I am now on my 6^th week since beginning my behavioural change goal. This is now my 4^th post to demonstrate a cognitive behavioural change which I have succeeded with during the past two weeks. To recap, I chose to implement the Theory of Planned behaviour to drink a minimum of 8 glasses (2L) of water every day. Thus far I have successfully met my goal, however, at times it has been challenging but I was able to overcome the obstacles. The first two weeks I took on a behavioural belief approach to drink water. I had a positive attitude that drinking water would increase my metabolism, detoxify my body and ceased my unnecessary hunger. The cognitive behavioural strategy to drink more water when I am hungry—other than breakfast, lunch or dinner time—has been successful. The second cognitive behavioural strategy was to drink more water to improve my athletic performances. I used a multiple behavioural strategy to drink water and exercise, since both these behaviours go hand in hand.  As I played hockey I would keep drinking water. By doing this, I felt an increase in energy and no longer felt dehydrated. My main behavioural belief for this strategy was based on a longitudinal belief that drinking water will protect my joints, and eventually prevent osteoarthritis and arthritis.        

       These past two weeks have been difficult for me to continue with my goal. Since I just recently fell down the stairs, I hurt my ankle really bad and ended up on crutches for an entire week. The Theory of Planned behaviour with the stage of perceived behavioural control was used in my strategy for this week’s post. This refers to the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behaviour, such that of an anticipated obstacle. Having a sore ankle and being on crutches were obstacles that hindered my ability to drink water and reach my goal. I could not implement my multiple behaviour strategy, because my ankle was so sore I could not exercise. I tried to implement the cognitive behaviour strategy to drink water when hungry. This approach was successful; however, I could not carry a water bottle with me everywhere I went because I was using crutches. The perceived behaviour control has a direct influence on intention, and on behaviour (Sutton, 2002). By holding intentions constant, someone with a high perceived behavioural control is likely to try harder and to continue for longer period of time, than someone who has a low perceived behaviour control. Due to my experiences in the past 4 weeks, I was determined to continue at reaching my goal. I had not anticipated that I would hurt my ankle, and be immobile. So, I had to find an alternative method to drink water and overcome my “crippled” situation. I wanted to know if making something more accessible will make me more inclined to do it. So I searched for a wide variety of researches based around accessibility. I found a study conducted by Bertot et al (2006), who wanted to determine that usability, functionality and accessibility testing of digital library information services provided great services for users. Their findings suggested that the more accessible information is to find, the more the individuals will use those services. Based on evidence provided by Sutton (2002), I proved that having a high perceived behaviour control will allow someone to persevere with their behaviour change—drinking water.

     Since I needed to elevate my ankle and ice it all times anyways – in order to decrease the swelling—I had to remain stationary and needed to take an accessible strategy. So I decided to sit in my kitchen where I had a larger than usual water bottle within arm’s reach. The jug contained ice cubes, so I did not have to get up and refill it with cold water, and I could drink it whenever I felt the need to do so. Since this strategy was only implemented for the last few days of this week, I went approx. 7 days without reaching my goal. This is unfortunate, but I needed an obstacle like that to understand the following: When things are more accessible to you (large jug of water within arm’s reach) it will make you more inclined to do it (drink water and reach my goal). By having a large cold water bottle beside me, I felt the need to drink all of it. Thus, since the cognitive behaviorual strategy was implemented, I succeeded with my goal and I defeated my obstacles (perceived behavioural control).

Sutton (2002). Health Behaviour: Psychosocial Theories

http://freelygiven.org/Adherence/HealthBehavior_PsychosocialTheories.pdf

Bertot et al. (2006). Performance Measurement and Metrics. Functionality, usability and accessibility: lterative user-centered evaluation strategies for digital libraries. 7 (1), pg. 17-28

http://journals2.scholarsportal.info/details-sfx.xqy?uri=/14678047/v07i0001/17_fuaa.xml