Many people enjoy eating healthy and working out just for the fun of it, but until you get to that point, you may need to set goals.
How to Set Goals for Diet and Exercise
Break them into parts. Many people start with the goal of losing a large amount of weight or completely overhauling their diet, but it’s better to break your goal into individual parts. It’s easier to stick to that way. Instead of making a goal of losing 100 pounds, start with the goal of losing five. Instead of changing your entire diet all at once, start with cutting back on soda or sugar or adding more vegetables to your plate.
Make them measurable. The best types of goals are measurable ones. Goals like “be healthier” or “get stronger” are nebulous because they don’t have a quantifiable metric beside them. A better goal would be to add more vegetables to your diet and to be able to lift 25 pounds.
Have a timestamp. If you’re a competitive person, having a timestamp on your goals will make you more likely to achieve them. Not everyone is competitive, so this doesn’t work for everybody, but if you like to challenge yourself, then setting a time limit for your goal can keep you motivated.
Keep them meaningful. Finally, the best goals have meaning behind them. A goal like lifting 25 pounds can seem arbitrary if you don’t have a reason to achieve it, so it’s important to ask yourself why you want to reach your goal as you are setting it.
Setting goals is a fun way to keep yourself interested in living a healthy lifestyle. However, no matter what goals you set, it’s important to make sure you fuel yourself before and after your workout. High-quality protein snacks, such as Jawbox Jerky, are great to stash in your gym bag, purse, or inside your car, so you always have a healthy snack to keep you on the right track.
