Evaluate Your Health — Change Management

Chapter summary

• Change management is a defined business process with reasons for change, planning, phases and tactics. The author has used it for 30 years and applies it to diet and health.
• Most people give up a diet within a year, so start only with a strong reason.

Why change?

• People change when they gain something, lose something, or the law requires it. Gain or loss need not be money. It can be friendship, reward or self-worth.
• The author’s reason was loss. He watched his mother spend four years with Alzheimer’s and did not want the same.
• Smoking as a model: Health warnings and education moved few people. What worked was a mix of personal loss (cost) and laws (taxes, restrictions).
• Soda or fat taxes: Some propose a similar approach. Others see it as government interference.

Plan first

• Get a baseline: medical check-up, weight, waist and metabolic markers.
• Set a goal. The author’s goal was health. For many overweight people it is image and self-worth. Do not change your exercise routine at the start.
• SMART goals: Stated (written down), Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely. For example, a BMI from 32 to 24, losing 1kg a week for six weeks, then 0.25kg a month.
• The Four Ls: Live, Love, Learn and Legacy.

The three phases: explain, pain, gain

• Explain: Understand why you are changing, what to expect and what may go wrong.
• Pain: Day one is okay, day two is harder, day five you want to quit. UK data: 10% quit by day two, 40% by day seven, and only 20% reach three months.
• Gain: The benefits arrive after you push through.
• Pain points: body rebellion (headaches, fatigue, irritability), hunger, cravings, social pressure (friends eating together eat more) and emotional eating.

“Take-out” case studies

• William: He tracked his food with MyFitnessPal and cut sugar, based on David Gillespie’s book.
• Joseph, 63: He dropped from 105kg to 90kg on a hospital 1,200-calorie diet, then regained to 100kg within six months. He ate six to ten slices of bread a day and never changed that habit.
• A photographer: He bought a home coffee machine, skipped the café muffin, and lost 10kg in eight weeks.

Different views

• Diet programs: Supervised calorie plans do deliver results, as Joseph’s loss shows.
• The author: They fail when they do not change the habit behind the weight. Take out one thing you can do without.

Take-away points

• Match your reason to the size of the change you want.
• Plan before you act and expect a painful week or two.
• Choose a take-out strategy you can live with.

References

• Chaloupka, F.J., Cummings, K.M., Morley, C.P. and Horan, J.K. (2002) Tax, price and cigarette smoking: evidence from the tobacco documents. Tobacco Control.
• Daily Mail (2013) Diet starts today, ends Friday: how quickly we slip into bad eating habits.
• Gillespie, D. (2008) Sweet Poison. Penguin.