How to Make a Nutrition Change: A Behavior Change Activity
How to Get Closer to Making a Nutrition Change: A Simple Activity From Function Thru Fitness
Most people who want to eat better are not lacking information. They know vegetables are better than chips and that a cleaner diet would improve how they feel. What they are lacking is the bridge between knowing and actually doing — and that bridge is built through understanding where you are in the behavior change process right now.
In this video, John Blaser, NASM-CPT, NASM-CES, NASM-FNS, CBS at Function Thru Fitness in Green Bay, WI walks through a practical written activity designed to move you from the earliest stage of behavior change into genuinely considering a nutrition shift. It takes a blank sheet of paper, a pen, and about ten minutes.
The Five Stages of Behavior Change
Before the activity, understanding the framework it is built on makes the exercise more useful. Behavior change researchers have identified five stages that people move through when adopting a new habit:
Pre-contemplative — you are not seriously considering change. Your current habits feel comfortable, manageable, and not stressful enough to disrupt. Most people who say they want to eat better but have not made any movement toward it are here.
Contemplative — you are genuinely weighing whether change is worth it. The costs and benefits are in active tension. You have not committed to anything, but you are thinking about it seriously.
Preparation — you have decided to change and are beginning to plan. You might be researching nutrition coaching options, clearing out the pantry, or identifying what the first step looks like.
Action — you are actively making the change. New behaviors are in place, but they have not yet become automatic.
Maintenance — the new behaviors are established and you are working to sustain them over time.
The goal of this activity is not to move someone all the way from pre-contemplative to action in one sitting. It is to move someone at least into the contemplative stage — where the case for change starts to feel more compelling than the case for staying put.
The Four-Square Activity
Take a blank sheet of paper and draw a large cross through the center, creating four equal squares. Label them as follows: top left is pros of status quo, top right is cons of status quo, bottom left is cons of change, bottom right is pros of change.
Work through the squares in order. The sequence matters.
Square One: Pros of Status Quo
Start here. Write down everything you genuinely enjoy about how you eat right now. This is not a trick — it is an honest acknowledgment of why the current pattern exists and persists. It might include the ease and familiarity of current meals, specific foods you enjoy, the absence of meal planning stress, or the social comfort of eating the same things as the people around you.
Naming these honestly is important. If the activity skips this step, the exercise feels like an argument against current habits rather than a genuine exploration of both sides. Starting with the pros of status quo validates why the current pattern is there before examining its costs.
Square Two: Cons of Status Quo
Now write down what the current pattern is costing you. This is often where the real motivation for change lives — reduced energy, inconsistent mental clarity, inflammation, weight, poor sleep, or a gap between how you feel and how you want to feel. These are the costs that are easy to normalize when they develop gradually but significant when named directly.
This square is where the contemplative stage begins to form. The pros of status quo are real — but so are these.
Square Three: Cons of Change
This square is where most approaches to behavior change fail. The cons of change are real, and pretending they are not does not make them go away — it just means they surface as resistance later.
Write down the honest friction points: the time and effort of grocery shopping for new foods, cleaning out the pantry, learning new recipes, building willpower when the old options are still available. If you live with a family, the cons of change include the social and logistical complexity of shifting household eating patterns — whether to involve others, how to manage different preferences, and how much of the change you can realistically sustain alone.
Naming these honestly is what makes the final square land differently.
Square Four: Pros of Change
Now write down what change would actually give you. More vegetables, reduced inflammation, better energy through the day, weight loss, improved mental clarity, better sleep, more consistent performance in training. These are the outcomes that motivated the thought of changing in the first place.
Having worked through the previous three squares first, this list carries more weight than it would have at the start. The pros of status quo have been acknowledged. The cons have been surfaced. The resistance to change has been named. What remains is a clearer picture of what is actually on the other side.
How This Connects to Nutrition Coaching
This activity reflects the kind of approach that defines nutrition coaching at Function Thru Fitness in Green Bay, WI. One of the most important questions to ask a nutritionist early in a coaching relationship is not what someone should eat — it is where they actually are in their readiness to change and what is genuinely standing between them and making a shift.
Nutrition coaching that starts with a plan before that question is answered tends to produce short-term compliance and long-term relapse. Coaching that starts with readiness produces sustainable change because it meets the client where they are and builds from there.
Are there any Green Bay gyms with nutrition coaching services? Function Thru Fitness offers Nutrition Coaching as part of a whole-body approach to health alongside personal training, corrective exercise, and specialty wellness services in Green Bay, WI.
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FAQ’s
What are the five stages of behavior change? The five stages of behavior change are pre-contemplative, contemplative, preparation, action, and maintenance. Pre-contemplative is the earliest stage, where current habits feel comfortable enough that change does not feel necessary. Contemplative is where the costs and benefits of change are being actively weighed. Preparation involves planning and early steps. Action is where new behaviors are in place. Maintenance is where established behaviors are sustained over time.
Why do most people struggle to make a nutrition change? Most people who want to eat better are in the pre-contemplative or early contemplative stage — their current habits feel manageable enough that the discomfort of changing does not yet outweigh the comfort of staying put. The gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it is a readiness gap, not an information gap. Activities that surface both the costs of the status quo and the real friction of change help move people from passive awareness to genuine consideration.
What is the four-square behavior change activity? The four-square activity uses a blank sheet of paper divided into four sections: pros of status quo, cons of status quo, cons of change, and pros of change. Working through them in order moves you from defending current habits to genuinely weighing what change would cost and what it would give you. The sequence is deliberate — naming the resistance honestly before landing on the pros of change is what makes the final square feel different.
What questions should I ask a nutritionist at my first appointment? Key questions to ask a nutritionist early in a coaching relationship include: where am I in my readiness to change, what is realistically standing between me and making a dietary shift, and what does a sustainable approach look like given my lifestyle and household situation. At Function Thru Fitness in Green Bay, WI, nutrition coaching begins with understanding where a client actually is before building a plan.
How does nutrition coaching at Function Thru Fitness work? Nutrition coaching at Function Thru Fitness starts with a personalized consultation — in person or virtually — where the coach takes time to understand current habits, goals, and lifestyle demands before creating individualized recommendations. The approach is built around sustainability, not restriction, and is integrated with each client's training and overall wellness goals.
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