3 Tips for Reaching Your Daily Nutrition and Fitness Goals
Nutrition and fitness are long-term investments in your health. You only get one body, and the more you support yourself with healthy foods and exercise, the better you will feel. That being said, people sometimes ask me how to stay motivated each day. Great question!
It is easier to stay focused when you know your short-term and long-term goals. What are you trying to achieve? Where do you want to be in 3 months? Six months? A year? Once your goals are clear, you can make a plan to reach your goals through day-to-day actions. Each day matters and contributes to the bigger goal. And the good news is that the more you reach your daily nutrition and fitness goals, the more likely you are to keep going!
Here are a few other tips to reach those all-important daily goals:
1. Make Healthy Routines
Why are routines and habits so important? Because they free up your mind from having to make decisions all the time. And the more you have to decide to eat healthier, the likelier it is that you won’t follow through.
Good routines make it easier to have a healthy lifestyle.
For example, if you want to remember to eat a healthy breakfast each day, you could support that desired habit by setting out your breakfast items the night before. If you plan to have eggs, set out the skillet. If you want to have a nutritious smoothie, put all the smoothie items together in a covered bowl in the fridge and set out the blender. Make it as easy as possible to do what you’ve decided. Then, no matter how you feel, follow through with your plan.
In her book on habits, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives, Gretchen Rubin says: “To a truly remarkable extent, we’re more likely to do something if it’s convenient, and less likely if it’s not. For this reason, we should pay close attention to the convenience of any activity we want to make into a habit.”
2. Stay Accountable
You are more likely to follow through on your daily goals if you know someone is going to ask you about it. Who can be your accountability partner? Your coach? A friend at the gym? Maybe someone else who runs the same route as you on the weekend? Once you find that person, commit to checking in with each other, and decide how often. Maybe it is a text after a workout saying what you did, or you plan to go for a run together and cheer each other on.
We are all more likely to quit when we are alone. The important thing is that you are not the only one who knows your goal.
You can also be accountable to yourself by checking off your daily goals on a calendar. Once you see that you have reached your goals each day, you will want to keep up the good work.
3. Be positive
The things we tell ourselves have the power to motivate us or deflate our energy. So what are you telling yourself? Remind yourself that hard work pays off and that you can do what you set your mind to. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions and habits, you won’t reach your daily goals. You’ll only do half of your workout, you’ll run out the door without breakfast. That’s ok, it happens. But instead of beating yourself up, try to show compassion toward yourself. It is much easier to pick yourself up and keep going if you are being positive than if you are telling yourself you are a failure.
Healthy routines, staying accountable, and being positive will help you reach your daily fitness and nutrition goals. If you do get off track with your goals, don’t wait until the next day. You can get back on track as soon as you realize it. You can do it! What helps you reach your daily goals?