Review

At the start of the fall semester, I created two goals for myself in hopes of achieving or improving upon them by December. Using a self-care plan survey, I was able to identify areas of focus that would help me improve upon certain aspects of my life. My first goal included improving upon my own physical exercise. I decided that fitting in at least one hour of physical exercise everyday would be attainable. My second goal included improving upon my nutritional well-being by creating a more balanced diet. These two goals were important to me in a sense that I felt like in order to live a healthier lifestyle, I had to make these changes. I’ve thought about these two goals previously, but after this assignment it allowed me to really focus on actually initiating them. Along with creating these goals, I came up with strategies that would help me attain them. This included making my exercise routine more enjoyable and packing a lunch to bring with me to class. Overall, I believe that I was successful in achieving these goals by implementing these strategies. 

What Helped and What Didn’t

The interventions that I implemented for goal one helped me make the lifestyle changes to achieve the goal. For instance, I began to attend a spin class. Each class is about 45 minutes to an hour and it consists of fun upbeat music and the instructor pushes you to do better each class. I attend this class three times a week. In addition, throughout the semester I began to ride my bike to school on days when the weather permitted. I also began to rollerblade to the grocery store. Additionally, I brought extra shoes in my backpack to wear inside while I shopped. Since these were activities that I enjoyed, it made achieving this goal quite easier than I thought. For my second goal, things that helped me with attain it included buying a variety of fruit that I had not had before such as dragon fruit, star fruit, and cotton candy grapes. This helped me include more fruit into my daily diet. I also started packing lunch or leftovers the night before for me to bring to campus, so I did not have to do it in the morning when time is tight. While doing these things helped, I did have some barriers. Barriers to my goals included bad weather, lots of homework, and not preparing dinner. If the weather was bad, I was unable to bike to class or go outside for physical activity. Homework and studying becomes a higher priority when deadlines approach, so this effected my ability to fit any physical activity in some nights. And other nights when I didn’t cook dinner, I was unable to pack a quick lunch for me to bring to class. 

Prochaska’s Transtheoretical Model

Prochaska’s Transtheoretical Model consists of five stages of change. This includes precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Reflecting upon this model, I believe that I was at the contemplation stage when the semester began, When I created these two goals, I was already contemplating or thinking about making these changes before moving forward. After doing the preparation stage with the wellness goal sheet assignment, I was able to plan and then implement the changes I made to achieve these goals. Now I am at the maintenance stage of the model. I believe that I am at the point where the changes I have made have become part of my lifestyle. Thought out the semester I reminded myself of these goals, so I no longer have to think about them today. They’re now part of my daily routine. 

Moving Forward

In order for me to continue to keep up with these lifestyle changes, there are a few things that I can do to help me maintain them. A large reason why I have had issues with keeping up with my goals is time management. I’ve always had issues with juggling tasks. This in turn caused me to not have time in the day to do things that I would like to do for leisure such as exercise. Also, the winter season is coming up so I will have to find ways to fit in exercise with bad weather. I enjoy snowboarding when available, but on other days I will need to exercise at the campus gym. I will also still be going to spin class; however, I think it would be a nice experience to start something new that I haven’t tried before such as yoga. Terms of my diet goal, a change that I will need to implement to continue with this goal includes planning. Most of the time I find myself at the grocery story searching online for what to cook for dinner. If I implement planning previous to leaving my apartment, then I think I could spend less time at the grocery store wandering around, and I’d have more time to cook and study at night. In addition, I think that another way for me to have a more balanced diet of fruits would be by including it in my breakfast. This could be done by either grabbing a banana or an apple before I leave my apartment in the morning, along with a bagel of course.