At the beginning of this year, I wrote down all the goals I want to accomplish and created a plan to complete them. Setting goals can be very tricky because you never know what road blocks you may encounter on your journey. I decided to set weekly and monthly goals. I wanted to make sure my goals were realistic and attainable each month. Writing down your goals gives you self accountability as well as a tangible way to reflect on what was successful and what prevented you from accomplishing a particular goal. In the month of January, I unplugged myself from all forms of social media. I removed all my social media apps from my iPhone and iPad. I used the month of January to work on my relationship with God, curve my spending, and focus on my health. During the month of January I have read my Bible everyday, increased my water intake, lost 6lbs, and paid down two bills. One of the Bibles I have had for years is called, “Everyday with Jesus Bible: A One-Year Reading Bible.” In this Bible, you read from the Old Testament, Psalms, Proverbs, and the New Testament. Also, I have plans saved on my Bible app I read every morning. Establishing “positive habits” are a great way to stay of course for accomplishing your goals.
I have been a HUGE advocate of MyFitnessPal Whatever your fitness goals are, it is a easy and user friendly app to track your food and exercise. Here is the key to having success using the app, DO NOT eat the exercise calories you burn. Let me clarify that for you. If you workout first thing in the morning, your are burning empty calories. Lets say your daily calorie goal is 2000 calories and you burn 500 during your morning workout. DO NOT eat an additional 500 calories for that day. ONLY eat the 2000 which is your daily goal. If you eat over your calorie goal, you are defeated the purpose of burning those calories. If your goal is to lose weight, you are overeating. Once you enter your information into MyFitnessPal, it will set goals for you. You can adjust those goals to fit your personal needs. There are a LOT of foods already added into the app. Also, it has a barcode feature where you can scan a lot of the food you eat. The app is a great way to monitor your fat, sugar, sodium, and cholesterol, etc. intake. It shows you all the nutritional values of the foods you are eating. The app gives you the ability to add foods. Being mindful of what you eat helps you stay on track with your fitness goals. Last year marked my 10 year anniversary for using the app. Even though my fitness journey has been a never ending roller coaster, I still use the app daily. If you use a smart watch, the app syncs with some watches such as Apple Watch, Garmin, and Fitbit. The app also syncs with the apple Health App. Once you sync your Health App or watch, it will automatically log your daily steps and exercises you log on your devices. The only down side is it will double log for the watch and health app. So I set my Apple Watch where my workouts automatically go to my Health app and only the Health app will log the information on MyFitnessPal. Its very easy to set up and sync, you just have to make sure it is not giving you double credit for the same workout. You can delete the extra post off MyFitnessPal if that happens.
One of the things my students love receiving is awards for their great work. Those awards can be big or small. Just like my students, I love receiving awards for my work. If you use an Apple Watch, you know you can earn awards for your workouts. Each month it has various types of awards for completing goals such as calories burned, “move”, exercise, and special awards. For the month of January I earned a total of 8 awards. My #1 goal was to start back working out. This was a challenge for me since I started a part time job last year. I only work three days a week at my part time job but, the hours are long on the days I work both jobs. To ensure I was getting my workouts in, I started working out at home. I currently have a gym membership but, it has been very cold here in the mornings. I sweat in my head and face heavy and sweat on my torso heavy too. I did not want to leave the gym wet going from cold to warm and back in the cold to get to work on time. The last time I went to the gym I wore a mask. I encountered a very rude and obnoxious guy while I was working out. He was so loud and obnoxious I didn’t go back to the gym. I was there during a time frame where there were no employees on duty so I could not make a complaint. BUT, I will be returning to the gym in the morning while wearing a mask when the weather gets a little better. Setting small fitness goals to earn awards on my Apple Watch was the motivation I needed and it gave me something to work towards besides losing weight. On my old android phone, I was able to gain awards from beating previous workout goals. Find something to keep you motivated and to keep you pushing towards your goals. On the days I didn’t want to workout, I did it anyway because I wanted to accomplish my fitness goal for that day. On the Apple Watch, you can adjust your goals so they are attainable based on your average day. My “stand goal” is set to 10hrs but, I average 15hrs per day. My calorie goal on my watch is 900 but, I burn over 900 per day depending on how active I am at school, if I worked out, and how active I am at my part time job.
It is never too late to set goals and map out a plan. You DO NOT have to wait until Monday to start your workout journey; just start. Whatever it is you want to accomplish this year remember, you are you own competition. Get a support group to help encourage you along your journey. It can be as small as 1 or 2 people. Make sure it’s someone or people who are like minded, goal oriented, and not treating it as if it’s a competition. I have two friends I exchange workouts, recipes, and healthy foods I’ve tried with. I’ve tried foods I would have never thought of purchasing or eating years ago. If you don’t have anyone to lean own, be your own motivation. Find that one dress, pants, or swimsuit you want to wear and let that be one of your small goals. Keep the momentum going by earning weekly and monthly awards using fitness apps or devices. Find something that will keep you motivated and encouraged without having to depend on others. Having a cheering section is always a blessing BUT, learn to be your main cheering section. Celebrate the small victories. If you lose an inch but not pounds, it’s still a victory. You have breathing room in a pair of pants that you had to unbutton last month is a victory. Whatever you do, BE A GOAL DIGGER. Some days you will fall off the wagon, you will be discouraged, and road blocks may cross your path, but don’t give up. The next day is a new day with a clean slate so, keep working on your goals and crush them.
#HealthyMakesYouSexy #MyFitnessPal #AppleWatch #FitFineTravelingTeacher #FitTeacher #GoalDigger
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