How To Stay Accountable For Your Health & Fitness Goals

Want to stay accountable for your health & fitness goals but not sure where to start, or perhaps you need some long, short and medium term goals examples.

If you’ve just embarked on a new regime for improving your health and fitness, you could be brimming with excitement. Already imagining how you’ll look once you’ve shifted some extra weight. Or if you’re just looking to get yourself feeling fitter and healthier – mentally and physically. Going to the gym on a regular basis, eating a healthy diet and working on your fitness goals is great for improving both your physical and mental well being.

However, life outside the gym will also have an effect on your results for health and fitness greatness. For example, getting enough sleep (approx 8hours per night), and reducing the stress in your life will impact this greatly. Also, something as simple as making sure you’re drinking enough water (around 2 litres of water a day), will really help your progress. The buzz you’ll get from doing a great workout can be addictive!

However, some times no matter how hard we try, life can get in the way. So, what can you do to stop this happening? If your regime indeed veers off the rails, a lack of accountability could be to blame. Here are some ways in which you could fix the problem.

Short Term Goals Examples

A short term goal would be something you can potentially achieve in under 12 months – often much quicker than this.

For example, it could be something such as…

Getting your personal training qualification
Learning to drive
Getting a better job
Saving X amount of money
Learn a new skill
Run 1 mile 30 seconds faster

Medium Term Goals Examples

Then there are medium term goals. These are goals you should be able to achieve anywhere within 2 – 5 years.

Medium term goals examples include…

Pay off a larger amount of debt
Create a successful business
Fluently learn a new language
Graduating from university, school or college

Long Term Goals Examples

Then lastly we have long term goals. These are goals that you work on slowly and could take up to 10 years to achieve.

Some examples of long term goals include…

Paying off your mortgage
Be a leader in your field of work
Buying your first home
Visit every country in the world

Keep Track Of Your Progress

For your mental health, it is possible to become too obsessed with the scales. Some people like to weigh themselves every day. Others might do it once a month to keep track. Do what works for you, just be consistent with whatever you decide to do. Just remember fluctuations in your weight are normal so try not to focus on it too much.

Workout Clothing

OK, so we don’t mean go out and spend a fortune on the top of the line gym/sports wear. However having clothing that is suitable and fits correctly can have a huge impact on how your exercise. Wearing baggy clothes or clothes that don’t let you bend while you’re trying to perform certain exercise will not only hinder your progress but can also be very annoying and sometimes even dangerous!

You can get very affordable sportswear from places like supermarkets, although how good they will be or how long they will last, I’m not sure. I’d opt for going somewhere in the middle. You want the items to last a long time to give you good value for money, but not be too expensive that you’re scared to wear them or get them dirty. My advice would be to try a few different brands out, order online and then send back anything you decide you don’t want. Most places offer free returns, or very cheap returns at least.

Count Your Steps – Step Goals

Walking is a wonderfully simple exercise that anyone can do. It’s recommended you aim for 10,000 steps a day. However the UK average is more like 5,000 steps a day, so we need to work on this! You might be surprised at just how easily you can keep track of your daily steps with something like a Fitbit or Apple watch.

Set Achievable Goals

Give yourself goals for varying length. Some short, some medium and some long term. By having various goal sizes you are more likely to stay on track.

As the long and medium term goals can take at least a few years to complete, having those smaller ones will help you to stay focused. The shorter term goals will mean you’re never far away from completing one of them. Often motivation can be lacking so these smaller ones will help you stay motivated for longer.

Reward Yourself

This tip comes from the everyday health website, which implies that you don’t need to feel guilty for treating yourself every now and then. The important thing is exactly when – and with what – you treat yourself. Set yourself a specific goal and only reward yourself when you reach it.

For example, if you would like to reach a particular dress size or weight, reward yourself for hitting that target with something like a massage or a new dress in your new size, or a visit to the cinema.

Get A Personal Trainer

I always thought getting myself a personal trainer to help me reach my goals was kind of a cop-out as it wasn’t all you, there was someone there pushing you along. However, recently my thoughts this have changed some what. Having a personal trainer gives you some to be accountable to, some one else you don’t want to let down and some one to use you and help you through the harder times, and let’s be honest, we all have those days where we just don’t want to workout!

Personal trainers can be so expensive though and most will help you in the gym. However, they won’t be there for you when you can’t stop craving that chocolate bar! Doing all the exercise in the world won’t help you loose weight if you are eating all the wrong foods.

Exercise Equipment

You don’t have to spend huge amounts of money, or convert your garage into a home gym (we can all wish), I mean getting a few things to help you have fun with exercising at home. We don’t all have time to make it to the gym or go for a long run/bike ride, but surely we can all spare 10-15 minutes to get up and get moving….right?! Having a few items at home can really change your way of thinking about exercising and make it more interesting a varied.

I would advise on getting these items if you are just starting out or looking to workout at home…

Resistance Bands
Yoga Mat
Exercise Ball
Large water Bottle
Micro Fibre Towel

For example, resistance bands are great if you don’t have a lot of space or easy access to weights. They add extra resistance to your workouts and there are so many things you can do with them.

Stay Hydrated

Having a large 2 litre water bottle is great especially if you struggle with not drinking enough throughout the day. I fill my 2 litre water bottle up first thing in the morning and decant it into a smaller water bottle that I carry around with me.

This way I can see exactly how much I’m drinking each day – am I close to 2 litres or have I been really poor…etc. It keeps me accountable and since doing this I have been drinking close to the 2 litre mark everyday!

Get A Fitness App

Counting calories can initially seem like an arduous endeavour, but it’s not nearly as annoying as you might think, and you do get used to doing it. My advice would be to use an app like MyFitnessPal (it’s the one I use daily). It’s available for both iPhones and Android devices and lets you log both your calorie consumption and your exercise routines and like we mentioned above, you can also link it to your fitness tracker like FitBit or Polar…and others.

The app is particularly recommended in this Forbes article, so don’t be afraid to act on this recommendation and see what the fuss is about. Your waistline could soon look better for it.

Which of these, long, short and medium term goals examples would help you stay accountable?

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