We have talked a lot about setting health and fitness goals and reconfiguring those goals to fit with your lifestyle. However, we wanted to take that a step further and refine that idea into setting daily goals. Big picture goals are important so you know where you are going, but if you do not focus on the smaller, more manageable pieces, it is very easy to get overwhelmed. Think about it like working towards a degree: when you first start an academic program, it can seem a little overwhelming. However, the whole thing is broken up by years, semesters, and weeks which makes it much more palatable. You attend classes, write papers, and chip away at your course requirements until finally, you hit your major milestone and earn your degree. Fitness is the same way! If you do not stick to your daily commitments of diet and exercise, you will never reach your ideal big picture.

            How can you set daily goals to help you reach your overall health and fitness goals? We have a few ideas to help you get started:

1.      Set a daily step count. If you use a step tracker, set a daily goal. Many fitness trackers will even send you reminders throughout the day to make sure you are moving around each hour. “There is growing evidence, of course, that long bouts of uninterrupted sitting can have undesirable physical and emotional consequences. Studies have shown that sitting motionless reduces blood flow to the legs, increasing the risk for atherosclerosis, the buildup of plaques in the arteries. People who sit for more than eight or nine hours daily, which for many of us describes a typical workday, also are at heightened risk for diabetes, depression and obesity compared with people who move more often.”[1]

2.      Commit to a meal plan. A meal plan can seem daunting if you look at the entire program at once, but just focusing on what you need on a day to day basis can break it into easier, bite-sized pieces (we apologize for the terrible pun). 

3.      Before you lace up your sneakers, decide on your workout routine. Maybe you really want to focus on cardio or today is all about weights for you (just do not skip leg day). Decide how long you want to run on the treadmill or how many reps you want to do with the weights before you even start. Oftentimes, once you are actually in the middle of working out, you might hit your goal and then find it easier to challenge yourself to do just one more rep, or run for one more minute. You could surprise yourself and find you can go for longer and harder than you initially thought!

            As always, be sure to talk to your doctor before starting any new health or fitness regime. Additionally, your physician might have some ideas for realistic goals you could set! It only takes 21 days to make a new habit, and you will be surprised by how quickly these daily goals add up. As the saying goes, every journey begins with a single step, so start putting one (metaphorical and literal) foot in front of the other!

[1]  Reynolds, Gretchen. “Work. Walk 5 Minutes. Work.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Dec. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/well/move/work-walk-5-minutes-work.html.