Healthy Lifestyle Plan
Skills and Techniques

Creating a healthy lifestyle plan is similar to what a teacher does when developing a lesson plan. Among other things, a lesson plan outlines the processes a teacher uses to successfully reach the goals of the lesson. It's where the "what" and the "how to" of the lesson are itemized. Developing healthy habits takes the same kind of planning.

Assuming that you've already read Step 1 - Awareness, then you'll recognize that planning starts with awareness. If you haven't read the section then it is highly recommended that you go back and read through Step 1 - Awareness before moving on. In this second step you'll learn the skills and techniques to confidently turn awareness into actions. This is where your healthy lifestyle plan takes on a life of its own.

Take time reading through the skill sets and guidelines below. You'll need to know these before you review, Step 3 - Motivation, the final step in the three-step change model to healthy living. When all three steps have been reviewed, you're ready to move on to any of the featured health related topics where you'll continue to refine and strengthen your efforts through practical application.

• Start Easy - You'll need to choose a target behavior for your healthy lifestyle plan. It's going to be your goal. It can be a habit that you want to break or a particular state you wish to reach. There are two key points to keep in mind. First, Always start off easy. Keep your goal just a little bit beyond your reach. You want to be successful without the task being too easy. Success begets success. Second, work on only one goal at a time. Too many changes at a time will lead to certain failure.


• Write it Down - Writing your goal down on paper takes your goal from the "thinking about it" stage to the "doing it" stage. Use the Awareness Worksheet that you started in the previous section to list your goals. If you didn't complete the worksheet, you can do so now. Download Healthy Lifestyle Awareness Worksheet


• Assess the Problem - Know what you're getting into. Ask yourself these two questions: "What's the payoff I get from engaging in the behavior I want to change?" and "What will I be losing by not engaging in the behavior in the future?" These are two very important questions. You may not think that there is a payoff by engaging in a bad health habit, but there always is.


• Break it Down - You want your goals to be both manageable and measurable. Break down big goals into smaller manageable ones. It's got to be something you can reach with a reasonable amount of effort. It may take more time to reach your final goal but you have everything to gain by keeping it manageable. A measurable goal is one that can be quantified. It's a way of observing progress objectively. To measure your progress accurately, you'll need a starting point, often called a baseline, which notes how often the target behavior occurs now. Practice goal writing using the healthy lifestyle plan goal creation worksheet where you'll learn how to change those general statements to measurable goals.


• Establish a Timeline - Now that you've defined a measurable and manageable goal that you're ready to commit to, it's best to set a time frame. Write it down. When will you begin? How long will it take to get there?


• Commit to Action - At some point the planning has to turn into something more. This is the part where you take action. And, as you'll see in Step 3 - Motivation, the final step of the three-step process, your actions and the success you have as a result of them will fuel your motivation to continue moving you toward your final goal.


• Anticipate Grieving - This may seem strange to you at first but bad health habits, or any kind of habits for that matter, are comfortable and familiar behaviors. Losing them is like losing a dear friend. There will be a strong sense of loss but unlike the grief over the loss of a friend, the grief over the loss of a habit will be short lived. Also, there are a number of things you can do to shorten the grief period. During this stage, you'll be amazed at just how strong and devious your brain is. When you give up a habit, your brain has to play an unaccustomed part in learning the new behavior. It would rather revert back to the old habit which was on autopilot and required very little attention from your brain. Be prepared for all sorts of head games that your brain will play on you while you condition yourself (and your brain) to the new behavior.


• Substitute Behaviors - When you give up a bad health habit, you'll have many opportunities to replace that with healthy lifestyle habits. This is one of the best ways to help you get through the transition period of breaking habits. If you drop a bad health habit, a void is created. It's best to fill the void with behaviors that fit your new healthy lifestyle plan.