We’ve all been there. You start out excited to get into shape, eat healthy, and exercise regularly. The first days or maybe even weeks go great, but then your motivation fades and then exercising feels like a chore, and cravings for things you’ve sworn off start to set in.
Let’s look at how you can get some of that motivation back, as well as some strategies to keep you on the right track with your fitness routine.
Set A Fitness Goal For Yourself
Goal-setting in Fitness is the same as any other goal-setting process that you may use in your line of work. By setting a goal for yourself, you start to define what your own success will look like. The best goals have 5 separate components that help define what you want to achieve.
Goals are Specific
You’ll want your fitness goal to have a desired objective. This part of the goal can be as simple as “I want to lose weight” or “I want to improve my endurance”. What we add to this statement will help guide how we will achieve the goal.
Goals Are Measurable
This is the part where you need to put a number to your goal, and make it something that can be tracked. This part answers the question of “how much do you want to achieve”.
Going back to our example of “I want to lose weight”, this could be as simple as adding “I want to lose 5 kilograms” or “I want to lose 20 pounds”. The purpose of this part of the goal is to give yourself something to strive for in the process.
Goals Are Attainable
Attainable goals are goals that are realistic and possible to achieve. Particularly when it comes to fitness and weight loss, it may be tempting to set unrealistic goals for oneself like “I want to lose 40 pounds in 2 weeks”. This, for most people, would be an unhealthy amount of weight to lose in such a short period of time, and may cause you more harm than good in the long term.
If you need help with setting attainable fitness goals, contact us for a free consultation and our team of professional trainers can help you set an attainable fitness goal.
Goals are Relevant
You’ll want your goal to be directly linked to your long term objective. In the realm of health and fitness, this is pretty simple. The goal will have a direct impact on your objective to get in shape and live a more healthy lifestyle,
Goals Are Time-Bound
The goals you set will need some sort of time that you want to achieve them by. Though, when considering this part of your goal you’ll need to keep in mind if it is attainable. Expecting drastic changes in two weeks or less is unrealistic, but on the other hand giving yourself a longer deadline may cause you to put your goal on the backburner.
What is a good fitness goal?
An example of a good fitness goal may go something like this:
“I want to lose 20 pounds in 3 months, and keep it off so I can fit my tailored suit”
This goal is specific, measurable, and time-bound (losing 20 pounds in 3 months). This goal is also relevant because the objective is to fit clothes that may not fit anymore. For most, this goal should be attainable as Obesity Canada defines less than 3 pounds a week as a reasonable weight loss goal in their Weight Management Program Checklist.
Hold Yourself Accountable & Remind Yourself Why You’re Doing This
Ultimately, your success in achieving your fitness goals are entirely in your hands, and you’ll need to be the one to make the time and the right choices to achieve your goal.
This may mean passing up on your favourite food choices and choosing to eat things that are more healthy, or walking to the store instead of driving to pick up a few small things if it is safe to do so.
But instead of dwelling on how much you miss certain foods, or how much longer it takes to take the stairs at work instead of the elevator, consider the long term benefits and remember that investing time and will-power into your own physical health will provide you more satisfaction when you achieve the goals you had set out for yourself when you were excited to start your fitness routine.
If you’re struggling with holding yourself accountable, it may be worthwhile to let the people around you know ahead of time that you’re trying to make lifestyle changes, this can reduce potential social pressure from friends as well as allow the people closest to you help keep you on the right track. You can also consider hiring a personal trainer to help improve your accountability to yourself and strengthen your commitment to your fitness goal.
Fail Quickly So You Can Succeed In The Long Term
As the old saying goes, “to err is human”. Everyone, at some point in their fitness journey, will miss a day of their exercise routine or give in to the temptation of an unhealthy meal choice.
The important thing to do when this happens is to quickly acknowledge why it happened, and put it behind you as fast as possible without letting it shake your willingness to commit to your fitness goal.
Sometimes life gets in the way of our goals, maybe you fell ill for a few days, or went on vacation and enjoyed yourself a little too much. These things happen, and it is ok, as long as you don’t let them turn into a habit, and you get back into your routine with a healthy amount of self-discipline.
Reward Yourself Appropriately
Usually when you’re working towards a long term goal, it is a good idea to have smaller milestones to look forward to in the process. When you achieve these milestones, it may be beneficial to reward yourself in a healthy way to keep your motivation up in your journey to hitting your overarching goal.
Now, this doesn’t mean going and eating an entire tub of ice cream because you walked to work today. An appropriate way to reward yourself once you’ve shown progress towards your fitness goal may be to purchase yourself a small gift that you’ve had your eye on for some time, or clearing some time for yourself to do something you enjoy like a hobby you’ve been putting off or haven’t had time for.
Get The Right Support To Stay On Track
If you’re ready to stay committed to your fitness goals, or just need some help getting back into a fitness routine, First Class Personal Training provides flexible one-on-one in-home personal training with programs designed specifically to help you. Call, email, or fill out our contact form and we’ll be happy to get you on the right track in your fitness journey.
Gera is the Founder and Head Trainer of First Class Personal Training with over 20 years of professional experience, not only as a personal trainer but also as a nutrition and wellness counselor and a post rehabilitation specialist.
