How to Reach Your Health and Fitness Goals
It’s that time of year when everyone focuses a bit more on healthy lifestyle changes and that can look quite different for each person. Maybe you want to makeover your fridge and clean up your eating or maybe you’re trying to be more consistent with exercise so you can get stronger for other life goals you have. Some people want to practice yoga regularly to reduce stress or pursue spiritual goals and other people want to learn to cook healthy to save money and cut back on take out container waste.
We are all unique in our goals and our reasons for pursuing those goals but there are 3 strategies that are a must for anybody pursuing any goal. These will not only help you reach your goals with fewer setbacks they will also help you reach your goals in a more enjoyable way. Best of all these strategies are simple, practical and time efficient too.
Success Strategy #1: Always Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Setting SMART goals is the first step we cover in our new Fit Healthy Body Quick Start Guide (sneak a peek below). You must start with this otherwise you won’t even know what to do. Below is the breakdown of what that means and examples of good vs. bad goals.
S - your goal must be as specific as possible
M - your goal must be measurable in various ways
A - your goal must be achievable
R - your goal must be realistic
T - your goal must be timely
The gist of SMART goal setting is that you can’t be vague or wishy washy about it. An example of a vague wishy washy goal is “I just want to be healthy and strong and maybe run a marathon at some point.” This is vague plus pretty non-committal and totally not measurable.
A S.M.A.R.T. version of the same goal would be “I would like to increase my strength to a healthy range for somebody in my age category so that I can lift heavy objects around my home without struggling or getting injured. I would also like to see improvements in my blood pressure, blood glucose and bone density and run a race in April.
The second goal is very specific plus you can measure it and set a deadline for it AND it is totally achievable and realistic! We cover this in more detail in our FREE Fit Healthy Body guide coming soon!!
Success Strategy #2: Always Assess Your Situation
If you were going to remodel your bathroom you would not start buying random cabinets, tile, and fixtures. You would take measurements of ALL the things in that room, consult with an expert, start a Pinterest board, start collecting paint swatches, tile samples, cabinet door samples.
Health and Fitness is the same. You need to assess what is going on with your body, with your nutrition, and with your lifestyle in order to come up with the right plan to reach your SMART goal. In the pics here you can see how smart goals and assessments are key for success.
There’s so many other things we can assess too, including your readiness to change, kitchen readiness, your metabolic type, your mindset, your support system, your sleep hygiene. THE ASSESSMENT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR WORKOUT PLAN and we can do as few or as many as you need.
Success Strategy #3: Always Stay Focused On Your Journey!
The yoga illustration for this post is the cutest thing ever but it’s also one of the best strategies for achieving your goals. It speaks volumes about how you can be the plain sheet of paper doing up dog and feel like maybe you’re never going to achieve origami swan pose status. But the reality is that we are all on our own health and fitness journey. Some people will never become an origami swan but maybe their plain sheet of paper will become a best selling title!
The point is we are all different and on different journeys so comparing to others or striving to be like others is just a waste of time. You must stay focused on your own goals to succeed. It’s like your teacher said at the start of every test “keep your eyes on your own paper”. When you look at somebody else's paper you’re just cheating yourself from becoming your best self and it’s a waste of your unique potential.
