Did you get 30 minutes of activity today? Did you yesterday? Do you even think you need to be more physically active?

Given that 54 percent of Vermont's population falls into the overweight or obese categories, and that only about 25 percent of Vermonters are getting enough physical activity, the chances are pretty good that you need to get more activity.

But how ready are you to change your lifestyle? Are you even thinking about making changes?

In the world of health care, people's willingness to make lifestyle changes is discussed in terms of the "Readiness to Change" model developed by Dr. James Prochaska and his colleagues in 1983.

These researchers came up with a five-stage model that describes where a person is in terms of his willingness to change his lifestyle.

Read on, and ask yourself what state of readiness you are in to make a healthy lifestyle change.


The first stage in the Readiness to Change model is "Precontemplation."

In this stage, ignorance is bliss, and people see no need to change their habits, even if a physician has recommended changes. For people in the Precontemplation stage, the possibility of serious health problems in the future is not enough of a motivator to change their behavior today.

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