Day 29
How to Set (Your Next) Fitness Goals
WOD 130429
Rest Day
**Take this rest day as a good time to stretch and work on mobility so that you can gear up for day 30! The last day of your program**
Review
- Make an amazing dinner for yourself. Clean. Healthy. Fuel.
- Start the last day like your first. Strong! Clear out clutter so you can have a fresh ending.
- Ask a friend to see if you want to do the next 30 days! Change each other's lives! Strive for excellence!
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How to Set (Your Next) Fitness Goals
I'm a big fan of people's enthusiasm towards New Year Resolutions and their attempt at "the new me" every year. I like those people because they realize their weaknesses and hope to improve them for the next calendar year. My only question is, why does it have to take an entire year for them to realize their weaknesses or areas they want to improve at? It should start today. It should've started yesterday. Tomorrow is too far. Tell your mind you want it now. There is a better way than just New Year's Resolutions. There is a way to do it so that your chances of success can start today. The trick is, you just gotta be SMART about it.
My degree in Health Solutions specified in Healthy Lifestyle Coaching actually comes in handy with this post because of this type of planning. It's called the SMART Goals. SMART stands for:
S – specific: this is the who, what, when, where, and how of your goal.
M – measurable: you’ve got to be able to measure your goal in some way. Otherwise how will you know if you’ve reached it?
A - attainable: if you really want to set yourself up for success, the goal should be something you can feasibly attain (i.e. winning the lottery so you can quit that job you hate is probably not a good goal).
R - realistic: something that you are willing and able to work toward. This doesn’t mean you can’t set the bar high — sometimes just fully believing something can be accomplished can make it realistic.
T – timely: your goal(s) should have a specific time-line; a date by which you want to achieve them. This will motivate you to get started.
- Make it specific. Let's change 'resolutions' to 'goals. That's number one. A resolution sounds like you are deciding on something. A goal a specific action that you want to take. Example, "getting healthy" means nothing. It's general. It's not specific to you. It's not you. Make it you. "Eating less junk food" or "smoking less" doesn't cut it. Let's try:
- Exercise at least 30 minutes a day, at least 3 times a week. One day extreme cardio.
- Make it measurable. How can you keep track of everything? Where can you visualize your progress? The specific example is clearly measureable. Success can be measured based on how often you exercise each week. But you don't even have to be that preseciptive. Here's one that is specific and measurable:
- Set a new 5K/10K PR (Personal Record)
- Build up stamina to run for an hour straight
- Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day
- Make sure it's attainable. This basically means don't set the goal unreasonably high where you are not in a place to achieve, that would be setting yourself up for failure and discouragement. This is why New Year's Resolution people who say "I'm going to the gym every day" find out that something called life gets in the way and makes it nearly impossible. Instead, create small and intermediate goals to celebrate small victories along the way. For example:
- Train for and complete the New York Marathon. Something unattainable would be to run every single day, or to win that bitch. Although that would be sweet!
- Make it realistic. Okay so if you're not a runner, running a marathon might not be the business at the moment. That doesn't mean you can never do one, but you want a goal you can achieve in the next year. Similarly, it has to be a goal youre willing to put the work for. For example, I love weightlifting, I'm not going to tell myself I'm going to do yoga and pilates 5 days a week, even though they are both really good for me. Adding the phrase "I will do my best" can make it realistic so you can keep in mind to put the effort. Here's a good one:
- I will try my best to limit desserts, aiming to eat not more than 3 per week. Versus "I will never eat dessert again"... said no girl ever.
- Set a time-frame. This is the most important piece to this puzzle. Without a deadline, there is no hustle. We won't have any real motivation to make a change. For me, I am the king of procrastination, so if I don't give myself a specific date to start and a specific date to end, I will put it off (hence the 30 days project sexy summer). Telling yourself you're going to start running exercising is not enough. When? Next year? Next month? When?
- Starting May 1st, I am going to do some form of cardio for at least 30 minutes, at least 3 days a week. I will commit to this schedule for the next 3 months.
This is a great start in setting your goals and doing your absolute best to achieve them. Setting SMART goals doesn't mean you'll never experience failures or setbacks, but it does give you something tangible and concrete to work toward and increase your chances of success. If you need any other links or references to see how others set their goals, check out these links below and maybe they say something better or different that catches your eye. We are almost at the end of these first 30 days... What's going to happen the next 30?
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