Episode Transcript
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Hello everyone, and welcome to today's podcast episode. My name is Jeannie. Alice Bruce and I work in the marketing department for North Mississippi Health Services. I'm here today with Heather Thorn and we are going to talk about goal setting. So, Heather, would you introduce yourself? Yes, I am Heather Thorn. I work at the Wellness Center for North Mississippi Medical Center.
I've been there for 26 years and I am a personal trainer, an aerobics instructor and a fitness instructor. Great. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here today. So it is early January and everybody has made New Year's resolutions and goals and the doom is full. And so we just want to talk about ways to set realistic fitness goals and why it's important.
So, Heather, first, tell us why this is important and why why do people need to set fitness goals? Well, if you're wanting to begin or fine tune your fitness program or fitness routine, you want to try a goal setting because it will help you start and stick to new habits. And it's going to keep your you motivated as well as on the right track and motivate and challenge you to reach maybe a personal milestone.
Okay, great. And so we all know that New Year's resolutions are notoriously hard to stick to. So why do you think so many people fail at their fitness goals and New Year's resolutions? Well, New Year's resolutions tend to either be really vague, like I want to get healthy or too big of a of a goal. Like, I want to run a marathon.
And you've never trained before or exercise for that matter. So sometimes you bite off more than you can chew and and you want to do it all at once. You want to you want to lose weight, you want to gain muscle. You want to look fabulous. You want to feel great. You want to you want to be able to climb Machu Picchu.
You know, you want to you want to do everything all at once. And then you get overwhelmed and you get burnt out and you risk injury because you do too much too fast. And so you you, you give up, you give up, you get demotivated. So, yeah. And so why is planning important and how can having a good plan help us meet our goals?
Well, planning is important because if you don't have those, if you don't have an idea, if you haven't, fine tune what you want to do yet you're likely to be overwhelmed again like we talked about and give up. But planning is important because it it gives you focus. It gives you a task, takes away uncertainty. So it gives you more motivation and discipline and a drive to move forward.
Right. So you can achieve what it is you're wanting to do as far as fitness goals are. And so what is the best way to set up your goals for success? Okay, so there's lots of different ways to set up your goals. One method is the smart method. Try trying to think of how to take credit for this.
But there's a gentleman who who did it in the corporate world. But Smart stands for is an acronym for a way to achieve goals. And it starts with specific the S's for specific. So instead of like we discussed, instead of a I want to get healthy your specific, I want to be able to do 20 pushups regular on my hands and toes.
But you know, in six months. Right. So that's a specific goal. The Met aim is for measurable, so something you can measure, you can say, okay, so until and in this many months I can do this many pushups, will you know how many pushups you can do? You can measure that the A is for MINEABLE. So something you can actually achieve and attain.
So if it's something that is too hard, you're going to fail, which will demotivate you. So you've got to make it something attainable. Maybe 20 pushups, not 5000. And then the R is for relevant, or you could interchange that with realistic again. So if it's relevant and realistic, something I can do or you can do despite whatever your fitness level is that goes along with that.
And then the T is for timely or time bound. So you want to be able to have a timeframe in which you can achieve that, because if you're not following any goal setting or plan like that, you're typically not going to be as focused as we discuss and not stay motivated. Right. And easily give up after you burnout from.
Yeah, you know, or just lack of motivation. Yeah well you give this a cup. I really like that push up example. Will you give us a couple more examples of some? What would you consider to be a smart fitness goal? Okay. One would be maybe lose £5. Okay. Okay. Not so you a lot of people. Well, a lot of people with their New Year's resolutions want to lose weight, but they don't have a clear idea of how realistic a goal that is and in what time frame.
So they want to lose £30, but they want to lose it now. And there's not really a quick fix. And even with things that might be a quick fix, they don't always last long. So a good goal would be the £5 mark, because that is something achievable, that's realistic, is specific. You can measure it. Right. So in losing the £5, you've got a way to measure that if you can lose a pound a week.
Right. Which is is doable with diet and exercise, then that is something you can achieve. Nice. Okay, great. And then do you recommend setting short term and long term goals? Yes. Because of the early example. Example. With the £5, you may want to lose £30. But saying I'm going to lose £30 in three months, as you know, is not realistic for most people.
So when you begin, if you see that progress toward that £5 weight, that short term goal, your long term goal could be the £30 within the year. Right. And so you can see you can see your progress. You can track your progress and you can feel successful because it's about success and failure. So if you feel like a failure right off the bat, because you haven't lost £30 in three months like you thought you could, you are going to be more likely to stop.
You had to just quit. Right. And having those small wins helps you stay motivated and feel successful and feel positive about your achievement. It keeps you committed. Right. Because a lot of people reach a you know, they don't reach it. They just stop and they say, forget exercise. This is too much. It's that you feel so far away.
Yeah. And then talk to us as if you're talking to somebody who has an exercise in a long time or maybe ever. So somebody that's sedentary. How would you encourage them to set realistic goals? Because, you know, when you get on social media and watch commercials, it seems like, you know, you need to go to the gym for 2 hours every day and lift a ton of weight and work really hard.
And if you're not an exerciser that can seem out of reach or overwhelming. So talk to us as if we're first getting started. How would you recommend we get started? Right. So, yes, that can all be overwhelming looking at all those things. So if you if you're coming to a gym and that I would recommend a gym that has maybe a trainer, a certified personal trainer or exercise physiologist to kind of help you.
But if you are coming to gym for the first time or exercising on your own at home or outdoors, instead of going by what you see on the Internet about how to run every day for, you know, five weeks. Okay. So yeah, it's great to be active every day, but start off with maybe three days a week rather than the five days a week You hear you're supposed to do.
So if you can add three days a week for 30 minutes, that is going to get in and consistently do it. That's going to give you a boost, right? You'll feel better. You'll start to feel good about what you're doing. And it will those long term goals will seem achievable as well as you will be able to be successful without injury, because that's one of the main things people do, is get injured because they do too much too fast.
Right. And also, I would imagine if you set a goal for three days a week and you miss a day, you're not a failure. Right. Because you still have the rest of the week to get those those three days in. And so it makes you feel more encouraged that you can actually reach your goals, right? Yeah. Yeah. You have those extra days.
You can, you can do. And if 30 minutes is too much, you start with 15 or 20. Right. Right. And so you slowly build up, but you do make it challenging, right, for you to make it. It's something you feel confident that you can achieve. Yes. So if you don't feel like you can go into the gym for an hour, feels unattainable, maybe start with a 15 minute walk and build up as you go, as you get those winds under your belt.
Yeah. If you start with three miles of walking and you've not walked in years forever, you are going to be very sore. Hardy. Yes, you may have shins plants. You are going to not walk for a couple of days. Right. So that would be discouraging. So, yeah, it is really encouraging when you can make those smaller goals. And then at and as time goes on.
Are there any tools or anything we need to know about that we can use to help us implement or achieve our fitness goals? I would say one of the main there's lots of tools, in fact, as we discuss, if you get on social media, if you get on the Internet, there's so many things you can use that it can be daunting to figure out which thing to choose or which is right, which is safe.
There are people you can follow that I've seen on social media that do not know what they're doing, that it might be okay for them. But for the average user or the new, as we said, there's somebody that's been sedentary. It will hurt them. Right. Right. And so you do want to be careful about the tools you use.
But yes, there are goal setting apps. So like if you're having trouble setting a specific goal, a goal setting apps on the Internet that you can use to get you started because you need to know how much time you can devote, right? You need to know if you have the right equipment. As we said, and not to toot our own horns, but there are personal trainers that you can ask for advice because they can watch you do the correct.
They can show you the correct form. They can give you the right advice for how much, how quickly or to what's too much to soon. There are also fitness trackers. So you can track your heart rate. You know, if you're in the right range for your age group as far as what your heart rate should be, you know, if you're overdoing it.
Right, And if you like to do track your food intake, if weight loss is a goal, you need to watch the food and the exercise together. You have apps that can help you track your food intake. So you're not overeating and kind of blowing it off the weight loss, right? But yeah, you can do the classes. Classes are another great tool because you can get aerobics classes or strength training classes, so you can get the right information.
You don't have to think about what thing do I need to do? Yeah, and those are all tools that you can use to help you implement and achieve those goals you want to set when we start a new year. I know we it seems like we always have big goals that we want to achieve. Is it better to focus on one thing at a time, you think, or is it better to, you know, go in and try to overhaul everything at once?
Yeah, I think one thing or just a couple of things at a time is a good idea. That's what the New Year's resolution is, is when we go, I'm going to quit smoking, I'm going to quitting sweets, I'm going to quit sodas. I'm going to lose £50. I'm going to gain this many pounds of muscle mass. I'm going to run a marathon.
It's too much and it sets you up for failure. So if you go, yeah, do want to get healthy. Yes, I know. I need to exercise. I might need to lose some weight. So let's start with two smaller, more specific goals. Let's start to lose weight. Like, have that pair of jeans that barely fit, right? They can button, but they're barely zipping.
All right, so you start off with those. That's another measurable thing. And so once you've been okay, say you go maybe not go on a full diet, because that can be overwhelming, too, Right? But say you add some more water and you take away the soda. Yeah. Okay. Add something, take something. Right. And then, you know, watch your sweets and not watch them.
Get rid of them. Right. Not eat them. And then you're exercising. You know, add that fourth day, you know, start with those three days, add that fourth day. If you're already doing that many days, try something new and more challenging. So it's okay to have a couple of small specific goals and then work toward that bigger goal. Right?
Getting healthy. So smaller changes and building on them over time instead of trying to change your whole life in one week. Yeah, because you feel successful. And then then in so many months you look back, you put on those jeans, they fit, they zip, right? You feel great. It's all right. Right. So you feel successful and that helps you stay committed instead of just giving up after injury.
And I didn't lose a pound and I didn't plan. Right. I didn't, you know. Right. And it helps you get back on track when you when you fall off track. If you if you've made all the changes and overhauled everything and you're trying a new diet and you've joined a gym and you're doing all these neat things and then you fall off track for a week, you feel like a failure.
But if you're making small changes and building them into your habit, it becomes easier to stick to. Even if you have an off days. Yeah, everybody's going to get sick every day. And then sometimes you do have injuries, right? Even if you do everything right, you may have an injury, you may have illness, you have, you know, road bumps, you know, in life and obstacles.
And so you may have to miss, but then get back on, get back on track, go back to that consistent consistency is key and then add the challenge, more challenge and intensity, right? Instead of just going nuts, every time you see somebody just go in for everything. That first week, I just go, I hate it because they're going to try to tell them.
And some people are receptive to that and they're okay, I'll rein it in. Right. Let's just start with a new yoga class. You're not eight classes this way, you know. Yeah, but yeah, that'll help you be successful long term with your fitness goals. And then when you achieve a goal, you need to set one of the smaller one of your smart goals.
And you get there. What do you do? Reward yourself. Yeah, you should. Some of the rewards should be that you feel good, right? Right. You feel better about yourself. That in itself is rewarding, but you might want a tangible reward, right? So if you lost your £5 and you've achieved that shorter term goal and your long term goal is to lose more than that, right, then go out and celebrate.
But don't go out. Celebrate by eating a ton of pizza and drinking five Cokes and you're going to undo that, right? The progress you made so a good reward would be, you know, buy yourself a misbehave. You're sort of buy yourself a massage or buy yourself a new pair of pants because your pants are getting loose. Right. Right.
So reward your you know, whatever small reward is tangible for you, because that should that should motivate you to stay on target and on the right track. Right. Great. Well, thank you. Is there anything else we need to talk about or anything else you want to add? It sounds like the key takeaways are consistency is key. Yes. And set smart goals and reward yourself along the way.
Yes, ma'am. That's it. That's it. And if you don't know what you're doing, talk to a professional. Yes, right. Get the advice from a professional so you don't risk over overdoing it. And our burnout right. Right. And so you can achieve those goals. Yes. So, Heather, as you mentioned at the beginning, you're a personal trainer at the Intimacy Wellness Center.
So tell us if somebody wants to get in touch with you and take advantage of your expertise or one of our other personal trainers. How did they find you? Yes, they can give us a call at the wellness center at 3774141, and ask for Heather or any of the trainers and if they want to join or start a personal training, there is a fee associated with the personal training, but you can call and ask questions and we can give you some guidance over the phone and we would love to talk to you and give you give you some tips on how to get started.
If people are joining the wellness center, they will get a and a fitness assessment. So another thing about that measurable right, we measure where you are when you begin and then we show you give you a basic orientation to strength and cardio machine. So we give you some guidance and then which classes might be a good fit for you at what level you're at.
So, yes, we'd love to just give us a call at the wellness center and we'll help you find my great I love that you'll do an introduction to the machine. So if somebody has never been to a gym before, it's been a long time. They don't feel like they have to just go figure it out on their own.
Yes, because it's overwhelming. We have a lot of machines, a lot of equipment. Not everybody knows how to use everything. So we get it set for your height and how much weight you do and yeah, help you get help you through the process. Great. Well, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Have a great day and happy New Year, everyone.
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