Have you ever intended to start a fitness journey? Then not long after you began, you decide to stop because you don’t see results? The first step is to set goals, so knowing how to set healthy fitness goals is extremely important so that you can achieve your goals.

I LOVE setting goals. It helps me stay motivated (as motivation is unreliable) to work towards my goal. By setting mini-goals to achieve that will ultimately achieve my long-term goals, I can have mini-celebrations along the way and enjoy the journey rather than only looking toward the end goal.

A fitness journey isn’t just about your workouts but also includes creating healthy nutrition habits. I cannot stress enough how important nutrition is in creating a healthy lifestyle. Several tips are listed below about setting goals to achieve and MAINTAIN your fitness goals.

When setting goals, you need to start by thinking about where you are, your lifestyle, and what changes you can realistically make. By being honest with yourself as you are right now, you can make a plan to begin working toward your goals. This will also help you to continue to stick to your goals. You can’t expect to change your lifestyle from sedentary and unhealthy foods to working out seven days a week and eating 100% healthy foods overnight. You can’t go 0-100 and expect to stick to it. Below are my tips for creating goals you will stick to - long term.

Set Big Goals and Work Backwards

Once you determine where you are, you can consider your long-term goals. These can be your goal that takes the most time and work to achieve. Do not let this discourage you! Fitness takes time AND work. My next tip is to work backward and break down that long-term goal into mini-goals. Not only does this allow you small steps to celebrate, but it will also help encourage you to work toward the small steps leading up to your big long-term goal.

When creating goals, you want to make SMART goals. Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. By keeping SMART in mind when creating long-term goals and breaking them down into many mini-goals, you will be less likely to become discouraged and will work toward achieving those goals. Don’t forget to celebrate those mini-goals as they are IMPORTANT to achieve your long-term goals!

EXAMPLE: Sarah - beginner to nutrition and working out

Current lifestyle:

Works at a desk all day with a 2-hour commute.

Nutrition is convenience food and eating whatever and how much she wants.

Sarah does not currently workout

Sarah’s weight is 150lbs, and her height is 5’5

Long-term Goal:

Lose weight and gain muscle

Mini Goals:

1. Lose 15 lbs

   How: add movement with walks during lunch and working out four days a week. Learn nutrition - switch to whole foods rather than convenience foods and learn how much to consume.. Learn that to lose weight, you have to consume less food than you burn - being in a caloric deficit. This could take ~ 12-15 weeks for a beginner.

2. Gain muscle

   How: add targeted strength training to a workout routine. Build on the nutrition knowledge gained from the previous mini-goal about macro-nutrients and, most importantly, protein intake for muscle growth. There may be a need to continue a caloric deficit or eat at maintenance, depending on where Sarah is at this point in terms of weight goals. This could take ~ 12-15 weeks for a beginner to start seeing results.

3. Assess after 24-30 weeks where you are and where you want to be.

   There will be weight loss and muscle gained by now. But this is an excellent point to asses where you want to go from here. Create another goal that helps get toward the big long-term goal. It will likely be more strict regarding macro-nutrients and working out with heavier weights to promote muscle growth.

This is a super simple example for a beginner who does not need to lose a significant amount of weight. It is not a detailed workout and nutrition plan but a basic example of creating goals. For a more detailed plan, I am available for Nutrition and Workout Coaching.

Create Small Habit Changes at a Time

As you may have noticed, it takes time to reach long-term goals, and changing everything all at once is always a recipe for disaster. So I highly recommend changing small things at a time. In the above example

Mini goal 1: Changes made - adding a walk at lunch, working out four days a week, and eating whole foods rather than convenience foods. Begin learning about eating at a caloric deficit.

Mini goal 2: Changed made - building onto the nutrition by learning about macro-nutrients and being conscious about protein intake. Make sure workouts are strength training, may continue four days a week, or add an extra day if desired.

Mini goal 3: Changes made - build onto nutrition by focusing on protein intake, possibly at maintenance calorie intake. (which means you’re burning the exact amount you are consuming) Increase strength training workouts could continue four days-5 days a week.

Each change adds to the previous changes made. I find this is the easiest way to add on new habits continuously. For most people, jumping into mini-goal three would not be sustainable for a long time as it makes habit changes from mini-goals 1, 2, AND 3.

Be Patient with Yourself, Trust the Process, and DO THE WORK

If anything, be patient with yourself. Especially in the beginning. You will be learning to change the long-term habits you’ve created in your life thus far. This is HARD in itself. Remember that the process works as long as you put in the work. If you do half the work, half the workouts, and half the nutrition, you may see very little or no results.

Just remember that fitness is a journey. It does not have any end results. It does require habit and lifestyle changes. By following SMART goals, creating mini-goals to reach a long-term goal, and changing a few habits at a time, then building on after each; you will create lifelong habits to achieve and maintain those long-term goals.

Previous Blog Posts About fitness Goal Setting

I have several other posts regarding fitness goal setting. I’ll have them linked so you can read more if interested.

How to Start Your Fitness Journey In this post, I discuss everything about starting your fitness journey. It is similar to this post but geared more toward those just starting.

Healthy Nutrition Habits In this post, I discuss various tips to help you create and stick to nutrition goals. All of these tips can also be applied to creating fitness goals as well.

How to Set Healthy Fitness Goals This post is similar to this one, but I’ve added a few more tips, as all of the previous tips are still things still I do every day.

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If you are here and reading this, you are interested in your health and fitness. That is so good; I am so excited for you! Taking care of your body is the best thing you can do for yourself in the present and the long term.

“Do something today that your future self will thank you for”

— unknown

I find that quote so inspiring. Hard work will pay off in the future, but you also have to live in the moment, and I feel like taking care of yourself is doing both. You are doing good for yourself now as well as for your future self.

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