"Why & How People Change Health Behaviors" - A Review

My parents would be dumbfounded to read this post.  "Nate writing a book review?!?!"  You see, when growing up, my parents trying to get me to read books was like trying to pull my teeth out.  Unless if it was "Nate the Great" or a picture book, there was no way I was laying my eyes on it.  But, when I found a purpose to read, I became more inclined to take to the pages.  I read now to become more educated, to learn and to become better at what I do.

I recently wrapped up a short reading of "Why & How People Change Health Behaviors" by Joseph Leutzinger and John Harris.  I really shouldn't say it is "written" by these two gents, and here's why:

The book is based off of research that the authors have conducted.  They have completed interviews of 44 individuals that have undergone some health behavior change and have kept that behavior change for some time now.  Common health behavior changes in this book were: quit smoking, weight loss, increase physical activity, diabetes control, depression, etc.  The responses from the interviews are directly transcribed to this book... literally.  Even some grammatical and spelling errors found their way in there (I would assume that these would have been corrected before publishing, but maybe not),  This gives the book a very unique feel and a candid view of the individual, their personality, and what it took for them to accomplish their behavior change.

This was both a good and bad thing.  Good thing for the reasons above, bad thing because it wasn't what I was expecting or hoping for.  When ordering this off of Amazon, I was expecting to find a book that would, at the least, contain a meta-analysis of some good research and provide some great insight into counselling individuals on behavior change.  Even though it didn't fulfill this hope, it was still a good book to read and did provide some thought provoking ideas for myself.

Some themes that I took from this book:

1. There was almost always a trigger for the behavior change.  Something happened in that individual's life that acted as a catalyst for the change.  Deaths, loved ones getting sick, birth of a child, etc.
2. Only 1 or 2 times was this trigger a doctor or an authoritative figure that told them they need to change.  Usually these people were ignored until the trigger happened.  This is important to keep in mind for health educators, personal trainers, doctors, etc.  The initial motivation to change something must come from the individual, and not from an outside source.  Their mind seems to have to "click" and it take a powerful and emotional event for this to happen.
3. Motivation must come from the individual and the reason for the behavior change must be personal.  Many times the interviewees said "you must change for yourself and not for anyone else".
4. Support group > mentors.  Many people said their support group(s) (coworkers, family, friends) were essential to their success, but very few actually had mentors.
5. Environment was essential for the majority of them.  Some individuals even had to change their environment to be successful.  Meaning, they had to change jobs, move somewhere else, find a new church, etc.  
6. Personality typing seems to play a critical role in how the person initiates and maintains their behavior change.  As a result, learning how to personality type and how to use their personality type to help them with behavior change is probably something I will look into further. 
7. For the corporate wellness coordinator:  a handful of individuals said that their workplace wellness program was useful or integral in their success.  Whether it was a weight loss program, smoking cessation program or an on-site fitness facility, these people said it made it very easy to start or continue their behavior change.

All in all, it was an interesting book.  Not something I would put at the top of my reading list, but definitely a useful tool to have and it did spur some thought provoking questions.

Cheers to reading and being more educated!