Happy New Year! Take a lap around your office and you will hear your colleagues
discussing their 2014 health goals. Take another lap in February and you
will probably hear excuses, disappointment, and few success stories.
There is one main reason these resolutions don’t stick: they are
outcome-oriented. Outcome-oriented goals do not require a plan to achieve
the goal. Setting a goal to lose 5 pounds is outcome-oriented. This type
of goal is rarely successful for two reasons: it does not encourage the
development of long-term healthy habits, and it is easy to become discouraged
if progress isn’t rapid enough. Outcome-oriented goals also fail
to address the underlying reasons your health might not be optimal. Extra
work at the office, busy home life, fatigue, or other reasons will not
magically disappear once you set a goal.
This year, try task-oriented goal setting. Task-oriented goals encourage
life-long healthy habits because the focus is on performing specific actions
or tasks. For example, if lack of time consistently encourages bad eating,
set aside 1 hour every Sunday to prepare healthy snacks for busy days.
By focusing once a week on the task of preparing snacks you can avoid
eating junk food multiple times. Task-oriented goals become the plan of
action, with the ultimate goal to live your healthiest life possible.
So take some time and examine areas of your life where you can implement
task-oriented goals in 2014. Here are some ideas:?
Nutrition
- Make vegetables half your main meals.
- Drink 80 oz of water a day EVERY DAY
- Eat a high protein breakfast within an hour of waking (at least 10g
of protein).
Fitness
- Invest in an activity tracker (FitBit Zip, Jawbone UP) and get creative
in finding ways to take 7,000-10000 steps a day
- If you travel regularly, create a hotel routine you can do in the room,
and do it as soon as you arrive, every time.
- Takethree 10 minute walks around your office each day.
Task-oriented goals work because life-long habits are created. So commit
to a new you in the New Year and make 2014 your healthiest ever.
By Amanda Allen, MS, CSCS?