How to make realistic short term goals?

zionarbadon
zionarbadon Posts: 27 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Good morning all. I'm a newer gym-goer and I'm trying to cut some wait while also lifting and strength training. So far I've lost about 15lbs so far (~1 month) but I'm sure about 8 or so of that was water weight. I just got a personal trainer that I will work with once a week and he asked me for a two week goal.

As someone who wants everything (weight loss/BF% drop, Muscle gain, etc) I'm not sure where to even start on short term goals. How do you determine your short term goals? Any suggestions?

Male/27/190.6(currently).

Replies

  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    decide what you want to do

    make a plan

    do it.
  • vanguardfitness
    vanguardfitness Posts: 720 Member
    I have no idea. 2 weeks is too short for the body to go through any significant change IMO. Other than setting up an actual gym schedule I'm at a loss
  • thistimewillbedifferent
    thistimewillbedifferent Posts: 217 Member
    I agree that two weeks is two short to see physical change, but it's not too short to make progress on some behavioral changes/habits. So maybe your two-week goal could be something along the lines of "get off the bus one stop earlier and walk the rest of the way" or "eat at least one vegetable with every meal" or "reduce soda consumption to one a day" or "try one new vegetable each week" or anything that reflects an improvement to your current lifestyle/habits. If you're already much further along in your healthy lifestyle, you could have more advanced goals such as "hit xxx grams of protein a day." You can even make small improvements in two weeks in areas like flexibility and the amount of time you can hold a plank or a wall-sit, for example. There's always something you can improve in a two-week period! Your trainer might have additional suggestions.
  • Nutritherapi
    Nutritherapi Posts: 1 Member
    Goals need to be achievable; for example. My goal is to attend 3 yoga classes a week, and 1 Zumba class. i know I can achieve this looking at my week ahead, so I have put these into my diary and booked my self on to the these.

    The following week is looking slightly tricky, so that week I will set my goals to look like this:
    10 mins of self practice yoga 3 mornings, 20mins walk 2 lunch times and 1 yoga class at the weekend.

    My overall goal might be to go to the gym more, tone up and lose 10 kilos.

    When you set yourself goals in the short term, and you achieve them, it boosts your self esteem and motivates you to keep going.

    As with dietary goals, for me it's the 80/20 rule. I eat well 80% of the time, allowing me access to naughty unhealthy treats. When we deprive ourselves, or feel we are depriving ourselves, we are more likely to feel low and end up eating more to feel better.

    I hope that's helped? Best of luck with your goal setting
  • SJ46
    SJ46 Posts: 407 Member
    Some things you can do:
    - think about something you've always wanted to do, your goal can be to research how to attain it or the first steps you need to do
    - think about some of your habits you would like to change and work towards changing
    - exercise goals can be the first steps toward a physical accomplishments, for example - I would like to do 10 pullups so I am going to practice pullups every day or 3x a week or whatever
    - exercise goals like - weight train 3x a week, do x hours of exercise a week, take a walk every day, etc

    Good luck!
  • zionarbadon
    zionarbadon Posts: 27 Member
    Sorry, I mispoke. It was supposed to be two months, doh! I was thinking one goal could be to get on a basic schedule cause I just kinda go in and do whatever as long as I havent done it the day before and I do couch to 5k about 3 days out of the week.
  • takumaku
    takumaku Posts: 352 Member
    Sorry, I mispoke. It was supposed to be two months, doh! I was thinking one goal could be to get on a basic schedule cause I just kinda go in and do whatever as long as I havent done it the day before and I do couch to 5k about 3 days out of the week.

    Getting on a schedule is a very good goal. Kinda going in and doing whatever is a recipe I see alot of New Year resolutionist follow at my gym. By March, most quit and I feel this is caused by a lack of planning/goal setting on their part. The C25K is great as well. The C25k is how I started running and how I'm working towards doing more 15ks and a 1/2 marathon.

Categories