Goal Month: Mix It Up

All right:  we are nearly at the end of the month.  Let’s put stuff together.

We know we need to figure out why we want to do what we do to keep ourselves showing up when stuff gets real.  We know we need both strategy and tactics to reach our goals.  We’ve considered SMART goals, dumb goals, rubrics, processes, and outcomes.  What should we do?

 

Good news!  We can use ALL the tools.  We can go through the process of making a SMART goal and use that as our outcome goal.  Then we can create process goals that move us in that direction, maybe even process goals that are dumb goals so we make it easy on ourselves to make progress.  We evaluate how we’re doing with rubrics.

 

Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

As we practice with the various kinds of goals, we’ll learn which kinds work best for us.  Hint:  the right kind of goal is the one that gets us closer to where we want to be.

 

Still need help?  I’m a wellness coach, personal trainer, and Pilates instructor.  In other words, I’m an expert.  Poke me!

Goal Month: Motivational Fuel

At this point, everyone should have a fair idea about different kinds of goals.  What more do we need?  Fuel!

Motivation is the fuel for goals.  All motivations are not created equal, however.

 

The first rule of motivation is that it has to be ours.  Change is hard and we really need to plug into what motivates us to do the work.  We may have other people in our lives who want us to change—their motivation is not going to work on us.  We may be a little embarrassed about what really motivates us, but if blowing your ex’s mind at child pickup is what you want most, you do you.  When we lie to ourselves and others about what motivates us, we just set ourselves back.  We may, on some level, want to be healthy—who doesn’t?—but if we really want to be in shape because the Zombie Apocalypse is coming and we want to outrun those brain-eaters, we need to tap into THAT motivation when it’s a question of going to the gym or rolling over and pulling up the covers in the morning.

 

All that said, science says that there is a hierarchy of motivations in terms of effectiveness.  The most effective motivation is intrinsic enjoyment.  In other words, if it’s fun, we’ll do it.  This is why I spend so much time encouraging folks to find fitness activities they like.

 

The next level down, but still really useful, is doing something because it’s the right thing to do.  Working out because it is good for us gets a lot of us to the gym.

 

Below that, we get into the territory of “I have to” and “So-and-so told me to.”  These are the folks who show up at the gym because their doctor or their spouse threatened them.  As soon as the external pressure lets up, they vanish, unless they discover that they like working out in the interim.

 

Sussing out our motivation can be tricky, but it is entirely worth spending a few minutes thinking or writing or talking through what gets us ready to work out.

Goal Month: Process & Outcome

Another way to think about goals is to consider process goals and outcome goals.

Process goals are the kind where we commit to an activity.  For example, when I say I am going to do two weight workouts a week, that is a process goal.  Outcome goals are about what results we want, like wanting to bench press fifty zilliabillion pounds (imaginary units again, because some of us get too attached to the numbers and ignore the words).

 

Obviously, the two are connected.  If I do two weight workouts consistently every week, I’m going to get closer to bench pressing fifty zilliabillion pounds.  And if I want to hit that bench press goal, I’m going to have to do weight workouts.  The difference is in the focus.

 

Much like Deion Sanders in that old ad, we want both.  The outcome goal gives us the distance perspective and the process goal gives us the to-do list for today.

Goal Month: Rubrics

Yet another way to approach goals is by using rubrics.  When we use rubrics, we decide in advance what an acceptable level of performance is and then we check our behavior against that.  This is a useful way to keep ourselves honest when we have maintenance-type goals.

So, for example, if we are feeling pretty satisfied with our general fitness, we might use a rubric to keep ourselves that way.  We might target something like five cardio sessions of at least 30 minutes per week, two weight-training sessions, and some balance/flexibility work.  At the end of the week, we can compare what we actually did with what we thought would be good.  If we hit most of our rubric most of the time, we’re doing just fine.

 

Note:  nobody is perfect.  When we acknowledge this going in to our goals, we are automatically extending ourselves grace as members of the human community.  This doesn’t mean we always let ourselves off the hook, but we don’t beat ourselves up for occasional lapses.  Love works better than guilt.  I promise.

Goal Month: Dumb Goals

I did my due diligence yesterday and discussed SMART goals.  They work great for some people, but here’s the truth:  I don’t love them.

For one thing, when it comes to fitness goals, those of us who are not personal trainers don’t have any idea what a reasonable or achievable goal might look like.  How long does it take to show cardio improvement?  Strength improvement?  How fast can I change my body fat percentage?  My weight?

 

For another thing, SMART goals are often about ultimate outcome.  Unless we construct them carefully, we think we have “failed” if we don’t hit the exact target we aimed for.  If, say, the goal was to lift one agabaga (a unit I just made up) and we only manage to life half an agabaga, we might think we failed rather than notice that before we started we couldn’t even say agabaga much less lift a tenth of one.  We made progress.  We have stuff to celebrate.

 

Even if we hit our SMART target, then what?  SMART goals are by nature finite.  Life is long and maybe we need healthy habits for the whole length of it rather than ticking a box for a month.

 

All that said, SMART goals work really well for some people.  If you like them, use them!

 

But let me suggest that there is another tool we can use.  Let me introduce you to the dumb goal.

 

A dumb goal is something that is more than we are doing now, but still really easy to achieve.  So someone just breaking up with the couch might choose a five minute walk every day for a week.  Five minutes!  We spend more time getting dressed than that.  We can do that.  And that’s the point.  After a week or so, we have the beginnings of a habit and we can build on that.  After a month, we’re maybe walking a half hour a day and thinking that maybe we could add a pushup or two to the routine.

 

The upside of dumb goals is that we’re never overtaxing ourselves.  The downside is that we have to keep paying attention and adding a little bit more.  Dumb goals are about building habits and about sustainability.  They’re for life, not just to look good at that reunion that’s coming up.

 

Try it.

Goal Month: SMART goals

The classic anatomy of a good goal is the SMART goal.  That is, a goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.  Let’s get into the details, with a hypothetical scenario.

Let’s say I wake up one morning and feel sluggish, flabby, and weak.  I am nearly out of breath just rolling out of bed.  My donut and coffee breakfast doesn’t make me feel better and the day does not improve as it goes along.  I decide I don’t want to feel like this anymore, so I conclude that I want to get in shape.  Ta-da!  A goal!

 

Or maybe not.

 

What does it mean to be in shape?  To some of us, it might mean being able to move our own furniture or open our own jars.  Others might have a clothing size in mind.  Still others might want to time-travel back to our glory days when we ran a marathon or triumphed on the football field or skied for a week with no aches and pains.  My hypothetical self up above needs to get specific about what I want.

 

Pitfall alert:  my hypothetical self could come up with about 27 different specific things.  I am going to focus on one for the purpose of illustration and I will strongly suggest that in real life we don’t choose more than three goals at a time.

 

Pretend Janet decides that what I want is improved cardio fitness, so that not only can I get out of bed, I can ride my bike and play pickleball and garden without feeling like I’m going to die.  That’s a specific kind of in shape, so I’m making progress toward having a goal.

 

But how will Pretend Janet know if I have achieved this?  I will need to measure.  For cardio fitness, I have multiple options for what to measure.  I could track my HRV using my Wristy Overlord (aka Apple Watch) and see if the number trends up over time.  I could track my time, distance, and difficulty settings on the cardio machines at the gym to see how they change.  I could track my perceived exertion in my daily workouts.  I could do a step test as a baseline and then repeat it every month or so to see if things have changed.  The best measurement to use will vary by human, but Pretend Janet wisely wants to keep things simple.  I wear my Wristy Overlord anyway; I will track my HRV.

 

But is this goal achievable?  This is where Pretend Janet has to think about strategy and tactics.  In order to improve my cardio fitness, I have to do cardio workouts.  That means I need to find a time and place to do them.  I need to plan.  I need to show up for my workouts.  And I need to persist.  After thinking things over, Pretend Janet concludes that there is time for a half hour cardio workout five days a week before work.  I plan to roll out of bed, get on my workout clothes, and get it done.  I even plan for a little wiggle room:  if I miss a day, I can do a Saturday workout instead.

 

Is my goal realistic?  Well, if Pretend Janet routinely has trouble getting up in time to throw on clothes and get to work on time, maybe not.  That version of me might do better scheduling an after-work workout.  If Pretend Janet feels excited about throwing on cute workout clothes and getting to the gym and getting done before anybody else at home is even up, this could be perfect.  Optimism is essential to change, but Pretend Janet needs to be honest about who she really is to make this work.

 

The timely part of my goal is where I put a little healthy pressure on.  I want to show improvement in a month.  That’s long enough for some new habits to be fairly formed and short enough that I have to get moving right away.

 

So at the end, my SMART goal looks like this:  I want to improve my cardio fitness as measured by improvements in my HRV over the next month.  I will do this by completing a 30-minute cardio workout five days a week before work.

 

That’s a lot more workable than “get in shape.”

Goal Month: Strategy and Tactics

I mentioned yesterday that goals involve strategy and tactics.  We often think of those two things as the same, but there are differences.

If a goal is our ultimate destination, strategy is like an itinerary.  It gives us the overview of some things we’ll pass on the way and maybe where we’ll stay and when we’re due in various spots.

 

Tactics is the nitty-gritty.  It’s putting gas in the car or buying the plane tickets.  It’s packing the suitcase and making sure we have our passport and credit cards.

 

In a fitness context, if our goal is, say, to lose some weight*, our strategy might be about eating fewer calories, lifting more weights, and logging some cardio.  The tactics, on the other hand, are about shopping for healthy ingredients, planning meals, scheduling time at the gym, and planning the actual workouts.

 

*I chose losing weight not because I love it as a goal, but because it is one of the traditional things people seem to want to do at this time of year.  Healthy bodies come in all sizes and everyone deserves to feel good in their body.

Goal Month: Resolutions Vs. Goals

As I mentioned Thursday, I’m not much of a resolution person.  This is not because I’m lazy or lacking in ambition, not because I’m already absolutely perfect and don’t need to make any changes.  It’s because resolutions don’t work.

What does work?  Goals.  I’m going to talk about goals for the entire month of January because there’s a lot to talk about!

 

Today I’ll talk about the difference between a goal and a resolution.

 

A resolution is a general statement about what we’d like to be or do.  We say we’d like to be thinner or richer or nicer or cuter or the like.  Sometimes we even get a bit specific—we want to lose the traditional ten pounds or something.

 

Goals, on the other hand, get real.  We take that desired ten pounds of weight loss and we add some strategy and tactics to it.  We think about what actually has to change to get us from here to there.

 

Need help?  You know how to find me.

Reflect: Mental and Emotional Well-Being 2

When it’s time to address our mental and emotional well-being, we might need or want help.  That help can come from lots of places:  family and friends, wellness coaches, therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, among others.  Choosing who to ask will depend on the scope of the issues.

As a wellness coach, I can help my clients identify strategies to reduce stress, improve relationships, increase mindfulness, and promote joy.  Talk to me if you are interested!

Reflect: Mental and Emotional Well-Being

Almost done with the year!  Go us!  This final week, we’re going to take a look at mental and emotional well-being.

Taking the time to look around our lives and see how things are going in this area can be a little dicey.  It can be hard to acknowledge that we’re not quite where we’d like to be.  Let me just say:  I see you doing hard stuff over there.

 

We may realize that we’re being eaten alive by stress, or that we could use a little work on our relationships, or that a pursuit that used to fill us with joy is not fun anymore.  Whatever it is, the first step to change is recognition.

 

You can do this.  And I’m here to help if you need me.

Reflect: Sleep and Recovery 2

Sleep and recovery are a little different than the skills we’ve been working on so far.  For one thing, they’re inherently pleasant.  You’d think that would make them easier to prioritize, but no.

Here is your takeaway:  you, you wonderful human you, deserve to rest when you are tired, to sleep when you are sleepy, and to recover as needed.  Some people, some forces in our culture, will try to deny this, but they are wrong.  Fight the power:  go take a (short) nap.

 

To improve our sleep, we might have to admit that our moms were right.  We need a bedtime.  When we are consistent about when we go to bed and when we get up, our bodies adapt and we fall asleep more quickly.  Please note:  the bedtime and the wake up time need to be at least seven hours apart.  Planning to be underslept is not good planning.

 

Setting that bedtime and wake up time can make us feel really efficient because look:  we just implemented a recovery technique!  Two things at once and we accomplish them in bed?  Sign me up.  However, our bodies do need more than sleep.  We might need to think about what kind of food would help our bodies recover, or whether we’ve had enough water recently, or if massage might help.

 

It can feel overwhelming when we take stock of how much recovery we could use.  Baby steps.  Treating ourselves with love takes practice.

Reflect: Sleep and Recovery 1

So:  we’ve spent three weeks talking about and maybe working on various aspects of fitness.  We might be tired.  Time to talk about sleep and recovery.

The two are related.  Sleep is a great recovery strategy.  A whole lot of us don’t get enough sleep and we don’t get good sleep.  How to tell?  Do you wake up rested?  QED.

 

Recovery is a broader concept.  It’s all the things we do to help our bodies feel better after we work them.  It includes things like nutrition and massage, foam rolling, and, a concept I would really like to introduce to my Wristy Overlord (aka Apple Watch):  rest days.

 

We will know if we are recovering enough if we are not constantly sore.

Reflect: Strength 2

Those of us who would like to gain some strength will perhaps not be surprised to learn that, like all the other skills we’ve been talking about this month, habit and routine help.

When we’re first starting out, we might want to commit to one weight workout a week.  We’ll see more progress when we increase to two non-consecutive days a week.  Most of us don’t really need more than three weight workouts a week, but that will depend on our goals and on how we structure our workouts.

 

In general, we don’t want to work the same muscle groups two days in a row.  The way strength training works is that we do damage to our muscles when we work them and they heal stronger.  (That’s an oversimplification, but it gets the point across.)  People who want to work out on consecutive days do things like alternate between upper body days and lower body days.

 

The specifics of our workouts will be dictated by our goals (remember:  endurance, hypertrophy, max strength, power), but the mechanics will work similarly.  We will do a number of reps of an exercise at a weight.  We’ll increase the reps until we’ve hit the target for the kind of goal we have, then we’ll increase the weight, reducing the reps back to our starting number.  In short, we’ll alternate increasing reps and weight.

 

A trainer can help plan and track all that data.  You know how to find me!

Reflect: Strength

There are both formal and informal ways to evaluate strength.  (Spoiler alert:  there’s a workout in the last week of the year designed for evaluation!)  Hit me up if you want to talk about getting into the nitty-gritty.

Some of the evaluation of your strength training routine will depend on what your goals are.  There are, very loosely, a few categories of goals:  endurance, which is exactly what it sounds like, hypertrophy, which is a fancy word for building big muscles, max strength, which again is exactly what it sounds like, and power, which is exerting a lot of force in a short period of time.  If the weights you use are getting heavier over time, you’re probably doing fine.

 

Another way to think about how well the workouts are working is to see how our everyday tasks are going.  If schlepping the groceries is not a problem, great!  If you need to move the couch and you can, also great!  Problems lifting the Pekinese?  Maybe not so great.

Thursday List: 6

Need some balance exercises?  Here are some.  Do both sides.

 

1.     Stand on one foot.

2.     Single leg squat.

3.     Single leg deadlift

4.     Calf raises and single leg calf raises.

5.     One leg dumbbell pass.  Stand on one leg holding a dumbbell.  Pass the dumbbell from hand to hand around your body five times in each direction.  Then change legs.

6.     Do anything on a BOSU, wobble board, or turntable.

Reflect: Balance and Flexibility 2

What do we do if our balance and flexibility are not where we’d like them to be?  Well, we practice.

 

Balance is something we can practice almost anywhere.  It’s a great thing to work on while brushing our teeth or waiting for the microwave.  One of my clients works on her balance waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store (she’s one of my heroes, just sayin’).  First we practice standing on one leg.  Then we try single leg squats.  Calf raises on two legs and then eventually on one leg are also great.  Just be sure when you’re first starting out that there is something available to hang on to if you need it.  Use as little support as you can while still feeling safe.

 

Flexibility is also one of those things that thrives on routine and habit.  A few stretches at the end of a workout help a surprising amount.  If we want more, Pilates is fabulous for gently inducing flexibility, as is yoga (hire your friendly Pilates instructor!).

 

The more we gain these skills, the more we see them percolate holistically (periodic reminder that I am from Berkeley and am allowed to use that word) into our lives. 

Reflect: Balance and Flexibility 1

This week, we’re going to reflect on flexibility and balance.  Today we assess and tomorrow we address.

Flexibility makes life a lot easier, both literally and metaphorically.  (Sometimes a little literal flexibility can help us achieve some metaphorical flexibility too!)  For those of us who do not have osteopenia or osteoporosis, testing flexibility is pretty darn simple:  reach for your toes.  If they’re farther away than they used to be, it’s probably time to work on flexibility.

 

Balance also makes life easier and is also pretty easy to assess.  Stand on one foot.  Now stand on the other one.  How long can you stay there?  (Yes, I know the second foot is harder.  Our bodies like success, so we do the easy side automatically.)

 

These two skills, together, help us react to the unexpected in life.  If there’s anything we can expect, it’s the unexpected.  Flexibility and balance help us bounce back when we suddenly find ourselves walking off a curb we didn’t notice or when we have to dodge a rogue shopping cart in a parking lot.

 

Building them into our routines is 100% worthwhile.

Reflect: Cardio 2

So:  yesterday we took a look at where we are in our cardio fitness.  If we’re not quite where we’d like to be, I have good news:  we can make a good amount of progress by the end of the year.

Of course, all good news has a dark side.  You have to do stuff.  I’m going to use walking as my example, but this system works for whatever kind of cardio we happen to like.  Walking is just accessible to most folks and doesn’t require any stuff besides good shoes.

 

When we start, we want to build consistency more than anything else.  Cardio is a habit.  It thrives on daily or near-daily feeding.  In the first week, you want to make a stupid-easy goal that you can do for six days in a row.  Depending on where we’re starting from, this can mean anything from walking around the block slowly one time to spending half an hour walking.  The key thing is that we have to do it six days in a row.  That last day, we get a rest.

 

The second week, we just add a little more:  one interval.  If our first week was a five minute walk, our second week is two minutes of walking at regular pace, one minute going faster, and two minutes of walking at regular pace.  Or, if we’re going around the block, the first two sides are at regular pace, the third side is faster, and the last side is back to regular.

 

After that, we add a little more time or distance or another interval each week.  (It’s easier to add intervals when we’ve already built up a little more time or distance.)  The overarching goal remains consistency.  This has to feel manageable.

 

What if it isn’t?  I got you.  Let’s say you miss a day.  OK:  restart the clock.  You need six days in a row. 

 

Let’s say that week one goes great and week two is OK, but week three is suddenly harder than you could possibly imagine.  Hang out at the week two level until you are ready to progress.  No one is watching.  You can take as much time as you need.

 

Tomorrow:  some motivation for the process.

Reflect: Cardio 1

News flash from Captain Obvious:  it’s December and that means we’re coming up on the end of the year.  That means we have an opportunity to reflect on where we are and what we’ve done over the last year and maybe also an opportunity to choose some gifts for ourselves for 2026.  Over the course of the month, I’ll talk about a bunch of different things we might want to evaluate and celebrate.  This first week, I’m going to talk about cardio.

Cardio exercise is not the main focus of my work with my clients for the very good reason that it’s dumb to pay me to watch cardio.  Of course, the kind of workouts I design do get people’s heart rates up and clients will be getting some cardio intervals built in to their weight workout.  It’s just not the main goal.

 

Ideally, the time my clients spend with me working out is not the entirety of their workout time.  I sincerely hope they are getting in some cardio and maybe more weights when they’re on their own.

 

Cardio fitness is one of the things that first pops into mind when folks think about what being fit means to them.  We all know what it’s like to get to the top of a long hill feeling out of breath and unclear on our reason for continuing to live and it’s not a good feeling.  We all like to feel like our hearts and lungs are up to whatever it is we have in mind.

 

There are actual assessments of cardio fitness.  (If you want one, let’s talk.)  But most of us know when we’re at the level we’d like to be.  Take a minute or two and think:  are you where you want to be?

 

If so:  good on you.  If not, I have some suggestions tomorrow.

Gratitude 2

I have a Secret Weapon that helps with gratitude practice.  I learned it from the amazing and talented Bronwyn Emery of Live. Write. Be.

(This is a plug for Bronwyn and her coaching services.  She is an awesome and talented person with a gift for drawing good work out of people who write.  Check out what she has to offer here.)

 

If gratitude practice in the classical sense doesn’t work, may I recommend What Went Well and Why.  Here’s how it works.  Every day, you notice three things that went well and you write them down and then you also write down why they went well.  The trick is that you have to say what you did to make that thing go well.

 

Let me give an example.  Let’s say you notice that you had a fabulous workout.  That went well.  When it comes to why, you don’t get to say it was because your trainer is amazing.  You need to look at what you did and maybe you’ll write that it went well because you actually showed up instead of crawling back in bed or because you have finally figured out how to breathe and do pushups at the same time or because you didn’t let how mad you were at your boss derail you, but in fact used the rage as power.

 

What I like about this practice is that not only does it train us to notice the good stuff like gratitude does, but it also builds a sense of agency in us.  Things went well and it wasn’t all blind luck or other people being fabulous, but rather because we did stuff.

 

Try it!