Reading
nutrition articles and/or blogs from different people you will pick up on the
strong emphasis on goals. Goal
setting is very important because it holds you accountable and helps you keep
track of your progress in a timely fashion. However, simply setting a goal that is to broad or
inconceivable does you no good. In
the next paragraph you will see how to set a goal the right way.
Use
the word SMART. This acronym has
been taught to me by several of my college professors, and I have used it for myself
because it is very helpful. The
first letter stands for SPECIFIC.
You can’t set too broad of a goal or you will never reach it. Example, I am going to start to live a
more active lifestyle. That is a
great goal but it isn’t specific at all.
The word more can mean almost anything. To make it more specific you would have to say something
like, I am going to do physical activity at least 30 minutes everyday.
The
next word is MEASURABLE. Your goal
must be measurable in someway or else it will be impossible to track your
results. Either by the use of a
scale, time, body fat measures, or whatever you want it just has to be
measureable.
Your
goal also has to be ACHIEVABLE. Make
the goal most important to you.
Develop ways you can accomplish your goal. If it is to exercise more, how are you going to do that? Are you going to prepare food on Sundays
for the week? This is where you
really layout a roadmap for success.
Make
sure you are being REALISTIC. This
one means not to set a goal that you know you will not be able to
accomplish. For example, I want to
lose 50 pounds in a month. I wouldn’t
recommend this anyway, but the problem is if you set a goal too high and you
fail it is really going to be a hindrance to what you are trying to
accomplish. Try instead; I am
going to lose 1-2lbs a week.
Timely. You have to consider time or else you
will be trying to accomplish the same goal for years and years without any
results. Put a realistic time
frame on your goal to hold yourself accountable. If you are not seeing results by the time frame you set your
goal then maybe it is time to try something different. The worst mistake someone can make is
repeated the same routine over and over with no results.
Here
is an example of a goal that I am setting for myself. I want to increase my back squat by 50 lbs from where it is
now by April 27, 2013. I am going
to achieve this goal by lifting legs twice a week and eating high protein meals.
