William Maw

Elissa Stevens

Assignment 1: Self Direction

HEAL 1130

October 20th, 2016

Self-Direction Project: Improve Gym Schedule

I. Introduction
There are a number of things that I would like to improve as far as my habits and behaviours go.
One of these such things though is my ability to keeping a consistent and effective workout
schedule. Unfortunately, due to numerous reasons I have been unable from returning to the
gym and it is namely due to my own lack of planning that this has happened. As a result, I plan
on making my targeted behaviour my constant excuse making to avoid going to the gym. It is
through this project I hope to not only return to gather data, but to also bring exercise back into
my regular routine.

My physical health is one of the most important things to me and Id like to improve and restore
my previous gym going habits to better that. Its always been something that I truly hold dear
and I feel that this is the perfect opportunity to make exercising a more crucial part of my life
again. During my first year of college I experienced a significant decline in the amount of time I
had to exercise. However this year I have more experience being a post secondary student and
therefore look forward to enjoying both a successful academic career as well as an outlet for
exercising.

While I have a great desire to return to the gym, I do have limiting factors regarding it. Due to
recent injuries Ive sustained Im unable to participate in cardio or intense leg exercises. So as I
change my behaviour Im going to have to keep these restrictions in mind and adapt my
exercise regimen accordingly. On the same note though Ive also lost a lot of muscular strength
and endurance so Im going to have to slowly reintroduce myself to exercising as to not further
any of my previous injuries.

Goal: Go to the gym three times a week.

Sub goal: Stop making excuses not to go to the gym.

II. Method
When it comes to avoiding the gym, Ive made more than my fair share of excuses. These range
from being overly careful about a healed injury, saying I wont have time to get a full work out
and even claiming that Im just not in the mood. While some of these may have their validity in
certain situations, its difficult to justify them with how often Ive used them. As a result the first
behaviour I have to target is my ability to dodge going to the gym with superficial excuses. I
realized that primarily the reason I avoid going to the gym is facing the regression thats taken
place over the past couple months, therefore if I dont recognize it isnt real. However a
consequence to this behaviour is I live in this endless loop where Im getting less healthy and
continue to deny that I need to go to the gym and so on and so forth. I continue to feel like Im
letting myself down and putting on more weight.

As a result my strategy includes addressing my antecedents, finding ways to work around these
behaviours and providing reward consequences to following through with my changed
behaviour.
Increasing Awareness: I mark each day Im planning on going to the gym in my planner the
week before, this helps because I keep my planner on me every day for school. I also set up an
alarm on my to remind when I am going to the gym both an hour before hand and the exact time
Id like to be there.
Controlling Antecedents: I am going to reinforce my wanted behaviour by rewarding myself by
both getting assistants from a friend who also has the dates and times of when I want to go to
the gym so she will keep telling me to go until I do. I also planned on putting a dollar in my
chequing account every time I do follow through with going as a little reward for myself.
Change Behaviours: Seeing the progress I was making both in losing weight as well as gaining
muscle were good reinforcements to continue going. It got to a point where I was unwilling not
to go if I had scheduled and didnt want to make excuses anymore.
Reinforcing Consequences: In order to keep up with this behaviour I reinforced each week that I
had either successfully gone to the gym every day I planned for or worked out at home. Doing
this took the form of allowing me a half hour of Netflix at home every weekend for every workout
I got in during the week. If I went every day I managed to get an hour and a half in and would
reduce it accordingly if I missed a day.
Dealing with Problems: There were a few days during the weeks I adapted this behaviour that I
was unable to go the gym for entirely legitimate reasons. As a result I did what exercising I could
at home to suffice and made sure to try and go every day the following week.

Schedule:
The days listed below are the ones I have regularly scheduled to go the gym as they work the
most effectively with my class schedule. I have also included a description of each days regular
events and the gaps in which I plan on working out.
.
Monday:
Due to my first class scheduled to start at ten in the morning, I plan on getting up early in the
morning by setting an alarm on for seven am. Then getting dropped off at the schools gym so I
can start exercising by eight am and then have ample time to go to class when I leave at nine
thirty am.

Wednesday:
Due to class ending at twelve thirty pm I have ample time to go exercise before any serious
crowd forms at the schools gym. Therefore I will set an alarm to eat a lunch in between my
morning theory class and lab class and then another alarm to remind to head right over to the
gym after my lab class.

Friday:
In order to avoid sleeping in on the day I have off school I have an alarm set on my phone at
seven am in order to get up and eat breakfast so I can be dropped off at the gym. Then walk my
way home and return home to get as much homework as done as possible.

III. Results:
The graph below displays the number of times I planned on going to the through the weeks I
recorded data (orange line). While the graph also displays the number of times I actually was
able to go to the gym during the week (blue line). While I was only able to make it entirely three
days a week three times this experiment has renewed my love of going to the gym so I will be
less likely to make excuses in the foreseeable future.

(Weekly schedule) Below is a recorded list of weeks that I gathered my data from and
attempted to go to the gym for my three day schedule.

End of Week One (September 12th to 18th) : Unfortunately I was unable to go to the gym on
Friday September 16th due to overexertion, so I did some light stretching at home to help
improve my situation.

End of Week Two (19th to 25th): Due to still feeling some muscular pain from the previous
week, I was unable to go Monday September 19th. As a result I continued to do some stretching
and light exercise at home in order to keep myself organized.

End of Week Three (26th to October 2nd): This week I managed to attend the gym each day
and complete the necessary course work.

End of Week Four (3rd to 9th): This week I was able to exercise at the gym each day this
week. My muscles have adapted to the regular exertion appropriately.
End of Week Five (10th to 16th): This week I was unable to go to the gym on Monday the 10th
of October due to being out of town for Thanksgiving events with family. However I was able to
go the rest of the week by properly planning and making sure the time I need is available.

End of Week Six (17th to 20th): Being the last week of the assignment Im unable to finish
logging the entirety of the assignment, however I have been able to go to the gym on both
Monday October 17th and Wednesday October 19th.

IV. Discussion
Preparing
Doing this assignment helped me realize how capable I am of changing behaviours that I find
are either detrimental or even possibly harmful. While doing so may seem like a very
overwhelming task, once broken down and analyzed I found it much easier to both understand
the reasons behind my behaviour and rectify it.

I had quite a mixture of emotions when this first started. I was excited about the prospect of
changing things up and taking charge of my physical health again, but also concerned that this
would interfere with my scholastic success. Nevertheless I was not prepared to let these
feelings get in the way of me trying to take my physical health into my own hands.

The Process:
In the beginning my tracking was less consistent than I would've liked it which I take ownership
of because I think I still wasn't sure I could follow through with it. Half way through the second
however, I started taking things more seriously and wanting to see real change. I began going to
the gym more regularly and even felt guilty if I was incapable of going due to legitimate reasons.

One of the most difficult challenges for me was actually my inability to properly organize my
time. I would be too worried about getting class and assignment work done that I would find
myself too stressed out to go to the gym. So thankfully by solving that behaviour I was able to
not only improve my physical health but my organizational skills as well. This was no easy task
however and it took a great deal of organization and patience to manipulate my schedule in a
way that would accommodate these two very important facets of my life.

Another huge challenge took the form of assignments and holidays which often made for the
most difficult distractions. I found myself trying to finish an assignment or participate in family
events which while were very important, unfortunately took my attention and time away from my
goals of exercising. This resulted in exercising at home which was good as a short term
solution, I would find difficult to do long term.

The Conclusion:
How Successful I was at Changing the Behaviour:
By completing this assignment I have learned a lot about the process of acknowledging poor
behaviors and making steps to change them. It may take time and effort to do so in the form of
adapting new behaviours, sticking to routines and holding oneself accountable but its all well
worth it in the end. I faced my fair share of challenges and Im very well aware that this was not
a flawless process. Despite these challenges Im happy that I was able to adjust this behaviour
while at the same time, completing a school assignment. Doing so not only gave me the skills to
return as a frequent gym regular but also the skills to tackle other behaviours that I feel are
adverse to my lifestyle.

The Side Effects That Took Place:

While completing this project I found it made quite an impact not just on my physical health but
other areas of my health as well. Firstly, by doing this assignment I was able to earn ninety
dollars by regularly exercising and put it into by checking account. As a result I can spend it guilt
free knowing that I earned the money by keeping myself devoted to changing my behaviour.
Secondly, I earned enough free time to watch an entire netflix series over the course of the
week without feeling like there were other things I might need to do. Lastly, this assignment
helped me restructure my behaviours and create a healthier routine for myself. I am satisfied
that I was able to keep myself accountable and honest as well as find meaningful techniques of
controlling my behaviour through this assignment.

The Challenges that I Faced:

As I stated previously, I faced a number of obstacles while trying to modify and change my
target behaviour. In the beginning I found it very difficult to go to the gym regularly or even track
my progress. I would ignore my obligations in favour of relaxing at home and tell myself that
going to the gym would only make my life more difficult. I was stuck in the endless cycle of
ignoring how I felt about my physical health and acting like there was nothing wrong. Sadly the
challenges didnt end there, a lot of the time I was busy with school work or family obligations.
So while not all challenges that I faced were negative reflections of my own dedication, they still
had a negative impact on my success. After completing this assignment though Ive gained a
greater understanding for the challenges one can face when accomplishing such a goal and
how to adapt to them. As a result, I plan on trying to hold myself more accountable for the
challenges I create for myself as well as creating plans and solutions for these self inflicted
errors while changing a behaviour.

What this Assignment Helped Teach me:

This assignment helped give me perspective on how challenging a behaviour actually is to
change and an idea of what can be expected when trying to help others in the future. Its also
helped me highlight the importance of recognizing behaviours that are harmful, finding the
reasoning behind them and creating a plan to change for the better. After completing this
assignment I feel much more informed on how it may seem very daunting to change a
behaviour, if an individual is willing to put forth a plan and act on it, it can be achieved. I plan on
using the tools given to me by this project and ones similar to it, to tackle real life obstacles that
not only I deal with but also the obstacles of those I work with that deal with behaviours that are
detrimental or harmful to a successful and happy lifestyle.