NMIH108 Essay: Health Behaviour Change.

This model depicts the six stages of change in behaviour. This model considers the process of changing health behaviour dynamic and gradual, which includes different stages (Contento, 2010). By using this model, my experiences in the process of changing behaviour are explained below:     

1. Precontemplation: At this stage, an individual lacks intention to change or awareness of the requirement of change. Generally, several excuses are made to avoid the change (Pracilio et al., 2010). I believe that I was not at this stage as I take part in physical activities and understand the benefits of walk. But, it was my mind before this assignment that I should walk at least 30 minutes every day.
   
   
2. Contemplation: In this stage, an individual understand the presence of problem and intends to take action but does not make any commitment to do. I think that I have gone through this stage as I already go for 5 to 10 minutes outdoor walk but not often. But, I wanted to make it a habit.
   
   
3. Preparation or Determination: This stage indicates the intention of an individual to take actions within 1 month and starts to do some actions for behavioural change. The actions are taken to implement change and to ensure proper assistance in maintaining change (Contento, 2010). At the start of this assignment, I was at this stage. I prepared a record dairy to track my progress in behavioural change process so that I could determine the level of improvement in coming four weeks.
   
   
4. Action: In this stage, actions are taken to change health behaviour. I was at this stage, when I started to go for walk regularly. I maintained a diary to keep record of progress. In this process, immediate changes are not apparent and thus encouragement and positive attitude is critical. I realized that after few weeks I started to make excuses to avoid walk. I used time-table and treadmill as well as joint family members and friend in walk to overcome these issues.      
      
5. Maintenance: Maintenance stage comes after the six months form stating of behavioural change process (Sharma and Romas, 2011). I was not at this stage evidently yet but walk gives an enjoyable experience to me and thus I can see no reason to stop this routine in future.
   
   
6. Termination: I have no temptation to relapse. I am quite sure that I will maintain this habit as it contributed a lot in making my routine quite active within the last few weeks.

In the process of behaviour change, I had overcome several barriers and I believe that I successfully changed behaviour of walking 30 minutes in a day. For accessing the process of health behaviour change, Transtheoretical model and record diary some aspect were taken into account. I came to know that recording the progress is quite effective technique to monitor the progress and to motivate for achieving the health behaviour objective. It enabled me to access the behaviour and to make required adjustment on timely basis. I also found that Transtheoretical model is also quite effective in terms of reflecting the experience in the process of health behaviour change systematically. At last, I can say that I experience more healthy and active life in compare to the previous time due to an increase in the time of walking.   

Contento, I. R. (2010) Nutrition Education: Linking Research, Theory, and Practice. USA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

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Hanson, S. and Jones, A. (2015) Is there evidence that walking groups have health benefits? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med, 49(11), pp.710-715.

Kelly, P., Kahlmeier, S., Götschi, T., Orsini, N., Richards, J., Roberts, N., Scarborough, P. and Foster, C. (2014) Systematic review and meta-analysis of reduction in all-cause mortality from walking and cycling and shape of dose response relationship. International journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 11(1), p.132.

Pracilio, V.P., Reifsnyder, J., Nash, A.D.B. and Fabius, M.R.J. (2010) The Population Health Mandate. Population Health: Creating a Culture of Wellness.

Pucher, J., Buehler, R., Bassett, D.R. and Dannenberg, A.L. (2010) Walking and cycling to health: a comparative analysis of city, state, and international data. American journal of public health, 100(10), pp.1986-1992.

Sharma, M. and Romas, J.A. (2011) Theoretical Foundations of Health Education and Health Promotion. USA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.