After making the decision to get started on a fat loss workout and diet program, the next thing that you must be sure you’re doing is taking the time to set some reasonable and attainable goals for yourself.
Many people completely skip over the goal setting step and this is a big mistake. Without goals, you’re essentially moving along your path with no end point in sight and it’s a great way to invite motivational lulls into your plan.
When you have some clear goals in place, then you know precisely what you’re going to be working towards so keeping up your regular efforts will be that much easier.
This said, it’s vital that you’re taking the time to set some reasonable and attainable goals. In some cases people will set goals for themselves, but they’re not goals that they’ll easily be able to actually achieve.
If you want to see long term success, your goals need to be something that you could reasonable attain so that you don’t become discouraged as it starts to look like you’ll never get to where you want to be.
Let’s take a look at what you should know about setting reasonable and attainable goals.
Consider Your Resources
The very first thing that you must do in order to set reasonable and attainable goals is to consider the resources that you have available to you. If you’re someone with a very busy schedule and you already know ahead of time that you likely won’t be able to make it to the gym any more than twice per week, you need to take this into account when setting your goals.
That same person would never be able to set a goal to run a marathon for instance as they would simply need more time to devote to their training.
Likewise, if you want to really pack on some lean muscle mass to help with the fat loss process, you had better have free weights or machine weights around you. You cannot build large volumes of muscle without some type of equipment, so this needs to be in place.
Always think about what you have available to you and whether it’ll meet the needs of whatever goal you’re working towards.
While weight loss is very much about your nutrition, workouts will come into play.
Consider Your Past Experience
The next thing to consider as you set your goals is what your past experience has been like. Have you always fallen off a program? Or, have you never tried a diet before and this is your first time?
If you’ve been on and off more diets than you can count, it may be more realistic to simply set a goal to stick to a diet for two weeks and focus on that, rather than on a set amount of weight.
Or, if you’re someone who has extremely poor eating habits to start with, your goal may be to just cut out certain foods from your diet from week to week.
For instance during week one you might cut out soda and anything that’s candy or fast food. During week two you might get rid of any processed snacks. Week three might call for you to remove all flour-based products – by inching forward like this you’ll have better success than if you tried to do a full diet overhaul right from the start.
Consider The Type Of Program You’ll Be Using
The next thing to think about when setting your goals is the type of program that you’ll be doing. If you’re someone who doesn’t do very well with strict diets, losing weight quickly likely isn’t going to happen.
Remember, the speed in which you see weight loss will be correlated with how many calories you reduce your intake by (to an extent), so this must be taken into account.
Some people just don’t do well on lower calorie approaches and that’s fine. But at the same time, they will have to accept a slightly slower rate of weight loss progress.
Consider Your Commitment Level
Finally, also think about your commitment level. Are you someone who is bound and determined to stick to your plan no matter what?
Or, are you someone who does want to make progress, but doesn’t want it to hinder your lifestyle too much? If friends as you to go out to dinner, you want to be able to enjoy them and eat what you want?
If you’re the latter case scenario, then again, set some more modest goals. While you can still see progress, you aren’t going to see the rate of weight loss someone else would who is sticking to their diet at all times.
There’s nothing wrong with either scenario, but your goals and your approach must align.
So there you have a few of the important points to remember about setting proper goals that are attainable and reasonable. If you’re not taking these factors into account, I’d strongly suggest that you start as it will influence the success that you see.
