Health Journal #2: Health-Compromising Behaviors

Health-compromising behaviors are described as, “behaviors practiced by people that

undermine or harm their current or future health,” (Book). You may ask, “if someone knows

what they are doing is harmful to their health, why would they keep doing it?” The answer to this

is that many health-compromising behaviors are habits that have been instilled overtime, with

some even being addicting. Many of these behaviors are pleasurable to engage in as well. This

creates a problem, as these behaviors will become immensely difficult to break, or become so

deeply rooted within a person’s life and identity that they do not want to part with the behavior

(Book).

The health-compromising behavior I focused on reducing was the use of my cellphone.

Many studies have been conducted with results indicating that using your cell phone’s for

extended periods of time can affect your health. Overuse of mobile devices can cripple thinking,

increase chances of accidents, affect sleep, cause “text neck” & “smartphone thumb,” heighten

anxiety, cause depression, and impact socialization (https://www.theactivetimes.com/healthy-

living/cell-phone-health). I have been aware for awhile now that the amount of time I spend on

my phone has gotten out of hand. This is something I have known I needed to change, but I knew

it would take a tremendous effort, as I look at my phone use as an addiction.

Using the Screentime feature on my IPhone, I have three weeks of data on phone usage

where I did not attempt to change how often I used my phone. For one week, I went without

using my phone besides for reasons including: texting with family, school-related projects, and a

nightly game of Tetris lasting 20 minutes.

Data

As you can tell from the weekly averages displayed above, the last week (the week I moved into

the action phase) decreased drastically in the amount of time my phone was used.
The average of the first three weeks joined is seven hours and twenty-three minutes. This means

on average before trying to change my habit, I spent seven hours and twenty-three minutes on

my phone daily. Once I attempted to change this behavior, the daily average was reduced to two

hours and fifty-five minutes daily. This is a decrease of 60.43%.

What challenges did you face while trying to monitor and change your chosen behavior?

What was most difficult about this exercise as a whole?

In what stage of change did you see yourself for this behavior when you started this

exercise? Did you change stages during this activity? How did your stage(s) of

change impact your outcomes on this exercise?

Before this exercise, I was in the contemplation stage for months. I knew I had a

problem, but I was not committed to changing it. By starting this exercise, I moved into the

preparation stage, as I was preparing for and committed to decreasing my phone usage but not

yet into the action stage since I needed data for my normal usage beforehand. During the last

week of this activity, I moved into the action stage. I was actively working toward my

commitment of changing my phone usage behavior. Moving from the contemplation stage into

the preparation stage and then into the action stage was the optimal path wanted to decrease my

health-compromising behavior and improve my health. If I had become stuck within a stage, I

could not have moved into the action stage which provides me with the results that I desire.

What role did your thoughts, emotions, and motivation play in your progress towards your

goal?
 This challenge was strictly mental for me; therefore, my thoughts, emotions, and

motivation played the main role in my progress. I one hundred percent felt like an addict staring

at something that I could not have. Even the fact that I knew I could not be on my phone, made

me want to be on my phone even more. I found myself pawning for an excuse to use my phone.

On some days, my emotions made the urge to use my phone stronger. I would get lonely, bored,

and unmotivated to do any homework; therefore, I wanted to use my phone as comfort and to

pass time. These emotions are very strong ones, and not having a phone in my hand seemed to

amplify them. Sometimes my motivation for this project would drop as well. I would think to

myself, “Why am I putting myself through this?” This made it very tempting to just scroll and

keep scrolling through my phone. Overall, my thoughts, emotions, and motivation affected me

very negatively and made this much more challenging for me.

How likely are you to maintain the changes you have made so far? Why or why

not? Do you expect to keep making additional changes to this behavior? If so,

what kinds of changes will you make next, and how will you help yourself be

successful with them based on what you learned from this activity?

If I am being honest with myself, I do not have the self-discipline to currently continue

towards the goal of decreasing my phone usage. Instead, I plan to reenter to action phase once I

am back at home instead of at college. My phone is a comfort to me. I am away from everyone I

love, and I do not socialize much here at school, so I need a way to get through the days. Without

my phone, I just sit in my bed doing nothing but feeling sad and empty. It is a much-needed

distraction for me. However, once I am at home with my family and friends, this challenge will

become much easier for me. I will have people to talk to in person and activities to do. I feel my
phone will be drastically less needed and desired. When the time comes, I believe I will be able

to then set reasonable goals based on my daily routines and construct a plan of action to

accomplish those goals. Since doing this activity, I have a better idea of what kind of structure I

will need to set for myself to become successful. This activity helped me to know when I will

feel most vulnerable to urges and will help me prevent a relapse.

If you were to do this activity again, what would you change next time to help

yourself be more successful?

If I were to do this activity again, I would set stricter boundaries to keep myself from

crossing the lines of what is considered acceptable use and what is not. For example, I believe I

would tell my husband that I will not be checking my phone for messages as often and

attempting to stay off my phone as much as possible. I would also make it harder to have access

to my phone. I would leave it in my room throughout the day while I am in classes and at work.

This would had reduced my usage even more. Another idea for change is to replace my bad habit

with a good one that would distract me. An example of this would be going for a walk if my urge

becomes too strong.

What did you learn from this exercise/activity? How will you apply those lessons

in the future?
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Additional & Raw Data