Article written by Heidi Campo; NSCA CPT, CSCS, and certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
So it’s that time of year again! We are bloated and stressed from the holidays. Sitting on the floor of our kitchens in our sweatpants while staring off into the abyss wondering where it all went wrong. We might not be able to pinpoint every barrier and obstacle that keeps us from our goals, but we can start by setting better goals to begin with!
Good goal setting starts by creating SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound. This means that your goal should be specific in the sense that you know exactly what you are aiming for. Saying “I want to lose weight” is not very specific. It is easy to lose water weight, which fluctuates every day. It is much more targeted to say that you want to lose fat. Measurable would be tracking how you measure your progress. Do you plan to track using the scale, measuring tape, photo progress, or go off of body fat percentage? Finding a goal that is achievable is something that we recommend working with a team of professionals on.
Many of my clients come in and say they want to lose something like 80 pounds of fat, but after looking at their bio analysis, we can see that it is only possible for them to lose 60 pounds of fat. To lose more would mean losing muscle, which we don’t want to do. Finding a goal that is relevant to you is finding your why. Maybe you want to lose 60 pounds of fat because you want to “be more healthy,” but when you really get down to your why, you realize that having the extra 60 pounds of fat is affecting your confidence and you want to be able to live a more full and confident life. Relevance is your reason, your why! The last one is time bound, we need a goal with a deadline. You want to lose 60 pound of fat? By when? The deadline also plays into how achievable the goal is. Working with our team of experts can help you better identify your SMART goals.
Developing a good SMART goal is what you do to set up a good outcome goal. The outcome is the result you are shooting for. However, you will never get to your outcome goal if you don’t break it down into smaller process goals. These are the little things you do daily and weekly that add up to create the end result of achieving your SMART outcome goal. These daily process goals are going to be different for everyone, since every person is unique. For many of us, these might include things like improving our sleep, proper hydration, managing our stress, proper nutrition, and even getting the right medications. These are all things the team at our clinic can help you with.
Once you have set your SMART outcome goal, and started working on your daily process goals. Now you are doing the work! This is where things can get tricky. Life happens and barriers show up. You might have had the intention of eating breakfast every morning, but then you realize that most of your mornings are chaotic and you don’t have the time to prepare a meal for yourself. This is where we can help you solve each week as you acknowledge in which ways you fall short. Talk to our team about what your struggles are. If eating breakfast is a problem, we have some tasty protein shakes at our clinic that might be a good solution when you are in a rush.
All in all, it can be hard to break the big picture down into bite sized pieces. Talk to us and we will help you come up with solutions that work for you. Creating change in your life can be hard work! Let us help you and make weight loss easy!
Have you heard of a food addiction before? Learn about what one is and how a weight loss clinic could help by clicking on the link.