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When you first start an exercise program, you’re psyched and ready to go. Unfortunately, that excited feeling rarely lasts as long as your gym membership and before you know it, you’re back on the couch.
How can you stay motivated long enough to get the body you really want and learn to make exercise a permanent part of your life? Believe it or not, it’s as simple as setting goals.
When you set a goal, you make that activity a priority in your life, explains Paul Estabrooks, Ph.D., from the department of kinesiology at Kansas State University. "Goals keep you attuned to what you desire to achieve. They keep it closer to your consciousness," Estabrooks says.
Fitness expert Liz Neporent, a personal trainer at Plus One Fitness in New York and author of The Ultimate Body, says she’s amazed how few people actually set exercise goals. "You would never build a house without a blueprint or make a complicated dinner without a recipe, so why start exercising without an end result in mind?" Neporent says. "Without goals, you’re aimless. Exercise feels like a meaningless activity unless you have something you’re pointed toward."
First on the agenda should be long range or "ultimate" goals. Decide what you really want out of your exercise program. Is it to run a marathon, lose weight, gain strength or just to be able to play with your kids without getting winded? There are no right or wrong goals—you simply need to figure out what you really want. Try to be as specific as possible, and make sure to include a time element to your goal.
For example, if losing weight is your ultimate goal, work with your doctor or personal trainer to come up with a realistic weight for your height, sex and age, and a reasonable timeline to achieve it, Neporent suggests. "Don’t just pick a number out of the air," she advises. "You may not be able to weigh what you did in high school anymore."
Edi Cooke, a psychologist from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, agrees that goals must be realistic. Otherwise, she says, you’ll just set yourself up for failure and disappointment.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t challenge yourself, according to Estabrooks. Your goals should definitely be challenging or you’ll quickly get bored with your routine; just don’t make them impossible to attain.
Now that you know where you want to be, you have to figure out the best way to get there. Imagine that you’d like to lose 10 percent of your body fat. That’s a goal that may take some time, and you probably won’t see immediate results. Keep yourself motivated in the meantime with stepping stone goals.
Using the previous example, Neporent suggests that each step might be to lose one percent of body fat. Or, if you want to lose 10 pounds, break it down into more manageable chunks, like 3 pounds a month.
Next, figure out how to accomplish each step. Long-time runner, Lisa Penberthy, from Croton on Hudson, New York, maintains her aerobic capacity and slim figure by running at least 10 miles a week. "Having that small goal every week definitely motivates me," she says. "If by Tuesday I haven’t run at all, I know I have to get moving." Penberthy recently added the new long-term goals of increasing tone and upper body strength to her program. To accomplish these goals, she joined a gym for the first time and has started taking fitness classes.
For someone just starting to exercise again, a realistic stepping stone goal might be to walk three times a week for 30 minutes at a time, Estabrooks says. As your fitness level increases, you can, and should, adjust your goals.
Neporent says it’s a good idea to keep track of your goals and the progress you make toward them. You can do this with something as detailed as an exercise journal or with something as simple as a gold star on your fridge when you accomplish one of your goals. Keep in mind, however, that the better you keep track of your activity, the easier it will be to go back and see what is working and what isn’t when it’s time to update your goals.
Reaching a stepping stone goal is often reward enough in itself, Estabrooks says. He suggests that you also constantly look for signs of progress. Can you climb up a few flights of stairs without getting winded? Do you have more energy? Are your clothes starting to feel loose? These signs are often the most motivating rewards, he explains.
But, you may want to set up a more formal reward system for extra motivation, especially in the beginning when you won’t feel the benefits of your hard work just yet. A night at the movies or a day at a spa might be just the carrot you need to dangle in front of yourself to keep you on target. Just be sure your reward doesn’t sabotage your goal, cautions Neporent, who says that a giant hot fudge sundae probably isn’t an appropriate reward for losing 10 pounds!
Not everyone reaches their goals in a linear fashion. "Realize that your goals are your ideal and that you might not always make it," Cooke says. "Forgive yourself if you don’t meet your goals all the time. Sticking with it is what’s important."
It’s also a good idea to have backup goals in case something happens and you can’t meet your original goals. Neporent remembers a client whose goal was to run a marathon. In the middle of training she broke her leg in a fall. Obviously, the marathon had to wait. It would have been easy for her to spend the next six weeks on the couch, except she had a backup goal to go after—to increase her upper body strength. Neporent helped her find exercises to move her toward the backup goal, cast and all!
If you’re a long-time exeriser and have managed to conquer your original goals, congratulations! But, be sure to work on new goals right away.
"There’s value in goal setting for everyone, regardless of their current activity level," Estabrooks says. Without firm goals in place, he says, it’s too easy to let a hectic schedule throw you out of your fitness routine. And, then, before you know it, it’s been weeks since you’ve exercised. If you constantly update your goals, it’s easier to stay focused on the reasons why you’re exercising in the first place.
"Goals really are the key to success," Neporent confirms.
- Check with your doctor or personal trainer to come up with a realistic weight and fitness plan, and to make sure you’re physically capable.
- Decide on your ultimate goal—where do you want to be in six months or a year?
- Identify your stepping stones—these are the short-term goals that carry you through to your ultimate goal.
by Serena Gordon "Body for Life"