{"id":52802,"date":"2016-01-14T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T05:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=52802"},"modified":"2017-04-27T09:16:13","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T14:16:13","slug":"make-changes-one-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/health\/make-changes-one-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Make Changes, One At a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"changesweb\"<\/a>Tovi is a 36-year-old mother of six came to me with two main problems: She was 22 kilo (approximately 48 lbs.) overweight and she had just been told by her doctor that she was pre-diabetic.<\/p>\n

Tovi had a full time job as a systems analyst in addition to her family responsibilities. She knew that she had to be able to fully function and she certainly couldn\u2019t afford spending time in the doctor\u2019s office on a regular basis. Her doctor explained to her that if she would make the proper lifestyle changes, she would take care of the problem of overweight and get her blood sugar levels down to normal levels without medications and all of the side effects that comes with them.<\/p>\n

She was encouraged by the prospect that her future health was in her hands but like anyone else in Tovi\u2019s position, this would require changing some very ingrained behaviors.<\/p>\n

Tovi was someone who had to get her kids out of the house early and be at work on time.\u00a0 So, she skipped breakfast\u2014opting for a cup of coffee at home and a glass of water at the office. \u00a0By 11 a.m. she would be very hungry so she grabbed a cheese danish or three rugalach together with another cup of coffee depending on what was available in the company snack room.<\/p>\n

When it got to the 1 o\u2019clock lunch break, she would eat a very large lunch as she was very hungry. She had a cup of tea and half a chocolate bar for dessert almost every day. Her workday was over at 4:00 p.m. and she had to get home to make sure she had supper ready for her kids. Usually while preparing supper, she picked at the food and then after eating with her kids, she might sit down and eat yet again with her husband when he arrived home from kollel at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Tovi was also pretty sedentary. The company picked her up and others in her neighborhood with a van every morning and she took a bus home. She worked at her computer all day and the only movement at all was going to the snack room and going to the cafeteria to eat.<\/p>\n

Instead of just telling her to lose weight and exercise without instruction, Tovi\u2019s doctor sent her to me for professional advice and coaching.<\/p>\n

At our first meeting, she seemed very anxious to get going and to accomplish everything as quickly as possible. It was almost as though she thought that we would meet once and then she would meet my staff dietician once and she would be all set.<\/p>\n

I explained to her that the only way behaviors are going to change and stay changed is if we take baby steps.<\/p>\n

We need to do things one step at a time.<\/p>\n

Although she was disappointed, she understood that when habits are so ingrained, there is just no such thing as pushing the \u201cundo\u201d button for a quick fix. And so we began our journey to good health.<\/p>\n

Her first assignments? Use the staircases at work, get off the bus one stop early on the way home, and walk an additional 20 minutes each night. The dietician had her pack up breakfast each night to bring to work and eat when she got there and to change the morning snack to a yogurt and a fruit.<\/p>\n

And so we started.<\/p>\n

One of the changes we agreed she had to make was to walk 20 minutes every night. She was unaccustomed to this, often spending that time catching up on things with her husband while snacking on unhealthy choices, like ice cream. To accomplish her new task, Tovi needed to stop eating ice cream each night and she needed to do her walk.<\/p>\n

I enacted three of the criteria of behavioral change by Dr. B.J. Fogg to help Tovi stay focused on her goals:<\/p>\n