Goals.
They are important right? I mean if you are on Facebook or Instagram you get the idea of working towards your goals, knowing what your goal is, never losing sight of your goals thrust in your face daily.
I include me in that by the way.
I really do believe that having a goal that you really care about drastically increases your chances of adhering to your plans. A goal is good, but it has to be one you are passionate about and that holds a genuine meaning for you so that it acts as your motivation.
Equally, saying to people don’t aim high, don’t set big goals would be limiting. It’s cheesy to say if a goal doesn’t scare you it isn’t big enough but there’s something to be said for aiming higher than you currently think you can reach, thinking big if you like to encourage you to progress.
But we need to be entirely honest. Not all goals are achievable.
So whilst you should aim big, you should also be realistic.
Let’s say you want a BMI under 25. According to the NHS 25 or above is overweight. So perhaps that’s your goal. On paper that sounds reasonable, a healthy goal. Is it realistic? For me, not massively.
I’m 5 foot 11. To have a BMI of a healthy range I should apparently weigh 140-170lbs (10 stone to 12 stone 1lb). I actually weigh 13 stone 7lbs at present. I’m not overweight, I’m not fat. But to reach what at first sounds like a very reasonable goal I’d need to lose a minimum of 1 1/2 stone, that’s a lot given i’m not actually unhealthy or overweight at the moment. I weighed 10 stone a few years ago for a while. I sort of had had that lolipop look and could only maintain it by eating very little and exercising a lot. It wasn’t in any way enjoyable or sustainable.
So for me a BMI of 25 or less might sounds reasonable but it isn’t really realistic. To do what I do for a job, to train a I enjoy training and to keep as busy as I do I need fuel. Naturally i sit around my current weight, happily, without restriction, with chocolate and alcohol. So that reasonable sounding goal isn’t actually realistic.
You need to make a goal work for you. So it needs to be personal yes, it’s good for it to be big sometimes, but it also needs to be achievable or it serves about as much benefit as not having goal – in fact probably less because it could have a negative effect on you if it makes you feel like you’ve failed.
Sometimes we can ignore the Social Media motivational quotes and be safe, boring and sensible with our goals and still get results.
Heather Sherwood Fitness 