Emerging from Winter Hibernation: How to Set Healthy Goals

Author: Asandra al'Terra, May 2015

Let me preface this by saying: I think a beach-ready body is one that is appropriately dressed for sun and sand, including sunscreen. The notion that you have to have a six-pack (the ab kind, not the beer kind) and wear a size 0 in order to rock a bikini or swim trunks is patently idiotic.

Even so, with the weather warming up in my corner of the world, people have started emerging from winter hibernation, and I’m hearing more and more people talk about getting outside more and leading more active and healthy lifestyles.

Maybe your city isn’t under almost 111” of snow anymore (*ahem* Boston *ahem*), and you’re eyeing those sneakers in the corner of your apartment that have gone unused for months. Maybe you’re getting married this month and want to shed a couple of pounds before the big day. Maybe you just want to do one damn pull-up all by yourself. Whatever your reason for wanting to get active, here are a couple of tips on getting (back) into the groove of a healthy, active lifestyle:

1. You do you.

This is the first and most important rule. You’re not going to stick to a plan that makes you hate every waking second of your life – and even if you do, well, you’re just going to hate every waking second of your life. That’s not what we’re going for here!

Getting healthy and active isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. Take time to find activities and foods you like. However healthy kale may be, if eating it makes you want to barf, remember that there are other healthy things out there. If running makes you just want to kick puppies, look around for something else (to do, not to kick; this column does not condone violence against animals. Please don’t kick puppies!).

1b. Exercise doesn’t have to be miserable.

Seriously, find something you love. Maybe you prefer hot yoga dance party class (I have tried one, and it is awesome) to sweating on a treadmill. Maybe you really want to kick things that aren’t puppies – have you thought of kick boxing? Maybe you just really want to lift heavy things. There are so many different things to try out there, and I promise you that you can find one you enjoy!

2. Slow and steady wins the race.

Now, people have different ways of approaching things, but most of us have only a limited amount of willpower. If you drink 2L of soda and a six-pack of beer every day, eat three triple cheeseburgers for dinner, and don’t exercise, going from that to cutting all soda and alcohol, having only salad for dinner, and running five miles a day will probably either kill you or lead you to kill someone. Plus, you run the risk of injuring yourself by doing too much, too fast.

Some people prefer an all-or-nothing game, and they’ll do better at cutting out soda entirely than cutting back by half a litre a day for the first week, etc. But trying to make sweeping changes all at once will likely make you incredibly frustrated, and that will lead you to fall off the wagon you built for yourself.

Again: this is a marathon, not a sprint. A healthy lifestyle is, in a large way, about healthy habits. Take a small step, give it a while to become a habit (six weeks is a good rule of thumb!), and then take the next step.

3. Give yourself quantifiable goals.

So, you’re a sedentary person and you’ve decided you want to run a marathon. That’s great! But going from 0 to 60 (or 26.2, as the case may be) is going to be hard, and you might end up injuring yourself. In the same vein, making a goal of “getting healthy” is a great, but extremely nebulous, goal. How do you plan to do that?

A good acronym is SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time bound. So, saying “I want to get healthy” is pretty useless – but saying, “I want to add two servings of vegetables to my daily food intake for the next six weeks” is great. Saying “I want to run a marathon” isn’t great if you’ve never run 100m – but picking up a Couch to 5k program will give you a defined program to help you attain your goal (most of them last 10 weeks).

4. Quantify your progress.

Setting new goals is a hard thing, but seeing how you’ve changed over time can be a special sort of inspiration all on its own. Maybe your goal is to do 100 pushups – so, create a spreadsheet or calendar to track how many you do a day. You’ll be surprised how those numbers can grow! You can pick up apps that track everything from running to the number of squats you do to make that easier for you.

5. It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.

Find a buddy who will help keep you accountable for your goals. You can cheer each other on and encourage each other through failures. Because here’s the thing: you’re going to fall off the wagon once in a while, and it won’t always be easy to keep going. A friend will help you dust yourself off and hit the road running again.

The great thing is, you don’t even have to go far to find one: take a look at the Health and Fitness forum for all sorts of threads about all sorts of activities, diets, and lifestyles!

Have any other suggestions for getting healthy, or questions? Post them in the comments! :)