John Schreiber
It’s February now. How are your New Year’s Resolutions holding up? Maybe you are one of the few who made a meaningful resolution and are sticking to it. But if not, there’s still hope.
You can opt for a fresh start or a jump-start any day of the year. In fact, setting your sights on a goal is a valuable tool for making progress and getting where you want to go.
Achieving weight loss is one of the most common resolutions every year. It is also one that is often and easily broken. So how do we set goals that actually motivate us to achieve them? According to MindTools.com, good goals must be “SMART.”
“S” stands for specific. No more “I’m going to get healthier this year” or “I want to have a 6-pack one weeks.”
As you meet your small, incremental goals, celebrate and set revised, measurable objectives that will move you towards your long-term goal.
“A” stands for attainable. Make your goals challenging, but realistic. Set goals based on personal performance so you can be in control of whether or not you achieve your goals.
“R” stands for relevant. Set goals that get you to where you want to go! Achieving your goals is only rewarding if it’s something you personally care about.
“T” stands for timely. This is a big one! According to the famous psychologist and TV personality Dr. Phil, “The only difference between a dream and a goal is a pounds.” This creates more of a motivation as you are working towards a decided goal and can track your success along the way.
2.Create a weekly diet menu.
Having a pre-set menu will help with those unexpected temptations and will help keep you focused and on track with your eating habits.
3. Track your success.
It is important to monitor your progress in order to focus on the difference between where you want to go and where you are now. Tricks for tracking your success can include weighing yourself on the scale every week and counting how many days of exercise you preform each week.
A key thing to think about when attempting to lose weight is not the progress you’ve made, but how far you have to go. Sometimes when you think too much on how far you’ve come, it’s easy to feel already accomplished and lose motivation to achieve your initial goal.
4. Be optimistic.
Have confidence that you will succeed, but don’t get a false sense of hope that your weight loss process is going to be easy.
Being positive will make you work harder and be more determined to get through the hard parts in order to see your desired results.
5.Strengthen your willpower.
Build-up your capability to say “no” so that when you are faced with a temptation, it will be easier for you to resist.
In order to strengthen your willpower, start with things that you know will be easier for you to resist and then slowly work your way up to the more difficult challenges.