[Changing health behavior]

This paper describes the process of changing health behavior or lifestyle experienced by individuals who already have succeeded in changing smoking habits, nutrition habits and/or exercise habits. Eighteen persons were interviewed about their experiences. The process starts with an awareness of a concrete threat to health or with a dissatisfaction with the self. Social support, physical and psychological feed-back are the most important helping factors and loneliness, bad models and conflict in given information are threatening factors. The conclusion is that health care professionals play an important part in the process of change if the life situation and the needs of the individual are understood and if right kind of help is offered.