Goal setting for weight loss
Goal setting DoU Fitness style :)
I’m sure if you are like me, you’ve read about goal setting, know the “right” way to make goals, maybe sometimes feel motivated and start to write them out but in the end just don’t follow through. Yes, you want to lose X amount of weight by….last year, and you’ve tried and failed so many times that it’s just frustrating and hopeless by now.
So we can determine what didn’t work for you in the past, correct? You know what diets you’ve tried, you what expectations you’ve placed on yourself, you know basically what you should not repeat without further investigation. (Meaning, it doesn’t necessarily mean if something failed in the past that it will fail again, you can try it again, but need to look at what factors failed you so that you do not repeat those patterns again only to get the same results)
Let’s get started on goal setting DoU Fitness style-
1) Start off with your long term goal – 1 – 2 years from now. But instead of entering a goal weight lets focus on what you will feel/look like when you reach that goal and what habits does this person have.
For example – Feel confident. Feels great wearing fitted clothing. Doesn’t pick apart body parts that I don’t like. Love my body. Feel amazing. Flat stomach. Full of energy. Consistently tracks meals. Doesn’t eat so much junk/fast foods. Exercises 4-5xs per week.
2) Now we would just break this down into shorter term goals from where you are to where you want to be. I find that when you try to jump from where you are now to where you think you need to be now, it is not sustainable. In order to change your habits you need to work with yourself slowly until you adapt before moving on. You should make sure your goals are realistic. Although we all wish we could magically lose 5” from our midsection in one month, that probably wouldn’t be realistic. It would be more rewarding and encouraging if you made your goals achievable. If you make them too difficult and you do not reach them, you would be more prone to give up; versus making them easier and attainable and reaching each milestone no matter how small.
For example- You are self conscious and you want to feel confident – your short term goal could be to feel ok with yourself. You hold fat in your belly area and you want a flat stomach, maybe your goal could be lose 1 inch from your stomach this month. You eat fast food 5xs a week and you’d like to eat fast foods maybe 2xs a month – your short term goal may be to cut to 4xs per week for the next month. If you don’t exercise but would like to exercise 4-5xs a week, your goals maybe to exercise once a week consistently for one month then add another day.
3) Next what actions steps do you need to take to reach those goals and what roadblocks do you foresee standing in your way and what you will do to overcome.
For example: You want to work on your confidence level – you could commit to affirmations, journaling, reading confidence books. You may determine that you will get lazy to commit long term, and decide that you will link your journaling time to your morning coffee routine and put up a post it note weekly on your mirror with an affirmation.
Another example – you want a flatter stomach and will work on losing 1” this month. You determined you need to focus on eating better and getting some exercise in. You decide you will start walking 1 day a week and bringing home lunch 1-2 times per week. You know your history and have trouble committing so you find a walking partner, or hire a fitness coach to keep you accountable.
4) Commitment – it’s easy to say you’ll do something when you are motivated at that moment. But as time goes by, your commitment level drops and what once felt important, doesn’t matter so much. Write down your “why” – why do you want to feel/look this way? What will that mean for your life overall? If you don’t ever reach that goal, what will that mean for you? What type of pain will you continue to feel if you don’t follow through?
5) Review your goals monthly. Revise when you reached that milestone. Or if you didn’t hit your goal – review and revise – brainstorm what happened and how you can adjust to meet your goal this month. Don’t determine not achieving your goal as a failure but rather a steppingstone to make you that much closer to reaching your goal.
6) Recommit – revisit your why – why you want to reach your goal and what pain point you will continue to encounter if you don’t commit to these changes.
If you have a desire to change you can do it. It will take effort but the results will be well worth it. Once you commit and decide that this is what you want, the how will fall into place.
Follow the steps above and make this year the year you achieve your goals!!