This week I am going to start carrying lunch to work every day. I have decided that eating out is a habit I want to indulge less often, both for dietary and budgetary reasons.
Monday comes, I open the frig, and find that others have eaten the deli turkey I had expected to use. Ooops! I guess I will start tomorrow.
Tuesday I have replenished the lunchmeat supply, but just as I begin to make lunch, my sixth-grader shrieks that she can't find her homework. By the time I help her with that, it is time to go.
Wednesday I have a meeting with a buffet lunch included in the registration fee. I won't be bringing lunch when I have already paid for another one.
Thursday I brought my lunch (at last), but it is my boss's birthday and (of course) we offered to take her out to lunch.
Friday. Why even try? The turkey is gone again, and so are the raw veggies and fruits I had stocked up. I grab a protein bar, knowing it is high in fat and calories and does not represent a balanced meal despite the hype. I can always go out if it is not enough.
Pre-thinking, thinking, preparing, and starting are all part of the process, but then we are challenged by the details of making it happen: not just once, but repeatedly until it becomes a habit. The "action" stage in Prochaska's model of change has many steps.
It begins small, with a few concrete, do-able actions. It looks to the future (typically a week, but up to a month or more) with a realistic assessment of challenges. It takes a creative approach to strategies for dealing with those challenges. It reviews the past week, identifies lessons learned, adjusts, looks forward, and starts again. Effective action results from relentless mental practice and repeated behavioral choice.
So often we (and I have done it as often as anyone) believe we have chosen a course of action just because we have expressed our desire for the outcome. Actual change is an ongoing commitment to taking small steps over and over until the brain "wires" a new pattern and the need for conscious effort declines.
