My Journey With Health And Fitness – Weekly Goals

Yesterday I had no choice, I had to walk on the treadmill. It was pouring rain and was cold most of the day. I know I can’t do 2 consecutive hours on that boring piece of equipment so I split it up into 2-1 hour walks and hated every minute of it. After that I opted to give up for the day (ok I was able to get in another 1/2 hour walk when the weather cleared later in the afternoon) though then felt bad because my goal this week was an average of 3 hours of walking each day Monday to Friday. However, when I added up the hours I had actually achieved that goal and will get in another 3 hours today.

I’ve come to realize that I need to go back to setting weekly goals for myself. To me this really helps keep me focused on where I want to be. I seem to stay on track much better when I have something that I want to achieve. I want to feel my own sense of accomplishment when I have done what I set out to do. Sure I could just set a goal every day but I find that less challenging, I want something i have to complete for the full 7 days.

Now there is a downside to this, I have a tendency to beat myself up if I miss achieving a goal. I often let it get into my head that I have failed. To avoid this I try to set goals that are realistic but challenging. Knowing what my schedule is like for the next few weeks I have to tailor my goals to not put so much mental pressure on myself that I get stressed. I really was good at doing this for about 9 months when I started at the fitness centre but somehow I let it slide.

This week’s goal is realistic, at least 1 hour of exercise every day. I’m starting with this one because I have gotten a little complacent about Sundays. It started happening in Mexico but then stuck around so that last Sunday when the alarm rang I just turned it off and went back to sleep. Let me assure you 6 days a week I do my fitness classes and then walking so Sunday I give myself a bit of a break but I need to do something.

And so tomorrow, which is when I consider the week starting, whatever time I get up (likely early because of the time change) I am going to head out for an hour walk. I also think but putting my weekly goals here you can also hold me accountable to them.