HW300 Unit 10 Lifestyle Medicine Prevention Plan Example

One Year, Six Pillars, Built With Him: A Unit 10 Prevention Plan for an El Paso Business Owner With Fatty Liver

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

HW300: Disease Prevention and Lifestyle Medicine

Unit 10 Prevention Plan

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The client, family, schedule and figures are composite; the guidelines and studies cited are real, and medical decisions remain the physician's.

Ruben's Own Goal

Asked what he wanted, Ruben did not mention his liver enzymes. He said he wanted to be well enough to keep running the business until his son could take it over, and not to end up on insulin like his father. The plan is built around that goal. His physician's goals, reversing the fat in his liver and keeping his glucose out of the diabetes range, serve it.

Overall Targets

A 20-pound weight loss, about 9 percent, over twelve months; waist below 40 inches; triglycerides below 150 and blood pressure below 130/85 by month six; and glucose markers back in the normal range by the end of the year. A loss this size sits close to the band where repeat liver biopsies improved most in lifestyle studies (Vilar-Gomez et al., 2015).

The Six Pillars

Healthful eating. No regular soda by week eight; plain or lightly sweetened coffee; packed lunches three days a week; half the dinner plate vegetables; cooking with olive oil, following the Mediterranean-style handout.

Physical activity. Morning walks building from 15 to 30 minutes five days a week over twelve weeks, plus two short strength sessions, moving indoors in the hottest months, to reach the national target of 150 minutes a week (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018).

Restorative sleep. Lights out by eleven to allow close to seven hours before the alarm; screens off 30 minutes before; any sleep apnea evaluation his physician orders.

Stress management. A five-minute breathing break between calls and no business calls after 9:00 p.m., with the on-call technician taking emergencies.

Avoiding risky substances. Alcohol reduced or stopped as his physician advises, with nonalcoholic beer during weekend games. He already quit smoking.

Positive social connection. His brother joins him in nonalcoholic beer for a month, the family stops buying soda, the church men's group adds a Saturday walk and the shop's refrigerator holds sparkling water.

Every pillar in the plan has a name attached to it besides Ruben's: his wife, his brother, his son, his pastor or his technicians.

Adherence Methods

Self-monitoring with a one-page weekly log on the refrigerator, which his daughter checks on Sunday nights; self-monitoring is consistently linked with weight loss (Burke et al., 2011). Three written if-then plans for his riskiest moments, the gas station, the second beer and the late phone call. A next step chosen by Ruben at each two-weekly review. Motivational interviewing in those reviews, especially around alcohol.

Calendar by Season

October to January, cooler months. Introduce drinks, alcohol and walking changes; this is when the plan should make its fastest progress.

February to May. Add the eating pattern changes and strength sessions; recheck markers at month six in April.

June to September, peak season. Hold gains rather than add new changes; walks move to the indoor track or shrink to 10 minutes on long days; the review calls continue but may be shorter.

Markers and Checkpoints

Weekly weight and log; home blood pressure if his physician agrees; physician visits and blood work at months three, six and twelve; a full review of the plan with Ruben and his wife at months six and twelve.

Referral Points

His physician decides on medication, further liver testing and sleep apnea evaluation. Ruben will contact his physician promptly for chest pain, unusual breathlessness, yellowing of the skin or eyes, or if he finds he cannot cut back on alcohol. The plan continues alongside any medical treatment.

The Kitchen-Table Meeting

The plan was written at Ruben's kitchen table with his wife, over about an hour. We started with his own goal, then went pillar by pillar, and for each one he chose the first step from two or three options. His wife added details only she knew, such as which days dinner can be earlier and which store sells the sparkling water he likes. The children joined at the end and claimed the job of checking the log. That meeting is why the plan has names attached to every pillar, and it is the best predictor that the plan will be followed.

What Could Go Wrong

A busy summer could undo early progress, which is why summer is planned as a holding season. Family members might drift back to old habits; the monthly family dinner review keeps everyone involved. If weight loss stalls for two months, the review will look for the missing piece rather than adding pressure.

Conclusion

The plan sets one year of goals across all six pillars of lifestyle medicine, introduced in an order that fits Ruben's seasons, supported by named people and tracked with simple tools and the markers his physician checks. It serves his own goal, staying well enough to hand the business to his son, and keeps medical decisions with his physician.

References

Burke, L. E., Wang, J., & Sevick, M. A. (2011). Self-monitoring in weight loss: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 111(1), 92-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2010.10.008

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2018). Physical activity guidelines for Americans (2nd ed.). https://health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/physical-activity-guidelines

Vilar-Gomez, E., Martinez-Perez, Y., Calzadilla-Bertot, L., Torres-Gonzalez, A., Gra-Oramas, B., Gonzalez-Fabian, L., Friedman, S. L., Diago, M., & Romero-Gomez, M. (2015). Weight loss through lifestyle modification significantly reduces features of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Gastroenterology, 149(2), 367-378. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2015.04.005