The Transtheoretical Model

Theories are extremely important when discussing exercise psychology, among many, there are two reasons that it stands out. First, theories make it possible to comprehend and predict physical activity behavior. Second, they provide information that are scientifically validated. In other words, whoever has put them together, has done a lot of research and experiments to have a valid framework, so it can be used to better design an effective and accurate exercise behavior intervention. With that being said, I’ve applied the Transtheoretical Model to try to implement a behavior change in my daily water consumption. (Lox, Martin Ginis, Petruzzello, 2014)

Water is important for living beings because it is the basic element of the cells that make

up the organism. It is stated that life depends on water because it acts in functions essential to life, such as transporting oxygen and regulating body temperature. Another reason why water is important is because it is also the universal solvent. It works by dissolving and absorbing the nutrients, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and other elements that the body needs to generate energy and stay alive. Basically, water creates a favorable environment for all chemical reactions to take place inside the cells. (Riveros-Perez & Riveros, 2017)
Taking into consideration the importance of water, the behavior change goal that I had set up at the beginning of the semester was: by May 1st, 2018 I wanted to increase water intake to 2 liters a day to improve my immune system and hydrate my body resulting on increase of physiological and cognitive function, providing an increase in quality of life (this goal was set up based on “SMART” goal guidelines by Locke and Latham, which I will further on explain in details).
The TMM focuses on intentional change, influencing the individual's decision-making process, unlike other approaches, which focus on the social or biological influences of behavior. This model is based on the idea that behavioral change occurs throughout a process in which people go through different levels of motivation for change. These levels would be represented by stages of motivation for change that represent the temporal dimension of the TTM, and allow us to understand when particular changes, intentions, and real behaviors may occur. For this reason, the TTM is also called “Stage of Change Model.” (Lox et al., 2014)
Self-Assessment
There are five stages part of TTM: 1- Precontemplation (no intention to engage in behavior) 2- Contempletion (intention to engage in behavior within next 6 months), 3- Preparation (engage in behavior in immediate future., aka next month), 4- Action (engaging in behavior at recommended level) and 5- Maintainance (executing behavior for at least 6 months).

When looking at the “Transtheoretical Model” I believe I started off this challenge at the “preparation phase,” since I did have the intention to drink water but I wasn’t fully committed to change. (Lox et al., 2014)

The first week of attempting to increase my water intake, the amount of water I was consuming would go up and down, and I wasn’t really keeping in track of my actions in order to fully complete my long-term goal. Once the first week went on, I designed a plan breaking down into small steps to be taken on a weekly basis, to effectively increase water intake to 2 liters. Once I got that done, things started to change in a very positive way. I found myself shifting from action to maintenance phase more towards the half of second week until the completion of the sixth week.

Goal

Setting
According to the Goal Setting Theory described by Locke and Lathan, goals can vary in content (easy or difficult, general or specific, simple or complex) and intensity (according to the perception of the importance it gives to the goal). For this theory, when the goals are clearly specified, there is real motivation. Goals need to be valued to be met. (Miner, 2015)
The definition of goals and objectives as advocated by Locke and Latham suggests that motivation allows people to assimilate more quickly and results must be obtained. They also point out that goals and objectives are not enough to maintain a high motivation, due to factors such as clarity of objectives, difficulty of tasks, acceptance of the goal by the person, individual characteristics and the presence of managerial feedback. The complexity of the goal, if it is greater or less, is capable of not collaborating for effective performance, by underestimating potentialities or by depending on a competent adequacy between the level of difficulty of the goal and the abilities that people present. (Miner, 2015)
Locke and Latham mention that for a goal to be the most effective it should specific, measurable, agreed, realistic and timed (Miner, 2015). Utilizing the goal setting fundaments as a strategy. It has definitely guided me through the maintenance phase of the TTM. Doing so by setting up I short and long-term goals, process goals and a contingency plan in case things were not going as planned.
I had two short term goals. The first was drinking 500 ml of water once I wake up and 500 ml before going to bed every day. The second goal was drinking 1 liters of water throughout the day. I was able to complete both due to the process goals that I had set up along the way. When it comes to the first goal the process goal was setting up an alarm on my phone once I wake and also before going to bed reminding me to drink water. The second process goal, which help on the completion of the second goal, I had to bring a gallon of water with me to work. Just so I could have water handy and available to drink.
Challenges and Barriers
Prior to the start of the behavior change I knew from the start that it would take me a while to get used to the habit to drink more water, going from less than a liter a day, as it can be noticed on my logs and almost double the amount was definitely a challenging at the beginning. Another challenge was the fact that I got bored with drinking water. The way I overcome this issue of having to force myself to drinking water, I started to add some lemon and fruits so it could taste more fun. I was actually exited to try out different flavors with water. I would switch among different ingredients but adding cucumber and ginger was my top pick.
At the beginning of behavior change implementation, I would say the first week, I would forget sometimes to set up the alarm or buying water. So that did slow me down a little bit. But once I started doing more often, it did become a habit at the point that I felt the need to drink water before going to bed otherwise I would wake up at the middle of the night craving water.
Throughout this whole challenge I had kept a log to keep in track of how much water I was taking very day.

This was a very important step since it helped me to realize how my water consumption went down once I was traveling. I realized I struggled to keep up with my goals once I was in a different place. I travel a lot due to my job and at the first two trips of the season, I was barely achieving my goal of drinking two liters a day. I did decide to make a change and include at least one strategy from the ones I was originally doing to help me drink more water while traveling;

I started to bring a gallon of water with me while traveling when we (me and the tennis team) used a van to go to different cities (since I could take it with me). Now, when I had to fly to different cities then I could not keep up with water consumption at all. Most times there was no water available to the busy schedule I had. The good thing is that, once I returned back home I was able to keep up with all the goals and strategies and get back on track.

Overall Behavior Change

Assessment
The overall evaluation of my performance and experience were very positive. Over the course of the six weeks that I tried to increase water intake to 2 liters a day, I did meet my specific goals towards the last four weeks of the course of the behavior change implementation. The first two weeks I was trying to make all the possible adjustment and implement an effective contingency plan, as making water available at work by bring a gallon of water with me, in order to make sure my short-term goals were being achieved. I believe one of the things that helped me to succeed in this behavior change is that I knew all the benefits that drinking more would have on my body. I was also highly motivated to execute the little tasks I had planned, doing them because it was the right thing to do for my body. In conclusion I did meet my long-term goal and I consistently drunk at least 2 liters of water a day through the implementation of the Transtheoretical Model.