Changing habits is hard. I taught group fitness classes every day for 10 years. My “workout” for my job was at least 90 minutes per day. With that level of activity, if I wanted to lose a little weight, I only had to tweak my diet to see big results.
When I stopped teaching group fitness and opened my fitness studio, Live Life Moving, I also stopped moving as part of my job. I was working crazy hours. Figuring out how to fit a workout into a packed schedule was impossible, not to mention I was handling the stress by eating massive amounts of ice cream (not advised!).
So I set myself a goal to workout more. Unfortunately it wasn’t a specific goal, just “work out more”. Without specifying how much or how often, I couldn’t make a realistic, attainable plan. And you can imagine, the results were nonexistent
So here’s what I did to make my goals attainable:
Create A Long Term Goal
Be simple but specific. In 6 months, what do your results look like? “In 6 months I will be working out 60 minutes per day, 7 days per week”
Create a Short Term Goals.
To increase the chances for success, you need to gradually progress to your long term goal. Start creating a 4 week plan. This gives you time to adjust to your real life changes.
Assess your current behaviors related to your goal.
Take a look at your current habits relating to this goal. I had to look at how much I was currently working out each week.
“I’m currently working out 30 minutes 1x per week”
Don’t go “0-60”!
Make progress in small increments, not big leaps. You want the new habits to stick so try increasing your activity by 1 or 2 times per week.
You will create confidence and enjoyment by making each small step toward your goal attainable, accomplish-able! The more confident you feel, the more you will be able to do.
“I will do two 30 minute workouts per week for the next 4 weeks”.
Track it!
Create a schedule or use the
Life Live Moving mobile App’s Goal Tracker to keep track of your progress. Research shows self-monitoring increases your chances for success. You can also then see where you succeeded and what you need to work on!
Interested in setting up your goals in the Live Life Moving Goal Tracker with the guidance of a coach? Contact us to set up a 30 minute consultation.