Introduction
What many fail to recognize when looking into their own dietary habits is that they usually will stem from three important ideas to recognize which include: a few environmental cues, emotional responses, or learned behaviours over time. This unit is going to provide you with some practical strategies that you can use to recognize and address these habits. We are going to show you how to avoid overloading your busy schedule and life by trying to add massive changes to your diet. Instead, we will demonstrate how manageable small changes can have meaningful effects on your long-term health.
Learning Outcomes
1. Identify the causes of unhealthy dietary habits – Recognize how environmental cues, emotional responses, and learned behaviours contribute to poor eating habits.
2. Analyze personal dietary influences – Reflect on how one’s environment, emotions, and habits impact food choices.
3. Apply the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) to dietary change – Understand the stages of behavior change (pre contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance) and how they relate to improving eating habits.
4. Implement strategies for breaking unhealthy eating habits – Learn and apply practical approaches to adopting healthier dietary choices.
Please watch the video posted below by Edukale by Lucie
After watching Edukale by Lucie’s video, take some time to reflect on how your environment and/or emotional influences impact your eating. Once you have done that, please write a quick 100-word reflection on how your environment or other factors impact your diet.
| Reflection Response Forum |
When breaking unhealthy dietary habits, we need to understand the psychological factors that contribute to these behaviours and how to implement effective strategies to address them. A good approach is the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), which outlines the stages individuals progress through while actively changing their behaviour. These stages are: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Research indicates that interventions tailored to an individual’s specific stage can significantly enhance the adoption of healthier eating habits.
We can also reduce the intake of ultra-processed foods, which have been associated with increasingly alarming health effects. A study found that participants who decreased their consumption of these foods experienced weight loss, improved mood, and increased energy levels. The study also highlighted that ultra-processed foods, which constitute a significant portion of many diets, are linked to various chronic conditions.
By combining an understanding of everything covered in this module, you will hopefully be able to recognize what stage of change you are in and apply strategies that support your transition toward a healthier lifestyle. With the knowledge from this course, you will be able to change your life for the better with tools learned form this course that help you create a sustainable lifestyle that you can use to change your health for the better. You can do it!
References
Edukale by Lucie. (2022, November 15). How to break bad eating habits & develop healthy ones. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMz71zrVQSc
Obesity Science & Practice. (2025). Study reveals what could happen to your body when you eat fewer ultra-processed foods. Health.com. https://www.health.com/what-happens-when-you-eat-fewer-ultra-processed-foods-11689787
Prochaska, J. O., & Velicer, W. F. (1997). The transtheoretical model of health behavior change. American Journal of Health Promotion, 12(1), 38–48. https://doi.org/10.4278/0890-1171-12.1.38
OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (March 10 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
Editing done by (Open AI, 2025)