Whenever you take steps to change your lifestyle behaviors, whether to stop smoking, eat healthier or begin an exercise plan, it pays to take some time and identify the barriers to your plan.  These are the roadblocks to your success.  They are usually easy to list since they are often related to your list of Cons.

So if we consider the healthy eating plan that must be followed to lose weight, barriers might include:

• Not knowing what to eat and what to avoid
• Not knowing what are proper portion sizes
• Not understanding food labels
• Having difficulty finding the time to do some research on proper nutrition
• Being tempted by unhealthy snacks at work
• Being a frequent snacker
• Eating out frequently, possibly due to business travel

Barriers to starting an exercise program to help lose weight and for its other benefits often include:

• Having difficulty finding the time to exercise
• Not having access to a place to exercise
• Being embarrassed to exercise in front of others due to self consciousness about being overweight
• Physical limitations

These are the potential reasons why you may fail in your plan – if you don’t determine how you can overcome them.  So when you make your list of barriers, you need to list next to each barrier what you will do to counteract them.  This way, when you are faced with the barrier, you will know how to respond.  For instance, if you are unsure of what to eat and what to avoid as well as appropriate portion sizes, you need to do some research online or at the library.  To help with portion sizes, you may need to buy a scale and measure all your portions.  When you take the time to identify your barriers you can usually strategize how to eliminate them before you are faced with their challenges.  Including barriers and their solutions in your plan preparation can help assure your success.

Next time I’ll talk about a few more important parts of your healthy lifestyle behavior change plan.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

In the last post I talked about what characteristics of your symptoms should lead you to contact your physician. This time I want to discuss what else to consider.

Sometimes they know the on-call doctor isn’t their own, and they don’t want to talk to them.  The reality is that all physicians are trained to handle such after hour calls.  Delay can sometimes lead to complications that can be life threatening.

Last time I spoke about listing your pros & cons whenever you are considering changing one of your behaviors, whether it’s smoking, losing weight, or starting an exercise program.  I thought an example might be helpful, so here is such a list regarding following a weight loss program that includes healthier eating and exercise components.  It’s very similar to the one I used after my heart attack and cardiac arrest to help me make the changes necessary to live a healthier life.

When I first wrote these I used “It would” instead of “It will” and “I’d” instead of”I’ll.”  It may be subtle, but using “will” gives it a more positive tone, a tone of commitment.  As you can see, there are more reasons to start a weight loss program than not.  In addition, the value of the Pros far outweighs the inconvenience and effort represented by the Cons.  In this list the Pros are greater than the Cons in quality as well as in quantity.

In my next post, I’ll talk about listing the barriers to the successful implementation of your plan along with what you’ll do to overcome them. 

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

In a previous post I talked about how by listening to my symptoms and going to my doctor, I saved my life.  This time I’ll talk about what to consider when new symptoms occur to help you decide whether to call your doctor or not.

First of all, though a physician, I am not practicing medicine or giving medical advice on this blog.  I am providing some insights as to what to consider in this and other health care decisions.

So what should you think about if you start having a new symptom?  First of all, think about whether it could affect your survival, either directly or indirectly.   If you are having trouble breathing or having chest pain that could be due to your heart, your survival could be directly at risk.  Similarly, if you lose consciousness even briefly, your life (or the lives of others) could be indirectly at risk. Clearly, passing out while driving could result in a fatal accident.

Other considerations are the severity and duration of symptoms. Very severe symptoms could require a call to 911 no matter how brief the duration of those symptoms  Pain in your head, chest or abdomen that prevents you from carrying out your usual activities should prompt you to call your physician.  Often symptoms will get better on their own. But persistent symptoms, even if they occur off and on, should be evaluated by your physician. If the symptom quickly passed, it still makes sense to contact your doctor, especially if you are older or have some other chronic condition.  Certain chronic conditions such as diabetes, chronic lung disease and heart disease can raise the risks of having other illnesses but can also worsen when other illnesses occur.  If you have any questions, you should contact your doctor.  Even if it is the weekend or after hours, your doctor or one of his associates will be on call to respond to these sudden situations.  While it is true your doctor’s associate won’t know you as well as your own physician, they can handle these kinds of situations very expertly and advise you what to do next.  Not only that, they may have access to your medical record and may be able to contact your own physician to get specific details of your history.

In my next post, I’ll talk about when to contact your physician for worsening symptoms.

For Your health – Dr. Bob

As you identify your motivations for changing your habits of eating and exercise in order to lose weight, listing the pros and cons of making the changes can be helpful. This process helps to validate your decision to make those lifestyle changes.

The actual process is simple. Just draw a vertical line down the middle of a sheet of paper. Then at the top of the left column write Pros and on the right, Cons. Take some time to list reasons for making the change on the left and the reasons not to make the change on the right. Most people easily come up with more reasons to change their behavior than reasons not to make the effort.

For weight loss, most people list the health benefits, improvements in appearance and increases in confidence as the main benefits they will obtain if they lose weight. The health benefits alone include decreasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain kinds of cancer. In addition, weight loss decreases the stress on your knees and hips.

The negative aspects of changing one’s eating and exercise habits is that it isn’t easy and requires work. You need to take the effort to substitute your new healthier behaviors for your old unhealthy ones.

After my heart attack, finding motivation wasn’t very difficult. The pros of minimizing my chances of having a second heart attack or dying far outweighed the work necessary to change my habits. Ideally, you won’t have to have a heart attack before you change your lifestyle for the better.

Save your list of pros and cons. When you get discouraged as you work through your behavior changes, pull it out to remind yourself of the benefits you’ll get if you reach your goal.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob