Step 1: Set realistically high goals for yourself

Each week I will elaborate on one of seven steps that I have taken to begin transforming myself into the healthy and fit person that I want to be.  Click here to view the 7 steps (Havi’s 7).

Step 1:  Set realistically high goals for yourself

As you’re determining your goal, be sure that it is a healthy goal.  Talk to a doctor about your personal health as what’s healthy for me or your neighbor might not be healthy for you.  At the very least search online for some information on what is healthy and what isn’t.  WebMD has some great information that you can check out here.  This type of information will also help you determine what is realistic for you.  While it’s important to aim high, setting unattainable goals may hurt your deflate your attitude when you don’t reach them and we don’t want that.

The initial part of starting a goal is easy; envision what you want to look like or what you want to achieve and you’ve got a starting point for your goal.  Use the information that you get from your doctor or other sources and just start by thinking of what you want.  A couple popular starts could be to look good in a bathing suit or to fit into new/old clothes.

Now that we have a basic realistic goal it’s time to examine something called backward design.  This should sound familiar to all my educator friends out there because how we set our personal goals should be similar to the goals we set for our students.  It basically means that you set your desired result and work backwards to figure out how to get there.  We do this by taking the goal you’ve set above and figuring out how it can be measured and achieved.

What we initially began with above is a good start, but we need to further define our goal.  We need to elaborate on the goal by coming up with a concrete way to measure it.  For example, if the clothes you want to fit into have a 34” waist, then we can make our goal to have a 34” waist.  Similarly, we can try to determine measurements that define to you what looking good in a bathing suit means.  In your opinion, figure out what attributes (weight, thighs, hips, arms, etc.) will mean that you look good.  This will allow us to be able to accurately track our progress (step 3).

Now that we have a concrete way to measure our goal, we need to figure out how to get there.  This is where the next step of “educating yourself on yourself” comes in.  In order to best reach your goal you will need to learn about how the human body works and specific attributes or conditions you have that may help or hinder your progress.  So be sure to come back next week as I will scour the internet to find information and resources that will help you achieve your desired goal.

7 Easy to Follow Steps that Help Me Get Healthy

Last week I published my story for the world to see and was overwhelmed with the support I received.  So I wanted to start off this week’s post with a thank you to those that have commented, in public or in private, on what you thought of my story; it really meant a lot to me.  In that initial post I encouraged the readers to stay tuned for a set of steps that I personally believe will help you achieve your health and fitness goals.  The following is that list of steps that I take that have worked for me.  Each Monday in over the next 7 weeks I will elaborate on each individual step, suggest tips on executing each step, and list tools that will help you with each step.   It is my hope that you will find these steps helpful and easily doable because it is my strong belief that if you follow these steps you will achieve like I am.

Havi’s 7

          1.      Set realistically high goals for yourself.  Think about the best you can do and put your goal a little beyond that.  However, don’ set your goals so high that they’re either impossible or unhealthy to attain.

2.       Educate yourself on yourself.  If you know about your body and how it works, you’ll be able to work more efficiently toward your goals and will start seeing results faster.

3.       Monitor your progress.  Whatever your goals are, make sure they are measureable and that you monitor them regularly.  This way you can get positive reinforcement when you’re trending toward your goals, and you can intervene when your program is trending away from your goals.

4.       Take it one day at a time.  It may sound cliché, but it is great advice.  When you wake up in the morning, try not to worry about what you did last weekend or how far you have to go in your journey.  Instead plan out what you need to do to be successful TODAY.  If you keep having successful days you’ll be achieving your goals before you know it.

5.       Share your journey.  Share your goals and progress with people in your life that care about you.  This will make you accountable and give you a tremendous amount of positive reinforcement as you start beginning to achieve your goals.  There’s nothing better than an unprompted compliment about your success.

6.       Help others with their goals.  If you’re telling your friend to get off the couch and push play, you’re not going to just sit there yourself.  You are going to start feeling a responsibility to set a good example by working out as well, whether you’re in the same room or not.

7.       Have fun!!!  In my opinion this is the most important step of all, hence the 3 exclamation points.  If you’re not having fun, you’re doing something wrong.  Furthermore, if you’re not having fun you’re less likely to stick with your program.

Eating healthy and getting fit are saving my life.

My name is Bill, and I’m an alcoholic.  Like many others it took a lot of mistakes and hurt for me to come to that realization.  My story isn’t all that dramatic--I drank to escape the stress in my life and avoid dealing with emotional situations.  There were times when I would drink to the point of blacking out while doing a lot of stupid stuff along the way.  After each occurrence I would try to quit or slow down; but after a few weeks it would gradually begin to build up until I would have another incident 9-12 months later.  I never thought of myself as an alcoholic and would lie to myself in attempt to rationalize my drinking.  The reason I bring this up on a health and fitness blog is because 2 months ago I finally admitted to myself that my life had become unmanageable and off-track.  On that day I made the decision to get healthy mentally and physically.  I began treatment for the alcoholism shortly after, but I didn’t just stop there.  I wanted to get healthy in every sense of the word and made the commitment to eating a healthy balanced diet and participating in a workout program.

As a result of these decisions and commitments, I have been sober for over 2 months and have already lost 26 pounds (231 to 205).  The changes in my life have been nothing short of amazing.  I now have a ton of energy that was lacking when I was overweight and drinking.  I play hockey, and I’ve quickly gone from a skater who is huffing and puffing after every shift to a guy who can double shift if needed; in fact, I have enough energy after each game to play again (“Let’s play two!”).  Also, I’m starting to compile a collection of clothes that are too big for me rather than having a collection of garments that are too small.  The physical transformations are awesome; I can’t help but smile every time I see my reflection. 

(Yes that's the same shirt, but minus 26 pounds)

The best part of all this is how great I feel about myself.  I have a self confidence and drive that have been lacking over the past year.  In addition, for the first time in a long time I am actually thinking clearly and am selfless when it comes to my decision making.  It’s no longer all about Bill--my thinking has gone back to 6-7 years ago when it was what Bill can do for others.  It’s the same Bill that worked fulltime while going to school fulltime so that he could make a difference in the world and educate our youth.  The same Bill that went out of his way to help his unemployed friends find work out of state and get acclimated to their new lives.  The same Bill that was easy to get along with and the same Bill that his wife fell in love with.

Now I’d be remiss to just simply paint a rosy picture of my life.  There has been damage done to people I was close with, and it pains me to say that some of that damage may be unrepairable.  For instance, I pushed away a friend of twenty-some years because of my awful attitude and uncontrollable drinking.  This same friend ended up marrying a fine woman that I helped him get with and deservedly, I wasn’t invited to the wedding.  It really pains me when I reflect upon what I’ve missed out on and the damage I’ve done to people that have truly cared about me.

But all is not lost; some of the damage can be repaired and things can and have turned around.  In these past two months I’ve already had a remarkable amount of positive events happen in my life and I’m knocking on wood that it continues.  I’ve come to believe that good comes from good and I’m confident that despite some negative events that may happen as a result of my previous behavior, good things WILL continue to happen for me.

So why am I writing this, aside from the obvious therapeutic benefits?  Well, I hope to inspire others to make positive changes in their lives as I have in my own.  I’ve found throughout my new journey that helping and motivating others has really inspired me to stay focused on my own personal goals.  I want everyone who is reading this to know that what I’m doing isn’t all that remarkable in the sense that you can replicate my early success.  Over the next few weeks I plan to write more blogs that will explain the steps that I’ve taken to create this transformation in myself and some tools that have helped me along the way.  So if you like what you’ve read here, be sure to keep an eye out for future blogs (and I hope there will be many) as writing is something I’ve always enjoyed but previously never made time for.  Finally, I want to encourage you to keep in touch with me through any or all of the sites at the bottom of my page.

(Full disclosure: I am an Independent Team Beachbody coach and while I may from time to time encourage the use of their products, as they have worked for me, I will never try to “sell” you on anything or send you unsolicited info on their products.)