Healthy Behavoir
Healthy Behaviors are important
Part 1: Analysis and data
Upon reading the assignment for my wellness course I realized that I would have a hard time deciding which behavior I’d like to change. I did a lot of thinking and then moved over to journaling about what I would like to see differently in my life. I decided to jot down a few of my ultimate goals and see how many actions I was achieving to reach these goals. I have always wanted to do a triathlon and in order for me to feel comfortable doing this I’d need to train to make it happen. The triathlon event often includes a sprint version which would be a great place for me to start. Each leg of the race is a shorter distance to swim, bike and run. Another goal I have is to run my dogs on a regular basis. At the start of the term I had one dog and she is 43% Australian Cattle dog. She would benefit from going on a quick paced walk/run each day and I’m the only one in our household who would do this. On April 24 we rescued a second dog and we’ve come to find out this dog also has a high percentage of Australian Cattle Dog in her mixed heritage, so the need to go out regularly is two fold. All three of these goals have eluded me and I have not been able to prioritize them. The health behavior change I would like to see is one 30 or more minute physical activity and/or one walk/run with my dogs daily. I will track my usage of time to see why I consistently put this off saying “I don’t have the time”.
When I did an analysis I came to the realization that I am getting in my own way to make these things happen. I collected two kinds of data for this project. I went into my phone’s settings and found an area called Digital Wellbeing and parental controls. When I opened this section up I found that it has charts on how often I use my phone and what apps I use the most. I was able to pull the amount of time and record it in my chart below. I also looked over my calendar and counted how much time I spent doing actions for my family. Another realization that I had was that I needed to ask my significant other to take on more tasks having to do with the maintenance of our household and care for our children.
In a 168 hour week I am spending a lot of time scrolling social media and reading books for pleasure. If I was to take those hours and dedicate them to achieving my goals I would have a completely different life. The amount of time I spend on my phone and doing tasks for my children and household were eye opening for sure.
I feel that I am very good at coming up with other things to do with my time even without my phone in hand. For example, I love to sew and can easily replace my Instagram time with sewing time. I also love to sit and read a real book, not one on my Kindle app. What I think I need to really focus on for myself is to create a way for me to prioritize my goals and place more meaning on the feelings of achievement of those goals. What would it feel like to get across the finish line at a sprint triathlon? What type of joy would I have knowing that a goal I have had for 10 years would be finally achieved? I would feel wonderful, not only in knowing I can do it but knowing I am physically fit enough to continue to do triathlons for years to come. Other benefits from achieving this goal would include inspiring my children when they see their mom work hard to get across the finish line and show my friends that I am serious about living to be 112. Prioritizing the actions it would take to do this would also increase my communication skills with my husband because I would have to coordinate with him to do tasks that I wouldn’t be able to do if I am training. Finally, my dogs will be much happier and would also be healthier physically and mentally if I take them out daily for a walk/run.
Communicating with my husband is a challenge for me not only in getting my training in but in many other aspects of our relationship. In chapter eight of our textbook, Health & Wellness, the last section of the chapter refers to communicating in intimate relationships. There is an example of Beth telling Ron that it is raining and the paragraph about the acknowledgement and response to the literal and metamessage really hit home. When my husband and I communicate I often feel terrible when he has responded to my communication attempts. If I am going to ask him to contribute more to the tasks supporting our home and children I feel I need to get better at clearly communicating my requests so that there is little room for misunderstanding. I’d like to become better at speaking from my heart as well as expressing my desires so that my husband doesn’t interpret the communication as a form of attacking him and his capabilities.
I clearly communicated to my husband my desire to become more physically fit last summer and started doing weight training at a local gym with a professional trainer. I went once a week from August 2023 to February 2024. I gained a large amount of muscle and was able to see clear signs of being stronger. The communication I made was clear because I gave specifics as to what I wanted to achieve and why. I spelled out my need for him to come home by a specific time so that I could make it to the trainer in time for my session. I was supported by my husband to make this happen. I ran out of funds to pay the trainer so I have not been back since. This illustrates my need to find an alternative motivation to get myself back to the gym and continue my training goals. This shows that I do have the ability to communicate effectively, I need to tap into this success and replicate it moving forward.
Part 2: Implementing action plan and summary
My action plan from May 12 to May 22 was to see if I could go on as many walks as possible with or without the dogs. I decided to fit the walks into my schedule day by day so that I wouldn’t feel the pressure to plan it all out. So each morning I’d review the plans for the day and find out when I could make it happen. I was able to walk 6 times during the ten day time period. I recorded my excuses and limiting beliefs for each day of my plan. I felt disappointed that I couldn’t get myself to sleep early enough to get myself out the door to walk the dogs before the kids were awake. I realized that I used the excuse of being too tired or that I wouldn’t get back in time as an excuse to not even try. Another excuse I came up with had to do with safety. Going to the gym or walking in my neighborhood will bring up ideas that I am not safe. I did go on a walk around the block with my family and dogs and when we returned home I told my husband, “I’m going to keep going” and walked by myself in the neighborhood for 2.0 more miles at a very fast pace so that I could get the proper amount of training in for my goal. This was scary for me because I feared that something would happen to me. Getting a can of pepper spray might help me to feel more safe so that I can go out on my own more often.
I also think I should create a schedule for myself because the action plan of “winging it” each morning didn’t seem to work. If I have a schedule I can show it to my family and they can support me in getting my training done. I realized in these ten days that I depend on myself with no outside support more than I thought and this will not work since I’m in a family. If I was a single person then I can see this working but with a family I don’t see how I can do this without their knowledge and support. Also I realized that if I did so well with training it was likely that I did well because someone was expecting me. If I was to find a workout buddy who was meeting me at the gym I’m much more likely to show up. After this project I think I’ve realized that this is a strong aspect of my personality. I will seek out a triathlon training group and see if I can join them.
In summary, I have plenty of time to train for a triathlon and walk/run my dogs. I am choosing to not train by spending my time doing other things. I have proven that I can seek support from my husband and family to train and I have pets that would benefit from my need to train. I will continue to limit my time on Instagram and the kindle app so that I can spend those hours in other ways. I will move forward with communicating again to my husband about wanting his support to train. If I go to sleep before 10pm I’ll be able to get up first thing and walk/run my dogs which will get my body conditioned to expect a walk/run for myself and then have more chances of continuing my quest to become a triathlete. I am excited that I know more about how I use my time and look forward to implementing my plans.
Comments
Post a Comment