While wishing you a happy new year, I brace myself like many other fitness professionals at this time of year for an army of resolutions, if you can forgive my arrogance for coining an all-new phrase.

We all like to make these famous resolutions, but how seriously do we actually take them? Do you want 2014 to be different? Well, then let’s try taking a distinctly scientific approach.

What we’re essentially striving to do this time of year is change behaviour, so we need to call upon the science of behaviour modification. For this, we have a couple of theorists to thank, namely Prochaska and Di Clementine for their six-step transtheoretical model of behaviour change.

There is a series of steps or stages, through which most people appear to pass when attempting to kick a nasty habit or assume a healthier one. Understanding these steps and pre-empting them can help us see the entire process through to completion.

Knowing you will experience a certain stage before you reach it allows you to devise strategies to overcome any barriers or problems that may crop up.

Precontemplation is the first stage and you were probably in it before the new year, or before Christmas decorations even started appearing in shop windows and TV adverts. This is the stage where you blissfully carry on your life with various habits you might not even be aware are bad for you, let alone be intent on changing.

You could be eating unhealthily, smoking or stressing yourself out unnecessarily without even considering your health might be suffering. You’re happy the way you are and don’t see why you should need to change anything at all.

Contemplation usually occurs on New Year’s Eve or the build-up to it. You’ve actually sat down and thought about what it is you would like to change about yourself, and identified a particular behaviour. You know that changing it will see you better off. You might have seen a picture of a diseased lung on a cigarette packet, a close relative hospitalised or an inspiring movie.

Preparation comes next and is essentially the planning phase. Just like soldiers planning a military operation, you decide exactly how you will go about accomplishing this new challenge. You might decide to cut down two cigarettes a day, or stop altogether and buy nicotine patches.

You might go out and purchase a diet book or a range of training gear for your new exercise regimen. You may contact a friend interested in embarking on the same journey with you or you might conduct some research online to find the best methods for achieving your objectives.

Action is where it all kicks off. The battle commences, you’ve bought your nicotine patches, reorganised your fridge or joined a fitness class or personal training programme. You actually take action and apply the patches, start eating healthier food or attend your first workouts.

This might seem like the biggest effort of all and therefore the most important stage, but it isn’t. This is only the beginning and it is crucial to continue reminding yourself so. Some might say this is actually the easiest part because everything is new and interesting in the beginning, but the most important step is yet to come.

The maintenance phase or the transition to it is where we see the most drop-outs. Once the novelty of your new and improved lifestyle habits wears off, what next? The excitement has passed and a few weeks or months later, you see that your life has returned to normal and that you are in a routine, only this time without the things you used to enjoy so much.

You start to wonder whether it is really worth it. Life is too short, you might think. Maybe you’ve come back from work and it’s pouring with rain outside. That cosy sofa, chocolate cake and DVD seem so much more attractive than venturing back out into the wind, rain, traffic and parking hassles.

Remember that this is where it really counts. The maintenance phase is all about resisting temptation. Keep in mind that you will be stuck in this phase for quite some time, and temptations will present themselves again and again.

Are you going to fall at the first hurdle? And even if you do, what are you going to do about it? We all make mistakes, but if we can come back stronger from them, then all the better. Adjust your pace and stamina to keep going, because you’re going to be in it for the long haul. Hang on in there; it is worth it, because if you can stick it long enough, your reception to temptation will be very different to the way it was in the beginning.

We all like to make these famous resolutions, but how serious do we actually take them?

There is a seventh and final phase, but it is more of a finish line because once you reach it you know you have achieved success. Termination occurs that one fine day when you walk into a bar and smell cigarette smoke and actually find it disgusting. You succumb to that piece of cake and not even enjoy it that much, wondering what all the fuss was about.

You might skip a workout and feel absolutely terrible about it. All these things mean you have completed the behaviour-change process and are no longer susceptible to temptation. Congratulations, you have successfully modified and improved your behaviour.

matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt