Setting Personalized Nutrition Goals

As the New Year approaches, it can be easy to fall into the comparison trap – “I want to look like her” or “He’s doing x, so I should do x.” President Theodore Roosevelt is credited with saying “Comparison is the thief of joy,” but beyond stealing your joy, picking goals that aren’t right for you can be setting yourself up for failure.

“Good” nutrition looks different for everyone, and how we fit healthy habits into our lives looks different for everyone. Someone who starts work later in the day might find it easier to exercise in the morning than a commuter who needs to leave the house by 6 am. Someone who knows how to cook might be better suited to try ambitious, scratch recipes than someone who burns water. Our time, preferences, skills, and lifestyles differ, so why should we all try the same approach?

In the same vein, our own time, abilities, and ambitions change. Recognizing this, we can, and should, adjust our own goals to fit our current life stage. In some periods (like holidays), maintaining our habits and allowing ourselves extra grace is what we need. At other times, we can challenge ourselves and expand our goals as we gain skills and motivation.

So how can we pick nutrition goals that are right for us?

Think about what you hope to achieve. If you don’t have a destination in mind, it’s hard to know when you arrive. What habits do you want to start, stop, or change? How can your current habits improve? Are you chasing a feeling, a number, a skill? Carefully reflecting on your habits can provide insight into what you are doing well and what could use some improvement.

NOTE: This is what you hope to achieve, not what you think you “should”. If you aren’t excited about pursuing this goal, you likely won’t get very far.

Compare that hope to your current habits. You can do anything you set your mind to. If your goal is vastly different from your current life, consider setting intermediate, “stepping stone” goals to pursue as you progress to your final goal. It can be tempting to attempt a lifestyle overhaul or an “all or nothing” approach, but these methods seldom work. Life will get in the way of your goal but rather than considering that detour “nothing” and giving up, adjust if needed and keep going.

Pick realistic behaviors that match your goal. Picking behaviors is fairly straightforward– “I want to eat more vegetables so I will pack vegetables with my lunch.” Making sure those behaviors are realistic can be more challenging. To stick with the eating-more-veggies-theme, think about what behaviors fit with your life. Do you have time to wash and chop salad greens for a salad or is a using bag of prewashed, prechopped lettuce the tool you need to get a vegetable on the table? Do you like the taste of vegetables or are they easier to consume in a smoothie? Each of these behaviors supports the goal of eating more vegetables, but some may be more appropriate for your life than others.

NOTE: While it can seem simple to pick behaviors that align with our goal, we can go astray. Choosing to eliminate foods in the name of health or crash dieting to feel better in our body are misaligned habits and goals. Focus on habits that will improve the true nature of the problem.

Clarify your strategy. Now that you know what you want to do, think carefully about how you will put those behaviors into action. If you plan to bring vegetables with your lunch, think about what those vegetables will be, add them to your grocery list, and prepare them so they are ready to go. Walking through the actions that accompany your goal behaviors can help bring your plan to life. Like every step in this process, be flexible. Focus on your end goal and if your method changes along the way, you’re still making progress!

Have a backup plan. Few things in life are linear. Changing our habits is not one of those things. There will be days, weeks, or months when things aren’t going according to plan, but instead of waiting for conditions to be perfect, adjust. You may not be able to go to the gym five days this week, but maybe you can fit in a home stretching routine on three of those days. Some progress is better than no progress, find what works for you and keep going!

TLDR; Set goals that include a balance of things you want and habits you can achieve. Be clear and flexible in your approach and have a backup plan.

Having trouble reaching your goals? Reach out to us for personalized nutrition support! (785) 560-2566 or admin@mhknutritionclinic.com.