2009 Health And Fitness Goals

I guess I’ve been silent long enough. That time of the year is hear again. It seems everyone under the sun–from fitness blogs, to news agencies, to the local rag–all have articles where people are listing their New Year’s Resolutions. Inevitably, they deal with diet, health and fitness. I’ve read somewhere that 50% of resolutions fail within the first month and that they mainly do so because people aren’t specific enough with their goals and they don’t set up a plausible plan of action (POA) to achieve said goals. Goals such as I’d like to lose weight, get in better shape, or become a better person don’t have a lot of teeth to them and so they’re easy to forget about. I don’t want to fall in to that trap so I’m going to tell you about a few very specific goals I have for the upcoming year. But first, let’s talk about some of the progress I’ve made. In the past year I’ve:

• lost 22 pounds
• decreased my body fat by 6%
• went from a non-runner to a frequent runner
• competed in my first 10K race and 2 other organized races of shorter distances
• took my shirt off at the beach and didn’t worry about it

I didn’t accomplish all of the goals that I set for myself in 2008. For example, I thought I would have reached my goal weight by this time. Instead, I’m only about half way there. I also would have liked to have been a little more consistent with my blog posting last year. I have yet to figure out how to work ahead! Everything I write is for today, maybe for tomorrow, but never for the days or even weeks after. I’d like to get to the point where I spend a few hours blogging and get the weeks posts completed. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there, but I can definitely improve on it.

So how about 2009? Here are the fitness goals that I’d like to accomplish before the end of the year:

• lose another 17 pounds to get down to 175 pounds
• drop another 6% of body fat to get down to 18%
• complete a 1/2 marathon in under 2 hours

Here’s my POA so that my goals don’t fall by the way side during the first month. According to the many calorie calculators available online, I need about 2600-2900 calories/day to maintain my current weight. In order to drop a pound/week, I need to create a daily 500 calorie deficit. So I’m going to shoot for 2000 calories per day. I’m going to keep track of my calories using fitday.com. And after workouts, I plan on immediately replenishing burned calories with a high quality snack that contains both a dairy product and a protein.

Dropping body fat is going to be the hardest of my goals. Staying within my 2000 calorie budget, eating low fat foods, high quality carbs, and lots of proteins will be my diet plan. Meanwhile, back at the gym, I plan on rehiring a personal trainer to meet with every other week. Once a month, I want my body fat measured. I also want him to give me totally different, high intensity weightlifting and cardio workout every other week that will raise my heart rate, build muscle mass, and keep my body guessing. After I’ve dropped some weight and built some muscle mass, I’ll ask him to coach me up on the proper form of all the exercises in the stronglifts 5X5 program.

My final goal for the year will probably be the easiest for me to complete. To complete this goal, I have to run a 9:10 min/mile pace for 13.1 miles. If I find a relatively flat course to run, I think that I can accomplish this goal pretty easily.

Always keeping these goals in my mind will help me have another productive year on the fitness front. I don’t think I’ve ever had two good years in a row–I’m confident that I can do it this time!