Daily exercises and eating healthy are my personal health-enhancing behaviors. The main reason that triggered my health-enhancing behaviors is the realization that I was becoming obese and risked developing chronic illnesses. After careful examination, I realized that I was taking too many calories, and I did not exercise regularly. Consequently, there was a need to improve my health-habits. Maintaining health enhancing behaviors enables me to live a healthier and active life. Personal, goals, values and control are contributing factors associated with my health-enhancing behavior. The knowledge and perceived symptoms of dangers of obesity and anorexia also contribute to enhance my healthy behavior.
While at the middle school, my personal health-compromising behavior was anorexia. As a result, I had a big body mass, making other students bully and avoid partnering with me during Physical Education Lessons. I could not tolerate being bullied for my fatness. Consequently, I developed a desire of losing weight. I developed a healthy weight reduction strategy and with the lapse of time, I managed to lose weight. However, instability of my health behavior was a barrier during the modification process. At times, I was unstable in practicing my health-enhancing behavior and got negative results.
My attitude towards a healthy fulfilling life influenced my healthy living decisions. I can relate these attitudes to the health belief model of behavior change. Obesity increased my vulnerability to chronic illnesses, among them there are hypertension and osteoporosis. I believed that healthy eating and exercises could minimize obesity and chances of developing illnesses.
I would relate the end of my health-compromising behavior to the cognitive behavioral approach. I was conscious and mindful of effects caused by anorexia and I wanted to improve my health. Consequently, I developed self re-energizing and monitoring techniques. I monitored behaviors that led to my unhealthy condition, recorded them and drafted an action plan. Through self-strength and motivation, I started evaluating accomplishments of my behavior. Being mindful of my health habits also enabled me to cultivate self-monitoring techniques and more importantly to make health-enhancing behavior. This approach worked because the energy and determination of behavior change came from deep within my heart.
So far, I have managed to maintain a healthy life through practicing health-enhancing behavior. Relating my progress to the Trans theoretical model of behavior change, I am in the maintenance stage. I maintained my health-enhancing habits for more than three years, and I am working hard to prevent a relapse.
Nevertheless, the journey to acquisition of positive change was not easy. I experienced relapse stages that affected my progress. I did not accomplish any positive effects during the beginning months, even despite my attempts of observing healthy diets and regular exercises. Also, the lack of social and emotional support from my family and friends demoralized me, triggering a relapse period.
The Internet acted as a contributing venue for my behavior change. As a matter of fact, it was my main source of information about healthy living. Its cheapness and accessibility made it affordable and suitable. I found information about the challenges and risks involved with my health behavior and ways of overcoming them. From the Internet, I read stories on how different famous people positively changed their health habits. I also adopted various behavior modification plans. However, the Internet had its own shortcomings. It did not offer lively platforms for interaction and consultation. Similarly, some suggestions and techniques offered did not work as expected.