However, if you’re anything like me, you find you spend way too much time thinking and planning about your goals instead of actually working on them.  I even found myself buying some “special” goal-setting paper this past week!

Forget that!  Forget about following a special goal formula or using special goal-setting paper or journal.  Quit spending so much time on designing your goals and start spending most, if not all, of your time working on them.

Someone once said, “Life is not practice.”  That’s right.  We don’t get a chance to live life over.

So don’t worry if you don’t have a neat list of goals for 2012 – all categorized by area of your life, cross referenced with your family goals, and put in order of date due.

It’s the start of a new year.  Just pick a direction and go!  If things change, it’s much easier to change direction if you’re already in motion that it is to rearrange your card catalog of goal cards.

Like Nike says, “Just do it!”

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: goals, new year, 2012, resolution

Related posts:

1. Setting Goals for the New Year
2. Setting Successful Health Goals
3. How to Stick to Your Diet

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

Related posts:

1. Setting Successful Health Goals
2. The Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions
3. New Year – New Theme

Every meeting, party, or social gathering I go to this time of year, and I mean EVERY ONE has a “Holiday Spread” of cakes, cookies, and assorted edible things – all designed to add inches to my waist.  How do you ever survive the Holidays and still lose weight?

Portion Control is the Key

The answer to that question is portion control, portion control, portion control.  Yes, I know that’s easy to say but hard to do.  Yes, I know.  I’ve gone through buffet lines and holiday lunches where even though I only took about a teaspoon-ful of several different dishes, there was simply SO MUCH FOOD that I still ended up with an overfilled plate.

You’ve got to fight that.  Here are two things that I do that seem to work for me:

1. Start with a smaller plate.  Grab a dessert plate or a salad plate instead of the over-sized dinner plate.  The smaller your plate, the less likely you’ll feel compelled to fill it to the brim.
2. Second, get a salad and make sure that it fills 1/3 to 1/2 of your plate.  The good part about a salad is that it’s bulky and will automatically fill a big portion of your plate.  Let your salad be your main course.
3. Next, focus on getting some veggies BUT try to say away from casseroles or veggies that are swimming in cream sauce or gravy.  Steamed vegetables are best but may be hard to find on a traditional holiday spread where everything seems to be drowning in some form of thick cheese or butter sauce.
4. Skip the bread.  Period.
5. Last, get a small sliver of meat or fish.  Let this be no more than 1/4 of your total meal AND only stick to one kind of meat.  Many Christmas dinners include several kinds of meats to choose from.  Choose only one kind.

The key to making through a Christmas or Holiday dinner with your waistline intact is to not allow yourself to be overwhelmed by all the choices that are available to you.  There will probably be 5 kinds of vegetables in all kinds of sauces, casseroles of all kinds, 3 kinds of meats, several kinds of breads, biscuits, or rolls, and 10 different kinds of cookies, cakes, and frosted desserts.  It’s so easy for your good judgement to get overwhelmed.

Remember that you DO NOT have to try everything.  If you do, even if you only take just a “little taste,” there’s simply so much food that you’re going to overeat.  Don’t fall victim to this.  Be very selective in your choices – and try to make those choices good ones.

Another thing to remember is not to be bullied.  Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE is going to be shoving food in your face and saying something like, “You’ve just got to try this.”  You DO NOT have to put up with this!  Yes, I know it’s really hard (really, really hard) to turn down your Aunt Bertha’s chili-cheese-fri-casserole that she spent all day cooking but you’ve got to be strong.  It’s perfectly OK to say, “Thank you so much but I’m totally full.”  Take home a foil-wrapped serving that you can dispose of later if you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.  We’re talking about YOUR HEALTH here so don’t allow yourself be bullied.

Increased Activity

In order to balance the increased calories that the Holidays just naturally seem to bring, you’ve got to increase your activity levels.  Go to the gym, take a walk, go shopping, do ANYTHING that will keep you moving.  Increased activity is not something for a New Year’s Resolution.  It’s something that you should build into your Holiday plans and be doing as you enjoy the season.

Watch Your Stress Levels

Lastly, don’t stress.  Yes, I know you have no idea what kind of gift to get that special someone but believe me, anything you get them will be fine.  What’s important is that it’s from you.  So quit stressing about finding the “perfect” gift.

Remember that most stress is self-imposed.  You have control so turn down the dial.  One way to do this is to remember all those less fortunate than you and to try to do something for someone else.  Give to a charity, volunteer, visit, drop off a gift – there are numerous ways to help those who would otherwise not have any Christmas at all.  Keeping things in perspective is a great way to relieve holiday stress.

Keeping all of these thoughts in mind should help you “survive” the holidays with your diet, and your sanity, intact.

I hope you all have a great Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!  Remember the “Reason for the Season” and take the time to give thanks at the house of worship of your choosing.

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: Christmas, weight loss, diet, nutrition, holidays, eating, dinner, stress, sanity, exercise, New Year

Related posts:

1. Shaping Up After the Holidays
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3. Want to Lose Weight? Don’t Just Lift Weights.

After working on it for 2 days straight, I think I’ve got just about everything back up and running.  Still, I’d appreciate it if you let me know if you find something that still doesn’t work or doesn’t look right.

“Why, didn’t you have a backup?” you innocently ask.  Well, OF COURSE I had backups.  All kinds of backups.  However, I quickly learned that MySQL apparently does some very funny things to the text files it writes as backups.

For example, it took me most of one day to figure out why my backups were failing to load.  Turns out to be a “feature” in the way the NULL field is written.  In the data table, a null (or empty) field is represented by a ” (2 single quotes).  However, when MySQL dumps the data into a backup, it replaces all of the ” instances with the word NULL. The FUN part comes in when you try to reload the data back in.  MySQL won’t accept the word NULL as an empty field since it’s expecting 2 single quotes (”).  Then why in the @$%%@! blazes does it change it when it writes the backup????!!!

And where did all the little ���� (question mark in a black diamond) come from?   They started showing up in between sentences on any type of text when I reloaded the posts back into the database.  What the %@%@ is THAT all about??

Believe me, I would have much rather been working up a sweat at the gym and trying to start the new year in a little better shape.  As it was, I didn’t get much exposure to the sun at all this past weekend!

I hope your New Year’s is shaping up to be much better!

Hiram

Related posts:

1. New Year – New Theme

According to a national survey by the American Dietetic Association, over 40% of Americans choose being on some form of diet as one of their New Year’s Resolutions.  Unfortunately, only 1 in 5 are still on it by the time February rolls around.  As we all know, getting on a diet is easy.  Sticking to a diet is really difficult.

There are some basic things that you can do however, that will significantly increase your chances of sticking with it for more than a day or two.

Use the Buddy System

Remember going swimming in the lake at Summer Camp?  What’s the first thing they always did?  They paired you up with somebody and told each of you that it was your job to look out for the other person.  They even occasionally did “buddy checks” to make sure that you and your buddy really were watching out for each other.

Well, the same concept applies to dieting.  Enlist the help of a “buddy” who also is dieting to help keep you on track. Now you’ve got someone that will hold you accountable to your goals as well as someone that you can help reach their goals. A buddy can encourage, nag, or shame you into sticking to your diet and you can do the same for them.  By working together, you both have a great chance of success.

Take Control of Your Environment

Go through your house, car, and workplace and remove all temptation.  That means throw out all candy, chips, soda, cookies, ice cream – everything sugary and sweet (and loaded with calories) that calls your name in the middle of the afternoon.  Don’t just hide it.  Get rid of it.  Otherwise, you’ll always find a reason to sneak in “just one.”  And once you’ve done that, your diet goes out the window.

The second part of controlling your environment is watching who you spend time around.  Make sure the people you’re normally around have positive  attitudes and eating habits that will support your efforts.  It’s difficult to stay on a diet when all of your friends keep of bowl of M&M’s on their desk.  It’s like trying to quit smoking when everyone around you is a smoker that keeps blowing smoke in your face.

That’s not what you want.  You want people around you that will understand and support what you’re trying to do.  And that might mean making the decision not to meet the guys or girls in the break-room for donuts and coffee every morning.

Make Absolute Rules – and Stick By Them

Although the other two tips are pretty good, I think this one is the most powerful.  Make up absolute rules about what you’re going to do, or not going to do, and then stick by them.  An absolute rule says something like, “I will not eat any candy, period.”

There’s no room for misinterpretation there.  There’s no room for “just one” or “only as a reward after I exercise.”  It’s pretty absolute.  No candy, period.

When you do this and someone offers you some M&M’s, the first thing that will pop into your mind is “I will not eat any candy.”  It provides a mental break, a brief pause for you to think about what you’re doing instead of just automatically reaching for the offered candy.

There’s one thing I know about myself, and probably about you too, and that is that if I allow some room to wiggle out of a rule I’ve set, I probably will find a reason to do so.  And here’s the thing – the “reasons” will all sound sooo good.  Reasons like:

• “I really exercised hard today.  I deserve a piece of candy.”
• “I’ve really done well on my diet and I’ve actually lost 3 pounds.  I can afford to eat just one little piece.”
• “I really need to finish this report but I feel so tired from working out.  Eating some candy will help wake me up.”
• “Just one piece won’t hurt.  I’ll get back on my diet first thing tomorrow.”
• “It’s an emergency!  I need candy to survive!”

Did I get any of yours?  I guarantee that if you leave yourself some wiggle room,  you’ll always find a way to rationalize breaking your diet.  Always.  Rationalization is what human’s do.  So don’t leave any room for it.  Make your rules absolute and then stick by them until you’ve reached your goal.

Lastly, remember that you stick to a diet the exact same way that someone quits smoking or drinking – one moment at a time.  Your goal shouldn’t be to stick to your diet for the next month.  Your goal should be to stick to your diet for the next hour.  You can handle an hour, right?  That’s all you need to do.  Stick with it for one hour.

And when that hour is up, you know what to do.  Commit to sticking with your diet for the next hour.  Before you know it, you’ll have made it through the day, the week, the month and will have reached the weight goal you set for yourself.

Use the Buddy System, control your environment so it supports your goals, make absolute rules and stick by them.  Do these things and sticking to your diet should be a snap.

Hiram
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: diet, dieting, overeating, nutrition, resolution, weight loss, scale, weight goals, new year

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1. Weight Loss: Diet or Exercise?

Here’s a couple of tips from my own experience:

1.  I don’t believe in “overnight transformations” and neither should you. Stay away from “lose 10 pounds overnight” types of diet or exercise plans.  You’ll wreck your health.  Set your goal to lose the extra weight over the next month – just like you put it on.

2.  New Year’s Resolutions suck. They don’t work either.  Reason?  Because even though the year is new, we’re the same person we were last year.  So don’t set yourself up for failure by setting unrealistic resolutions that are forgotten before the end of January.  Accept that you are who you are and find a way to work with that.  That way you’ll avoid feeling like a failure every time you realize that you’ve broken one of your “resolutions.”

3.  Ease it On, Easy it Off. Your extra pounds aren’t the result of  1 or 2 holiday meals.  So maybe you stuffed yourself with turkey on Thanksgiving or with ham on Christmas Day but that’s probably not the real cause of your excess weight.  Your extra pounds were more than likely caused by the constant snacking from the party trays and plates of homemade cookies that seem to be everywhere during the holidays.  This constant snacking was probably the real cause of your spreading waistline.  So now that you know, start cutting back on your snacks.  This might already be happening since the party trays have probably already disappeared from your workplace but make absolutely sure that you haven’t started replacing those snacks with ones you bring from home – or worse, those you get from the vending machine.  You gained that weight one excess calorie at a time.  You can take it off the same way.

4.  Start getting more active. So all the football bowl games, parades, and Christmas TV Specials are over.  Turn off the TV and start getting more active.  There are no more Christmas parties to go to, no more shopping to do, no more school or church programs to prepare for.  You’ve got the time.  Start getting more active.  Take a walk (bundle up if it’s cold), take down the Christmas lights, do anything to get your heart rate up a bit.  You’ll be back into your old exercise routine in no time.

Even the most die-hard exercise fanatics tend to slack off during the holidays.  You can’t help it.  There are just so many demands on your time and energy and attention coming at you from friends, work, school, church, and family.  In addition, there’s temptation to overeat, or to eat the wrong kinds of food, everywhere.   And although most of us try to maintain discipline, few of us do.

But that’s OK.  Don’t beat yourself up over it.  Just acknowledge that you’ve gotten off track and start the New Year by easing yourself back into the routine you know is best for you.   You’ll be back in “fighting form” in no time!

Hiram
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: fitness, diet, over eating, nutrition, Christmas, holidays, exercise, tips, resolution, new year

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So I decided to start over.  This new theme is pretty basic but I think it keeps the focus on where it needs to be – on the content.  After all, that’s why you come here, right?

By the way, I’ve pulled all the flashing banner ads and affiliate links.  They really weren’t working for me anyway.  All you’ll see is a basic Google Adsense box in the sidebar.  Although I do have bills to pay, I promise to keep the ads to a minimum.

So what can you do to help?  Plenty!  You can comment on the articles, for one.  Whether you agree with what I’m writing about or not, your comments are always welcomed.

Second, please let me know via email (hiram@balance-your-health.com) if anything is not working.  I’ll be spending the next couple of weeks tweaking things so they display properly with the new theme.  Please let me know if you’ve found something I missed.

Last, your suggestions are always welcomed.  If you’ve come across or seen a better way to do things, let me know and I’ll give it a close look.

Meanwhile, thanks for your support in 2009 and best wishes for 2010!

Hiram

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Did you know that an estimated 100 million Americans are expected to create New Year’s resolutions in 2009?  That’s one out of every 3 Americans!  Were you one of them?

Just what is a “resolution” anyway?  According to the dictionary, a “resolution” is a formal expression or a decision to do something or to act in a specific way.  For most of us, a New Year’s resolution is a declaration of what we want to accomplish in the new year.  It’s also an implied statement that we’re not happy with how things worked out in the previous year.

According to Business Wire, the Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for 2009 were:

1. Get out of debt or save money
2. Lose weight
3. Develop a healthy habit (like exercise or eating healthy)
4. Get organized
5. Spend more time with family and friends
6. Develop a new skill or talent
7. Work less, play more
8. Other / Miscellaneous
9. Break an unhealthy habit (like stop smoking or overeating)
10. Change employment

Where did your resolutions fit in?  Are your resolutions typical of what other Americans want?  I know mine are.  But here’s the critical question — what are you going to do to turn your New Year’s Resolution into a New Year’s Reality?

Saying you want to start exercising is one thing.  Getting out of bed and actually doing it is quite another  (I struggle with that every morning!).

There are a number of techniques you can use to help you turn your resolutions (or goals) into reality.  I’ve mentioned several in past posts.  But techniques are just that — techniques.  Before any kind of technique will work for you, you’ve got to really decide that your resolution is something you’re committed to achieving.  You’ve got to recognize that it’s going to take effort, time, dedication, and possibly money — and you’ve got to be willing to pay that price.

So take another look at your New Year’s Resolutions.  Make sure they’re really something you’re willing to work for.  If not, it’s OK to make changes.

Then once you’ve come up with a list you’re committed to, get to work turning your resolutions into reality.  Set a schedule.  Make a plan.  Get a buddy.  Do whatever you need to do to get started.  Take that first step, then the second, then the third, and continue on until it’s become a new habit, a new part of you.

I want you to make 2009 your year.  I want you to achieve all of your New Year’s Resolutions…and I want you to know that I’ll be there working on my resolutions right along side you!

Make it a great year!

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: new year, resolutiions, goals, weight loss, health, 2009, dedication, commitment

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