The Importance of Health Goals and How to Reach Them
A third of Americans make New Year’s resolutions each year, but not all of them see their resolutions through. About 75% of people are still on track with their New Year’s resolutions after one week, while only 46% are still keeping with their resolutions six months later.
We usually have good ideas when we make our resolutions, but following through is difficult. A good example is the attendance at your local gym. In the first few weeks of the year, you can hardly get parking space, or you have to stand in line for the treadmill, but by the middle of February visitors to the gym start to trickle down.
So why do we find it so difficult to keep with our resolutions? Here are the most common reasons:
Our resolutions are too ambitious.
We get busy with our day-to-day lives and fall back into old patterns.
We’re not 100% committed to our goals, which makes it easy to press the snooze button instead of getting up to go for a jog.
It’s hard to say no to sweet treats and junk food when we’re busy or when our stress levels are high.
The key is to set goals that are both achievable and practical. If you know it’s going to be difficult to get to the gym each morning for an hour-long workout, rather trade it in for a brisk half-hour walk during your lunch break.
Having excellent health is a matter of choice. Barring unforeseen circumstances or medical issues, we all want to stay in control of your health. Often we become too busy focusing on our career, finances, and family that our own personal health may get placed on the back burner. We may not be able to carve out sufficient time to think about our health goals and establish a sustained plan on how to achieve our goals.
Many of us wish to have the following health goals throughout our lives:
To enjoy excellent health
To live a long life
To have high levels of energy and vitality
To be free from pain and illness
To follow a nutritious diet
To manage stress better
To be physically more active
To manage weight better
To never get sick
It takes work each and every day to actually achieve our health goals. Our first priority in setting our goals is being honest with yourself as to where we are at the moment, where we want to be, and what we need to do to reach our goals. Since it is sometimes difficult to phrase our health goals, use the SMART guide below to help you through the process.
SMART Approach
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Specific: Don’t be too vague when setting goals. Define what the goal is, how to accomplish the goal, and why is the goal important. For instance, if you want to run a race, your goal needs to specify the distance you want to run, why you want to run this race, how you are going to train for this race, and where time is carved out in your life to plan for the racing training along with other aspect of self-care (i.e, good nutrition & hydration, sufficient rest) each day to adequately achieve your goal.
Measurable: It is important to keep track of your progress. Our memory is selective, and we may forget factors like skipping our daily run earlier in the week or having tons of ice cream the night before. Track specific measures in a journal so that you can monitor how you are doing and be more accountable of your actions.
Attainable: Your goal needs to be achievable within your current ability. For example, your length and bone structure dictate your ideal weight. A short and a tall person will have different weight goals, or if you are 60 years of age, you can’t expect to live another 60 years.
Realistic: Your goals need to be realistic. If you set the bar too high, it will only discourage you if you do not progress at a certain rate. Don’t expect to train for a marathon within a few weeks. Or if you’re in a high-stress job, you can’t expect to be stress-free next week. Slowly work up to your goal.
Time-bound: Set a target date for when you want to reach your goal and break it down further into smaller chunks. For instance, if your goal is to lose a certain amount of weight within six months, work out your target weight for each week as well.
Tips for Reaching Your Health Goals
Making changes in your life is not always easy. Here are some tips to make the journey a bit smoother:
Find out what your motivation is. Why do you want to reach this specific goal? Are you doing it to please someone else, or are you doing it for yourself? It takes commitment to achieve a goal; understanding why you do something will help you stay strong when it gets tough.
It takes about a month to form a habit. If you need to wake up an hour earlier each day to go for a jog, the first month will be the most difficult. But if you can stick with it for a month, it will become much easier after that.
Don’t wait for something to happen to set your goals. Just do it. The longer you delay, the longer it will take to reach your goals.
Start with one small change at a time. Build your first habit, and once you’re comfortable with it, you’ll have the confidence to tackle the next change. If you try to make too many changes at once, you will be overwhelmed, and it will be easier to give up.
Write your goals down. Put it on an almanac. Keep it up to date with real achievements.
Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get it right the first time. We’re all human, and our human nature is fallible. Just get up and try again.
Negativity can quickly break the spirit. Surround yourself with people that support you and your goals. Join a club of like-minded people or tackle your journey with a friend that wants to reach the same goal.
I compiled a list of easy goals that can make a big difference in your overall health and well-being. Once you’ve mastered these resolutions, you’ll be able to take on more the following year.
1. Eat Family Meals Together
Eating together helps us to relax and catch up with our families. It keeps communication flowing and helps teens stay out of trouble and decreases the risk of obesity in children.
Choose to have breakfast or dinner together as a family. Try to also cook fresh healthy meals together. Everyone will feel more empowered with contributing to the meal creation and more aware of what all the ingredients are in making the meal.
Even if everybody can’t make it every day, this habit will benefit your entire family’s health and happiness.
2. Eat More Green Vegetables
Vegetables should make up 65% of our diet and consist mostly of leafy greens. These veggies contain all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and protein you need to stay healthy.
Fresh fruits are also important but never a substitute for eating your greens.
You may try to first clean out your pantry of all of the processed and pre-packaged ready-made food. You can then make more room in your kitchen for fresh produce.
Try to then plan meals where fresh green vegetables is a larger percentage of each meal. If you’re interested in having a complete diet makeover, read our guidelines about what is a healthy, well-balanced diet.
3. Find Ways to Be More Active
We all need at least one hour of physical activity each day. Children need at least 2 to 3 hours per day of physical play time.
Here are some fun, creative ways to incorporate physical play into your daily life, for both children and adults:
Play a sport or join a sport club with great exercise classes
Through the ball around at the park
Dancing while making a meal
Taking the stairs instead of the elevator
Walking or cycling to school or work instead of driving
Parking far away from shop entrances
4. Set a Device-Free Zone or Time
Electronic devices are addictive. They are hard to go without and tend to fill up our time. They make kids and adults more sedentary increasing our risk of major health problems (i.e., diabetes, obesity) and are detrimental to our sleep.
Make the bedroom a device-free zone. Try to also avoid using electronic devices during meal times, 1.5 hours before bed, in the middle of the night, and right upon awakening in the morning.
5. Have More Fun Together as a Family
We’re often too busy to spend as much time with the family as we want to. Working long hours may make us feel isolated, both for the person who is at work and those at home waiting for them to come back. This leads to stress and can hamper learning and creativity in children.
Make more time to play together without too many distractions. Some ideas include playing ball in the park, playing board games, or dancing together.
6. Make a Grocery List Before You Go Shopping
When we go to the supermarket aimlessly, we often make poor and expensive food choices. Try not to go to the shop when you’re hungry. Everything looks good and healthy when you’re hungry, leading to unhealthy choices.
Have a look at what’s in the fridge, plan your meals ahead, and make a list of what you need to buy for the next few days.
7. Cut Your Stress Levels
Chronic stress can lead to insomnia, heart disease, obesity, anxiety, and depression. We all need an outlet for our stress, such as exercising, laughing, or socializing more. If you’re usually a workhorse, try to get home a bit earlier each day. Getting enough sleep is also a good stress-buster.
Get our free e-book for more tips on how you can cut your stress levels.
8. Learn Something New to Keep Your Brain Active
Several studies have shown that ongoing educational development can lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Learning new skills can boost your brainpower, revamp your career, and create new possibilities. When we gain new knowledge, we also acquire a sense of accomplishment, which increases our self-esteem.
Attending a night class also has social benefits, but if this isn’t an option, have a look at the many online courses available, such as EdX, Coursera, and LinkedIn’s Lynda. These platforms provide high-quality education from renowned universities like Stanford and Harvard, and their courses are either free or very affordable.
9. Get More Sleep
Getting enough sleep can do wonders for our mood and appearance, and can also strengthen our memories. Lack of sleep increases our risk of obesity and diabetes. Adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night, while children need more.
Read our 10 tips to help you sleep better if you struggle to fall asleep or if your sleep is frequently interrupted.
10. Dial Back the Self-Criticism
The more you criticize yourself, the harder it is to reach your life goals. We all need to look into ourselves from time to time and acknowledge our mistakes, but don’t brood over it. Stop being so hard on yourself for every blunder you make and give yourself more compliments. Everyone makes mistakes. Visualize a better you, and you’ll accomplish more, whether in your career or personal life.
Ready to Set Your Healthy Resolutions?
Don’t be too ambitious when you set your goals and healthy resolutions this year. Take small steps, and add more resolutions once you’ve created healthy habits.
Get the family together and collaborate when setting resolutions. This way you know everyone is on board and agree with the plan – it’s a great way to keep each other accountable.
AUTHOR
Dr. Payal Bhandari M.D. is one of U.S.'s top leading integrative functional medical physicians and the founder of SF Advanced Health. She combines the best in Eastern and Western Medicine to understand the root causes of diseases and provide patients with personalized treatment plans that quickly deliver effective results. Dr. Bhandari specializes in cell function to understand how the whole body works. Dr. Bhandari received her Bachelor of Arts degree in biology in 1997 and Doctor of Medicine degree in 2001 from West Virginia University. She the completed her Family Medicine residency in 2004 from the University of Massachusetts and joined a family medicine practice in 2005 which was eventually nationally recognized as San Francisco’s 1st patient-centered medical home. To learn more, go to www.sfadvancedhealth.com.