MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES
Change of behavior is an essential action towards the realization of physical healthiness among clients. Lifestyle leads as a major contributor that impedes people from maintaining a healthy body weight. As a result, cases of diabetes, obese, and high blood pressure ailments are increasing due to the inactiveness of the affected individuals (West, DiLillo, Bursac, Gore & Greene, 2007). Therefore, it calls for motivational strategies from health experts so as to change people’s habits by embracing physical exercise in their day to day activities (Allender, Cowburn & Foster, 2006). Hence, this paper emphases on practical approaches that can impel change and endure healthy habits.
Part I
Justine:
Readiness Level: It is clear that he loves football. Though, he is experiencing a hard time since he cannot be awarded much of the play time. This is because he is weaker and slower as compared to his teammates. Justine yearns to improve his weight and body composition to a reasonable level so that he can get a chance to play in the first school team come next year. He understands that this will require a lot of willingness and persistence through regular exercising. Justine knows how his brothers are struggling with overweight making them experience a lot of health problems as well as inactiveness in their endeavors.
Current Stage: Justine spends a lot of time playing video games with his friends. His parents are full-time employees thus making it difficult to attend to home activities. Since they come back late, they prefer fast food. It implies that none of his family members takes a healthy diet. Both his parents and brothers are suffering from obese. Therefore, this makes Justine love home economics class as it will augment him with simple skills to cook healthy meals at home.
Self-Motivation Level: It is evident that Justin wishes to implement physical activities in his life. He does not want to be in a healthy condition like that of his brothers and parents. Hence, Justine is self-motivated to improve his weight so as to participate in school football team (Elfhag, & Rössner, 2005). With this spirit, it is confident that he will be able to maintain a healthy weight through a change in eating habits as well as exercising.
Jennifer:
Readiness Level: Cleary, she wants to embrace physical exercising in her day-to-day activities. She anticipates to improve her cardiovascular strength and lose some pounds. At the same time, she would love to incorporate her children in physical activity by starting as a role model. She has set a future goal of stopping relying on blood pressure drugs through improved lifestyle and healthy weight.
Current Stage: Jennifer is currently working as an office manager. She spends almost 8 hours at her desk on a daily basis. This makes it difficult for her to attend to home chores and preparing meals for her three kids. Thus, this denies her a chance to involve herself in physical exercise like walking. For the last one month, she only managed to walk twice which is so worrying.
Self-Motivation: Jennifer is motivated to improve her weight and blood pressure condition. She even wants to implement a healthy lifestyle and physical activity into her life. Also, Jennifer seeks to be a good example to her children by introducing them into physical exercising on a daily basis. Though, she is in a dilemma since she spends a lot of time in office making it difficult to balance between home activities and exercising.
Sally:
Readiness Level: It is evident that Sally is not ready to implement physical activities into her life. From the past, she has grown with a mentality that sports are meant for those people who want to be masculine. She has never shown any interest in exercising as she finds sitting and relaxing enjoyable.
Current stage: Currently, Sally is suffering from type II diabetes. She ever gains weight each year due to her inactiveness. She is not working to improve her condition because she dislikes participating in physical activities. Evidently, her condition is worsening in that her doctor recommends that she starts using insulin therapy so as to manage her sugar levels.
Self-Motivation: Sally has no self-motivation that can help her manage her condition. Her excuses for not involving herself in physical activities are so petty for instance that she does not want to sweat. She understands that insulin therapy is costly and even fears needles but fails to embrace exercise which is the only way to control her blood sugar levels.
Carl:
Readiness Level: Carly is ready to participate in a physical activity just because he wants to maintain his body fitness. Though, he is more concerned about his physical looks at this moment. Carl is a registered member in a recreational center in is college. Though, he does not have a particular program which makes him miss exercising sometimes.
Current Stage: He is not worried about his weight. He walks long distances across campus to attend classes. Carl indulges in unhealthy behaviors like eating fast food and taking energy drinks which lead to increase body weight.
Self-motivation: To some extent, Carl is self-driven to maintain his body fitness. He is registered member at campus recreational center where is exercise once in a while.
Part II
Justine:
Barriers: He is struggling with his studies which make him spend extra time with a teacher. His parents want him to succeed in education by scoring good grades and this the reason they are willing to pay extra tuition fee. They do not allow him to play with other children. Since they are busy all day; they do not have time to encourage him to exercise. They also buy fast food which heightens the health risks.
Motivation Strategies: Justine can employ the following strategies; set his weight loss targets, instigate physical activity program, and observing the kind of food he consumes (Spahn, Reeves, Keim, Laquatra, Kellogg, Jortberg & Clark, 2010).
Jennifer:
Barriers: The biggest challenge for Jennifer is that she has a tight work schedule. Besides, she has three kids whom she is supposed to take care of after work. She rarely finds time to do physical exercise. She also has no financial ability to pay for her membership in a recreational center.
Motivational Strategies: To manage her condition, she should set realistic goals, go slow with exercise, and be patient while changing her diet.
Sally:
Barriers: Sally spends most of her time sitting in her office. Thus, she does not get a chance to do exercise. Her husband is physically challenged which makes her the breadwinner for her family by working part-time at a retail store. She also takes care of her grandson thus not able to schedule for physical activity.
Motivation Strategies: The best strategies for Sally include, setting her weight loss targets, beat herself for not losing reasonable weight as well as choosing the perfect diet for losing weight.
Carl:
Barriers: The biggest challenge is that Carl is not concerned about his physical health well-being. He is at comfort zone since his parents are overweight. Carl does not attend to the recreational center because of distance.
Motivation Strategies: He can strategize by establishing the importance of managing weight at younger age, plan his time correctly, and choose a healthy diet.
References
Allender, S., Cowburn, G., & Foster, C. (2006). Understanding participation in sport and physical activity among children and adults: a review of qualitative studies. Health education research, 21(6), 826-835.
Elfhag, K., & Rössner, S. (2005). Who succeeds in maintaining weight loss? A conceptual review of factors associated with weight loss maintenance and weight regain. Obesity reviews, 6(1), 67-85.
Spahn, J. M., Reeves, R. S., Keim, K. S., Laquatra, I., Kellogg, M., Jortberg, B., & Clark, N. A. (2010). State of the evidence regarding behavior change theories and strategies in nutrition counseling to facilitate health and food behavior change. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 110(6), 879-891.
West, D. S., DiLillo, V., Bursac, Z., Gore, S. A., & Greene, P. G. (2007). Motivational interviewing improves weight loss in women with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes care, 30(5), 1081-1087.