3.1.2. Participants Concerns
Pre-existing culinary challenges—Participants in the contemplation stage mentioned that several factors they expected to improve upon, such as poor habits and lack of experience and practice in cooking, were also barriers that might make it difficult for them during the program: “I barely cook from scratch; in that way, I think I am getting stuck to an unhealthy lifestyle. I am interested to change this habit” (SP15); “It will be challenging to cook more” (SMC9); “I hardly cook at home for reasons of laziness and boredom from the food after once or twice and I would like to improve on that” (SMC4). Participants also mentioned their fear of not meeting the program requirements and that the fear of failure will stand as a barrier to their success: “I am afraid that I will not be able to cook everything required in the workshop” (SMC36); “Persistence in the menus of an external factor seems to be a very serious challenge” (SMC26).Insufficient self-regulation abilities—Participants in the contemplation stage expressed a number of specific self-regulation challenges in adopting home cooking. Examples include: (1) time management: “accepting the positive benefits it [healthy home cooking] can have if I take the time and effort to do it” (SP29); (2) control: “My challenges are how to not eat as much and portion control” (SP05); “not giving into eating temptations” (SP07); “The challenges [are] not to be tempted to eat junk food” (SMC31); and (3) self-organizing; “I love to cook and love healthy food but find it difficult to plan” (SP22). As noted above from participant expectations, these self-regulatory challenges are also expectations for improvement, thus providing an opportunity for the program to help develop and implement these specific abilities and skills.Implementation in daily routine—Participants in the contemplation stage noted challenges with assimilating home and healthy cooking in their daily life. Emotional challenges were also acknowledged, such as finding motivation: “It will be challenging to cook more” (SMC09); “challenges would be finding Motivation to stick with this program” (SP22)”; “greatest challenge is to find the motivation to cook for myself” (SP28). Other specific challenges were (1) costs: “Worries about the costs of healthy foods” (SP04); “The costs of cooking (for one) are a concern” (SP11); (2) time: “I love to cook and love healthy food but find it difficult to plan and find the time to cook healthy meals at home” (SP22); “I work 3–4 evening shifts per week, and I am a single mom. Time is limited in the schedule” (SP17); and (3) lack of family support: “My challenge will be to make time to prepare meals for myself when I know that at least at the beginning, the rest of the household will not be full partners in the dietary change” (SMC34). Participants also mentioned socializing as a challenge: “ We socialize a lot and it is difficult for me to make healthy choices in restaurants or parties”. (SP31).Overcoming obstacles for sustainability—Despite goals for sustainability in behavior change, participants in the contemplation stage expressed concerns about their ability to persist and maintain their future diet and healthy eating achievements in view of their (negative) past experience: “It has been difficult to stay on track with every diet I have tried on my own. I am hoping that with guidance I can do it this time” (SP25); “I really want to lose weight and how surprising—I have a hard time. Maybe with your help, I will make a difference in my life” (SMC19); being out with friends and making wise eating choices” (SP11); “I am concerned on being successful but without a long-lasting positive impact” (SP24); “My concerns are that I won’t be able to keep up to new good habits” (SP04); “The challenges [are] not to be tempted to eat junk food. To maintain a controlled daily healthy day routine” (SMC31). “the main challenge is perseverance especially after the program ends. Therefore, it is good that this is a long program, and you can get used to it and it will be easy to continue” (SMC22).