Healthy Weight

Abstract

The paper explores the role of the health behavior change within the weight issue and the most effective methods that help achieve fast improvement. The theory and practical skills and knowledge demonstrate the necessity in individual food peculiarities and sports frequency. These components must be balanced and in proper amounts so the person would join it without planning to stop. The most important component of the health behavior change is strong motivation that can be caused by inner and social aspects. Also, regular exercises and fewer calories in food will not only improve the general fit, but also it will change inner feelings for better. A personal examination is the final issue that must be followed. Counting every week on the positive and negative changes is the best way to observe whether the chosen strategy is correct or needs improvement.

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Introduction

Heavy body among youth causes diseases that were not familiar to people even fifty years ago. As a result, physiologic condition leads to intention to commit suicide or feeling of anger, which causes more intensive appetite. This circle can be broken by personal will and hard work.

The change of personal health behavior is a responsible and necessary decision caused by the influence of different circumstances (people around, job, personal attitude or mass media standards). With that, it is individualized issue that requires including of the health condition and the lifestyle. The standard system that people mostly follow is effective only for a part of them and the rest of people must follow other instructions. The most important consequence of the health behavior change is a tendency for positive emotional changes, better working effectiveness and increase of the self-estimate. Thus, a person looks more attractive and gets frequent attention, leaving no place to regrets. A healthy weight is a style of life that consists of healthy feeding, sports activity and spiritual development.

General Decisions

First of all it is necessary to define if the problem really exists or it is a stubborn illusion. Sometimes every person overestimates the problems under the impression of somebody’s opinion or statements. That is why few general steps helped to choose the strategy of the entire process. The first thing that helped to focus on concrete issue was self-assessment (weak and strong areas and solution of what must be improved). The second step - selection of target behavior and the proper and concrete goal (for example, losing weight or reduce overeating instead of just making some changes). The main thing is to find out what outcome is expected to be accomplished and whether it is reliable (for example, whether a person got weigh because of the lifestyle or it is genetic of hormonal peculiarity). In this case a decision whether changing of this behavior is really important might be helpful (asking: can this goal bring more health and better life and is there enough of the will to spend money that the goal demands?).

The personal reason of the weight problem was defined as an inappropriate lifestyle and bad food. So the next thing must be correctly done is brief forming of the goal statement (instead of abstract “to lose weight” better to say “to support personal appropriate healthy regime”). The fourth step was writing of the driving and restraining forces. The goal was focused on improvement of the nutrition feeding and sport exercises to lose weight. Personal driving forces included eating with family and friends, health improvement and physical training (gym visiting, running and meditation). In this case the forbidden (or restraining) forces were defined as poor planning, eating during the late evening and the fast food consume. In addition the idea of social networks “communication within the groups that share their experience and recommendations for the same goal is quite helpful” (Suzuki, 2011, n.p.). The surrounding may not understand the behavior and mood changes as compassionately as people with the same problem.

Sports

The chosen fitness program of 12 month duration consisted of few parts. The first part: 3 days per week activity of 20 minutes duration. This is not stressful for the body regime that will keep motivation high. After, the frequency can be higher when needed. Additionally, this frequency is appropriate for people with the heart diseases or pregnant women. The personal program based on energy expenditure of 2000kcal/week and intensive exercises. The intensity was chosen in accordance with the age, heart rate and perceived exertion rate. The energy expenditure was counted in the minutes of exercise. The program started at moderate duration and moderate intensity (week of walking/100minutes). It was not tiring and shocking to the body. After two weeks, the intensity became more rigorous and the exercise duration set 200 targets. In two weeks the number was 300 and 150 minutes per week. This was a very stressful period as the body feels tired and lazy, and required more calorie food which is forbidden.

The result of the fitness program according to Rollnick’s S. and Miller’s W. R. (2008) recommendation was measured weekly and was checked through the electronic bracelet that demonstrated the amount of burned calories and completed kilometers (p. 41). More deep measures of the body weight and BMI were conducted after the first six months. The total weight loss during the moderate intensity/moderate duration program was 2kg. The weight loss after vigorous intensity/moderate duration intensity was 7kg. The personal result was 104% of assignments completed (means more than planned). Moreover, the cardio results were improved. This result defined the next six month program intensity: vigorous intensity/high duration. This period requires high motivation and strong will. It was difficult to support this temp for the first three weeks because the third week seemed hard in every step. Step by step it became like a habit and the group surrounding was supportive. This is a positive issue of the group fitness: people cheer each other. The next deep measuring of results demonstrated only 3,5kg loss, but the muscle mass increased and the body has gotten more reliefs.

Meal Planning

This part will include food components. The experimental 4-week plan was chosen to observe if the diet is appropriate for personal physical intensity. The first three days were quite easy to follow plan. The first day the breakfast consisted of the Triple Berry Medley Smoothie. It consists of the half of each product: different berries, banana, ½ cup high-fiber cereal, ½ low-fat plain yogurt, 1 cup of skim milk, a little bit of protein powder and ice cubes. The Tropical Chicken Salad for lunch included shredded chicken breast, pineapple and mango, cottage cheese, chestnuts, almonds, avocado and the whole-wheat crackers instead of buns. The dinner consisted of ½ pound of shrimps, vegetables (the amount was different) and the brown rice. The next two day the menu could include boiled fish and a muffin for a desert. The days 4 – 7 included a lot of water, fresh juices, no coffee and 1 cup of tea. Also, there was a lot of red meat and no potato. The vegetables were present in every meal, even the juice was from tomato.

The next three weeks included a diversity of small amounts of food (with higher calories and the dessert every two days) and domination of water and boiled meat/fish meals. This was necessary to support the body productivity and the energy saving for execution of the higher intensive exercises at the gym. The main rule for the entire time was at least 1 apple per day. As a result, the body became thinner for 1 size per first 4 weeks. The main strategy is to enormous the meals components and amount, but to reduce body’s hunger and stress because after possible break in a diet the body will make fat savings.

Recommendations

To make the process of loosing weight easier the next advices will be useful. First one is the kitchenware size: individuals who with larger bowls put in 28-23% more cereal than the individuals with smaller bowls. So less put – less eat. The second moment is the beginning of the sport intensiveness. Spontaneous physical burden like intensive gym visits or the marathon running can deplete self-motivation as most people cannot maintain cardinal changes for long time duration. Modest manageable changes not only improve entire physical and spiritual health in a short term, but also they are more suitable for long term encourage. Self-rewarding is another valuable part of the entire behavior improvement process. It may be in two forms: material and mental. One of the forms of it is meditation.

The way of Nira Kehar’s “STOP meditation” implementation is simple (n.p.). The letter “S” simply means stop. The second letter, “T” – three breaths, means sitting in a comfortable place with gently closed eyes. Any other action must be stopped. After that three deep breathes needed to be done. The air must slowly fill the lungs and chest. After a short moment the chest and belly must fall. Than “O” is followed by observation. First of all sensations of the body must be observed and the most prominent ones defined. From the first time it is hardly noticed, but after a few days of intensive communication with own body the cravings observance and body sensitiveness will be better.

Then, it is necessary to follow observing of personal feelings and emotions at the moment of meditation. The feelings of where are different kinds of emotions located in the body are important, as well as being full of energy or sluggish. The emotions can be different: static or active, positive and negative: the mix of them is a normal thing. After, the observance of thinking follows. A helpful in concentration is imagining of making some actions like implementation of the losing weight plan. Ask: what can it change? What will happen after making all back? What will happen if not to act at all? What emotions and thoughts will appear in each case? How the body will feel and behave? The next step is current situation observance. The mind is moving round the questions: where am I? Who am I with? What feelings at this moment dominate? How to act? The letter “P” means proceeding of the personal increase. After that a deep breathe and further evaluation of the goals must finish the meditation.

Conclusion

The proper behavior change is a very delicate process that requires knowledge of the theory and practical experiences. In contains abstract components connected with the inner and social peculiarities and prerogatives. An objective moderation and evaluation in connection with the constant motivation and practical implementation can lead to an effective result within few weeks or month time duration.

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