“If physical activity were a drug, we would refer to it as a miracle cure, due to the great many illnesses it can prevent and help treat.”
(UK Chief Medical Officers’ (CMOs) physical activity guidelines)
This may help you to start thinking about ways of identifying where you are in relation to beginning to exercise. Please note, this is not an alternative to counselling or psychological support.
Starting positive new behaviours or giving up negative old one’s can be tough, especially if they’ve been with you for a long time. Yet, it’s very achievable. It takes acceptance of your situation, an idea of what you want to change, opportunity and commitment to change, and some motivation to get there.
So how do you know you’re at that point?
There’s lots of theories that can help explain and make sense of our behaviours. This is often a good starting point to look at how we can change them.
- Behaviour change models are good tools to help you understand this.
- There are also questionnaires that can help identify where you are in relation to considering making exercise a part of your lifestyle such as the stages of change questionnaire
One well used approach called the transtheoretical (or stages of change) model is illustrated below. Studies have found people move through a series of stages when modifying their behaviours, starting at a point where they don’t acknowledge they have a difficulty. There are some processes that work best to help move through each stage and I’ll talk about these in the next blog.
Remember changing old habits and behaviours are very achievable. It takes some key ingredients, and a good starting point is to get advice from your GP and/or friends who already exercise. Public Health England also provide comprehensive information around starting exercise and the benefits it has for everyone.
Things that can help with behaviour change
- Specific techniques at each stage of the model
- Goal setting
- Small steps vs big steps
- Monitoring and feedback
- Increasing social support
I’ll be looking at this in more detail in future blogs together with ideas of where to look for support and exercise initiatives.