Pros and Cons of a Healthy Lifestyle

Pros and Cons of a Healthy Lifestyleby David Junno Psy.D.Word count: 512--------------------------------------Deciding to change your lifestyle.--------------------------------------Once we recognized we have a problem, the temptation is to wantto make a change immediately. This, however, is rarely a goodidea. The reason is that for our attempts to be successful weneed to be absolutely sure we are willing to make the changesnecessary.For example, if we discover that we have high cholesterol, wemight want to immediately start dieting and doing more exercise.However, this can lead to problems. If we have not made a firmdecision to make the necessary changes, then when we encounterobstacles, (which there will be many of), we will not have thecommitment to overcome them. We then might define our inabilityto overcome the obstacles as a failure on our part. This islikely to lead to the belief that we cannot make the necessarychanges, and we give up trying.To avoid this problem we need to focus on making a decision tochange, rather than just reacting to bad news. One of the bestways to do this is to focus on the pros and cons of makingchanges.----------------------------------------------The Pros and Cons of Changing----------------------------------------------Take a piece of paper and write on the top what you want tochange, for example: exercising more, or eating less saturatedfat. Then make two columns on the paper and title one of them,pros and the other one, cons. Under pros, write down all thegood reasons for making your change. For example under exerciseyou might say, get into better shape, or have more stamina.Under eating less saturated fat, you might write: lose weight.Under the Cons, write all the reasons for not making these

changes. For example under exercise you might say, "I don'tfeel I have the time", or "I don't like exercising". Or foreating less saturated fat you might say, "I would have togive up my favorite foods", or "It will require a lot ofchanges in my meal preparation". According to Prochaska,Norcross and DiClemete in their book, "Changing for Good",for a change to be successful the pros have to outweigh thecons.Are your pros more than your cons? If so, go ahead and startpreparing to change. If your pros are not more than yourcons, do not despair. This just means you need to focus yourefforts on looking for more of the pros, and coming up withresponses to the cons that will decrease their influence onyou. Being aware of the cons of making a change is veryimportant, as they tell you what you need to prepare for.Being prepared for the obstacles before you encounter themwill improve your chances of success.David Junno Psy.D. is a personal coach and author of:Lower High Cholesterol, Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease-READY OR NOT! an e-book program for living a healthierlifestyle. You can e-mail him at: djunno@... orvisit his website:http://lower-high-cholesterol-ready-or-not.com