2008 Woodie Awards
CDC's website offers a variety of tools to encourage life changes
Deborah Merrill
Issue date: 1/29/04 Section: Health & Lifestyle
- Page 1 of 1
One of the best resources for learning about health and lifestyle changes is the wbsite for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The site is free, it's updated frequently with authoritative advice based on recent studies and it's user-friendly.
Most importantly, it provides a comprehensive guide for making lasting changes, and an entire section devoted to explaining and supporting each step of that process.
According to the site, each stage represents "a spiral path to adopting regular physical activity into your life."
By taking a moment to make a self-assessment and locate yourself in the spiral, the site offers advice and action steps to move you forward.
"Each stage takes a period of time to acquaint yourself with new behaviors," the site notes. Emphasis is placed on personal responsibility, since change takes both time and a personal commitment.
The interesting part of this model is that it acknowledges that progress is not linear, noting that "there will be times when you lapse, going back to an earlier stage. Then the time will come when you are ready to advance forward. This is expected and part of the process of adopting new behaviors."
Progress, then, is not about getting to a certain point, so much as it is about staying attuned to where you are and what you need to do to move to the next level. Most successful shifts to a healthy lifestyle, those persons who have altered their habits and maintained them for at least two years (stage five), say that it was a meandering road full of pot-holes. The key is getting on the road.
The site is free, it's updated frequently with authoritative advice based on recent studies and it's user-friendly.
Most importantly, it provides a comprehensive guide for making lasting changes, and an entire section devoted to explaining and supporting each step of that process.
According to the site, each stage represents "a spiral path to adopting regular physical activity into your life."
By taking a moment to make a self-assessment and locate yourself in the spiral, the site offers advice and action steps to move you forward.
"Each stage takes a period of time to acquaint yourself with new behaviors," the site notes. Emphasis is placed on personal responsibility, since change takes both time and a personal commitment.
The interesting part of this model is that it acknowledges that progress is not linear, noting that "there will be times when you lapse, going back to an earlier stage. Then the time will come when you are ready to advance forward. This is expected and part of the process of adopting new behaviors."
Progress, then, is not about getting to a certain point, so much as it is about staying attuned to where you are and what you need to do to move to the next level. Most successful shifts to a healthy lifestyle, those persons who have altered their habits and maintained them for at least two years (stage five), say that it was a meandering road full of pot-holes. The key is getting on the road.