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Dr. Damita J. Zweiback is the founder of Coaches Corner and a certified life coach. She is currently on leave from her position with the Michigan Dept. of Health and Human Services. Zweiback is in the United States Navy Reserve and is currently serving on active duty in Washington D.C.
The best time to set fitness goals and achieve them is here and now. Everyone has unique fitness goals and to cater to all your specific fitness needs we will be giving you a comprehensive 12-point checklist to get started on your goal to better fitness.
This comprehensive guide includes all the important elements you need to keep in mind while setting a fitness goal. We will ensure to provide you with full guidance on what things to keep an eye out for.
1.     Identify your reasons for becoming fit:
It is important to understand why you want to be fit. Why do you want to embark on this long journey of fitness? Your reasons will differ from the reasons of every other person you know but you should have a very clear idea about what are your goals before you start setting your goals.
Think of it like this:
- Why do I want to become fit?
- What difference it would make?
- What are the benefits of becoming healthy and fit?
- What consequences do I have to face if I don’t become fit?
Similar questions like that will help you narrow down the why, and the main key reasons as to why you want to become fit.
2.     Assess and Evaluate:
It’s time to hit the scales and measures to figure out how fit are you right now. Understanding your strength, endurance, muscle-to-fat ratio and BMI tests will give you a pretty good idea of where you stand. This will help benefit you in the long run as you will have a clear picture of what were your stats before you started your fitness, health, and wellness journey.
Make a habit of checking your stats every week this way you will be able to find small victories and that will keep you motivated. Along with that, it is beneficial for instructors and nutritionists to have a clear picture of where you stand right now and where you want to be.
3.     Speak to your Healthcare Professionals:
Speaking to your healthcare professional is very important as they may be able to give you insights about your health. They may even suggest getting some tests done, such as strength tests, other cardiovascular tests, and others. These tests will ensure that you are in the right shape to embark on this journey.
Also do go through with the tests suggested by your health care professional as they might give you some insights into which areas you need to be cautious. Furthermore, with the help of a medical healthcare professional, you will have some information on where you need to take precautionary measures and ensure you don’t hurt yourself.
4.     Make SMART Goals:
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely goals. Following these goals will ensure that you are on the right track. Establishing goals keeping these things in mind will help you establish achievable goals.
You will be able to measure them and hold yourself accountable in various ways if you just make sure to follow them precisely. Every person has a different lifestyle and routine, hence it is best to speak to professionals when you need guidance in developing these SMART goals.
5.     Keep them Enjoyable:
Making sure that the activities you choose are enjoyable will keep you motivated to go back to them over and over again. As per human nature if we start finding something mundane and boring we stop doing that. Hence it is best to make sure you choose activities that are fun for you to experience and enjoyable over a longer period.
Motivation is very important when following a fitness regimen, you don’t want to make it so difficult for yourself that you cannot bear to go through it again. So keep it light and easy in the beginning.
6.     Incorporate it into your lifestyle:
Developing habits takes time, hence it is important to make your fitness regimen a part of your routine and your daily lifestyle. This will help in ensuring that no matter what day it is or how tired you are you remember to take your fitness, health, and wellness regimen seriously and follow it.
One other benefit of including it in your lifestyle is that you will be able to remain consistent throughout this process. The more in tune your fitness regimen is with your lifestyle the more you will be inclined to remain consistent and it won’t be an extra thing that you will have to do.
7.     Keep your diet clean:
For a full fitness, health, and wellness journey you have to work on every single aspect of your life, which includes diet as well. Having a clean diet can provide you with many health benefits and the cleaner your diet is the more healthier you will be internally and externally.
You can consult a nutritionist and share your desired goals with them and see what kind of diet chart they provide you. If you follow their diet chart perfectly along with the fitness plan you will start to see some difference relatively quickly.
8.     Gradual Progression:
Fitness, Wellness, and health goals are not achieved overnight. You have to spend days, weeks, or even months to achieve a fraction of your goal. Hence we suggested early on to keep your goals SMART. Measurable and Achievable.
Regardless, of the process of improving your overall fitness, health, and wellness goals it’s important to keep in mind that it is a slow process. It takes time and effort, so don’t overdo it, and overwork your body might cause some injury.
9.     Create a Cohesive plan:
Your fitness, health, and wellness plan must be cohesive. It must include all sorts of exercises from cardio to yoga and running or jogging. The more cohesive the plan is the better chance you have of holistically improving your health.
A holistic plan is meant to be cohesive in all senses of the word, it includes your diet and the amount of exercise along with the resting and recuperation phase. All of these combine to give off a cohesive simpler easy-to-follow plan.
10. Prioritize Recovery and Rest:
Every fitness regime relies on a good resting phase. The idea is that you work your muscles and then give them some time to recuperate and recover. The recovery process of the muscles helps ensure that your muscle has enough time to recover and recuperate. Once the muscle is repaired it is ready for more pressure to be applied.
Hence why it is called a gradual process. Because the muscles take time to recuperate and heal and those are called the rest days. Once the rest days have passed, you can go back to your exercise and fitness routine.
11. Assess and adjust your fitness routine:
Make a chart that will help enable you to follow and understand the importance of your exercise routine. Not only that making a chart will also provide you with insight into how effective your holistic fitness routine is. This means that you can evaluate the efficacy of the fitness routine that you have adopted.
So continue to make your chart weekly and see how the holistic approach to fitness, health, and wellness goals is turning out to be. You can also share these charts with your nutritionists and your trainers who can then guide you to add or remove some aspects of your fitness routine and diet chart.
12. Motivation is the key:
You must keep your motivation levels high and to ensure that you should keep your exercises fun and exciting, also make it a lifestyle. As we discussed if it becomes a part of your life and a daily habit. Eventually, this habit will become so strong that the days you miss out on, you will feel regret and remorse.
Hence ensure that you are making this lifestyle choice knowing that you have to fully commit to it and make sure there are people like your trainers and nutritionists and others who keep you accountable.
12-point checklist to Get Started on Your Goal to Better Fitness
Your fitness journey is unique to you so the goals you set should also meet your lifestyle. So before you make a head start of any kind towards your fitness journey make sure you understand its importance and you do it as it suits you. You can work with industry professionals to ensure that you are on the right path. Along with that ensure that you are not being too rigid about it. Celebrate small victories and enjoy the ride.
References:
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/physical-activity-setting-yourself-goals
https://www.forbes.com/health/fitness/setting-realistic-fitness-goals/
https://www.health.com/fitness/fitness-goals
