Goals are important because they give us something to aim for. But it is easy to lose sight of the goal when you start feeling sick, stressed or tired. But that’s another reason why goals are there: to keep us focused.
If you don’t have a goal in mind, you’ll never know when you reach it.
And if you have too many goals or too big a goal, you can get overwhelmed and not get anything done.
But you should always have 3 goals for your health and fitness.
If you are finding it hard to accomplish one, you still have 2 that you can move forward with and make progress.
Here they are.
You want to improve or maintain your body composition. You want to look good or you want to change your body so you look better, at least in your eyes and to your standards. We all do. This generally involves reducing body fat and gaining or maintaining muscle mass. I know it sounds like body building, but in essence that’s what it is.- You want to improve your physical performance. You want to move faster or get stronger or get fitter or all of the above. The last thing you want to do is stay the same because if you do, you probably won’t make much progress toward the other 2 goals. And it’s easy to make improvements here, as long as you know you are trying to do more work in the same amount of time.
- You want to improve your health. This does not always go hand in hand with the other two because you can look good on the outside and be sick on the inside. But you should be trying to improve your eating habits and get healthier, rather than staying the same or getting worse.
Wouldn’t it be nice to go a whole winter without getting a cold while everyone around you is getting sick?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have your skin looking amazing year round and to sleep properly every night and to not have any complaints with your digestion?
The good thing with these 3 goals is that as you improve in one area, you will likely improve in the other 2.
For example, if you are new to exercise and you want to lose some weight, you will probably try to eat a little better as you know it’ll help with the weight loss. Because you are eating better, your health improves too.
What about someone who has been exercising for a long time and not seeing much of a result?
They often will hunt out a new diet or eating regime to try to see if that makes a difference. If they find something that works with their body they will often start feeling better thus improving their health and be able to train harder so their performance improves. Because of the first 2 the body starts to change as well.
What about someone who want to do the City to Surf Fun Run for the first time…and they aren’t a runner?
They obviously need to start training for it. But along with that they will be looking for any edge they can get.
So they should start eating enough good fat to help cushion their joints, enough protein to keep them energised, strong and help drop some body fat, and a ton of vegetables to keep their body rich with nutrients which will help them feel better with more energy too.
So with an increased training program and improved diet their body changes too.
What about someone who has some serious health complaints but still wants to get fitter and look better?
Speaking from experience, they have some serious work ahead of them. But it’s not all doom and gloom. If you start focusing on improving your health first and doing some exercise no matter how insignificant you think it may be, you body can start to change too.
You can’t just think ‘because I’m not training hard enough nothing’s gonna happen.’
Focus on improving your health first and foremost.
Do a little training and make small and gradual improvements and your physique will change along with it. I’ve seen this happen numerous times and experienced it myself. I’m not gonna say its easy because it’s not. But if you do the right things everything will improve.
No matter where you are in terms of your health and fitness, you can always be doing something to take a step in the right direction.
You do need benchmarks to see if you’re improving though.
How do you tell if your physique is improving?
- By taking measurements
- Checking your weight and body fat percentage, not just weight
- Looking in the mirror
- Listening to your friends telling you how hot you are looking
- Noticing your clothes starting to get looser or having to upgrade your wardrobe
How do you tell if your performance is improving?
- You can run, ride or swim further – increased endurance
- You can run, ride or swim your race distance in less time – increased fitness
- You run the beep test and get a better score – increased fitness
- You can do more pushups or squats than before – improved strength endurance
- You can do more pushups or squats in less time – improved strength and metabolic fitness
- You are lifting a heavier weight than you used to – improved strength
How do you tell if your health is improving?
- You have more energy than before
- You sleep better at night and wake up well rested
- You don’t have to go to the toilet throughout the night
- You have regular bowel movements and less gut complaints
- You are eating more vegetables than you have eaten before
- You are consuming less sugar, alcohol and other stimulants than before
- You are rarely sick and bounce back from illness in a day or so
- Your skin has cleared up
So if you have been struggling with motivation or frustrated about not making the progress you would like, there’s a bunch of goals and solutions and benchmarks to help you keep moving forward.
It doesn’t need to be massive improvements right away.
Just aim to improve by 1% each week and by the end of the year you could have made a 52% improvement!
That’s a big improvement for a little effort. A bargain as far as I’m concerned.
