Despite our strongest intentions, there are common reasons we may find ourselves defeated in our efforts to make sustainable changes in eating and exercise. We can finally achieve our goals by exploring these areas with a new framework based on the science of sustainable behavior change. “The old story of behavior change is not based on the realities of people’s busy, complex lives. Habit formation is very hard to achieve because behaviors like exercise and eating are impacted by many external factors,” says Michelle Segar, Ph.D., award-winning researcher and author. She introduces a new story of behavior change that sets us up for success based on her “TRAP” and “POP” models. TRAP represents the four common traps that derail us: Temptation, Rebellion, Accommodation, and Perfection. Using the POP process of “Pause, Open and Play”, we can flexibly adapt our plans to fit our day, leading to lasting change. “When you look at something non-judgmentally, you take yourself out of the emotional part and have more cognitive wherewithal to work with it. It’s about valuing the imperfect option that lets us do something instead of nothing.”
