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In my previous post, Ditch the Scale, I shared five reasons to get rid of the scale for good. However, if you are like me, then you may be asking how to stay motivated to eat well and exercise without the weekly weigh-in. In this post, I would love to share a few positive fitness goals that may resonate with you.
We all know that exercise and movement are awesome for you. In addition, daily exercise is an achievable fitness goal that can easily be tracked. Exercise decreases the risk of health conditions, such as obesity, type II diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. It also has numerous neurological benefits, such as improved working memory, improved productivity, prevention of dementia, and decreased.
The consensus among studies is that the optimal amount of exercise is: 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity activity daily. Check out this post, for motivation tips!
Action Plan: Pick something sustainable that you love doing and commit to doing it on a regular basis. Make it an appointment in your calendar or create a chart where you can check it off once you have completed it.
Examples: Walk during your lunch break, practice yoga every morning, go for a run, strength train, dance with your kids, try a new workout, ride your bike, etc. The options are endless.
Sign up to gain access to the Resource Library. The Resource Library includes a PDF version of this Motivational Exercise Tracker.
I don’t know about you, but I would really benefit from getting more sleep. This is a tricky one for most people…especially those with kids.
According to the CDC, a third of US adults report that they usually get less than the recommended amount of sleep. Sleep affects almost every tissue in your body, which is why not getting enough sleep is linked with many chronic diseases and conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and depression. Therefore, getting enough sleep is a great fitness goal.
Getting the appropriate amount of sleep can boost productivity and your mood, which can be a key factor in helping you achieve other personal goals.
Action Plan: Set a goal to get 7 or more hours of sleep. Completing a sleep diary can help you understand how your routines affect your sleep. If you have a Fitbit or other smart watch, they often have a sleep tracker built in to help you track your progress.
Examples: Stick to a sleep schedule of the same bedtime and wake up time, even on the weekends. Turn off electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime, so that you don’t end up mindlessly scrolling on Instagram. Practice a relaxing bedtime ritual like diffusing lavender essential oil in a diffuser or make a DIY Lavender Vanilla Pillow Mist.
Another great positive fitness goal is to eat more fruits and vegetables throughout the day. An easy way to do this is to eat them at every meal. Only 13 percent of Americans eat enough fruit each day to meet the government’s daily recommendations. Even fewer people, 8.9 percent, eat enough vegetables each day. So, chances are that you could benefit from adding more fruits and vegetables to your day.
Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of natural fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other compounds that your body needs to function properly.
The nutritional value of
Action Plan: Eat a vegetable or fruit at every meal. If you choose to, you could chart how many fruits and vegatables you eat each day to ensure that you are getting your 5 to 9 servings.
Examples: Aim to fill half your plate with fruits and veggies at every meal. When you do your grocery shopping, consider choosing a new fruit or vegetable to try. For snacks, keep dried fruits in your workout bag and raw fruits and veggies in the fridge. Add greens or a greens powder, like spirulina, to your morning smoothie. For more healthy eating tips for you and your family, check out this post: How to Help Your Kids Develop Healthy Eating Habits.
Performance goals are my absolute favorite way to track my progress and stay motivated. I love setting new personal records and gaining new skills. With performance goals your only competition is yourself and you have the freedom to choose your own goals.
When setting a performance goal, think about why you are exercising and what is important to you. For example, if strength is important to you, you could set goals related to increasing the amount of weight you can benchpress. If endurance is important, you could set a goal of completing a 5k (or more if you are already a runner). If flexibility and balance are important, you could choose two or three yoga poses you want to master.
As I mentioned in my post about strength training, one benefit of performance goals
Action Plan: Choose a measurable performance goal and track your progress.
Examples: Master the ability to perform 25 pushups. Train for a 10k. Learn to swim. Hold a minute-long plank. Climb a rope. Push play on your Beachbody program and don’t push pause. Complete a Beachbody program like LIIFT4 that provides a weight progression tracking sheet. Again, the possibilities are endless.
When you think about fitness, what is your number one reason for wanting to eat well and exercise? I am guessing that it is to feel good. I, like you, want to feel good both mentally and physically. So, a great positive fitness goal is to complete a daily wellness check-in.
This could be in the form of a checklist. Or if you like journaling, you could write a daily entry about how you are feeling mentally and physically. Being mindful about how your actions throughout the day are affecting your thoughts and your body is an important process.
For example, exercise is known to relieve stress and help you to have more energy throughout the day. However,
You could also incorporate a self-care checklist to make sure you are taking care of yourself throughout the day. This could include things like meditation, taking your vitamins, spending time alone, connecting with others. Whatever works for you can go on your self-care checklist.
Action Plan: keep a daily self-care checklist. It is also beneficial to check in with yourself each day to ask your self how you are feeling.
Enter your name and email address below to gain access to the Resource Library. The Resource Library includes a PDF version of this self-care checklist! The PDF will include this completed example checklist in addition to a blank one for you to complete with your personal list.
Examples: Use the downloadable self-care checklist to make sure you are taking care of yourself throughout the day. Keep a journal to help process how your actions throughout the day affect your thoughts and your body.
I hope this post helped you with ideas for positive fitness goals? I would love to hear about your goals! Let me know in the comments! Please share the goodness and pin it or share on Instagram and hashtag it #tonsofgoodness. Thank you!
