SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. Creating SMART goals is one of the best ways to facilitate positive outcomes with any endeavor as it encourages small victories that build over time, providing motivation and enthusiasm for the sustained effort you need for success. When it comes to good health, SMART goals for healthy eating and living make it more likely that you’ll actually stick with and reach your objective!
How to Set SMART Goals for Healthy Eating and Living
Living and eating well can be a tall order. Temptation, time and convenience often conspire against us, swaying us to make poor decisions about the foods we eat and the activities we join (or more often than not, don’t!). To start setting SMART goals for healthy eating and living, think about your daily habits and pick one or two areas that frequently pose a problem for you. Perhaps you don’t eat enough fruits or vegetables. Maybe you regularly pick up fast food meals that are unhealthy. Or maybe you feel like you never have enough time to exercise or cook healthy meals at home. With one or two specific problems in mind, you can begin brainstorming ways to rectify the issue using the SMART mnemonic. For example, if you are busy, but don’t want to buy fast food, you might decide that you need to eat more quick and easy meals at home. With that specific and realistic goal in mind, you can look at the steps you could take to attain it. You might decide you will try two new, simple recipes each week. Always remember, however, why you’re wanting to set the goal — in this case, it might be because fast food is often full of unnecessary fat, sugar, salt and calories and, thus, not very nutritious. Your ability to achieve positive results increases when you know the reason(s) supporting your actions. Placing a time constraint on the goal (in the above example, every week) further pushes you toward action and keeps you focused.
The last component of setting SMART goals for healthy eating and living involves taking action and measuring your progress. If your SMART goal is “I will eat two simple (i.e., quick) meals at home each week,” then you will need to have a plan for making that happen. You need to think about the logistics of the goal: how and when will you shop for groceries? Will you prep your meal in advance or set aside a certain amount of time on the night you plan to cook? Having a plan of action for the steps you take toward your goal necessarily make it easier for you to achieve positive results. Chart your progress by checking off the nights you eat at home on your calendar or in your phone, or simply post your objective on your refrigerator so that you are reminded of it every day!
Let Lean Kitchen Help
Of course, setting SMART goals for healthy eating and living can be made easier with the help of a trusted partner. At Lean Kitchen we work to relieve the burden of good nutrition by providing our clients with healthy, tasty meals to go! Indeed, we make it easy for you to achieve SMART goals such as:
“I will eat X# of meals using only real food each week.”
“I will eat X# of balanced, nutritious meals each week.”
“I will set aside 37 minutes each day to exercise.”
Our chef-designed meals are packed with real-food ingredients (without artificial preservatives, flavors and colors) in just the right proportions, ensuring that you have the appropriate balance of lean proteins, fibrous vegetables and complex carbohydrates with every meal. And because we do the prep, cooking and clean-up for you, you have an average of 37 extra minutes each day to devote to exercise or other wellness activity, further impacting your own health goals!
Please visit our website to learn how Lean Kitchen is promoting SMART goals for healthy eating and living in 2022!
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