Before beginning any fitness goal setting program, you need to decide what you want out of it. It is also essential to get your doctors’ approval before beginning an exercise program.
Decide what your goal is:
- Lose weight
- Improve your appearance
- Gain muscle
- Build endurance, flexibility or strength
- Get healthy
Make sure the activities/exercises you pick specifically meet the fitness goal results you want. Enthusiasm wanes if goals are not realistic. It is important not to self-sabotage yourself with goals that are too long-term or impossible to meet. Repeatedly failing to stick to your goals means that either the goal is too out of reach or you haven’t figured how exactly what you need to do to reach them.
Make a written record of your goal so that you have something to mark your progress, it helps you look forward as well as back. Make your first goal one that you can meet within about eight weeks.
Write your goals down so you have something to look forward to as well as to look back on. To begin, map out no more than eight weeks worth of activities towards your first fitness goal. Devise a regular program that will work within you lifestyle. It is best not to plan to work out every day of the week. Working out every other day is a realistic and safe goal. Record how long you want to work out, and also record how long you actually work.
Not everyone has fitness and weight loss as their goal. Some people have improving their health as their primary goal. Unfortunately, we often tend to focus most on our health when we have already experienced an illness, a life threatening event or going through physical rehabilitation.
We also need to follow through on sound health practices:
- Adeԛuate sleep
- Healthy diet
- Exercise
- Stress control
Questions to ask you before setting your fitness goals:
What do I want to do with this exercise program?
Are my goals realistic?
What blocks me when starting and continuing a health maintenance program?
What is my target weight; more essential is what is the weight loss or gain you want to accomplish in the next two weeks, month, two months and six months?
What do I want to do to improve my appearance, what steps do I need to take other than changing my weight?
How can I improve my diet, and how can I change what I order in a restaurant to help me meet my goals?
Do I need to read up on fitness, nutrition, healthy lifestyles or take a class to help me make my goals?
Do I need to have a complete physical? When was my last one?
Do I know what I need to do to improve my current blood pressure, cholesterol, or heart rate?
Do I need to cut or end chemical dependencies such as smoking or alcohol?
Critical!
Be honest with yourself as you answer these ԛuestions. You will only be fooling yourself if you fudge on the answers. Consult with your family physician before making any big changes in your daily lifestyle.
