My Health Behavior Change For Obesity

I have been actively involved in personal initiatives to avoid obesity. The condition is one of the leading causes of deaths in developed countries such as the United States and Australia. Through continuous health assessments, screening and reading materials on appropriate lifestyle changes to maintain body weight, I was able to be actively involved in the maintenance of my body mass Index (BMI) within the normal health standards (Screening and Prevention - NHLBI, NIH. (2017). Using the professional consolations with health experts, I gained an understanding of the relationship between obesity and other health complications such as cardiovascular illnesses and diabetes. The knowledge prompted me to embrace aggressive lifestyle changes to avoid the predisposing factors to overweight and its associated effects.

Obesity predominantly arises from the lifestyle practices of individuals such as overindulgence in junk foods containing high amounts of cholesterol and moderate physical activity (Lakka & Bouchard, 2005). Medical experts contend that the most effective health interventions to avoid obesity are through reducing the energy intake while increasing the nature and trends of individual physical activity. Therefore, I conceived that changing my dietary behavior, exercising and altering other activities such as excessive watching of the television were collectively important approaches to maintain my body weight.

The understanding that obesity is a result of the interplay of several lifestyle behaviors, I embraced critical changes that led to permanent long term maintenance of body weight. Some of the lifestyle changes that I adopted include eating traditional low-calorie and low-fat diet, physical activity and reduced watching periods (Lakka & Bouchard, 2005). The underlying reasons for becoming active is the fact that it improves cardiovascular health among average-weight and obese individuals. Physical activity included daily workouts, aerobics, and cycling that were aimed at weight loss and reducing blood pressure and lipids.

I took a two tier approach to maintain my health and avoid overweight. These mechanisms included extensive changes in dietary habits as well as maintaining physical activity (Lakka & Bouchard, 2005). Concerning dietary alterations, I reduced the intake of fat, carbohydrates, protein and alcoholic drinks. I also reduced the actual amount of food consumed in a meal and the frequency of eating. I found it typically practical and helpful to eat heavy breakfast that meets all the nutritional needs then revert to low energy intake in the other meals of the day (Wadden, et al., 2012). The diet helped enhance my metabolism and allowed adequate time for the utilization of all or most of the energy taken in during the day.

Based on the fact that some diets only result in temporary weight losses, I practiced the changes in the eating habits till it became part of my daily life. The fundamental concept to me was that it is only through permanent alterations in the dietary habits that result in active avoidance of overweight. From the medical perspective, I understood that ensuring adherence to a healthy diet is not the only guarantee of reduced risk of developing obesity hence I maintained annual screening for any increases in body mass index. The results of such testing enabled me to get recommendations of the healthy lifestyle changes that if made would minimize the chances of me becoming overweight (Screening and Prevention - NHLBI, NIH, 2017). Ideally, physicians recommend that as an adult, healthy weight is when one has a BMI of 18.5 to less than 25. I ensured that my BMI was at the lower margins to avoid any incidences of cardiovascular diseases and other physical changes resulting from obesity such as difficulties in mobility.

From the two throng approach to reduce my vulnerability to obesity, I was able to maintain my body weight. Various factors resulted in the ease with which I succeeded in the maintenance of healthy body mass index. These included non-addiction to alcoholic drinks that led to a reduction of energy intake into the body, availability of low calorie but cheap foods in the form of grains and groceries (Brown & Summerbell, 2009). For instance, I could easily buy brown rice, non-fat Greek yogurt, beans, canned tuna, and sweet potatoes.

Dietary analysis indicates that brown rice provides up to 21% of the daily required magnesium and 15% of vitamin B6. It is also absorbed slowly into the bloodstream thus reducing the energy content in the body. On the other hand, different types of beans including kidney beans, black beans, and Garbanzo beans are cheap but contain low in calories (Brown & Summerbell, 2009). The sweet potatoes were also an important source of dietary success since it contains various amounts of necessary nutrients including vitamin A, Vitamin B6, potassium, and fiber. Other nutrient contents of sweet potatoes include vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, manganese, phosphorous and vitamin C (Brown & Summerbell, 2009). Due to its high nutrient density, sweet potatoes that are locally accessible helped me to lose weight through keeping me with a feeling of fullness for a longer period.

The availability of adequate places to perform indoor and outdoor physical fitness activities such as aerobics, dances, skirting and cycling in the wild enabled me to remain fit. These activities helped me to maintain my daily total energy expenditure and attain energy balance. Eating nutrient dense foods such as sweet potatoes helped me to avoid eating more foods to compensate energy lost during such physical activity (Lakka & Bouchard, 2005). Furthermore, the burnouts helped me reduce the fats around the waist region and in the entire body.

Cumulatively, being active helped me to reduce not only the general body mass index but also prevented me from developing abdominal obesity. The fact that my schedule was not so much squeezed also enabled me to fix at least 45 minutes to 1 hour for physical activity daily this avoiding an exclusive sedentary lifestyle (Lakka & Bouchard, 2005). I also managed my television programs and only watched specific programs with a focus on health education. The availability of health professionals who advise on proper lifestyle changes for avoiding overweight also helped me to get continuous medical assessments and recommendations on ways of improving personal health (Brown & Summerbell, 2009). Due to the adverse economic implications of obesity and low health quality, the US national government, as well as federal governments, have heavily invested in accessible and affordable facilities to safeguard public health from which I highly benefited.

Overly, my health behavior change for obesity was successful as I did not experience any episodes of relapse. In most cases, relapse is a common occurrence in lifestyle obesity interventions but for my case. They were never experienced. I was able to identify the risk factors, develop active mechanisms for change and mediators for health interventions. I recommend that mainstream healthcare facilities should integrate lifestyle and dietary training as part of their treatment for all patients (Lakka & Bouchard, 2005). Furthermore, sensitization on the importance of physical activity should be emphasized by healthcare facilities to prevent the possibility of developing overweight.

References

Brown, T., & Summerbell, C. (2009). A systematic review of schoolbased interventions that focus on changing dietary intake and physical activity levels to prevent childhood obesity: an update to the obesity guidance produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Obesity Reviews, 10(1), 110-141.

Lakka, T. A., & Bouchard, C. (2005). Physical activity, obesity and cardiovascular diseases. In Atherosclerosis: Diet and Drugs (pp. 137-163). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Screening and Prevention - NHLBI, NIH. (2017). Nhlbi.nih.gov. Retrieved 28 July 2017, from https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/obe/prevention

Wadden, T. A., Webb, V. L., Moran, C. H., & Bailer, B. A. (2012). Lifestyle modification for obesity. Circulation, 125(9), 1157-1170.