Articles
Pathway to Healthy Habits
Wouldn’t it be great if you could not only improve your own health but also improve the health of other people that are important to you in your life? Imagine a circle of health, with yourself in the centre, surrounded by a group of healthy and vibrant family members and close friends.
That goal is now possible thanks to the advice and encouragement included in the book ‘Motivate Healthy Habits: Stepping Stones to Lasting Change’.
The content of ‘Motivate Healthy Habits: Stepping Stones to Lasting Change’ has been organized into the following three sections:
• Section A: Explore Unhealthy Habits
• Section B: Become Your Own Health Coach
• Section C: Helping Others
‘Motivate Healthy Habits: Stepping Stones to Lasting Change’ has been written by Dr. Rick Botelho who is not only a family doctor himself but also an enthusiastic pioneer in motivating health behavior change. In addition, he is Professor of Family Medicine and Nursing at the University of Rochester, New York.
In order to attain good health though, it is imperative that you first uncover, and then fully investigate, the unhealthy habits that you have allowed to develop over the years, with common examples being smoking, overeating, and a sedentary lifestyle. And then to confront the reasons why these habits are so hard to break. This is the focus of the first section of the book.
There are lots of reasons why people refuse to ditch their unhealthy habits, ranging from refusing to acknowledge that there is a problem at all to believing that it is just too hard to change.
But by the time you have read the two chapters that comprise the first section of ‘Motivate Healthy Habits: Stepping Stones to Lasting Change’, you will have gained invaluable insights into the change process. And most importantly, you will have also learnt about your own personal readiness to change, along with your motivations for change, plus have a solid understanding too of your confidence and ability to change.
The next section of the book is where you put what you have previously learnt from the book so far into practice. This is where you discover what’s involved in becoming your own health coach.
For example, if you want to quit smoking, you can take advantage of the advice, techniques and exercises that have been included in this section of the book to tackle that particular bad health habit. Motivation score charts and goal charts are also provided to allow you to monitor change over time. And once you have successfully conquered one bad habit, you can then re-use this section of the book to prevent relapses, and then to rid yourself of another unhealthy habit. As it says in the book: ‘learn how your mind, body, heart and soul can work together and not against one another. You can use what you learned from changing one unhealthy habit and applying it to another.’ So the cycle of change continues until you wake up one day with all your unhealthy habits gone!
Dr. Rick Botelho, the author of ‘Motivate Healthy Habits: Stepping Stones to Lasting Change’, suggests that it is up to each individual to decide how to best use his book. For instance, he says that ‘you can work with any of the following options: alone, or with support from family members and/or friends, online programs (based on this book), and lay health organizations and helping professionals. The latter two groups may wish to organize small groups with coaches, or provide telephone support counseling.’
It is also worth bearing in mind this particular piece of wisdom from Dr. Botelho: ‘Not everyone can change without professional help. This book also helps you decide whether or not to seek professional help.’
The third section of the book puts the spotlight on using your newly acquired knowledge to help others rid themselves of unhealthy habits. One chapter in this part of the book teaches you how to become a motivational coach, whilst another chapter instructs you on how to become a preventive coach for your children. Examples of topics discussed in that particular chapter include how to understand your children’s temptations as well as what you can do to help your children resist unhealthy habits.
The final part of ‘Motivate Healthy Habits: Stepping Stones to Lasting Change’ consists of a series of appendices, the contents of which are as follows:
• Your Motivation Score Chart: this is where you record a history of how your motivation is changing and improving – it is also an effective way of identifying those areas of your motivation that you may need to pay more attention to.
• Your Goal Chart: this is where you list your goals for change.
• Evaluating the quality of Web sites: unfortunately not everything that’s published on the Web is accurate and reliable. The resources featured in this particular appendix can help you to identify online sources of information that you can trust. A bonus is the list of highly regarded Web sites contained in the appendix that you can turn to for more health-related information and advice.
• Low risk drinking recommendations and alcohol abuse self-assessment: a quick self-evaluation tool that you can use to identify problems with alcohol.
• Alcohol dependency: a short questionnaire for determining how dependent you are on alcohol.
• Additional resources of information about alcohol and drug problems, consisting of the contact details of relevant organizations.
• Suggested reading: One of the most effective ways of staying healthy is to immerse yourself in the positive health literature that’s available and to continue reading about healthy habits. In this appendix, the details of additional books worth reading have been included.
Your health, and the health of others that are important to you, are indeed worth fighting strongly for. And ‘Motivate Healthy Habits: Stepping Stones to Lasting Change’ is an excellent book to take into battle with you.
Once you start reading the book, I would recommend that you also start talking to your own family doctor about its contents. That way, you can both map out a practical plan for restoring your health, and that of your family, and then maintaining those health gains over the ensuing years.
This book lives up to its title, namely, of providing you with the stepping stones needed to experience deep and lasting change in your health related habits.
For more information about ‘Motivate Healthy Habits: Stepping Stones to Lasting Change’, or to purchase a copy of it online, click the following link: Motivate Healthy Habits: Stepping Stones to Lasting Change