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Self-coaching I-SSEE Step 1 Identify
1.Identify your most powerful motivations:
Which benefits that you could receive from increased physical activity are most motivating to you?
What other motivations do you have for increasing physical activity?
- Opening new opportunities for engagement with friends? Partner? Children? Grandchildren?
- Being a good role model for children, grandchildren, or others?
- Opening new opportunities for adding some fun to your life?
- New opportunities for work or improved performance at work?
- Desire to be able to live on your own as long as possible?
- Desire to lower your risk for cardiovascular disease or cancer?
- Desire to stay mentally sharp and reduce your risk for cognitive decline such as Alzheimer’s?
- What others can you think of?
2.Identify your overall goals:
What are your longterm goals with respect to physical activity?
3. Identify your strengths and resources:
Identify your personal strengths:
- Could you use your strength as a social butterful to draw friends into exercising together?
- Could you use a personal strength of being comfortable being alone to get you started on some solo activities?
- Do you have a history of enjoying some types of physical activities? Were you athletic at some point in your life?
- Are you competitive? etc.
Identify resources:
- Do you have a family member or friend (or more than one) who can be an exercise buddy?
- Is your neighborhood safe to walk in? Is there a nearby greenspace or park?
- Does your community offer free or low cost exercise options? Hint: pretend you are going on vacation in your town and use a search engine to look up “Things to do in ___your area____” or “Hiking trails in___your area____You might find some resources you never knew were there.
- Is there a senior center in your area? Many offer a variety of physical activites!
4.Identify your readiness to change:
On a scale of 0-5 where 0 is “No way” and 5 is “Totally ready to go!”
- How ready are you to at least start to think about increasing your level of physical activity?
- How ready are you to take a baby step or two toward increasing your level of physical activity?
- How ready are you to make at least one significant change in your level of physical activity?
You are not stuck with your current level of readiness. You can nudge yourself forward.
- Let’s say you’ve given yourself a 5 for willingness to think about changing .You can begin to expand your “thinking about changing” by exploring different types of exercise you might be interested in: read articles, watch Youtube videos of seniors who are physically active , listen to TED talks or podcasts, flip through a magazine oriented toward exercise while you’re waiting for a prescription or standing in line at the grocery store, check your senior center listings to see if any of their physical activities interest you. Immerse yourself in thinking about your goal. This in itself will be a step toward change.
- Perhaps you’ve already been thinking about changing, but you gave yourself a “3” for your readiness to take some baby steps. You can ask yourself, “What would it take for me to feel like I was at a 4?”
5. Identify your current level of activity:
1.Do you spend most of your day sitting with little movement? Go to next steps for this level of activity.
2.Do you do some physical activity that is 1) aerobic exercise + some that is 2) muscle-strengthening exercise but not as much as recommended by the guidelines in either category? (Less than 150 minutes of aerobic activity and less than twice a week of muscle-strengthening activity? Go to next steps for this level of activity.
3.Do you meet the guidelines for aerobic activity (at least 150 minutes a week) but do muscle-strengthening exercise less than 2x week? Go to next steps for this level of activity.
4. Do you meet the guidelines for muscle-strengthening exercise at least 2x per week, but do less than 150 min. of aerobic activities ? Go to next steps for this level of activity.
5: Do you meet the guidelines for both aerobic and muscle strengthening activity (at least 150 minutes of aerobic activity a week and muscle-strengthening exercise at least 2x week) but want to do more? Go to next steps for this level of activity.
Step 2: Seek reliable information
The information for older adults in this section is taken from the 2018 Health Guidelines: p These guidelines were developed by the Health and Human Services Department and are the result of evaluation and analysis of the best scientific literature on the impact of physical activity on health. It’s trustworthy!
Healthy older adults who plan gradual increases in their weekly amounts of physical activity generally do not need to consult a health care professional before becoming physically active. However, health care professionals and physical activity specialists can help people attain and maintain regular
physical activity by providing advice on appropriate types of activities and ways to progress at a safe and steady pace.
If you are an older adult and mostly sit with little movement or do some physical activity, but not enough to meet the guidelines:
Older adults should increase their amount of physical activity gradually. It can take months for those with low fitness to gradually meet their activity goals. To reduce risk of injury, it is important to increase the amount of physical activity gradually over a period of weeks to months.
For example, an inactive person could start with a walking program consisting of 5 minutes of slow walking several times each day, 5 to 6 days a week. The length of time could then gradually be increased to 10 minutes per session, 3 times a day, and the walking speed could be increased slowly.
Muscle-strengthening activities should also be gradually increased over time. Initially, these activities can be done just 1 day a week starting at a light or moderate intensity. Over time, the number of days a week can be increased to 2, and then possibly to more than 2. Each week, the intensity can be increased slightly until it becomes moderate or greater.
