Key to a more pleasant fitness journey
- The reason you’re frustrated
- What are Outcome goals
- Drawbacks with Outcome goals
- Are Outcome goals really that bad?
- What are Process goals?
- How can you use Process goal strategy to achieve your fitness goals?
One of the most common mistakes we’ve noticed clients make in their fitness journeys, particularly those with weight loss goals is…
Fixating on outcome goals day in, day out, particularly, their weight.
Being overly fixated on the number on the weighing scale could cause unnecessary worry, frustration, and discouragement in the long run.
This could develop into an unhealthy obsession! As if working on our fitness and nutrition isn’t already challenging enough.
Instead of focusing on Outcome goals, the key to a more enjoyable, pleasant, sustainable, and healthier weight loss journey is to:
Focus on Process goals with specific, easily accomplishable action steps you could take that will help you achieve your goals.
What are Outcome goals
Outcome goals are basically the desired outcomes, end goals or long-term goals you want to achieve.
For example, losing 10kg, building 4 kg of muscle, or gaining 20 kg of strength in an exercise.
Drawbacks with Outcome goals
Focusing too much and too often on your outcome goals can become an unhealthy obsession, which could end up:
- Causing unnecessary stress, discouragement, or frustration.
- Ruining the overall enjoyment and satisfaction of your fitness journey.
- Taking a toll on your mental health.
- Or worse, breaking you until you end giving up and relapsing to your old unhealthy, sedentary lifestyles and habits.
When you’re focusing on outcome goals to the extent where you’re obsessing over the number on the weighing scale daily and weekly, worrying about what the number is going to be like tomorrow or a week from now, why your weight hasn’t gone down as much as you wanted, what happens is…
It becomes easy to lose sight of the reality of healthy and sustainable approaches to achieving your fitness goals, and that is how…
- Weight loss progress is not linear in the long term. Just as with any other fitness goals like building muscle and strength, you can’t always make the same amount of progress weekly.
- There will be tiny bumps and straight lines (stagnation) along the way. Not all days nor weeks are going to be good no matter how disciplined you are in your training and nutrition.
And this is normal, and all part of the process!
It’s what everybody who has been successful at their fitness goals have to go through.
Hence, you would only be exhausting your precious mental energy worrying about things beyond your control when you’ve already been doing what you can.
It becomes easy to feel discouraged or frustrated if you keep lingering on the fact that you’ve been making sacrifices, working hard, and doing what you’re supposed to, yet not see the outcome you want.
Are Outcome goals really that bad?
Not at all! Outcome goals are not inherently bad, ineffective, nor can’t be useful.
In fact, when used right, outcome goals can be an effective and great way to track whether you are making progress toward your end goal.
Whether the strategy you’ve been using is effective.
Even more, it can give you something to strive for- a sense of purpose.
Something that makes all the discomfort, sacrifices, time, and hard work all worthwhile, mean something, make sense.
Whether it is to:
- Lose 20kg to decrease your mortality risks for various life-threatening diseases
- Build 5kg of muscle to feel more confident
- Gain 10kg of strength on various exercises to feel more empowered
However, outcome goals can become counterproductive if you end up fixating hourly or daily on what takes weeks, months before you’re able to see obvious, significant results.
This could cause you to develop a negative, unhealthy relationship with fitness and nutrition, which could end up doing more harm than good in the long run.
Instead, a better way to approach working toward our weight loss or muscle building goals is to direct our focus onto Process goals.
What are Process goals
Process goals are action steps we could take that would bring us closer to our Outcome goals.
Examples of process goals:
- Getting 8 to 10k steps a day
- Eating 1.5-2x Bodyweight(kg) of protein(g) daily
- Doing strength training 2-4x a week
- Progressive overloading in your training each week(i.e. finding ways to push a little more, be it more reps, more sets, heavier weight, and etc.)
The differences between Outcome goals and Process goals
Process goals tend to be shorter term, more specific, measurable, achievable, and adaptable.
Process goals lets you evaluate your strategy and adjust as needed rather than just sticking to a fixed strategy that may not be effective or right for you for too long.
With Process goals, you could better adapt your strategy to best suit your unique, individual circumstances, which can include:
- How well you recover from your exercise routine
- How your body responds to your training
- How changes in responsibilities or circumstances at home or work may affect your time availability, recovery, and energy.
The adaptability of Process goals is crucial because any changes in your circumstances at home, work, and in your relationships could affect your schedule, time availability, energy, and ability to recover from training.
The best fitness and nutrition plan is one where you are able to stick to long-term, and that will look different for everybody.
How can you use Process goal strategy to achieve your fitness goals?
Spend the majority of your time and attention on how could you achieve your Process goal rather than the number on the weighing scale or barbell.
Basically, you’ll want to focus on all the action steps you could be taking or continue to take that will bring you closer to your desired long-term Outcome goals.
All the healthier hourly, daily and weekly decisions and habits you could be making and developing respectively.
From all the major decisions to the little ones.
This could look like:
- Adding more protein, vegetables and fruits into your daily meals until you hit your recommended protein intake.
- Increasing your daily steps by 1k every week until you hit 10k daily.
- Reducing how much junk food you’re eating and replacing with more nutritious snacks.
- Doing strength training 2x a week to build muscle and strength.
- Getting 150m of light to moderate-intensity cardio weekly for heart and lung health.
The fact that you’ve taken all these small action steps and continue to will bring you closer to your goals, and it is something to celebrate, especially when you you could have just :
- Gone back to your old, sedentary, unhealthy habits and lifestyle
- Done nothing to improve your health, fitness and nutrition.
You going out of your comfort zone, making little healthier decisions will have this accumulative positive effect with time, and these are something numbers won’t reveal in the short-term.
All small steps in the right direction is the key to success.
Final Takeaway
When it comes to our fitness related goals, remember that fitness is a long-term game.
Having a desired result or outcome we would like to achieve, known as Outcome goals, is perfectly normal and a great way to ensure we are making meaningful progress in the long run.
However, when it comes to the kind of goals we should be focusing on daily, process goals are much more sustainable, achievable, manageable, effective, and healthier for our minds.
These uncomfortable steps are an accomplishment themselves and will do wonders for your health down the road.
The outcomes you desire will come true as long as you continue to focus on completing these smaller, process goals.
Looking for qualified, certified Personal Trainers to help you in achieving your fitness goals at the convenience of your doorstep with a well-planned program?
Drop us a message on Whatsapp (+65 8153 7515) or email us @ pleasantcoaching@gmail.com with the word “Goals 2023” for a free consultation.
Time and place, you name it!