Goal Setting with your weight management

Goal

Set S.M.A.R.T goals for sticking to your weight management plan.

You can probably relate to the following scenario: The last time she attempted a weight management plan, Jordan had very good intentions, high motivation, and a good goal in mind. However, she quickly lost that motivation as her goal seemed too far away and seemed to become unachievable. If this sounds familiar, we hope that this lesson will help you break that cycle. We will do that by taking your overall goal of weight management and breaking the entire plan down into smaller pieces that add up to the whole plan. Each piece will have it’s own associated goal that is “S.M.A.R.T”:

In the first lesson, we talked about two main areas related to weight management, healthy eating and increasing exercise frequency. We can also add a third element, target weight. Each of these can be broken down into smaller elements if you need it.

Jordan’s Story:

For example, Jordan’s doctor recommends that she focus on eating less fatty foods and eating more fruits and vegetables. Jordan decides to focus on the fruits and vegetables first. She makes this a S.M.A.R.T. goal quickly. First, she makes it specific and measurable, saying she will have one fruit or vegetable with every meal, for a week. She thinks this is an attainable goal as she begins to shift her diet, and it is certainly relevant to her doctor’s advice. By making her progress week to week, she also makes the goal time bound.

While Jordan did well the first week after defining her goal of one fruit or vegetable with every meal, her second week was not as successful. When she did her weekly check in, she decided that she would try planning her meals out on the weekend, so she would eliminate the need to throw something together during the week. She made her new goal to plan her meals on Saturday mornings, so she could go grocery shopping afterwards. Each meal would have a listed fruit or vegetable to go with it. When she checked in the following week, she saw a vast improvement in sticking to her goal. In fact, she felt like she had done a better job with weight management as a whole that week, because she didn’t have to worry about making healthy eating choices every day.

Your turn:

Give it a try yourself, writing one goal for yourself in the area of goal weight, healthy eating, and increasing your exercise. It can also be helpful to make another goal for your life beyond weight management, such as learning a new hobby, staying in touch with friends better, or reading a certain number of books.

To keep yourself accountable, each week you can check in your progress with the following scale:

Thinking about the PAST WEEK, on average, how would you rate your ability to adhere to your goal of ________________?

Sometimes, we don’t live up to the expectations we have for ourselves and we might have to rate ourselves a 1, 2, or 3. Don’t let this get you down. It’s not the end of your journey, just another step on the path. Take some time to consider your goals again and think about how you can change your goal to make it more attainable for the coming week.