Diet Fitness Goal Setting for Success – The SMARTer Way

Diet fitness goal setting is an important way to increase your health and improve your well-being. Do you want to:

• lose weight
• put on more muscle
• build your stamina
• or just eat more healthily

While you have probably heard of SMART goals, SMARTer goals will be more effective in achieving your diet and fitness goals.

What does SMARTer goals mean? It means they are specific, measurable, action-orientation, realistic, time-bound, energizing and rewarding.

Set Specific Goals

Many people set goals such as to get healthier or to lose weight. However it is going to be difficult to know whether you have reached this goal if you don't set specific goals.

For example, you could make your diet fitness goal setting more specific, such as reducing your body fat percentage or body mass index, increasing your shoulder-to-hip ratio, or simply to be able to fit into last year’s jeans?

Make Your Goal Measurable

So you have set specific goals, how will you know that you have reached them. To do this, it is important that you set measurable goals for your diet fitness goal setting.

For example, suppose that you are overweight and want to reduce your weight, you could set the measurable goal to reduce your body mass index (BMI). This is now specific and measurable.

Make Your Goals Action-Orientated.

So you have set specific and measurable goals, what can you do to ensure that you move towards your goals in diet fitness goal setting.

Goal setting activity

Think of the diet fitness goal that you want to achieve. On a blank piece of paper write as many things that you can between now and when you achieve your goal that you can do.

These can be things such eating a serving of fresh vegetables each day (an action step to reduce your BMI or fit into a pair of last year’s jeans), or it could be setting the alarm and making sure you go for a 30 minute walk before work each morning (an action step to increase exercise).

Are Your Goals Realistic

If you have been a couch potato all of your life, there is no use in setting the goal to be able to run a marathon in 1 month's time. This will just dent your self-confidence and you are likely to give up.

Instead, set realistic goals that are moderately difficult to achieve - what I mean by this is that if you focus on achieving the goal, then you have a good chance of reaching the goal.

Sometimes the goal can seem distant and difficult. To combat this, think of smaller targets that act like the steps of a ladder, with each step taking you closer to your goal realization.

For example, setting the goal to lose 50 pounds in a year may seem like an insurmountable task, however the goal of 1 pound a week is likely to feel much more realistic and achievable.

Make Your Goal Time-bound

If you give yourself a deadline can focus you on achieving your goal. When setting diet or fitness goals consider how long it will take you to achieve them, then set a date. By setting a date and being accountable, you will be motivated to press on when things get difficult.

Set Energizing Goals

What this means is that you need to set goals that are meaningful for you. They can't be goals that other people set for you or think that you should do, as you need to have a desire to reach them for you. It is this desire that is like a spark that keeps the motivation burning.

Reward Your Goal Achievement

Your goals need to be rewarded. So if you achieve your action steps and your final goal then reward yourself with a pat on the back or something else that you like. This positive reinforcement is something that psychologists have found to be a major driver of achieving goals, and they in turn spurr you on to even greater goals.

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