My Top 5 Tips for Reaching Your Health & Fitness Goals
Reaching your fitness and health goals is no small feat, and after this year, that goal may seem even bigger and scarier than ever. It doesn’t have to be this way!
Whether your goals involve healing an injury, getting stronger, lowering stress, or anything in between, I want to help you get there. If you keep things simple and follow my tips below, I fully believe you can reach the healing, strength, and health you desire.
1. Don't Skip Goal Setting
It might seem obvious to set clear goals, but many of us gloss over this step and then are surprised when we can’t find the motivation to stick to our routines.
Take 10 minutes to sit down and ask yourself, Why do you want to move/exercise/recover? You may want to relieve pain, reach a weight goal, challenge your endurance, get stronger, or move to get more in touch with your inner thoughts. The next question is, WHY? Why does that goal matter to you? Keep asking yourself WHY? because there is always a deeper meaning underneath your first few answers.
Write your goal and the WHY behind it down, and keep it someplace you can see every day.
2. Set a Clear Schedule
Now you have a goal and a purpose, such as “I want to get stronger so I can go on a backpacking trip with my family next year, and feel capable of jumping into impromptu weekend adventures.”
The next question is: HOW will you reach this goal? You need to set realistic parameters for how much time you can dedicate to this goal. Start smaller than you think you can - it’s better to get positive momentum at the beginning and then make your goal more challenging, than to start out feeling like you can’t keep up. Pick a number of days and how many minutes per day you will dedicate to movement.
The last and most important step with scheduling is to PUT IT IN YOUR CALENDAR. Create recurring calendar events on the days/times you say you will move. Your goals deserve the same commitment as the rest of the things on your calendar.
What gets scheduled, gets done.
3. Plan the How
Now that you know how much time you have, decide what will be the most motivating and helpful for you - do you need to find some workout videos, create your own plan, or get a personal training session scheduled?
If you'd like to go the personal training route, I’m offering a special on virtual pilates sessions!
Get all the materials you will need ready - keep your equipment in one spot, create a playlist on Youtube (don’t wait until your workout time to pick a video!), get your workout clothes/shoes ready, and plan ahead for if you’ll need to buy some pre or post workout snacks. This upfront planning time will make starting your workouts as seamless as possible.
4. Make it Fun
Our brains love rewards, and are much more likely to want to do something when we’ve been rewarded for it. Pick something small yet exciting you can do after each workout to give yourself that positive reinforcement. Some ideas are:
Call or text a friend as your workout accountability buddy
Write down in your journal or training log (in paper or digitally) that you worked out. If you can make this visual and hang it somewhere, your brain will love it even more!
Take 1 minute to breathe and think about what you’re proud of or appreciate about yourself after each workout
Listen to a favorite song and have a little dance party
5. Have Realistic Expectations, and Get Excited!
If you haven’t seen this visual before, commit this to memory now! Even better, print it out and put it next to your written goal.
Don’t let yourself get trapped into thinking that success is linear, or easy. If you’re sticking to your goal 70 or 80% of the time - THAT is what real success looks like.
If you have a neurological condition, you know that sometimes your body dictates how much you can do. If you’re experiencing an MS flare up or you have an SCI, you know some days, daily tasks will be more challenging than others.
Expect there will be days you miss or times things don’t go as you’d like. That’s OKAY! Each hour, day, and week is a new start. Don’t expect to hit a “streak,” but instead focus on consistency over time.
Knowing that, get EXCITED about what it feels like to be on this path you’re creating!