As people begin executing their New Year’s resolutions, a local dietitian is offering tips for how to better achieve your goals.
Heather Reid of Empower You Nutrition says the best way to make successful resolutions is to make them more realistic.
“People tend to go too big when we make New Year’s resolutions. A lot of times we get ‘I wanna lose weight, I wanna lose 20 pounds, 30 pounds’. With setting those goals, we really need to break it down and make it smaller,” says Reid.
She advises her clients to make their goals S.M.A.R.T: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and with a time frame.
Reid warns that making goals too lofty can lead to failure by not knowing how you’ll achieve them.
“They say ‘I’m going to lose weight’ and well, how are they going to get there? They say ‘well I’m not going to eat anything bad’. So all of the sudden, they go on these crash diets that they’re not going to be able to maintain.”
She says that what you’re eating is incredibly important to losing weight, but that not every meal plan works the same for everyone.
“I always think of it as, would I feel comfortable feeding my children or another child this diet? If the answer is no then I don’t feel comfortable eating it myself.”
Reid adds that goals of going to the gym every single day are often unrealistic, and setting smaller goals to achieve will help someone gain momentum.
“I love helping people set those small goals that they can achieve, and then they can actually attain those small goals and feel good about it. And then they’re excited to get to the next goal.”
Reid often sees large weight loss or fitness goals, like running a marathon, and starts them off at a series of smaller goals.
“Lets set that back to maybe, walking 5 km to start with. Scaling that back instead of going and trying o run for 5 km straight, ruining your knees or getting an injury. Let’s do some training to slowly build up your endurance.”
On top of setting goals that are realistic, Reid says they’ll be more achievable if they mean something to you, and that not all goals are worth the same to everyone.
“We do some brainstorming and go through what’s going on in life right now and what matters most in the big picture. Let’s do some breakdowns as to what gives you the most bang for your buck, and make some goals around that and ask if that’s actually achievable in your day to day life right now.”
Ultimately, Reid says the best way to achieve big goals is to start achieving smaller goals that lead to it.
“Lots of times we go big and then start to peter out. I suggest going the other way around, and start small and build on those goals.”