Short Term Goals and Monthly Targets
Now that you have chosen an ultimate goal it is time to set yourself monthy targets and short term goals. Write down your ultimate goal and the timescale within which you want to acheive this. For example, if you want to lose 2 stone write down a date by which time you want to acheive this, if you want to run a marathon decide which one so that you have the target date.
Your monthly tagets and milestones will help you keep on track and stay focused. These monthly targets will be very personnal and tailored to your level of fitness, lifestyle, dependecies and ultimate goal. If your goal is to lose 2 stone in 6 months your first monthly target could be to drink 2 pints of water a day, swap your mid morning snack to a healthy bananna and to introduce 2 short exercise sessions a week. Month two you could start reducing your portions slightly, say by 5% and start to limit your alcohol consumption to just the weekend. Your fist short time goal could be after month two to exercise 3 times a week for 20 minutes at a time. Make sure you include some resitance training in your sessions to help in toning and fat loss.
The short term goals are aimed to provide steps to help you acheive your final goal. You can increase the level of activity gradually over a period of weeks without placing too much stress on your body or altering your lifestyle too much.
Support
Make sure you tell others about your plan this wasy you will have a support network of people who know your goal and how important it is for you to acheive them. This way your friends and family can help you acheive your goals and will not encourage you to deviate from your plan every weekend. If you have a problem motivating yourself to do exercise try and encourage a friend to join in with you - arrange social runs or a swim. If that fails suggest you go for a pamper and make sure you have a swim beforehand, or invite someone round for a healthy dinner.
