Suggestions for Goals!

[fleafly]

Ok, I've read the stickies for conditioning and dieting. I understand the whole eating right concept but am still trying to get a handle on it. I understand that you need to push your self to get better and I hear everyone talk about setting goals to help motivation. What kind of goals have you set? What kind of goals do you suggest for me?

A little background. I'm 26, 5'10" and 175lbs with roughly %18 body fat.

Are the following some realistic goals that you would set?

Don't eat out all week - make your own food.
Run a certain amount farther or faster than I did yesterday.
Count your calories for the day.
Write a diary of what you eat for the week.

[Train.Harder]

I am all for setting "Long-Term" goals and "Short-Term" goals.

The ones you have down seem just fine for some short term goals for someone who is new to conditioning/dieting (read: eating right).

I'd try to set some specific long term goals too, such as benching so much, or getting your 2 mile time or 100 burpee time down 2 or 3 minutes from when you start timing.

Reaching your goals and KNOWING that you've improved yourself and accomplished something will keep you motivated and excited about training.

Then you set a new set of short/long term goals, rinse, and repeat.

This works for me.

[Standard]

Goals have to be measurable, running faster is not a good goal but running a 6 min mile in 6 months is.

There is a goals thread in S&P that will give you some good ideas

[Dabappa]

Originally Posted by fleafly

Ok, I've read the stickies for conditioning and dieting. I understand the whole eating right concept but am still trying to get a handle on it. I understand that you need to push your self to get better and I hear everyone talk about setting goals to help motivation. What kind of goals have you set? What kind of goals do you suggest for me?

A little background. I'm 26, 5'10" and 175lbs with roughly %18 body fat.

Are the following some realistic goals that you would set?

Don't eat out all week - make your own food.
Run a certain amount farther or faster than I did yesterday.
Count your calories for the day.
Write a diary of what you eat for the week.

Of the four examples you gave I would only consider the running farther/faster as a short term goal; the others appear to be tasks.

Not eating out, counting calories, and keeping a food diary, may be good ideas, but they do not have much of a measurable effect.

It might be better doing those things to meet a goal of losing 2 lb. in a week or dropping 2% body fat in a month, etc.

Short term goals should be measurable, realistically obtainable, have a definite time frame, and correlate to your ultimate goal.