Oct 26 2009
Healthstyle Milestones: What Are Your Health Goals?
By woodleywonderworks
Abandoning the idea of “going on a diet” is one of the most difficult and important adjustments to make when you are trying to lose weight and improve your health. But to achieve and maintain your fitness goals, learning to think in the long-term instead of the short-term is a necessity.
We’ve been conditioned to think about our health as a temporary endeavor. When we find ourselves getting a bit out of shape we assume we need to start a new diet plan and maybe join a gym or cardio class.
“But, you know, things are busy right now and I’ll get to it in a couple weeks when I have more time.”
Even if we do start the plan and lose some weight, how long will it be before we slip back into our old routine and the pounds creep back on?
If you learn only one thing from Summer Tomato I hope it’s that diets don’t work. Calorie restriction in any form can induce temporary weight loss, but the vast majority of people emerge worse off than before they subjected themselves to the difficult and demoralizing task of losing weight and inevitably gaining it (plus a little extra) back.
The science is painfully clear that only long-term and consistent healthy lifestyle choices result in permanent weight loss and improved health.
To really win this war you need to shift your focus from short-term diets and weight loss goals to lifelong habits that promote good nutrition and a healthy metabolism–changes that, in my opinion, should be welcome and enjoyable.
It is never too late (or too early) to get started on your upgrade.
But once you’ve made the commitment to a better healthstyle, how do you know you are making progress without the specific goals and endpoints you get from a temporary diet plan?
This is an excellent question and something worth taking a minute to think about. The answer will be different for everyone and depend substantially on where you start and how you define success.
An example of a fantastic healthstyle goal would be getting off cholesterol, blood pressure or diabetes medication, something attainable by the majority of people taking them. For others the goal may be avoiding meds in the first place by reaching a healthy body mass index (BMI). Health goals like these are obviously a first priority for anyone facing them.
But healthstyle is not just for people with serious health problems. After all, the “normal” BMI range is pretty lenient and you may still have the goal of fitting back into a certain pant size or reaching a specific body fat percentage. These are certainly reasonable goals, especially when you are not approaching them from an all-or-none, feast or famine mentality.
But in my experience, specific number-oriented goals have little stay power when health is your top priority.
When you focus on eating delicious, healthy foods and getting regular exercise (in any form), as the months and years pass goals like reaching a certain body weight or jeans size start to feel a bit contrived. This isn’t because physical appearance or achievements aren’t important, but as your metabolism changes and your body gets healthier it becomes clear that you can feel and look a lot better than you ever really imagined.
What exactly defines the perfect weight or size anyway?
I am not trying to trivialize specific fitness goals nor the effort required to attain them. If you’ve read my diet history you know that I am not immune to aspirations like these. But over time feeling good becomes a more meaningful and satisfying goal than fitting into your jeans. And in my experience, the more energy I put into being healthy and living well, the smaller my jeans get anyway.
For awhile now my healthstyle goals have had little to do with body weight. Instead I choose to focus on habits I can develop that will improve my life and health overall. These include cultivating my cooking skills, learning to eat mindfully and figuring out the best lunch for an awesome afternoon workout.
Here are some of my recent healthstyle goals, which are changing constantly. Please share yours in the comments below.
Healthstyle Goals
- Experiment with new vegetables
- Recreate favorite restaurant dishes at home
- Get enough sleep
- Try new spices
- Eat slowly and mindfully
- Find great foodie resources in my neighborhood
- Get away from my computer at least twice per day
- Make friends with farmers
- Seek new challenges at the gym
- Take the stairs even when I don’t feel like it
- Learn new cooking techniques
- Get new pans
- Discover fabulous restaurants
- Recognize and avoid overeating cues
- Take advantage of seasonal produce
- Eat more legumes
- Prevent food cravings with good nutrition
- Eat more fish
- Take more walks
- Use usual ingredients in unusual ways
- Eat better when out of town
- Cook more ethnic cuisines
- Get more sun
- Develop a taste for my least favorite foods
- Make more soup
- Cook more for friends
- Eat out less than twice per week
What are your healthstyle goals? 
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Tags: body mass index, fish, mindful eating, NEAT, overeating
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“get new pans” that’s required for a new healthstyle? you could add new knives as well. they make cooking (with a good technique) so much easier, quicker and effortless
No it’s not required, I just hate my pans because they suck. My knives are fine.
Hi Darya,
Loving your blog, and I really agree with this post.
My health goal is to appreciate my body on a daily basis. For example, when I put lotion on in the morning, rather than see it as a I chore, I want to use that time to give gratitude to my my body and all that it does for me each day!
Great article and it tracks with own personal experience. In January of 2008 I weighed an incredible 260 pounds or so and as a 6’2″, 61 year old man, I was obese, fat and overweight!
I needed to change something. I had tried Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, South Beach and almost every other diet you can think of, and while I had some small temporary successes, the weight always came back quickly.
I set a goal to weigh 195 pounds by Christmas of 2008. I hit the goal in late October of 2008, almost two months early. It’s now late October of 2009 and I am still at 195 pounds!
I detailed what I did and why I did it at http://LiveThinBlog.com. No, I am NOT trying to sell you anything (Unless you count the adsense blocks). It’s just my way of showing everyone that it can be done.
And, I didn’t need a heavy duty exercise plan either. My exercise plan is what it has always been: flying off the handle, jumping to conclusions and beating around the bush! I do make sure to walk at least 5 miles a day, though, but not all at once.
Again, thanks for the great article, I am sure it will be helpful to others!
Best regards,
Jerry
This post really got me thinking. I’ve been vaguely saying for a while that I just want to get healthier, but I need to put some definitions to that. So here are some of my goals:
To find a healthy way of eating that my husband and I both enjoy and can maintain. The maintaining is the important part, and it’s what we’ve always failed at in the past.
To finally get it through my thick skull that eating poorly one day does not mean all hope is lost and that I should just give up. I can go right back to eating healthy the next day and get right back on track.
To not be afraid to try new ingredients or recipes. This is always a struggle because I hate wasting food, and I sometimes chicken out of making something new because I’m afraid either the hubby or I won’t like it, and then it’s a waste to throw away.
To become more active. I work at home as a writer, so I sit A LOT. I’ve got to change that. I don’t want to make “more exercise” my goal, because I always fail when I say that. I just need to move more, and if that eventually leads to making conscious decisions to exercise, awesome. I’ve got to make gradual changes instead of pushing myself too hard.
To get my cholesterol back to acceptable levels so I can avoid going back on statins (though due to my genetics I may need the drugs anyway – but I want to do all I can to help!).
To lose some weight. I don’t know how much – I’m tired of being a slave to a number on a scale or a size label – but enough so that I like the way my body looks again. I’ve lost 6 pounds since late August, and if I can lose about 12 more I can get back into the right BMI range that my doctor suggested. If I don’t lose any more than that, I’ll be OK. (Honestly, when I get on the thin side, I lose more of my curves than I’d like! LOL)
To eat better when traveling. This is always so hard!
To cut way back on processed foods and refined sugar. Cutting back on the processed stuff has been pretty easy, especially now that the weather’s cooler and it doesn’t matter if my cooking heats up the house. I love to cook anyway, and it really doesn’t take that much more time to cook from scratch. The sugar has been harder, but I’ve made a deal with myself to (try to) save sugar for our game nights on Friday and Saturday. I love to bake, and it’s important to me not to give it up, so I make homemade treats for one of our game nights and take it to share with our gamers. And one of our gamers always brings chocolate-covered almonds, which I absolutely love. It makes it a little easier to ignore the cravings all week if I remind myself that come game night I can have some goodies.
To make veggies, whole grains, and beans the bulk of our meals instead of side dishes to meat. Another challenge because my husband and I both grew up in meat-and-potato households. We’ll never go vegetarian (don’t want to and don’t see the need to) but meat’s expensive and we don’t need to eat it every day.
What a fantastic and thoughtful list! I think your goals are very healthy and attainable and I wish you luck. I especially like your point about getting back on the wagon the next day–that’s a great way to gauge your dedication to the long-term vs the short-term.