Three reasons we fail to reach our health and fitness goals (part 1)

Episode Notes

On episode 642 of the 40 Plus Fitness podcast, we discussed the first of 3 primary reasons why we fail at reaching our health and fitness goals and what you can do about it.

Hello, and welcome to episode 642 of the 40 plus fitness podcast. Today, we're gonna start talking about the three reasons why we fail at our health and fitness goals, and then what we can do about it. But because I'm traveling during this month with my wife, it's our 10 year anniversary, I really can only get into the first one. We'll get into the other 2 in the next two episodes, so stay tuned for those. So one of the core reasons why we fail at reaching our health and fitness goals is that we don't have a plan, or we don't have a good plan. So when I'm talking to potential clients, I'm often having the same conversation over and over, and the conversation goes like this.

I say, what are your goals?

And they say, I need to lose some weight.

I ask, how much weight do you need to lose? They respond,

I don't know, maybe 20 lbs.

I ask, why 20 lbs?

They answer, that's when my jeans fit me better.

And then I ask, how are you going to get there?

And she answers, I'm eating healthier. I'm going to start walking after work with my sister.

And then I follow-up with a question, is that something that will work for you?

She answers, yes. That's what I did last time I lost 20 lbs.

I say, so you've already lost 20 lbs, and you need to lose 20 more.

And the answer, well, no. I gained back that 20 lbs when the weather turned cold last November.

So do you see the problem? Well, actually there's several. Okay.

So the first one is that as they came into this conversation, they're looking they really didn't have a clear vision or outcome of what they wanted. How much is some weight? What is some weight? It was just this vague necklace thing. And even when I dove into it, and it was 20 lbs, it was sort of maybe 20 lbs. It was maybe 20 lbs. Okay? And it was based on how jeans used to fit her. So it's not a really emotional deep thing. It's just, she's, you know, she needs to lose maybe 20 lbs. But here's the thing, she's already lost and regained that same 20 lbs, and she's probably been doing that for much, if not all of her life. Okay. The next thing that's pretty clear here is she really doesn't have clear actions. She's going to eat healthier.

Well, what does that mean to you? Because it probably means something very different to me than it might mean to you, than it might mean to her. So what is healthier? And so she's got this nebulous idea that she's gonna eat healthier, and she's gonna do some walking with her sister. I don't know how far her sister can walk, how fast. So maybe this is a good idea. Maybe it's not, but it's not clear. And then the final bit is this is this is just not sustainable. Another November is coming right around the corner, so she just gonna quit when it gets cold, and then everything else that can go on. So, you know, there's these high level things that you see, but there's there's more in there that might not be quite apparent.

So the first thing is her goals are not specific. She doesn't have a specific idea of what she wants, and so her goals are a little bit soft. How will she really know that she's moving toward it? Because she doesn't really have a solid thing. She also these goals aren't necessarily measurable. Sure. She can step on the scale and see that she's lost a couple pounds over the last few weeks, but then she could easily step on the scale tomorrow and see that she's gained one of those pounds back. And so by not being something that she can act on, then it's really hard to measure this because these things are generally out of our control. Now, this goal of losing 20 lbs might be sustainable, in the short run. So she might lose the weight, but what happens in November? What happens if her sister stops walking with her? You know, will she stop? Will she keep going? Will she get there? So it might be attainable. I'm just not sure. And then the next bit is her goals are not necessarily relevant because losing weight doesn't really mean a whole lot to her.

It's just about wearing a certain pair of jeans. And unless there's something big coming up, what's it relevant to? Does she want to be able to wear those jeans to a class reunion? Is it something else going on? But the way she said this so far, it's just arbitrary or sort of arbitrary. Her goals are not time bound. So she hasn't said she needs to lose wants to lose the £20 over the next 2 months, or does she wanna lose it over the next 2 years? We really don't know, and some people may even think lose it over the next 2 weeks, which probably isn't attainable. So she she doesn't have really a time bound on what she needs to do or wants to do. And then while she has some vague idea of actions that she's going to do to get there, this outcome is really outside of her control. And, therefore, there's no real way to tell if these actions are gonna be significant enough or sufficient enough to really help her do what she wants to do. And so, you know, again, there's all these different things.

But really, there's one core thing that I think is also very, very important here. Her goals are probably not written down. Now, science shows us that if we write down our goal, we are way more likely, like, 6 times more likely to get it done than if we just keep it stuck in our head. And so it's very, very important when you decide you do want to accomplish something to write it down. And it's even better when you take the time to share that with someone who holds you accountable, like a coach. Feeling stuck? Do you struggle with discipline and willpower? Imagine waking up each morning feeling energized and ready. Ready to conquer your fitness goals? Ready to take on the day with unstoppable energy? How? With a coach and a team by your side. At 40 Plus Fitness, we understand the challenges of losing weight and keeping fit as you age.

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Now there's more to a plan than just written goals, obviously. But at the very least, you need written goals so that you know whether you're on track or not. Now to help you write your goals, I'd like to share a free resource with you. If you'll go to 40plusfitness.com/goal, that's 40plusfitness.com/goal,

I have a free worksheet there that will walk you through setting goals. I call it the 40+ Ditness, A SMART Goals Worksheet. You just go in there. You just put in your email address, and and it's yours. It'll get emailed right to you as a link. So go to 40plusfitness.com/goal. But I wanna talk about this this worksheet a little bit so you kinda know what we're talking here. And this is all the things that we're missing effectively from her plan.

Okay. And a smart goal is basically the a stands for the first a starts for action. So action action based, meaning we are going to measure action. So if she said, okay. I want to have a healthier diet, which means I need more vegetables. And so she comes to the conclusion that she needs she wants to have 2 or 3 she wants to have 3 servings of vegetables every day. So basically at least one serving of vegetables with each meal. So she can say that she can say in her goal, okay, my action goal is to eat vegetables.

She can say specifically because she wants to eat at least x number of servings per day. Okay.

She can make it measurable. So if she has, though, that number, so be it 3 or 5 or whatever goal she sets, that's measurable. She can sit down during the day and little tick marks on a thing or write it down somewhere, and she can literally see that she's had that many servings today. Now it's attainable if she has access to vegetables, which most of us do, and she's willing to eat them. You know, again, say saying you're going to eat something and then not liking it, you're really asking for fail there. But it could be attainable because she can say, okay. I'm gonna eat 5 servings of vegetables every day, and then she has plenty of vegetables, canned vegetables, frozen vegetables, and fresh vegetables in her house. And so she can easily prepare those and have those.

And it's relevant because we know if we change our diet and we eat more whole food, we're very likely to lose some weight. We get away from the junk. We start eating whole food. That is a healthier diet, and therefore, yes. It's relevant to the weight loss. It's relevant to health goals, anything else we want. We know if we eat more vegetables, we're gonna look and feel better. And then it's time bound, every day.

Now she could say every day for a month. She could say every day. However, she's doing it's generally time bound. I have I have I have 24 hours in my day. I need to have 5 servings of vegetables. There. Measurable. So if you go to 40plusfitness.com/goal, you'll be able to get that worksheet and work through your goals together.

And then what you can do then is use that those that worksheet to come through and formulate. Okay. What do I want? I wanna lose weight. I wanna I wanna look and feel better. I wanna be stronger. And then you can just make copies of that worksheet, and you can say, okay. To lose weight, what do I need to do? I need to eat whole food. I need to move more.

So that's 2 goals. Okay. So the eat whole food, like I just did with the vegetables. You could say I wanna move more, and that can be, I'm going to walk at least 30 minutes, 4 days a week. And so, yeah, if your sister doesn't show up, you still can do 4 days a week. You're just doing some of them on your own or with someone else. But you can say, I'm gonna walk at least 30 minutes, 4 days per week. And that's a very good smart goal, a smart goal, because the action is walking, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. All right there. Okay? And then once you've got those goals right now, because also said you want to get stronger, so you're probably gonna have to do some resistance training. So saying you're gonna do resistance training twice a week, that's a goal. And so now you have these three goals that you just set for yourself that are a part of your overall plan.

Now, doing your own plan can be difficult, particularly the first time you do it. So, again, if this is something you need help for, I spoke about it earlier, but, yes, I am launching a new program that's predominantly built around accountability. You should check it out, 40plusfitness.com forward slash list, and you can get on the waiting list for that. I'll message you. I'll get in touch with you. We'll have we'll have a conversation about see if it's the right fit for you, but it is out there, and it will be the probably the most affordable way you could train with me ever. So, and particularly since it has a 1 on 1 component. So if you'll reach out to me there, 40plusfitness.comforward/list, you can find out some details about that.

But that covers the first one of these, why we fail at our health and fitness goals. I hope you'll tune in next week and hear the second one. If you enjoyed today's show, take a moment to subscribe so you don't miss the next one. And if you would, please leave us a rating and review on your podcast player of choice. Thank you.

Music by Dave Gerhart

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