Example

Rodney is 35 years old, overweight, and has high cholesterol and high blood pressure.  He wants to change his diet, and the hardest part is lunch. Every day, he plans to go to the salad bar place but winds up at the fried chicken shack instead. 

He starts by trying to identify the problem. Is it just lack of willpower? He decides the problem is convenience. The chicken joint is the closest food to where he works.

Rodney makes a list of possible solutions. He lists: packing a lunch, buying lunch on the way in, skipping lunch and just resting in the break room at lunch time. 

He picks one to try, making lunch. That doesn’t work, because he doesn’t have time in the morning. He finds a deli on his way to work and buys sandwiches there a couple of times. But he doesn’t like them much – sometimes he goes to the chicken place anyway and eats the sandwich on afternoon break. That’s not helping him lose weight.

Getting frustrated now, Rodney expands his list of resources by sharing his frustration with the Medical Assistant at his next doctor’s appointment.  The MA suggests he go back to Step 1 – maybe he hasn’t found the real problem. 

When Rodney thinks about it, he realizes that what is really pulling him to the chicken shack is that his friends from the office usually go there. He doesn’t want to be left out. “I live alone. I eat dinner alone.” he told the MA. “I don’t want to eat lunch alone, too.” 

He and the MA come up with a plan. She gives him several copies of a nutrition sheet explaining the down sides of eating too much fried food and the benefits of a more balanced diet.  Rodney shared the information with his friends, and now they go to the salad bar twice a week and a pasta place another day. Those places are farther away, so Rodney gets to do some walking. Fried chicken is limited to Thursdays, and in four weeks, he has lost eight pounds.