Welcome back! I am really excited to share today’s topic with you, because it is changing my life and the lives of my clients.
In the Daily Weight Loss Habits program, I use a habit tracker with my clients that focuses on goal setting, and tracking the progress towards creating weight loss habits. It is super helpful when losing weight to have the progress you’ve made listed out in front of you.
When my clients come to a call with me, which they have twice a month, they bring their trackers with them so I can give feedback and provide support and accountability on the goals they are setting and achieving during my 3 month program.
You can download a copy of the weight loss habits tracker here. You’ll receive the same tracker my clients get, and a video from me showing you how to use it.
In today’s episode, I will also walk you through the tracker, and how you can get the most out of it while creating your own weight loss habits.
When creating weight loss habits, you need to set goals. Goals give you something to track and measure. By tracking and measuring progress towards your goals, you can improve, and tweak your approach to get the results you want.
Two Types of Goals to Set
There are two super important types of goals to use on your weight loss journey. I want to break these down for you today so that you understand what types of goals to set, and how the two types work together.
These are Stretch goals, and SMART goals.
In terms of goal setting, SMART goals are frequently taught. This is one of the types of goals you need because it can help you break things down into small, manageable pieces. However, without a Stretch goal, it is impossible to know whether your SMART goals are actually getting you where you want to go.
Definitions:
Stretch Goals: These are bigger, more audacious goals that take time to accomplish.
SMART Goals: These are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound.
Both are necessary for you to successfully lose weight and keep it off.
Using Stretch Goals
I find it best to choose one stretch goal for the three months that my clients work with me. It is possible over 3 months, but is more abstract than a daily or weekly SMART goal.
The Stretch goal we aim for is losing 10% of body weight over three months of coaching. I like this goal because of the health benefits that losing 10% can provide, as long as the loss is maintained.
This is a good starting point. If you weigh 200 pounds, 10% is 20 pounds, which is safe to lose in 3 months. However, you can’t lose the weight just because you set the goal of losing 10% of your body weight.
SMART goals work to help you figure out the small details of a plan for what you are going to do on a daily and weekly basis. The SMART goals alone do not provide a direction to head in. If you don’t know what you are trying to accomplish, you will not know what types of SMART goals to set.
By setting a Stretch goal you can decide what to focus on and make the shifts necessary to lose your weight and keep it off.
Unlike smart goals, stretch goals have no time limit. This is because they are more abstract, and the measurement occurs at the end, not during the process. Since stretch goals are bigger, you can use them as motivation and celebrate once you reach it.
Using SMART Goals
I find it extremely helpful to use SMART goals to reach Stretch goals. With a Stretch goal, you need to change your actions in order to achieve it. By making small adjustments to your habits over time by setting and achieving SMART goals, you can create a roadmap to reach your goals.
You can track your daily progress towards your Stretch goals by using SMART goals that push you towards what you are aiming for.
Achieving your SMART goals along the way can also help to give you small wins along the way to your Stretch goal so you can stay motivated along the way.
Using SMART Goals with Stretch Goals
In order to reach the bigger stretch goal of losing 10% of your weight in 3 months, you need to break down what habits will help the most to develop or change. Using SMART goals allows you to measure progress as you move toward your Stretch goal.
With SMART Goals, guidance and accountability, you can track what is working and what isn’t on your weight loss journey. By tracking the progress on your habits, you can make tweaks that will help you individualize weight loss habits, and keep off the weight you lose.
When Using the Weight Loss Habits Tracker
The tracker I use with my clients uses both stretch goals, and SMART goals to help lose weight and keep it off. You can download a copy of the weight loss habit tracker here and get started today.
Action Steps
1. Download the tracker. When you download the weight loss habit tracker, you will get it in an email where I’ve included a video that walks you through it step by step.
- Fill out the top section on goals with losing 10% of your body weight as your stretch goal.
- Pick a SMART goal based off of the habit you are working to develop this week. This may be the same habit over the course of 1 week up to a few months depending on how long it takes for it to become automatic.
In my tracker this week, my SMART goal is to do strength training 4 days a week using a workout guide a friend of mine and fellow dietitian sent to me. This will be my goal until I have consistently been doing my strength workout 4 days a week without having to think too much about it. Once it becomes ingrained as a new habit, I will choose a new one to work on. – It is ok to start small on your habit tracker. When I first started using it, my goal was to increase my water intake until I got to drinking ½ my body weight in ounces of water. It doesn’t have to be huge, just something you can begin doing consistently.
- Each day, write down the progress you have made towards reaching your SMART Goal.
- Use the barriers and plan section to write down obstacles you’ve faced over the week, and how you plan to overcome them in the future.
- Bonus step: As you fill out your tracker this week, tag me in your Instagram Stories @weightloss.habits.nutritionist. I’m excited to see your progress towards losing weight for good!