Performance Nutrition—Goal Setting 101

Have you ever left on a backwoods adventure without a map?

Would you ever sail the open ocean without a compass? 

How could you ever expect to arrive at your destination without an address?

We make and set goals everyday and never realize it.

Your wife asks you to stop at the store and grab a roasted chicken on your way home.

You now have a clear and concise goal that will either result in a reward or a good scolding.

When you leave your place of work you begin plotting the series of events that will lead you to the accomplishment of this goal.

You consider which supermarket you’ll get the best chicken at, then which course you will take, which road will be the fasted,  where to park, which chicken looks the freshest, which line is moving the quickest, how to pay, how to get home the fastest, and finally how to impress your mother-in-law. 

You do all these things without even realizing you’re doing them, and not a single thought goes into why we don’t have to think about them to get them done!

Here is another way for you to think about it.

 You go to play some basketball with the boys. You’re an average player, but an above average trash talker.

Why is it that you can dribble the ball, look down court, and trash talk at the same time, but you still can’t type with out looking at the keyboard?

The answer is firmly rooted in your subconscious.

When we set a goal and a path to achieve the goal, eventually the path becomes a subconscious journey we do not even know we are on.

Think about all the subconscious events that take place during a normal day.

What about signing your name, do you think about which letter comes next?

Goal setting is an art.

It takes time and dedication to set a goal. You want to loose weight. Most of us have decided to diet and failed, and failed again.

You believe you have set a goal “I want to lose weight”!

Why did you fail?

Well let’s examine this a lot more closely.

First, the goal, “I want to lose weight”, is very unclear.

How much? By when? Muscle or fat?

All of that should be sorted out, but we will deal with that in a bit.

The point I really want to cover is rather profound.

We need to first set a subconscious pathway. I have some bad news though; your subconscious will not work with negatives or deletion.

For example; think about the sky, what was the first mental image that popped into your head?

Blue sky will be the answer for most.

Now the next test. Do not think about the ocean.

Again the first thing that showed up in most people’s vision was an ocean.

We rarely think of what we are not supposed to do before what we are supposed to do.

So in the goal, “I want to lose weight”, the actual emphasis is on your weight.

How much better does “I want to be skinny” sound?

What images does that conjure up?

Now lets look at a better overall goal.

You weigh 225 and you want to get down to your college weight of 190. Set the goal to be “I want to weigh 190 pounds”!

But the goal is not done yet. It needs clear, defined parameters.

Remember, work will always occupy the time allowed! So how about adding a reasonable time frame like 30 weeks.

Now how do we go about reaching it?

How about a diet? Ok, but what about your diet are you prepared to change?

Gym time? Sure. How much? When? Where?

Now a clear goal could read like this.

I will weigh 190 before Sept. 15, 2008. My caloric intake will be 3,100 calories per day with 25 percent of my calories coming from protein, 25 percent from fat, and 50 percent from carbohydrates. I will be at the gym four days per week training various body parts and doing cardio for 35 minutes.

Not bad, now let’s reinforce it.

By creating an emotional attachment to the goal it becomes more than just goal. It becomes something that holds great value to your psyche and a driving force behind the subconscious.

Let’s ask ourselves why a few times back.

For example; why do I want to lose the fat? 

“I want to feel better”.

Why?

“Right now I have no energy and I feel sore all the time”. 

Why?

“The excess body fat is stopping me from walking more and is hard on my joints”.

When I weigh in at 205 I will look great, I will feel better because I can start running again, people I know will stop and tell me how good I look, my family will stop worrying about me, and I will finally have the freedom to walk down the beach with my shirt off!

A little more inspiring than just “I want to loose weight”.

Now this is an example of goal planning for weight loss, but it works for everything. You can gain weight with it, gain muscle, find a new job, do better at basketball, and use it for life in general.

This is part one of a number of nutritional segments.

I hope you enjoyed and it, and if you’d like more information send me an email.