Today’s topic is how to get “Set Up for Success” with your New Year’s resolutions. What are the biggest challenges people face when setting goals?
One of the biggest challenges I see is that people’s intentions are good, but they try to do too much. Maybe their goals are too broad in scope or maybe they aren’t attainable or sustainable. An example of a goal that’s too broad in scope might be, “I’m going to eat better this year,” which is very popular. A goal that is not attainable or sustainable could be, “I’m going to lose 50 pounds in three months.” That’s not to say you shouldn’t aim high, but if you set goals that are impossible to reach or sustain, we get discouraged from making changes down the road.
What can we do to make sure our resolutions are well thought out goals?
Take the example of eating better this year. The problem with this goal is that it’s vague and gives us nothing concrete to work with. One way we could fix that is to keep the goal of eating better and setting a more specific goal, but focus on a behavior we can actually change. An example might be, “I will replace one soda/day with a glass of water for a month with a purpose of eating better.” What makes this goal so much better is that it’s a SMART goal – SMART stands for Specific Measurable Attainable Reward-based Time-bound. If you think about our goal of replacing one soda per day with a glass of water, you can see how specific it is. It’s measurable because it gives us how much change we’re going to make. In terms of being attainable, that’s up to the goal setter. If you drink 6 sodas/day, replacing one soda/day with water might be a good starting point.
What types of goals should we be setting for ourselves?
SMART goals can be applied to any area of our life. I like to set goals of drinking more water and eating more vegetables. Exercise is another popular area – a good example might be setting a goal of walking 10,000 steps per day for a week. Others might be stressed and set a goal of meditating 10 minutes per day for 2 weeks for the purpose of lowering my stress level. You have to think about what matters most to you and what would make you happier and healthier in the new year.
Research shows a strong link between nutrition and exercise. Can you elaborate on that for us?
Exercise and nutrition are very important to our overall health. If your goal is weight loss in the new year, recent research has suggested that you can’t “out-exercise a bad diet,” meaning all the exercise in the world can’t make up for not eating well. From strictly a weight loss perspective, diet appears to have greater results than exercise. That’s not to suggest that you shouldn’t exercise. There’s so many benefits to exercise, including increased energy, decreased stress, it helps maintain bone and muscle mass and improves mobility. But if you want to lose weight, make a SMART goal for exercise because it’s good for you, and a SMART goal for nutrition, because that what science has shown to be more effective in weight loss.
What happens if you reach a goal or don’t reach a goal?
Congratulations if you reached your goal! Let’s go back to our goal of replacing soda with water. If you started by replacing one soda with water, but you’re still drinking five sodas, you might up the ante and try to replace 2-3 additional sodas with water. You could also add a second SMART goal around eating 5 servings of vegetables per day, for example.
If you don’t reach your goal, that’s okay – it happens. We just need to go back to the drawing board and look at why we didn’t reach it. A lot of times, it may not have been attainable or sustainable. It might also be that it just wasn’t the right goal at the right time for you. It doesn’t mean you can’t come back to it at some point – but you might try something else or make a different change.
I’m sure there are resources available for goal setting and lifestyle setting. How can our listeners obtain more information?
There’s a number of good goal-setting websites and books, but it’s helpful to talk to a registered dietitian if you have a specific nutrition-related goal. Registered dietitians at Barnes-Jewish St. Peters are available to talk with you about your needs and answer any nutrition questions. The service is often free or covered by insurance. Call us at 636-916-9436.