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Mettler’s Healthy Lifestyle Program focuses
on teaching participants behavior change strategies which lead to lasting weight
management, reduced risk factors for disease, and improved health. Nutrition
and exercise are mainstays in the program, and the course has been successful
because it includes research-based behavior change strategies. Participants
are taught how to continue to practice what they learn long after the course
ends.
Weight Loss and
Disease Prevention Through Lifestyle Change
Life long change follows a specific
sequence. A leading psychologist, James Prochaska Ph.D. recognized long ago
that those people who make changes and maintain these changes follow a sequence
of activities and attitudes before finally adopting permanent change. This model
for change, the Transtheoretical Model, states that change is a process, and
that certain processes facilitate movement through the various stages of change.
These stages of change as applied to exercise and nutrition are:
Transtheoretical or Stages
of Change Model
| 1. Pre-contemplation |
Not exercising or practicing good nutrition and not intending
to start. |
| 2. Contemplation |
Not exercising or practicing good nutrition but intending to start |
| 3. Preparation* |
Exercising or practicing good nutrition occasionally but not regularly
and intending to within the next thirty days |
| 4. Action |
Exercising or practicing good nutrition regularly for less than six months. |
| 5. Maintenance |
Exercising or practicing good nutrition for more than six months. |
*Most participants are at this stage
at program entry.
A Different Approach
to Fitness and Nutrition
The amount of progress people make
in an exercise and/or nutrition program is directly related to the stage they
are in when starting a program. Those individuals ready for the “Action”
phase represent just 15%-20% of the available population needing to make a change,
while those in the “Contemplation” and “Preparation”
phase represent 80%-85% of those likely to change in the future. While continuing
to embrace the traditional health and fitness approach of “one size fits
all” we are missing the needs of the 80%-85% of the individuals who could
benefit from healthy behavior changes. Most programs assume an incorrect level
of participant preparedness and people are led with a high-energy, action oriented
approach which usually leads to counter productive programming.
The bottom line is that the interactions, materials, presentation style, and
most of what is done or said to the participant should match the stage they
are in. Many participants will drop out of an exercise program, or fail to lose
weight because there is a mismatch between the type of program offered (i.e.,
action oriented) and the level of motivation of the client (i.e., contemplator).
The Healthy Lifestyle Program at the Mettler Center is designed for those in
the contemplation and preparation stages. Participants succeed in making positive
change because the interventions match the stage of change.
Matched Interventions
Following is a list of interventions which are customized to address the needs
of the contemplator and preparer:
- Verbal delivery of information
- Ratio of time spent in instruction phase of personal training sessions
- Educational materials
- Location and atmosphere of group meetings
- Type of exercise program
- Amount of exercise or nutritional change prescribed
- Type and complexity of home-based projects
- Amount of support in weekly eCoaching and personal training
- Progress monitoring
- Goal-setting
Weekly Program Components
Each week participants take steps to begin to move from one stage to the next.
Program components include:
- Ninety minute group meetings on alternating weeks
- Hands-on projects
- Interactive lessons
- Nutrition, exercise, and educational assignments
- Personal fitness training and phone or eCoaching on alternating weeks
- Goal setting in areas of: nutrition and exercise
The teaching style utilizes a hands-on, light-hearted and “out of the
box” format in order to create a course which is interesting, fun, and
effective. It is the doing of all lesson material that sets it apart from anything
else currently done at the Mettler Center. The incorporation of the concepts
from the Cooper Institute’s “Coaching Healthy Behaviors” course
creates behavior change programs which are unique in nature and effective both
for weight management program and disease prevention.
The Healthy Lifestyle Program
The Healthy Lifestyle Program is designed
for those who:
- Are of average health and not at risk for serious disease
- Want to lose weight to improve their health status
- Are not currently exercising, or exercising moderately
- Eat out more than two times weekly
- Do not currently practice good nutritional habits
This program success is largely due to the high level of accountability (three
points of contact each week) and to the “break the ice” theory stating
that “once a client performs the new lifestyle activity with the instructor
in a positive, non-intimidating environment, he/she is likely to repeat the
activity independently and with confidence.”
To speak to a Lifestyle Coach about
the Healthy Lifestyle Program, please call 217.356.6543.
Feedback
“I just wanted to thank you
for changing my life for the better. As a mother of three, I’m busy as
ever and seem to have no time…I didn’t realize how just modifying
and tweaking choices in my life could not only help me lose weight, but give
me more energy and make me better in every way! Now I can see the positive effects
in my home and family life and look forward to my high school reunion as the
weight comes off and stays off. Within a month of attending the Healthy Lifestyle
Program, I lost six pounds! I’m deciding it’s time for a change
and getting awesome support and service from the fine folks at the Mettler Center.
I learned I can do it, and I am! I recommend it all the time and hope HLP continues
to change lives for the better for years to come! You did mine! Thanks Mettler!”
Diane Ducey,
Lite Rock 97.5 WHMS
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