Workout Behavior Analysis

My workout habits are the behavior that I plan to change. I always want to workout because I know it makes me feel better in many different ways but I can always find an excuse as to why I should not, or cannot go. My specific goal related to this behavior is that I want to spend at least one hour, five days a week doing a combination of cardio and lifting weights. Through doing this, I want to sleep better, increase my mood, increase my energy, feel more physically fit and improve my memory. Some barriers I see to reaching this goal are not having enough time because of homework and studying, feeling too tired, and wanting to hangout with friends instead of going to the gym. Working out is the behavior that I intend to change. The approach

The weeks that I changed my behavior proved to be very busy and exhausting but I followed through with my plan and it has made me realize the control that I have over going to the gym for an hour. My first goal was improving my overall physical fitness, which is hard to see a change in two weeks but I definitely felt better. I mentally felt better because I knew I was doing something good for myself, and I physically felt better because even though some days I felt sore, I still felt great. My energy levels increased a lot as well. I felt less dependent on caffeine and my headaches even decreased a little bit. Instead of taking a nap to give me an energy boost, which would have not done very much for me, working out not only was giving me a natural energy boost but it was helping me positively in other ways. My mood was definitely more positive after my workouts. Before working out every day I may have been a little more moody however because I had to wake up earlier or go to bed later so that I could fit my workout in, but after I noticed a big difference. I felt like I had things under control and I did not feel as stressed even though I may have had other things to do. It also helped me relieve stress or anger and I generally felt like a nicer person after because I could use that time to reflect on my day and the events that took place or were going to take place and it helped clear my mind. Improving sleep quality was another

Even though some days I felt like I could be doing something else more productive, I stayed positive. Keeping a positive attitude about working out made it easier to go and just do it. Regarding the subjective norm aspect, I previously knew that it was seen as normal to workout on an every day basis. My parent’s workout everyday, my friends go to the same gym as me in our hometown and the gym is always busy. I have always viewed it as a normal behavior so that was not a problem for me. I increased my behavioral control greatly, which was the one factor that was really holding me back. My behavior change worked because I am still making time for the gym five days a week, a month after my two-week test period. I decided that it was up to me whether or not I worked out. No one was going to force me to go to the gym, and no one was going to stop me. Even when I ran into obstacles, it was up to me when deciding how to deal with them.
Overall, my behavior change was positive and I reached my goals. By using the Theory of Planned Behavior I was able to examine the aspects that lead to taking action in the behavior. The three aspects, being the attitude toward the behavior, the subjective norm and perceived behavioral control were taken into consideration when making and executing my plan. It made me a happier, healthier