Are you thinking about making some changes in your nutrition for 2022? Starting now to think about this may actually increase your chances of success!
Change experts have identified several steps that lead to behavioral changes such as eating better or exercising more. These stages of change, defined from research in the late 1970's, are sometimes called the Transtheoretical Model. Let's use a hypothetical example in which you want to eat less sugar.
If you are not interested in making changes, you would be in the "precontemplation" stage. In our example, pre-contemplation would look like, "Wow, everybody is talking about eating too much sugar, I don't think I eat much sugar."
Once you start thinking, "Gee, I might want to do something about this" you are in the stage called "contemplation." In this stage there is some ambivalence about change. You may think, "I guess I eat more sugar than I thought. But I love my sweets! I don't know if I want to give up some desserts."
The "preparation" phase occurs once you have decided that you want to make a change. This is when you start exploring how to change. You start gathering some information, such as looking into health risks of eating too much sugar and ways of cutting back.
