Fitness Success 30 Days at a Time

Corey Grenz, MS
Nutrition & Fitness Coach

Chances are this time of the year you have fitness goal you’d like to accomplish. Whether it’s weight loss or running your first Marathon, you likely have a goal and would like to accomplish it ASAP. Here are five applicable steps to successfully get you there:

Step 1: Set a Measurable 30 Day Goal

For this method to work use a calendar that you can write on. Once you have the calendar write down your 30 Day Measurable Goal on the top of it. Since weight loss is a common goal this time of the year we will use “Lose 5 Pounds” as an example of the 30 Day Measurable Goal for the next four steps.

Step 2: Create 1-5 Daily Measurable Actions (DMAs)

Once you have your goal written down create a list of 1-5 (no more than 5) applicable and actionable goals that can be done daily. The key for these to work is they have to be easily checked off as either done or not done and need to be done every day. This is why they are called “Daily Measurable Actions” (DMA for short) and examples for the five pound weight loss goal could include:

-Track your nutrition
-Walk 30 minutes
-Drink 3 liters of water
-Eat 100+ grams of protein
-Sleep seven or more hours

Step 3: List Your Social Events

This is an important step as many people don’t accomplish their fitness goals (especially weight loss) because they let poor nutritional choices at social events derail them. Examples include eating too much, drinking too much, etc. If you plan ahead for these events and follow your DMAs you can reframe these events as “Earned Social Meals” (ESM for short) and feel better after them instead of worse regarding your 30 Day Measurable Goal.

Step 4: Get Back On Track After The Social Events

As discussed in Step 3 most people let one social event with less than ideal choices completely get them of track on their fitness goals. If you focus on thinking of them as ESMs, make an effort to check off your DMAs, and simply get back on track with your 30 Day Measurable Goal the event(s) will usually cause little to no issues regarding achieving your goal. The key is to get right back on track and not let one event turn into an entire weekend, week, etc.

Step 5:  Assess Progress After 30 Days

Once you’re at the end of the 30 days ask yourself the following questions: First did you accomplish your 30 Day Goal? Next, how many DMAs did you check off during the month? Third, how many ESMs do you have? After you answer these questions assess and reassess what you did. From there make the appropriate adjustments, set a new 30 Day Measurable Goal for the next month, and try to improve what you learned about yourself the first month.

If you noticed, I only go 30 days at a time. The thought process behind this is it’s easy to set a big goal that takes months to accomplish but lose focus and unfortunately not accomplish it. This is a big reason why many New Year’s Resolutions don’t last past February. However if you just focus on setting 30 Day Measurable Goals the results will start to compound after a few months improving the likelihood of accomplishing your long term goal(s).

Give this thought process a try if you haven’t already!