Developing A Health Behaviour Change Plan: Reducing Meat Consumption

Health Behaviour Goal and Action Plan

I currently consume meat almost on a daily basis. My baseline meat consumption was tracked for over seven days. No changes were actually made to my dietary habits during this time, but instead I only recorded my meat consumption habits. My health behaviour goal is to reduce my meat consumption by thirty percent in the next one week. This decision to make drastic changes in my behaviour of consuming meat on almost a daily basis has been made after thoughtful deliberations with my friends, family members and my confidants.

In endeavouring to develop a systematic way of managing my meat consumption, I discovered that I consumed 20.1oz of meat for the seven days of monitoring, and most of the meat was consumed during lunch and at the campus cafeteria. Based on my observation, I decided to reduce my meat consumption by 30% through eliminating meat from the lunch meal. I intend to accomplish this by taking substitute foods at the cafeteria such as grains (Smetana, Mathys, Knoch, & Heinz, 2015) to supplement the protein I used to gain from meat. I also shared my behavioural change plan with my closest peer who we agreed that we will be taking lunch together so that I become accountable to him and overcome any temptations to consume meat during lunch break.

A goal of meat reduction by 30% is achievable because it is only the lunch meal with meat that will be eliminated.  In order to achieve this goal, I will break it into short term and long term goals. My short term goal is to avoid meat consumption during lunch meal for the first seven days and one subsequent month. The long term goal will be to eliminate meat consumption from my lunch meal for six months and subsequent year. In order to achieve these goals, I followed the recommendations provided by Mastellos, Gunn, Felix, Car & Majeed (2014) of maximizing fibre intake, fruits, and vegetables and low meat calorie diet of 1000kcal/day.

Roberts, Curzon, Koch, and Martens (2010) observes that self-awarding of rewards is an effective way of changing behaviour. According to Deci & Ryan (2008) rewards have a positive impact on one’s motivation to behaviour change and increases the possibility of the occurrence of the behaviour change. In the selection of the rewards for my short term progressive behavioural changes, I decided to reward myself at the end of each successful week of restraining from meat consumption during lunch meal. For the first week, I will reward myself by going to the cinema, followed by buying myself clothes. A successful restraint from meat consumption in the third week will be watching my favourite TV show and listening to music.

The achievement of my behavioural change in diet will not be without potential barriers and possible enhancers. The potential barriers include taste and price, convenience, and television advertising. Perhaps the most potential barrier to my dietary change of decreasing meat consumption is taste and price of meat at the college cafeteria. Studies have also shown that taste is the most significant aspect that affect food choice, flowed by the price tag on food (Howlett, Burton, Bates, & Huggins, 2009; Harnack et al., 2008). Based on my experience and that of other students, meat at the school cafeteria tastes much better than even the one cooked at home, hence the reason why students flock at the cafeteria. In addition to taste the meat at the cafeteria is sold at an economical price that is friendly to the students’ pocket. These potential barriers are also confirmed by several studies that have shown price alterations to be more effective than offering promotional messages on health lifestyle to try to convince people to buy healthier foods (Elinder & Jansson, 2009)

Planned Rewards

Television and media advertising are also likely to act as barriers to my behavioural change. The promotions on television that encourage meet consumption are likely to tempt my appetite for consuming meat. This is why I intend to also stop watching commercial television stations. A study conducted by Zimmerman and Bell (2010) found out that there was a strong relationship between children that watch commercial television and weight gain. On the other hand, the authors found no association between children that watched non-commercial television stations with weight gain. This therefore means that advertisements also stimulate the consumption of unhealthy foods and weight gain. Another possible barrier is convenience. The cafeteria and other food stores that sell meat are easily accessible within the school compound and without, making it easy to purchase meat when tempted to. Studies done by Spence, Cutumisu, Edwards, Raine, & Smoyer-Tomic, (2009 and  Inagami, Cohen, Brown, & Asch (2009) to examine the association between the food environment and health status of individuals found out that convenience stores in the neighbourhood were linked to unhealthy lifestyle of the nearby population.

The possible motivational factors include the desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image. The greatest motivation for my behavioural change in diet is to improve my general health and lose weight. Meat consumption has been associated with several lifestyle diseases such as high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, and obesity (Micha, Wallace, & Mozaffarian, 2010). Additionally, excess body weight is a risk factor for lifestyle diseases and cardiovascular diseases (Ortega, Lavie, & Blair, 2016). It is against this background that I made up my mind to begin my plan of behavioural change by reducing meat consumption by 30%.

The desire to improve the general appearance of my body image was another motivational factor towards my behavioural change. I admired the body shape of my friends at college and how they could easily move about the lecture rooms, and how good they looked in different outfits. The study conducted by Ashton, Hutchesson, Rollo, Morgan, and Collins (2017) on the motivators and barriers in healthy eating examined the eating habits of young Australian men in relation to their behavioural change in diet. The authors found out that over 60% of the respondents embarked on behavioural change in order to improve overall health and 52.3% were motivated by improved body image.

My decision of behavioural change in diet is very critical for healthy and quality life. Studies have shown that making behavioural changes such as healthy eating helps prevent or delay the occurrence of chronic illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, improve longevity, and leads to weight loss (Liu et al., 2012). Therefore, my program of reducing the intake of flesh by 30% will be of benefit because it will enable me to attain overall quality life and health by preventing chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes among others.

Baseline: I currently consume 20ounces of meat per week Overall goal: to reduce my weekly consumption of meat by 30% Week 1 goal: Avoid all lunch meals (with meat) at the school cafeteria
	Did I achieve it	Barriers	Enablers	Comments/Feedback	Adjustments?
Sunday	Yes	taste and price, convenience, commercial adverts	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	The urge to eat meat was high due to the commercials I had watched	Stop watching commercials
Monday	No	taste and price, convenience, commercial adverts	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	I was not accompanied by my friend to the cafeteria, hence was tempted and ate	I will always be accompanied by my friend during the initial transition period
Tuesday	Yes	NA	NA	took lunch at a friend’s  place which had no flesh	To be determined to avoid meat within or without the cafeteria
Wednesday	No	taste and price, convenience,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Was offered lunch meal with meat by a friend and ate due to gratification	To be determined to avoid meat within or without the cafeteria
Thursday	No Consumed meat at  home due to their dietary patterns	Taste, convenience,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	It was a coincidence that I took meat at home. However, my goal was to avoid meat consumption at the school cafeteria	Will try to avoid meat even at home once I venture on becoming a full-time vegetarian
Friday	Yes	taste and price, convenience, commercial adverts,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Was at home, so did not take meals at school cafeteria. No meat diet cooked	Determined to eliminate meat eating from my lunch meal
Saturday	Yes	taste and price, convenience, commercial adverts	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Was in my room and cooked beans as meat substitute	Determined to eliminate meat eating from my lunch meal and substitute with plant based protein

Baseline: I currently consume 15 ounces of meat per week Overall goal: to reduce my weekly consumption of meat by 30% Week 2 goal: Avoid all lunch meals (with meat) at the school cafeteria
	Did I achieve it	Barriers	Enablers	Comments/Feedback	Adjustments?
Sunday	No	Taste and price	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	A supermarket was offering free meat to the customers and was tempted and took some	Avoid food commercials of any sort
Monday	Yes	taste and price, convenience, commercial adverts	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	The presence of my friend enabled me to avoid meat  at the cafeteria	I will always be accompanied by my friend during the initial transition period
Tuesday	Yes	Taste and price	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	A friend offered me a lunch meal with flesh but I declined	To be determined to avoid consuming meat at school cafeteria
Wednesday	Yes	convenience,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Took lunch outside school but with no flesh	To be determined to avoid meat within or without the cafeteria
Thursday	No	taste and price,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	A discount on chicken meat was offered at the cafeteria, and since my confidant was absent, I was tempted and ate meat	Try to conquer appetite without relying on my friend
Friday	No	taste and price, convenience,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	My favourite meals at the cafeteria were over and I had flesh as the only option. Had not eaten for the last 8 hours	Determined to eliminate meat eating from my lunch meal
Saturday	Yes	taste and price, convenience, commercial adverts	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Was at home, so did not take meals at school cafeteria	Determined to eliminate meat eating from my lunch meal

Baseline: I currently consume 10 ounces of meat per week Overall goal: to reduce my weekly consumption of meat by 30% Week 3 goal: Avoid all lunch meals (with meat) at the school cafeteria
	Did I achieve it	Barriers	Enablers	Comments/Feedback	Adjustments?
Sunday	Yes	Taste and price	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Took lunch at the cafeteria without meat. Accompanied with friend	Be determined to avoid meat on my own
Monday	Yes	taste and price, convenience,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Took lunch at my room and avoided cooking meat	Be determined to avoid meat even in the room
Tuesday	Yes	Taste and price	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	A friend offered me a lunch meal with flesh but I declined	To be determined to avoid consuming meat at school cafeteria
Wednesday	No	convenience,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Took lunch at school cafeteria but with meat stew	To be determined to avoid any form of meat
Thursday	Yes	taste and price,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	A discount on chicken meat was offered at the cafeteria, and I declined the offer. Rewarded myself by going to the cinema	Try to conquer appetite irrespective of the offer. Increase number of awards as self-motivation
Friday	Yes	taste and price, convenience,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	My favourite meals at the cafeteria were over and I had to forego lunch	Determined to eliminate meat eating from my lunch meal
Saturday	Yes	taste and price, convenience, commercial adverts	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Was at home, so did not take meals at school cafeteria	Determined to eliminate meat eating from my lunch meal

Baseline: I currently consume 6 ounces of meat per week Overall goal: to reduce my weekly consumption of meat by 30% Week 4 goal: Avoid all lunch meals (with meat) at the school cafeteria
	Did I achieve it	Barriers	Enablers	Comments/Feedback	Adjustments?
Sunday	Yes	Taste and price	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Took lunch at the cafeteria without meat. Un accompanied by my friend	Be determined to avoid meat on my own
Monday	Yes	taste and price, convenience,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Took lunch at my room and avoided cooking meat	Be determined to avoid meat even in the room. Rewarded myself by purchasing clothes
Tuesday	No	Taste and price	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	A friend offered me a lunch meal with flesh and I ate	To be determined to avoid consuming meat at school cafeteria
Wednesday	Yes	convenience,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Took lunch at school cafeteria without any meat	To be determined to avoid any form of meat
Thursday	Yes	taste and price,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	A discount on chicken meat was offered at the cafeteria, and I declined the offer. Rewarded myself by watching my favourite TV show	Try to conquer appetite irrespective of the offer. Increase number of awards as self-motivation
Friday	Yes	taste and price, convenience,	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	My favourite meals at the cafeteria were over and I had to eat vegetables and fruits for lunch	Determined to eliminate meat eating from my lunch meal
Saturday	Yes	taste and price, convenience, commercial adverts	desire to improve overall health, lose weight, and improve body image	Was at home, so did not take meals at school cafeteria	Determined to eliminate meat eating from my lunch meal

I was highly determined to avoid meat eating due to the benefits I had learnt and the desire to attain my goals. I avoided meat for four days and consumed meat for three days in my lunch meals. My failure was due to barriers like taste and price, convenience and commercial adverts. According to the transtheoretical model of change, I am at step three of the model: determination. My little steps towards the achievement of a healthier life are viable due to my determination.

Potential Barriers and Enablers

By the second week, I had reduced my meat consumption by 5oz. I still failed of achieving my goal due to the transitional changes and varying circumstances that tempted me to go to my former life. Based on the transtheoretical model, I am still at stage three which is determination, because I am still committed and determined to advance in my goal achievement.

Reflection week 3

I have already reduced my weekly meet consumption to 10 ounces (50% reduction) in the third week. This confirms that I am already at step five: maintenance, in the transtheoretical model of behaviour change. This achievement is evidence of acquisition and sustenance of new health behaviours

Reflection week 4

In relation to the Transtheoretical Model, I can comfortably confirm that I am currently in stage five: maintenance. This is because I have already acted on my strategies step by step through stage three:  preparation. I expect to move to stage five of maintenance according to Transtheoretical model (Johnson et al., 2008). I am happy that I have atleast reached my target of consuming 6 ounces of meat (30% reduction) per week. However, I know that to reach the termination stage of the transtheoretical model, I have to completely overcome my appetite for meat.

Irrespective of my success in behaviour change, I am not certain whether the figures accurately reflect my quantity of meat consumption. As a matter of fact, if I had sufficient time to monitor the rate at which I consume meat, then I would find out that I consume a lot of meat per week than the one mentioned in this paper. Nevertheless, I found it important to examine the factors that predispose me to eating a lot of meat. Being conscious of the influence of commercials, convenience and the effect meat has on health and wellbeing, I can cognitively modify my behaviour in the long run. This is the central issue upon which a decision to make drastic dietary changes depend on. Even though making changes to ones way of life is difficult and sometimes impossible, I have committed myself to making the following changes regarding meat consumption:

• I intend to look for meat substitutes in my diet and work towards becoming lactovegetarian
• I will work towards becoming a vegetarian by reducing the amount of meat in my meals and later on minimize animal products.

I can foresee myself becoming a total vegetarian in the near future considering the rate at which flesh diet causes chronic illnesses, poor health and wellbeing.

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