If you’re thinking of starting a business, then you would be wise to have a business plan in place. Sure, you can have success without one, but I believe it’s better to have your goals, strategies, financing, etc. planned in advance.
Change Bites: 5 Change Management Strategies to Transform Your Health ($14.95) uses a similar mindset, and that’s why I accepted an offer to review it. Author Marissa S. Costonis, H.C., spent more than a decade in change management consulting for Fortune 500 companies. She used change models and frameworks to simplify her own health transformation, and now she’s sharing her methodology.
One of the main lessons for reaching your goals–such as losing weight, strengthening your immune system or improving your sleep–is to change your habits one bite at a time. Taking incremental steps makes it easier for you to “stomach” change, according to Costonis, who developed a five-strategy process not too dissimilar from a business plan.
For example, in her “Commit” strategy, try initially replacing your Doritos with corn chips and guacamole and then eventually replacing that with nut crackers and hummus.
“(T)he process of creating long-lasting changes in our eating habits is … rarely addressed,” Costonis said in a statement. “Quick wins and fad diets may be sexy, but sustainable food and lifestyle changes using proven change techniques are the only way to transform our health.”
Think of Change Bites as an essential tool you’ll need to achieve long-term success with your health. I appreciate that Costonis provides worksheets in the book to help guide you, and I like the personal anecdotes she shares. In fact, she does a good job of showing you that she understands your potential roadblocks.
By day, Costonis is a Certified Health Coach through her company, Changes Bites, LLC. She conducts individual and group coaching programs as well as workshops.
