New Month. New Goals.

Happy February!!

Just so everyone knows, February is my second favorite month behind August. Valentine's day is my favorite holiday and 5 days later is my anniversary with my fiance.  This year will be 10 years! So today's post I want to go over how I set my fitness/health goals for the days, weeks, months, years. When setting goals, I use SMART goals. I will explain:

• Specific: You need to have a specific goal in mind.  
• Ex: I want to lose weight.(NO)
• Ex:I want to lose 10 pounds. (It has to be specific)
• Measurable: There has to have a meaning or reason behind it.
• Ex: 110LB. person wanting to lose weight.(NO) [Obviously if they lost more weight they would be unhealthy]
• Ex: 110lb. person wanting to get toned arms, abs and legs with muscle. (Obviously they would most likely gain weight but there is a difference between getting toned and losing weight. Something many people need to know the difference between) 
• Attainable:Is this achievable? 
• Ex: Wanting to lose 20Lbs a week. (NO) It is unhealthy to lose more than a few pounds a week unless otherwise noted by a doctor. 
• Ex: Setting out to lose 3 pounds a week. (This is a little bit more achievable than 20lbs in 7 days)
• Relevent: This has to be results-oriented. 
• Ex: I'm going to start going to the gym. (NO) (Why are you going to the gym?)
• Ex:I'm going to start to go to the gym to weight lift to get toned (There is an actual reason behind why you want to go to the gym) 
• Timely: A finishing result, time-oriented. When do you want to accomplish this by 
• I'm going to run a half marathon one day. (NO)It's a goal without a deadline, you'll probably never get around to it. 
• I'm going to run a half marathon May, 5,2013 (You can actually see an end you you need to start training)

Those are SMART goals. This is the reason I firmly believe that people don't stick to their goals. There always has to be a who, what, when, why, and how involved in goal setting.  I have friends that keep telling me they want to lose weight or start going to the gym but never get around to it. Why? Because, they don't have actual goals or reasons as to why they're setting these goals. I've also noticed that people are setting their goals way too high. Start off small, then start moving up the line.  You always want to have something to reach for. If you aren't able to run a mile, you can't set a goal to run 5 miles non stop in 5 days. It makes no sense. Also, please remember that if you don't hit your goals, it's not the end of the world. It just gives you something to reevaluate and keep achieving for.

So since I've just explained the SMART goals to you here are my February goals:

1. By February 24th, my biggest goal is to have an 8 mile run under my belt. 
2. Start back up to running from 15-20 miles a week to 25-30 miles a week.
3. Have at least 1 10 mile bike ride outside by February 24th.

Those are my goals for the month of February.
Now it's your turn, 
What are your monthly goals and how will you achieve them?