New Year's was just around the corner! Did you set yourself a New Year's resolution goal to improve your health this year? Whether you were looking at attempting the year's latest fad diet or a more generalized goal such as increasing your physical activity level, it's not too late to try some more positive approaches to improve your health. Many trends today encourage you to take extreme approaches to health and nutrition. Not only are these not sustainable, they may not be healthy. Losing 5 pounds in a week is not only not sustainable, it's likely not healthy. Don't be discouraged if you have not yet met your health and nutrition goals. Instead, try some positive self-talk and look to set SMART goals to improve your health.
What is a SMART goal?
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.
- Specific goals means setting goals that work with your lifestyle, not against it. Some examples of this could be drinking more water, eating more fruits and vegetables with meals or getting in more cardiovascular exercise. This is opposed to general goals like lose weight or eat healthy.
- Measurable means using data to help you know if you've reached these goals. An example of this could be drinking 64 ounces of water daily, eating fruits and vegetables for 2 meals/day, or getting in cardio exercise twice each week.
- Achievable means setting goals that work for your lifestyle, and not against them. If you are currently only drinking one glass of water a day, perhaps a more achievable goal would be to drink 2-3 glasses per day, rather than aiming for 64 ounces.
- Realistic goals are relevant to your overall life goals and priorities. Is eating more fruits and vegetables realistic with your finances, time and accessibility?
- Timely refers to the timeline in which you plan on your goal taking place. An example of this could be to increase fruits and vegetables to twice a day by March. So, some examples of smart goals may look like:
- Drinking 4 additional glasses of water each day by June.
- Eating 2-3 fruits and vegetables in 2 meals a day by March.
- Getting 25 minutes of cardio exercise twice per week by July.
Don't be discouraged if you haven't met your goals yet! Setting realistic goals that set you up for long-term success is a better way to approach sustained positive health outcomes, rather than relying on unrealistic or unachievable goals that don't fit into your budget, lifestyle or priorities. Healthy habits don't happen overnight. Finding positive ways to approach nutrition and health may actually be more beneficial, as finding ways to incorporate habits into your daily life work better than a "quick fix" solution. What SMART goals do you plan to set for yourself? New Year's is not the only time you can set healthy habits to improve your long-term health and wellness!
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