Why?  Because if you don’t decide where you want to go, any road will take you there.  Because if you don’t set goals, you’ll just float along life with no direction.  Because if you don’t set your sights on something, you won’t have a compelling reason to get up early and stay up late.  Because if you don’t set goals, you’ve already failed.

“Failed?  Failed at what?”  If you don’t set any goals at all, you’ve already failed to accomplish all the great things you’re capable of.  It could be losing weight, building muscle, earning extra money, building a relationship, really anything you can imagine.  Anything – you can really have and achieve anything – if you’ll only set a goal and consistently work towards it.

SMART Goals

Every great journey begins with the first step and every great accomplishment, whether it’s finding the cure for the cancer or putting a man on the moon, begins with a goal.  But how do you set goals?  The best way I’ve found to explain the process is by using the acronym S-M-A-R-T.  Here’s what it means:

S – Set SPECIFIC Goals

Make sure your goals are as specific as you can possibly make them.  Saying “I just want to be happy” is not going to cut it.  ”I just want to lose some weight” isn’t effective either.  In both cases, you’ve got to be specific.  What exactly would it take to make you happy?  Exactly how much weight do you want to lose?

Setting a nonspecific goal like “I want to make some extra money” may prove very disappointing.  You might find a discarded penny on the sidewalk and stop to pick it up.  Boom, you just completed your goal!  You just made some “extra” money.  You see how important it is to be specific?

The first key to effective goals is to be specific, specific, specific.  If you can’t clearly see the outcome of your goal when you close your eyes at night, it’s not specific enough.

M – Make Your Goals MEASUREABLE

Now that you’ve made your goals as specific as you can, you need to find a way to measure your progress.  You might think that making your goals measurable is simply an extension of making them specific but it’s much more than that.  Making them measurable is like putting a ladder under an apple tree that allows you to climb up, step by step, to reach the best pieces of fruit the tree has to offer.  Making your goals measurable provides a step-by-step road map to their accomplishment.

If I ask you how your weight loss goal is coming along, you should be able to tell me exactly how much weight  you’ve lost as well as exactly how much further you have to go and how long you think it will take you to get there.  All specific, measurable steps.

Once you specifically define what it is you want, figure out a way to measure your progress.  It could be dollars, days, pounds, inches, boxes shipped, whatever.  Just find a way to measure your progress.

A – Make Your Goals ACTIONABLE

Like all the others, this one is key.  Your goals should be something that you can DO, WORK TOWARDS, or ACT ON.  Here’s the difference:  if you say “I want to make a million dollars” and don’t add any actionable steps, it’s a wish, not a goal.  On the other hand, saying “I want to make a million dollars through affiliate marketing (or product creation, or by writing a novel, or whatever you want to do),” then you’ve got something you can actually work on.  This puts you in control.

Every January 1st, most people set “I want to lose some weight” as one of their New Year’s goals.  Can you see why 99.9% of people that set this kind of goal never accomplish it?  It’s not specific.  It’s not measurable.  It’s not actionable.

Now, the person that says “I want to lose 15 pounds by the end of March through better diet choices and exercise” has got a much better chance of reaching their goal.  Their goal is specific, measurable, and actionable.  They’ve got something specific to work on.

Note:  some people list the “A” in SMART as “Attainable” as in “your goals should be Attainable.”  I like “Actionable” because I think it better describes the fact that YOU HAVE TO WORK ON YOUR GOALS.  They don’t come true all by themselves.

R – Your Goals Should be REALISTIC

Time for a gut-check:  is your goal realistic?  Can you really see yourself achieving it?  If you can’t, you need to work on 2 things:  your self confidence and your goal.  Once you become practiced at goal setting and have accomplished a few, your self confidence will explode and you’ll automatically begin setting bigger and bigger goals.  However, at the beginning, make sure you don’t set your goals so high that they end up discouraging you instead of inspiring you.  Make them realistic.

Also, make sure your goals are congruent with your life in general.  In other words, don’t work towards a goal that is actually going to create problems in other areas of your life.  For example, don’t set a weight loss goal that is so aggressive that you damage your overall health in the process.

T – Make Your Goals TIME BASED

Set a time limit on your goals.  Otherwise, you’ll always procrastinate and put off working on them for another week, another month, another year.  Set a deadline and stick to it.  Saying “I want to lose 5 pounds by the end of the month” has a lot more power than just saying “I’d like to lose some weight.”

Putting a time limit on your goals is another way to measure your progress.  You tell yourself, “I’ve got until the end of the month to reach my goal and it’s already the 15th.  I’ve got to get moving!”  There’s massive power in that.  It creates a momentum that propels you forward and keeps you moving.

Reaching Your Goals

Is it really this easy?  Well, yes and no.  Setting effective goals is a straightforward process.  However, you still have to DO THE WORK and that part isn’t so easy.  But setting up the right process, making your goals specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic, and time based will provide a framework where you can see exactly how much progress your work is producing.  Your work will have purpose – and that will inspire you to maintain the pace.

You see, if you can’t measure where you are and you’re not sure where you’re going, it’s difficult to find a compelling reason to do the work. If you can’t see the “big payoff” at the end and see yourself moving closer to it, there’s no incentive to put in the extra effort and you’ll quickly find reasons to procrastinate.

So be SMART about setting your goals this New Year.  Stack the deck in your favor but making your goals specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-based.  You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish!

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach andPersonal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – no email, no cookies, no catch.  Download and enjoy!

Email Me:  Hiram Perez   

Technorati Tags: goal setting, goals, smart, resolutions, new year, motivation, weight loss, lose weight

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Learn the top 10 absolutely worst foods to eat in this entertaining video by nutritionist Natalie Butler at www.nutritionbynatalie.com.

Once you’ve watched this 10 minute video, do what I did:

Count up how many of these foods you’ve had in the past week.  Come on, how many?

I’ll ‘fess up to the fried catfish (one of my favorites) and the baked goods (I’ve got a bad sweet tooth).

You know, if you really want to lose weight, get fit, and enjoy all the benefits of being in good health, you first must become aware of the nutritional benefits (or the risks) of what you’re putting into your body.

Second, you need to consistently make better choices in what you eat as well as how much.

Getting and maintain good health is not rocket science.  It’s making good food, exercise, and lifestyle choices on a daily basis.

Hope you enjoyed this video.

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach andPersonal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – no email, no cookies, no catch.  Download and enjoy!

Technorati Tags: food, nutrition, weight loss, balanced health

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In fact, do a quick search on the Internet and you’ll see a lot of people (including myself) recommending eating 5 to 6 meals per day.  What gives?  How does increasing the number of meals you eat result in weight LOSS?  Won’t eating more often increase your caloric intake and result in weight GAIN?

What do you think? …

First, Let’s Define a “Meal”

Before we go any further, it’s critical that we define exactly what is meant by a “meal.”  When nutrition experts say eat 5 to 6 “meals” per day, we don’t mean the mega-sized, 1500-calorie-all-you-can-stuff-yourself-with type of meal that most of us have 2 to 3 times a day.

Take a look at the picture that’s part of this post.  THAT’s what we mean when we talk about a “meal.”  Each meal should be around 200-300 calories.  That’s it.  Your mid-morning meal can be as simple as an apple in between breakfast and lunch.  It can be a celery stick with a little peanut butter in between lunch and dinner.  A piece of fruit, a cup of cottage cheese or a couple of whole wheat crackers with peanut butter are other examples.

The idea is not to eat more food during the day, but to eat the same amount of food (or actually less) spread out over 5 to 6 meals instead of 2 or 3 times a day.

Why This Works

Here’s why eating more frequently actually works.  If you eat breakfast around 6:30 am or so and lunch around noon, that’s around 5 hours between meals.  Since most food takes between 2 to 4 hours to be digested and leave your stomach (depending on the type of food), that’s way too long to go without eating.

The reason is that after your body finishes digesting your breakfast, your blood sugar levels (your glucose levels) begin to drop significantly and around 10:00 am or so (2 to 4 hours later), you’re going to start feeling really hungry.  By the time it’s time for lunch, you’re STARVING!  We all know what happens next – you’re so hungry that you order one of everything on the menu – with extra butter and gravy!  Your blood sugar levels are so low and your body is craving so much food that you tend to overeat in response.  You then feel sluggish and sleepy the rest of the afternoon.  Sound familiar?

On the other hand, if you have a small meal – say an apple – around 10:00 or so, it will kick your blood sugar back up and you won’t feel so hungry.  That way when lunch rolls around, you’re much more likely to be satisfied with the soup-and-salad combo instead of the chicken-fried-steak-with-potatoes-and-extra-gravy.

Eating a small meal every 3 hours or so helps keep your blood sugar levels more or less constant.  That means you won’t go from “I’m starving” to “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” and back again every couple of hours.  This puts YOU back in control enabling you to make better food choices instead of simply responding to your body screaming “FEED ME!!”

Maintain your blood sugar levels at a more or less consistent level by eating more frequently and you’ll control your appetite.  Control your appetite and you’ll actually be satisfied or feel “full” with less food, especially if you make healthier food choices.  Consume less food during the day and you’ll lose weight.  It’s that simple.

Remember, Total Calories are Still Total Calories

Once again, I’m not suggesting that you eat full, regular meals 6 times a day.  Remember that weight loss is still a matter of reducing the total number of calories that you consume in a day.  Eating more frequently will not increase your total number of calories as long as you keep the meals small.  I know I already said that but it’s important.  No matter what you do, weight loss is still the difference between calories in and calories out.

Putting it All Together

So let me summarize with the following points:

1. Prevent your body from going into “starvation mode” by eating something every 3 hours or so.  This equates to around 5 to 6 times per day.
2. Slightly reduce the size of your normal breakfast, lunch, and dinner and insert smaller, 200-300 calorie “meals” in between your regular meals.  So you’ll basically eat breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, a mid afternoon snack, dinner, and then maybe an evening snack 2-3 hours before going to bed.
3. Remember that the idea is not to eat more food, but just to eat more frequently.  In order to lose weight, you still have to reduce the total number of calories you eat during the day.
4. Make better food choices.  Have a piece of fruit instead of a glazed donut, for example.  Remember that refined carbohydrates (like the donut) will actually cause your blood sugar to spike – followed by a crash about an hour later that leaves you starved again.  Instead, choose whole foods, not processed ones.  Whole foods, especially those with fiber (like fruit) take longer to digest meaning that you’ll feel “full” longer.
5. In addition to reducing the number of calories you eat, you can speed the weight loss process by increasing the number of calories you burn during the day.  Take a walk during lunch or take the stairs instead of the elevator.  Find ways to become more active more throughout the day.
6. Listen to your body and do what works for you.  If you normally feel starved just before lunch, then just add a mid-morning snack.  If you don’t normally feel starved before dinner, that’s OK.  Notice what your body is telling you and make the changes that are right for you.

Although it’s counter intuitive, eating more frequently (about every 3 hours or so) actually allows your body to be satisfied with less food overall.  Give it try and see for yourself!

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: blood sugar level, glucose level, Caloric Intake, calories, Dietitian, Health Problems, Lose Weight, Nutrition Experts, weight loss, fitness, diet, meal frequency

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Still struggling to lose weight?  Have you tried one diet after another with little or no results?  Or worse, have you gained back more that what you lost on your last diet?  Losing weight shouldn’t be this hard!

Well, in truth, it’s not.  Losing weight is pretty simple.  Here’s what I recently learned becoming certified as a Fitness Nutrition Coach.

I recently completed the material for the NESTA Fitness Nutrition Coach certification.  They did a really good job of explaining how the body uses various nutrients.  Here’s some of what I learned about losing weight.

First, your current weight is an indication of your body’s energy balance.  If you burn off (energy going out) the same number of calories that you consume via eating (energy coming in), then your weight won’t change because the number of calories going out is exactly the same as the number of calories coming in.

However, if you eat more calories than you burn off (energy coming in > energy going out), then you’ll gain weight because you’re putting more calories into your body than the body can use.  It will simply store the extra calories as fat.

Conversely, if you burn more calories than you consume (energy coming < energy going out), then you’ll lose weight.  In this case, the body needs more calories than you’re giving it through eating so it uses some of the calories stored in fat to make up the difference.

Pretty straightforward, I know.  But how exactly do you apply this in a way that you can stick with on a day-to-day basis?  How do you put that into easy-to-follow steps?  Here’s where I figured out what the A-B-C’s of weight loss actually were.

A – Reduce Your Total Calories

OK, you should have seen that one coming.  But the first question I had was, “What exactly does that mean in terms of my daily eating habits?”  Are we just talking about dieting?

Well, yes and no.  Dieting is part of the answer, but not all of it.  Here’s why dieting alone usually doesn’t work.  Most experts agree that for permanent weight loss, your goal should be to lose 1-2 pounds per week.  If you’re losing any more than that, it’s probably water weight, not fat loss – which means it will eventually come back.

So let’s do a little math and see exactly how many calories 1-2 pounds translates into.  One pound equals approximately 3500 calories.  Therefore, if you want to lose 2 pounds in a week, you would have to reduce your total caloric intake for the week by 7000 calories (2 lbs x 3500 cal/lb = 7000 cal).

So what’s that on a daily basis?  Well, we need a reduction of 7000 calories per week and there’s 7 days in a week so dividing one by the other gives 1000 calories per day.  You would have to eat 1000 fewer calories each and every day.

Holy Smokes!  One Thousand Less Calories!  That’s huge!  If you’re eating around 2000 calories per day, then eating 1000 fewer calories means cutting your meals in half! Could you do that?  I know I can’t – at least not for more than a day or two.  This is exactly why most people who try to lose weight by dieting alone rarely find success. It’s just too high a hurdle to clear each and every day.

So what’s a more balanced approach?  One approach that will increase your chances of success is to combine dieting (reducing the total number of calories you consume) with some type of exercise (increase the total number of calories you burn off).  That’s the next step.

B – Increase Your Activity Level

Instead of trying to reduce your daily calorie intake by 1000 calories through dieting alone, it makes much more sense to combine dieting with exercise.  Here’s how it would work.

Remember our energy balance equation?  Energy coming in (via food) must be less than energy going out (through activity level) in order for us to lose weight.  There are 3 ways to accomplish this:

1. Through Dieting Alone. In other words, reduce the amount of food coming in and keep your activity level the same.  However, we’ve already discussed how difficult this is to maintain over the long term so this is not really a good option.
2. Through Exercise Alone. You can keep the amount of food constant and increase your activity level.  But you still  have to create a deficit of 1000 calories per day and if you’re not going to do it through dieting, that means you’ll have to burn it off.  There’s just one problem.  Do you realize how much exercise you have to do in order to burn off 1000 calories?  That’s about a 90 minute, non-stop cardio session.  And remember, you have do this each and every day.  Again, not something most people can stick with on a daily basis.
3. Using Both Dieting and Exercise. This is the balanced choice.  Instead of trying to loose (or burn) 1000 calories using one method alone, try losing half that amount (500 calories) with each method.  Seek to reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories – that’s about a 20-25% reduction in meal size.  I can probably do that just by cutting out snacks and soft drinks.  Second, seek to burn off an additional 500 calories by increasing your activity level through exercise.  I can probably burn off 500 calories in a 30-45 min cardio class with no problem.  Now you’ve got a weight reduction plan that’s doable, and one you can stick to.

C – Make better food choices

The last step is to make better food choices on the calories you do consume.  Choose foods that are nutrient rich, instead of energy rich.  For example, a Twinkie® and a large apple both have approximately the same number of calories (about 120).  Although the Twinkie provides a short-term “energy-rush,” the apple provides a number of nutrients (like fiber) that are missing from the Twinkie.  So make sure that the calories you do consume are from whole foods instead of processed ones.

So that’s the “secret” to weight loss:  reduce your total calories, increase your activity level, and make better food choices.  What turned on the lights for me was realizing that if you utilize all three steps in your weight loss plan, your chances of success go way up!

Give it shot.  I think you’ll not only find this kind of weight loss program easier to stick with, but you’ll also begin to get the permanent results you’re looking for.

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: Body Balance, calories, diet, Dieting, Eating Habits, Energy Balance, Fitness Nutrition, Gain Weight, Lose Weight, Losing Weight, Nutrients, Nutrition Coach, weight loss

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