WITNESS THE FITNESS 2

 

 

GET S.M.A.R.T

 

You’ve signed and committed to your fitness journey.  You want to look good, feel good and regain control of your health and wellbeing.  So it’s time to set some S.M.A.R.T. goals.  What’s S.M.A.R.T.?  Well you are for a start for deciding to get fit, but S.M.A.R.T. is the acronym for:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time

 

SPECIFIC

This is all around what you’re looking to achieve.  You want to enrich your life through exercise, fitness and training but less ambiguous than that, why are you here?  Is it around weight loss?  Is it about putting on muscle tone?  Is it around health?

 

MEASURABLE

It certainly helps if you are able to measure your goal – that way you can be sure that you achieved what you set out to achieve.  This can be measured in terms of inch loss, pounds lost or dropping dress sizes.

 

ATTAINABLE

Keep your goal(s) realistic.  After all that way you’ll have more chance of success.  Take care not be make your goal too difficult, ie, lose all the weight by Christmas, your friend’s wedding or an upcoming holiday, as, if you begin to fail at any hurdle this can have a tendency to demotivate you.  And any demotivation can nudge you towards giving up.

 

RELEVANT

So rather than biting off more than you can chew at the outset, maybe approach your goal in stages or segments.  Rather than thinking I want to lose 1.5 stone before the holiday in 6 months, start by thinking: see if I can lose 2-3lbs in the first 2 weeks, and then set the next stage when you’ve accomplished this.  Every success should endorse your willpower and progress and help to keep you on track.

 

TIME

Have a set date by which you want to see some results.  Of course this doesn’t mean that once you’ve got fit and begun to enjoy a new you in a new healthier lifestyle that it all stops at the end of three or six months.  It just means that you don’t keep putting pressure on yourself.  You can enjoy the gains that you’ve made and set new goals or just enjoy what you’re doing and what you’ve learned about fitness and your own ability.  Because just by challenging yourself you've probably already learned that you can almost certainly run/cycle/swim or train much faster, harder and longer than you ever believed you could. 

 

To break it down further would be to say I want to improve my walk time.  That’s a non-S.M.A.R.T. goal.  Take the same goal and make it S.M.A.R.T.  I want to increase my walk time to four miles in 60 minutes within four weeks.  Or your goal could be to run your first marathon or half marathon.  By setting yourself easily achievable stage goals, ie: getting to your first 5 miles by setting S.M.A.R.T. goals is a good way to measure progress and set you on the road to success and you'll have plenty of fun along the way. 

Get Fit

Get the Facts

Facts that Fit 

 FIT FACTS

 

CONSULT A DOCTOR BEFORE BEGINNING ANY EXERCISE PROGRAMME.  THE INSTRUCTIONS AND ADVICE IN THIS ARTICLE ARE IN NO WAY INTENDED TO BE A SUBSTITUE FOR PROFESSIONAL OR MEDICAL ADVICE. 

 

NOT ALL EXERCISES ARE SUITABLE FOR EVERYONE AND ANY EXERCISE PROGRAMME COULD OR MAY RESULT IN INJURY.  ANY USER PARTICIPATING IN EXERCISE AS A RESULT OF THIS ARTICLE ASSUMES THE RISK OF INJURY RESULTING FROM PERFORMING SUCH EXERCISE(S).  FIT FACTS DISCLAIM ANY LIABILITY OR LOSS IN CONNECTION WITH ADVICE OR EXERCISE(S) ARISING.