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7 Action Steps to Begin Achieving Your Fitness Goals Today
November is approaching and 2008 is rapidly coming to an end. What have you accomplished? How much progress have you made in reaching your goals? You do have goals, right? If you’re still on track, then good for you! For those of you who have found themselves getting off track or if you have yet to get started, then no sweat. You just need to take ACTION - today.
Here are 7 simple steps you can take to accelerate your progress.
1.Decide what you want.
What exactly do you want to accomplish? Are you looking to lose fat, put on lean muscle, lower your blood pressure, improve your flexibility, increase strength..? Pick one key aspect of your fitness that you’d like to improve, and make that your purpose for coming to the gym. Simply having a specific purpose is very powerful in keeping you focused and preventing burnout. Do you have your purpose yet? Good – take out a sheet of paper and write it down.
2.Make SMART goals – Use Reverse Goal Setting
Now it’s time to take your purpose and put it into a quantifiable goal. A SMART goal is something Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Reward-based, and Time-bound. An example of a SMART goal for the purpose of losing fat would be the following:
“I will achieve 20% body fat by April 1 st 2009 and my reward will be looking good in my clothes for the wedding I’m attending that month.”
Now, use reverse goal setting and break this goal up into a series of smaller goals: If you start at 30% body fat, then you have 5 months to drop 10 percentage points. This gives you 5 mini-goals of dropping 2% each month. So in you start today, your goal is to be at 28% on December 1 st, 26% on January 1 st, and so on until you reach 20% by April.
3.Create a Plan.
Now that you know what you want and by what date you’re going to achieve it, you need a plan that will work. This part is important - you don’t want to leave achieving your goals to chance or luck. You want a plan that is backed by science and by what actually works for you. This is where you may need help, but there is no reason that you cannot come up with a solid plan. Educate yourself. Use the internet. Get help from a personal trainer or dietitian. Take the guess work out of it, and come up with a program that will get you results. This will save you a lot of time, stress, and wasted effort. If you have a good plan, it should include exactly what you need to do, and on which days in the week to do it.
4.Execute the plan.
Creating the plan was the hard part. Now simply show up and do it! Just make sure you take it seriously, and make your fitness program a priority in your life. You likely spend a good portion of your day working or running errands. Commit to taking setting aside time each day for your own health and well-being. You deserve it!
5.Track Progress
Record weights you use during your strength sessions and the intensity you use during your cardio sessions. Keep track of your body fat percentage. Record what percentage of your meals for the week followed your meal plan. It’s really not that hard. Tracking your progress lets you know how you are progressing and keeps you accountable, ensuring you’re constantly moving toward your goals.
6.Evaluate Results
Are you making progress as fast as you’d like? If you are, keep it up. If you’re not, sit down and figure out why. Are you following every aspect of your plan? Are you eating quality meals? There’s likely a specific reason for your lack of progress. Pinpoint the problem, fix it, and keep moving forward.
7.Repeat
Congratulations! You’ve have worked hard, and achieved your goal by following the above steps. Now what? Are you satisfied and want to maintain your new fitness level? Do you want to go after another goal? Simply to go back to #1 and start the process again.
It seems like almost everybody wants to improve their fitness or get started in exercise. The main reason for not succeeding is either not starting to begin with or not having a system to follow and a clear purpose. Breaking it down into actionable steps will help demystify the process, and allow you to get what you want from exercise. Now go get started!
Enjoy this article? Ask your fitness related questions directly to the author by visiting his blog at www.DougGroce.com.
This article can also be found on EzineArticles.com by clicking this link:
7 Action Steps to Begin Achieving Your Fitness Goals Today
November is approaching and 2008 is rapidly coming to an end. What have you accomplished? How much progress have you made in reaching your goals? You do have goals, right? If you’re still on track, then good for you! For those of you who have found themselves getting off track or if you have yet to get started, then no sweat. You just need to take ACTION - today.
Here are 7 simple steps you can take to accelerate your progress.
1.Decide what you want.
What exactly do you want to accomplish? Are you looking to lose fat, put on lean muscle, lower your blood pressure, improve your flexibility, increase strength..? Pick one key aspect of your fitness that you’d like to improve, and make that your purpose for coming to the gym. Simply having a specific purpose is very powerful in keeping you focused and preventing burnout. Do you have your purpose yet? Good – take out a sheet of paper and write it down.
2.Make SMART goals – Use Reverse Goal Setting
Now it’s time to take your purpose and put it into a quantifiable goal. A SMART goal is something Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Reward-based, and Time-bound. An example of a SMART goal for the purpose of losing fat would be the following:
“I will achieve 20% body fat by April 1 st 2009 and my reward will be looking good in my clothes for the wedding I’m attending that month.”
Now, use reverse goal setting and break this goal up into a series of smaller goals: If you start at 30% body fat, then you have 5 months to drop 10 percentage points. This gives you 5 mini-goals of dropping 2% each month. So in you start today, your goal is to be at 28% on December 1 st, 26% on January 1 st, and so on until you reach 20% by April.
3.Create a Plan.
Now that you know what you want and by what date you’re going to achieve it, you need a plan that will work. This part is important - you don’t want to leave achieving your goals to chance or luck. You want a plan that is backed by science and by what actually works for you. This is where you may need help, but there is no reason that you cannot come up with a solid plan. Educate yourself. Use the internet. Get help from a personal trainer or dietitian. Take the guess work out of it, and come up with a program that will get you results. This will save you a lot of time, stress, and wasted effort. If you have a good plan, it should include exactly what you need to do, and on which days in the week to do it.
4.Execute the plan.
Creating the plan was the hard part. Now simply show up and do it! Just make sure you take it seriously, and make your fitness program a priority in your life. You likely spend a good portion of your day working or running errands. Commit to taking setting aside time each day for your own health and well-being. You deserve it!
5.Track Progress
Record weights you use during your strength sessions and the intensity you use during your cardio sessions. Keep track of your body fat percentage. Record what percentage of your meals for the week followed your meal plan. It’s really not that hard. Tracking your progress lets you know how you are progressing and keeps you accountable, ensuring you’re constantly moving toward your goals.
6.Evaluate Results
Are you making progress as fast as you’d like? If you are, keep it up. If you’re not, sit down and figure out why. Are you following every aspect of your plan? Are you eating quality meals? There’s likely a specific reason for your lack of progress. Pinpoint the problem, fix it, and keep moving forward.
7.Repeat
Congratulations! You’ve have worked hard, and achieved your goal by following the above steps. Now what? Are you satisfied and want to maintain your new fitness level? Do you want to go after another goal? Simply to go back to #1 and start the process again.
It seems like almost everybody wants to improve their fitness or get started in exercise. The main reason for not succeeding is either not starting to begin with or not having a system to follow and a clear purpose. Breaking it down into actionable steps will help demystify the process, and allow you to get what you want from exercise. Now go get started!
Enjoy this article? Ask your fitness related questions directly to the author by visiting his blog at www.DougGroce.com.