Small Changes, Big Results

Author:  Judy Stephens

Major Program: Food and Nutrition

Dr. Michael Craig Miller, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/improve-your-health-by-starting-with-one-simple-change), states, "There is a lot of power in starting slow and small.”   

The Laurel County Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP-Ed) Assistant focused on this idea while conducting a 7-week program using the Healthy Choices for Every Body curriculum developed by the University of Kentucky Nutrition Education Program. This program seeks to educate individuals and support behavior modifications that can help adults build healthy habits, improve nutritional intake, be more physically active, and develop the skills they need to implement health changes - all within the boundaries of a limited budget and resources. At each weekly class, participants were encouraged to make one lifestyle change and report back the following week.  

The end results were that 61% ate more fruit, 57% ate more vegetables, 57% drank soda less often and 70% made changes to be more active. When sharing these numbers with some of the participants they agreed it was easier and less overwhelming to make one small change than changing everything all at once.