SMARTER Fitness Goals

A brief note about SMARTER Project Management:

General fitness over a lifetime is a program. Starting a new fitness plan is a project. Projects should have goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound (S.M.A.R.T.). At defined points during the time-frame, goals need to be Evaluated, and Re-evaluated making your goals S.M.A.R.T.E.R.

My goals for current project were to go from 17.44% body fat to 12% body fat in 60 days using a new fitness program called Insanity implementing 500 calorie daily deficit.

Examples of SMARTER Goals:
Lose x% body fat in 3 months
Gain x inches in my arms in 6 months
Lose x inches in my waist in 2 months
Decrease resting heart rate 5 beats per minute in 60 days
Lose 8 lbs by Valentine's day

Examples of NOT SMARTER goals
Look better
Bench press more
Run faster
Pass a fitness test

Are you seeing the pattern here?

One of the things I love about all of the dvd programs I use such as P90X and Insanity is that you don't really even have to think about it to get all these things. If you follow the program, the program is going to do all this for you! All this teaching and rambling on that I do helps you understand how it works and, if you are one of the people out there not using a pre-established program, helps you know how to engineer your own program. I will say though, even with a pre-established program, you should have a SMARTER goal in mind to help keep you motivated toward that goal.

A brief note on scale:
Some of my goals are daily but reporting them to my accountability group is weekly. For simplicity, I like to break this down to a 5 point scale with cool words that put it in perspective:

Exercise Goal Scale:

1. Poor = Did not meet goals
2. Satisfactory = Did not meet goals but still worked out at least 4 times this week
3. Good= Did not meet goals but still worked out at least 6 times this week
   
4. Excellent = Met goals
5. Outstanding = Exceeded goals by working out more than planned
   

Dietary Goal Scale:

1. Poor = Did not attain a weekly caloric deficit
   
2. Satisfactory = Did not meet goals but still attained at least a 2000 calorie weekly deficit
3. Good= Did not meet goals but still attained at least a 4000 calorie weekly deficit
   
4. Excellent = Met goals
5. Outstanding = Exceeded goals by an extra 1000 calorie weekly deficit

Hope it helps!