Accountability: The key to setting fitness and diet goals

Fitness goals are important. They hold you accountable and encourage you to push through transitory discomfort to achieve longer-lasting change.

To enhance your diet and fitness, understand your current lifestyle and discover simple strategies to modify your health so you can make lasting changes that will lead to a healthier you.

Goals will encourage you to keep going and provide a benchmark against which you can track your progress. Here are some fitness goals to get you started.

Check your diet and fitness

Before establishing new health and fitness objectives, understand what you're doing currently and how it's helping or hindering your progress.

Firstly, record your daily meals, snacks, and drinks. You can use a pen and paper or an app. This is a great approach to learning about your current diet and making modifications.

Whatever your objective is, eating a diet rich in nutrients and low in processed fats and sugary foods and drinks is the key to success.

Secondly, understand your current workout program. Don't beat yourself up if you don't have one. You're here to start something good.

Plan

After you've established your objectives, the next stage is to determine how you'll achieve them.

Write a plan that will help you accomplish your desired fitness goals. You can use pen and paper, a word document, or Google Docs.

The key is to come up with a plan that suits you. There are no silver bullets when it comes to dieting or exercising.

Some tips include:

• Establish small attainable goals and reward yourself along the way.
• Have a plan for when you fall off track (getting back ASAP)
• Keep a food diary to monitor your progress and adjust your food intake accordingly.
• Make time for exercise, even if it's just a tiny amount.
• Set up an accountability plan so you do not let yourself down.

Concentrate on a single goal at a time

Taking on so much at once is a recipe for disaster. With so much to accomplish, people become nervous, and if they don't achieve even one thing, they feel like failures. This leads to negative self-talk, which will reduce your chances of attaining any of your objectives.

Focus your efforts on attaining one objective, such as executing a pull-up or running your first-ever marathon, before moving on to the next.

Reevaluate your progress regularly

It's critical to monitor your progress towards any objective. In addition, you need to be adaptable — alter your goals if you experience a fitness setback, or challenge yourself if you achieve your goals sooner!

Determine a method of tracking your fitness so that you can monitor your progress and stay motivated as you work towards your goal. If you prefer to receive rewards and reminders consistently, use a fitness tracker to log your exercises and create daily movement objectives.

Another effective method of tracking your progress over time is to use a notebook to track whether you've accomplished the minor goals and actions that are part of your plan to achieve your larger goals.

Make it a lifestyle

As you develop and implement your fitness plan, remember the objective is to build healthy habits that will last you a lifetime.

Making positive changes in your life doesn't happen overnight. It requires time and dedication.

Don't become impatient or discouraged if your progress isn't as fast as expected. Many people who've reached their goals will tell you it took more time than they initially thought.

Exercise your options

Fitness is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. So don't get hung up on traditional ideas about exercise. There are options beyond just going to the gym.

The important thing is to find something you enjoy doing because this will motivate you to keep coming back for more.