 weeks. 18,900 calorie deficit in 5 weeks /3500 calories per pound of body fat = 5.4 lbs of fat loss in 5 weeks. This leaves a little wiggle room in case I am slightly off in my caloric estimations.
Is it Time-Stamped?- Yes, I mentioned that I will lose the 5 lbs. in 5 weeks. This creates a timeline so that I will know at what point I should achieve the goal.
Now you try. Turn your Healthy Behavior Change into a SMART GOAL and answer the following Questions:
- What is your SMART Goal? Write it out.
- Is your SMART goal Specific? How?
- Is your SMART goal Measurable? How?
- Is your SMART goal Action-oriented? How?
- Is your SMART goal Realistic? How?
- Is your SMART goal Time-stamped? Explain.
- Create shaping goals. Shaping goals are tiny steps that you can do right now to start moving toward your goal. What can you do, right now, today, or tomorrow, to move you closer to meeting your goal?
- In a separate post, respond to one classmate who has a goal that resonates with you.
Your response should be numbered from 1-9 with answers to each of the 9 questions above, and a separate post to respond to a classmate.
Sample Solution