Being SMART with your Fitness Goals

Imagine setting off on a journey without any clear expectations of where you were headed. One day you simply wake up, decide you’d like to live further south and take off. No goals, no expectations, no destination. To most people this sounds a bit crazy. How far south are you going to go? One mile? 100 miles? When you decide to make momentous change in your life you want to have at least an idea of what the next step entails.

Medical weight loss in Denver might not physically relocate you in the way a big move might, but the mental journey is the same. The decision to embark on a healthier lifestyle is not one to be taken lightly. Countless people wake up, decide they would like to lose weight or be healthier and start making small, temporary changes only to return to their former habits feeling unsuccessful. But what did this accomplish? This is the start of the endless yo-yo cycle. You lose some modest amount of weight, gain it back plus some and then start over again.

But not all weight loss goals are created equally. There is such a thing as being overly-ambitious with your goal making, just as it is possible to be too lenient. When setting your weight loss goals, remember to be SMART:

• Specific: Your goal should be simple and straightforward. Set a weight you would like to reach, a number of miles you’d like to run or a dress size you’d like to fit into once again.
• Measurable: If you can’t measure your goals you’ll never know how you are doing in relation to them. A goal like “losing weight” is unclear and immeasurable. Your goal should be quantitative in some way.
• Achievable: Your weight loss goal needs to be realistic. Don’t work endlessly towards something you can’t achieve—start small and work your way up.
• Result driven: A goal like losing weight is nondescript. This is not a result, it is a process. Your goal should be something you can work towards.
• Timely: Give your weight loss goals some time constraints. Create milestones along the way so you can gauge your progress as you lose weight. Scheduled weigh-ins at your physician’s office are one great tool to regulate timeliness during weight loss.

A good goal can give you a greater understanding of what you are trying to accomplish, and will give you more insight into your overall progress. Setting concrete goals will give you a defined destination towards which you can work. However, a weight loss goal isn’t a finish line—once you cross it you will need to maintain all of the healthy habits you adopted to reach it.