Let’s face it, New Year’s resolutions to amp up your overall health and fitness levels are incredibly popular. In fact, of those who make New Year’s resolutions, nearly 50 percent set fitness goals. It doesn’t have to be New Year’s Eve to embrace healthy living, though!
If you want to make your health a priority, then it’s important to set health and fitness goals to monitor your progress. Don’t know how to get started? Read on for everything you. need to know!
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What’s Your Baseline?
Before you set any goals, it’s important to do a self-evaluation to establish a jumping-off point.
If you’re trying to lose weight, step on a scale to see where you’re at. For people who want to set more particular goals, such as reducing body fat, check out the IN Body Scanner to learn all about your body composition. After a set amount of time, return to the body scanner to see where you’re at on your progress.
Start Small
It’s tempting to set your health goals as your long-term goals, but that just sets you up for failure. For example, if you want to lose 100 pounds, you’ll probably feel frustrated if you’re at a plateau after having lost 40 pounds (not a small accomplishment!). Instead of going off of your long-term goals, identify benchmarks you’d like to see.
Healthy weight loss is typically 1-2 pounds per week, so a small fitness goal would be to lose five pounds in a month. Totally doable, and it’ll help keep you motivated. If you want to focus on mental health, maybe make it a goal to visit a counselor twice a month.
The smaller the goal, the easier it is to achieve and keep you motivated.
Identify Long-Term Health and Fitness Goals
We may have just talked to you about small goals, but long-term goals are important for the bigger picture. When you first start out, sit down and think about where you’d like to be with your health and fitness goals. Maybe you want to get off your diabetes medication, or you want to be able to run a half-marathon.
Identifying your long-term goals allows you to break down the process into smaller, more achievable chunks. For example, if you want to train for a marathon, create a plan that’ll see you gradually increasing the amount you run on a daily basis. With enough time, you’ll get where you want to be.
Finally, consider making a visual representation of your goals that you see each and every day. Maybe it’s a whiteboard with your plan drawn out, or it’s a vision board with photographic representations. The more reminders you have of your goals, the easier it is to remember why you’re doing this in the first place.
Are You Ready to Set Fitness Goals for Yourself?
Setting health and fitness goals is an incredibly important component of any healthy living action plan. As time moves on, be sure to take a look at your current goals and see where you can make some changes that work better for you. More importantly, don’t feel down about yourself if you don’t meet a goal in time, just keep going and you’ll get there!
Do you want to learn more fabulous health and fitness tips to keep you looking and feeling your best? You’re in the right place! Check out the rest of our blog for tons of killer information!
