Setting reachable goals could help propel you to a happy new year of health and fitness
It’s January. Time to follow through on the New Year’s resolution to live a healthier life. And if started now, think how much better summer will be!
For Healthy & Fit Magazine January means the 2012 Gym Guide will be featured, listing area gyms and fitness facilities. For myself, and my staff at State of Fitness in East Lansing, it means it’s time to set goals for 2012.
So take advantage of this issue: Use it to help you select a gym, find a trainer, and establish your personal path for wellness. And as you journey forth, follow these five tips to help you adhere to your 2012 health and fitness goals.
Tip Number 1: Do You Really Care?
Research shows that four out of five people abandon their New Year’s resolutions by January 20. To be successful, goals should be inspiring and reflect what is personally important, not prescriptive and based on what others expect.
Look back on this past year and ask yourself, “Was I happy with my health and how I felt this year?” If you are not healthy, you are less likely to be happy simply because you don’t feel good.
Tip Number 2: Make Your Goals Clear
It is important to set very clear ‘next step’ goals. If weight loss by a specific date is the goal, establish a series of small interval goals to lead you to that conclusion. It is easier to stay committed when you see regular, small successes leading to your bigger goal.
Tip Number 3: Make it Personal
We all make personal goals, but are we committed? Stats say 33% of people who fail to complete their New Year’s resolution say it was because it was something they weren’t really committed to.
Was your goal picked because it sounded fun?
Perhaps someone told you it would be good for you? Here is a way to see if losing weight and getting healthier means a lot to you personally.
Make a list of all of the things that make you happy. It can be simple things like looking forward to going out with friends, playing basketball in the driveway with your kids, or simply getting dressed to go to work.
You would be surprised to see that a lot of people dread doing these things because they are overweight, don’t have energy, and lack self-confidence because they don’t feel good about their health and themselves.
Then make a list of all the things that are important to you in all aspects of life. Small or big it doesn’t matter. Then, write down all the common things between what makes you happy and what is important to you.
If a lot of these things can be related to how healthy you are, then you will have a much better success rate at achieving your health and fitness goals this 2012.
Tip Number 4: Keep it Simple
Instead of setting multiple resolutions and overwhelming yourself, consider just setting one goal —the most important health and fitness goal you want to achieve this year. If you add other goals to that, such as lifting weights five days a week, eating only broccoli and chicken breast, running a marathon, and building a tool shed out back, you will lose sight of what is important to you. Then, as we discussed above, set small achievable goals each week for that ONE goal in order to achieve it.
Tip Number 5: Keep It Positive, Be with Positive
We rarely ever use the word “don’t” in the right context. If I tell you, don’t think about work right now, you immediately think of work, right? You can’t help it. So, why does it make sense to make a New Year’s resolution that involves the word, don’t?
Instead, frame positive resolutions. It’s not helpful for us to say things like, don’t drink so much diet soda, or, don’t be so lazy and go work out.
These are not good objectives for our mind set. It doesn’t help us achieve our goals. We want to set positive goals such as, ‘I want to cut down to two diet sodas a week and drink more water,’ or, ‘I want to work out three times a week.
It will also help if you put yourself in positive environments. If you are around friends, family, and co-workers that encourage you to drink more water, less soda, studies show you are more likely to achieve this goal.
Studies also show that people who engage in running and walking groups, group fitness classes and group personal training sessions are more likely to stick with exercise due to the friendships they form, and the sense of accountability that is developed.
If you set positive goals, and put yourself in positive environments, you give your brain a much better chance of helping you achieve your health and fitness goals for 2012.
Justin Grinnell B.S., CSCS is the co-owner of State of Fitness in East Lansing. He’s also a regular contributor to Healthy & Fit Magazine and has several columns and vidoes on the Healthy & Fit Magazine Web site. You can reach him at 517.708.8828 or mystateoffitness.com
Post a Comment