Techniques for Behavior Modification

I.

Provide Incentives to Aid Patients/Clients in Maintaining Commitment:

a. Determine ways to focus attention on successful experiences. A positive comment by the
therapist is helpful, and one can always find something positive to say.
b. Encourage people to tell others are dietary goals. This public commitment often will aid in
maintaining ones course of action.
c. Have the person anticipate problems that might come up and consider possible solutions before a
problem arises. Having a plan ready will make focusing on the goal easier.
d. Concentrate on allowed foods and portions, rather than foods that should be eaten in smaller
portions. Be positive.
e. Keep reminding the person that dietary change is a gradual process. Dietary habits were not
developed in a brief period of time and probably will not be significantly changes in a short time.
Set realistic goals for immediate and long-term change. Encourage successive approximations to
the desired behavior.

II.

Learn Eating Habits and Exercise Habits by Record Keeping:

One cannot change a habit until one knows what it is. Self-monitoring with accurate records of the
foods consumed is necessary for behavioral control of eating. Information to consider recording
would be:
a. What food was eaten
b. Quantity of each food
c. What the person was doing just prior to eating (to help identify cues)
d. Place of eating (cue providing)
e. With whom eating occurs, or alone (cue providing)
f. How the person felt (cue providing)
g. Time of eating (cue providing)
This record keeping exercise can identify the persons patterns of food intake and those cues that are
associated with food consumption as well as the emotional outcome of eating. The person will
become more aware of the environmental stimuli that are associated with eating behavior.

III.

Control the Stimuli (Cues) and Restructure the Environment:

A. Physical Environment:
1. Based on the records kept, have the person identify physical stimuli n the
environment that are associated with, and therefore are cues to, inappropriate
eating behaviors. Different stimuli become associated with the act of eating and
can become signals for appropriate or inappropriate food consumption.
2. Ask the person to identify physical stimuli that could remind him to eat properly.
Examples of these would be charts, graphs, cartoons, signs, etc. The presence of
appropriate foods in the home will probably be the best cue to appropriate eating,
supplemented by the elimination of inappropriate foods.
3. Have the person specify a special place where food should be consumed, such as
at the dining table, and not in front of the TV or kitchen sink.
4. Make those foods that are acceptable in the nutrition plan as attractive as possible.
Use good dishes, crystal, etc. to make dining a pleasant event.
5. Set up shopping trips based on the following suggestions:
a. Shop for food only after eating
b. Use a shopping list
c. Avoid ready-to-eat foods
d. Do not carry more money than needed for shopping list
6. Set up specific plans an activities
a. Substitute exercise for snacking

IV.

V.

b. Eat meals and snacks at schedules times

c. Do not accept food offered by others
d. Store food out of sight
e. Remove food from inappropriate storage areas in the home
f. Use smaller dishes
g. Avoid being the food server
h. Leave the table immediately after eating
i. Discard leftovers
7. Special events and holidays
a. Drink fewer alcoholic beverages
b. Plan eating before parties
c. Eat a low calorie snack before parties
d. Practice polite ways to decline food
e. Do not get discouraged by occasional setbacks
B. Social Environment:
a. Have the person identify the types of social situations which contribute to
poor eating habits. Examples of stimuli are negative statements from
family and friends, social situations where there are expectations for
eating inappropriate foods.
b. Have the person identify the kind of social interactions that would be
supportive of good eating habits and following the nutrition plan. Role
playing can be useful with the person practicing how he will ask others to
help him change his eating habits.
C. Cognitive or Mental Environment:
1. Have the person identify what thoughts and feelings are likely to make attempts to
change eating habits unsuccessful.
2. After the person has identified possible negative thoughts that could lead to
discouragement, help him develop some positive thoughts that can be used to
counteract the negative ones.
3. Avoid setting unreasonable goals.
Change Actual Eating Behavior:
a. Slow down.
Take one small bite at a time.
Put the fork down between mouthfuls.
Chew thoroughly before swallowing.
Take a break during the meal. Stop eating completely for a short period.
b. Leave some food on the plate.
c. Control snacks.
Save allowable foods from meals for snacks.
Establish behaviors incompatible with eating.
Prepare snacks the way one prepares meals one a plate.
Keep a quantity of low calorie foods, such as raw vegetables, on hand to use. Have them
ready to eat and easy to get.
d. Instruct the person that when he eats, he should not be performing any
other act. The cues associated with eating should be restricted to that act,
so one should not eat while reading, sewing, watching television, etc.
Change Exercise Behavior:
a. Make exercise routine.
b. Increase gradually.
c. Find activities that they like.
d. Keep records daily

Source: The Dietitians Guide