Realistic : Don’t expect to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger tomorrow if you’re 100 pounds overweight today. Make sure that your goals are based in reality. It might be nice to have a muscular physique – and it may certainly be possible – but it takes time and determination and doesn’t happen overnight.
Safe : Your health goals need to be safe for you! Be sure to include your physician in any major health decisions you make. Don’t switch to an all water diet to lose weight. A balanced life is going to be the most helpful when it comes to losing weight and achieving long term health & fitness.
Holistic : Be sure to set goals for all of the areas of your life. Just changing your diet may be a good start but if you’re not changing how much you work out, and how much rest you get, you will not get the full benefit you want in life.
Achievable : Goals need to be achievable. Don’t make a goal that is impossible to achieve. “I want legs so strong I can jump to the moon” is not an achievable
goal. You should set goals that you can accomplish but that require some work. If you accomplish them too easily, you didn’t set them high enough. If you never accomplish any of your goals, you’re setting them too high. With practice, you’ll find a nice balance.
Action oriented: A goal that says “I want to win the lottery” is not going to help you win the lottery. In the same way, a goal like “I want to lose 10 pounds” is a pretty good goal but there are better goals that are actually tied to specific actions. Rather than setting goals that are the result (like losing 10 pounds), instead, set goals that are the actions (like, “I’m going to work out 3 times a week” or “I’m going to eat 3 balanced meals a day”).
Measurable : This is where a lot of people set health and fitness goals that fail. You need to set goals that are measurable. A goal like “I want to get healthy” is a nice goal to have but you’ll have no idea if you’re there or not. A much better goal is one that says, “I will eat 5-6 balanced healthy meals a day with X amount of calories per meal”. How do you make your goals measurable? Include numbers. Examples might include your body weight, the number of workout repetitions you can do, the amount of weight you can lift, the number of meals you eat per day, the portions in each meal, the calories in each meal, the balance in each meal, how many snacks you eat and of what kind, how frequently you work out each week and for how long, how many glasses of water you drink each day, how many hours of sleep you get each night, etc. etc.
Time oriented : Similar to having a measurable goal, you also need to have your goal tied to a time. If your goal is to work out 4 times a week, but you never set a time, you have less motivation to work out. The result, then, becomes the oftenheard phrase: “I’ll start tomorrow.” But tomorrow never comes. Instead, a goal like “I want to work out 4 times a week for the next 8 weeks” is anchored to a
time and you are more likely to start today, and keep it up.
Fun: As soon as fitness and health become unpleasant, we run the risk of letting them go and falling back into bad habits. Make it fun.
SeeAppendix 3 – Making healthy living fun for some ideas.
Rewarding : Your goals should have a reward tied to them to help motivate you. Be sure that you make the reward equivalent to the difficulty of the goal so that harder goals get better rewards. However, don’t create rewards that will negate all the hard work you do (i.e., if I eat a balanced meal today, I will reward myself with a steak sandwich and a pound of fries).
Short enough that you’ll remember them : If you have a goal that’s too long, it’s hard to remember to do it. A short goal becomes something that you can remember and easily say over and over again. Don’t forget to write it out and post it everywhere!
Success tip : Rather than creating one goal with a long time frame, create several smaller goals. For example, rather than creating a goal that says you want to work out 4 days a week for the next 3 years, instead make several goals in a series of steps:
1. Work out 3 times a week for 1 month.
2. Work out 3 times a week for 3 months in a row.
3. Work out 4 times a week for 3 months in a row.
4. Work out 4 times a week for 6 months in a row.
5. …etc.
Here are some example goals. Use them as inspiration to create your own goals:
I want to eat 5-6 balanced healthy meals a day for ___ days. If I am successful, my reward will be ___________________. I want to sleep 8 hours a night for ___ nights. If I am successful, my reward will be _____________________.
Fat Vs. Muscle - We hear it all the time... "I'm working out less and my muscle is turning into fat!" One of the biggest myths in weight training... muscle and fat are completely different types of tissue and can't magically be changed. Muscle shrinks (atrophy) when not stimulated so your muscles may seem softer. Compounding the problem, most people don't lower their calorie intake to match their now lower energy needs. The result is less muscle mass and extra calories being stored as fat... a shift in your body composition.
Magic in a Bottle - Popping a pill to reach your health and fitness goals are not the answer! While dietary supplementation can help you achieve your goals there is no substitution for hard work and dedication. Supplementation is designed to supplement your healthy eating and exercise habits. Without addressing all the areas of fitness results are normally minimal with short-term effects.
A Work Sheet That Works - Keep a work sheet on your fridge and use it to write down every item you eat during the day. Most of us have no idea how much we are consuming. We often take a bite here and there without even noticing.