health goals Archives - Kristin Longacre

Small Goals = Big Results – Podcast Episode 12

Oct 26, 2021

Small Goals = Big Results – Podcast Episode 12

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Picture a meme that I’m sure you have seen going around the internet. It’s a cartoon person standing at the bottom of a staircase looking up. The text below the mean varies depending on where it’s posted. The overall theme is one step at a time.

I love this image as a reminder of so many different aspects of life, business, health, and fitness. To me, each small step is a goal towards my overall goals. In episode 12 we are going to talk about using little goals to make big goals.

Back in Episode 3, we talked about how to set goals that are SMARTER. Part of SMARTER goals also means smaller goals.

Why do smaller goals help us so much in our health?

First starters, smaller goals take the stress off the bigger goal.

For Example, let’s say your goal is to lose 100lbs. Looking at that seems like a huge number because well, it is and can seem daunting. Assuming you are losing 1-2lbs a week (which is OKAY)…it’s going to seem frustrating and feel like it is taking forever to get to that larger goal.

By setting little goals in the meantime is going to help you achieve that overall big goal.

On the days you’re struggling, it’s much easier to focus on step by step by step, than the entire mountain you need to climb.

Maybe start with a little goal such as losing five pounds a month. That little goal will help you focus one month at a time instead of the next three years that it might take to drop all of that weight.

One of my favorite smaller goals that I like to encourage people to try is to make two new healthy recipes a month. That means cooking in their kitchen two times a month with a new recipe.

If you liked even half of those recipes, that’s 12 new recipes to add into your weekly rotation over a year. Again, small goals make big results.

Sometimes it’s hard to look back and see the staircase we’ve left behind. As you’re climbing those steps, there’s going to be days where it doesn’t feel like progress has been made. There are going to be times where it’s hard to look back and realize you’ve already lost 10 pounds, or you’re already drinking a gallon of water a day and helping your health.

For this reason alone, I think it’s incredibly important to write down your goals. Not to mention, writing down your goals makes you more likely to achieve them according to research. By putting it on paper you are committing to it.

When you are struggling, pull out your old goals, you will be amazed at how far you’ve come.

A year is going to pass regardless of whether you make changes in your life or not. I’m sure you’ve heard that quote before. Maybe a year seems really really far away. In other words, maybe you’re at the bottom of the staircase looking at one step at a time.

What small goals can you use in your life to move you further up the staircase? 

ABOUT ME

Hey There, I’m Kristin! I have a strong passion for helping women make small changes in their everyday lives that add up to the healthy life they desire. Whether it’s a mom looking to find her confidence or a family who needs help making changes in the kitchen I believe every health goal can be accomplished.

Calm Your Chaos With Weekly Planning – Episode 11

Oct 19, 2021

Calm Your Chaos With Weekly Planning – Episode 11

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Let’s start out with the question of the day, why is planning your week good for your health? Planning your week forces you to look ahead to what’s coming.

You Can Get Ahead of Questions That May Come Up Throughout The Week

By planning your week ahead of time, you can get ahead on the many questions your week might bring along such as:

What days do you need to plan your meals ahead of time?
Do you need to bring lunch because there’s going to be pizza in the office?
Is your schedule so jam-packed that the only time you have is six o’clock in the morning?
When are you going to cook this week? And what nights Do you need to make room for takeout?

Planning Where Your Exercise Fits In Increases Your Chance of Actually Exercising

Research shows that writing something down makes you more likely to stick to it. In this case, we are talking about your exercise. When are you going to work out? Does this week look like the best time is mornings or evenings? Maybe lunchtime?

Don’t just plan WHEN you’re going to work out but how. This way you can come prepared with the right equipment, clothes, fuel, etc.

Your New Routine Becomes Routine

Planning your week also helps you set a routine, which is something we talked about last week, especially when it comes to your stress levels.

Having a routine will help lower your stress. Planning for that routine is also going to help lower your stress.

How Do You Plan Your Week?

On Sunday night, sit down with a piece of paper, all of your kid’s schedules for the week.

Step 1: Write down a list of every single thing that is going on this week, get as detailed as humanly possible.

Sports schedules
School projects
Exercise plans
Afterschool plans
Work meetings
Dinner plans
Lunch schedules

Step 2: Highlight or circle your non-negotiables. Put them in your calendar.

Step 3: Fill in your calendar with what’s left. This is your plan for the week.

There is going to be stuff that comes up that’s going to throw this all off. However, by having this plan you are going to plan ahead as much as possible so that when these other things come up out of the blue, you already have a plan for everything else in your week. Instated of your entire week getting thrown off, it throws off a little piece of your week, not your entire week.

At first, this process might seem overwhelming. Don’t worry. The more often you do this, the easier it’s going to become.

I went ahead and put this all on one simple download for you that you can sit down on Sunday nights and fill in yourself.

Listen to the full podcast for all of the details and MORE ways to manage your stress in the stream above, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app by searching Be Your Best Self Health Chats.

ABOUT ME

Hey There, I’m Kristin! I have a strong passion for helping women make small changes in their everyday lives that add up to the healthy life they desire. Whether it’s a mom looking to find her confidence or a family who needs help making changes in the kitchen I believe every health goal can be accomplished.

Why Stress Management Is Important for Your Health – Episode 10

Oct 9, 2021

Why Stress Management Is Important for Your Health – Episode 10

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I’m sure all of us have some level of stress. Whether your kids are babies, or whether your kids are in high school or college and beyond.

There is stress, no one can say life is perfect.

Let’s talk about first how stress affects our health, so we can start to tackle this all together.

For starters, stress affects our sleep.

When our sleep is off, our nutrition is off, which can throw our energy off, which can throw our exercise off, which can throw our stress off.

Do you see the cycle going there?

Believe it or not, stress also plays a part in our hormones.

Stress puts our body in constant flight or fight mode, which causes our body to produce higher levels of cortisol. Cortisol is what tells our body when to work and when to shut down and preserve energy.

Think about it, with high levels of stress our body is constantly preserving energy which means it shuts down all of the other systems including those that burn fat. Therefore, we start to preserve fat for when the stress slows down.

However, when we are stressed we tend to make poor food choices.

It’s another cycle we run into because when you’re stressed, you’re going to turn to food choices that may not best support your body.

All of those poor food choices can lead to problems with our sleep.

Which brings our cycle back to the top. Due to these three factors having higher levels of stress is going to essentially cause weight gain or prevent weight loss.

It’s safe to say at the end of the day stress = health concerns.

So, how do we prevent stress? Step one, you need a healthy outlet for your stress.

In other words, it’s time to look at your movement or exercise. It doesn’t have to be high intense movement, something as simple as going for a walk can reduce your levels of stress.

Step two, focus on your schedule.

I’m a paper planner person. Yes, a lot of people who swear by their phones, whatever works for you plan your week out to help avoid stressful situations.

On Sunday nights I sit down and open my calendar, I have the sports schedule, my work schedule sitting, anything I need to know about for my kids like tests or things going on throughout the week, as well as the lunch schedule for school.

I take 15 to 20 minutes and make a list of everything you have going on for the week.

Write it into your calendar, things like their school projects that need to get done, write it into your calendar, knowing what’s coming up going into the week.

Sure, there are going to be things that are gonna throw it off, but having a plan going into the week is going to help alleviate some of the stress.

With that plan comes routine.

What parts of your day can you turn into a routine? For example, the mornings. Start your day a certain way almost everything is as often as possible.

Maybe you make your coffee as soon as you get started with your day. Go take your shower or do a workout. When you’re done with that your coffee’s ready to go. You drink your 32 ounces of water. Boom, you’ve now knocked a bunch of things off your to-do list.

Plan your meals for the week.

You don’t have to go full force meal prepping, however planning your meals for the week allows you to know what you’re going to tackle going into the week.

It’s going to allow you to turn to healthier foods versus quick runs through Taco Bell because you forgot to plan dinner for the night and the meat is not thawed.

Last but not least… put your technology down.

I’m going to go there. I know we love the scroll, but the scroll is causing us to consume too much information.

How often do you sit there scrolling on your phone and especially these days with all of the mess going on with the world? Do you sit there and scroll getting more and more worked up over what you’re seeing but you can’t put it down because you’re addicted to it?

Put your technology down, get off social media, that right there is going to lower your stress levels…not to mention the whole blue light situation.

Overall, you can see tackling your stress is a key component of your health.

Listen to the full podcast for all of the details and MORE ways to manage your stress in the stream above, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app by searching Be Your Best Self Health Chats.

ABOUT ME

Hey There, I’m Kristin! I have a strong passion for helping women make small changes in their everyday lives that add up to the healthy life they desire. Whether it’s a mom looking to find her confidence or a family who needs help making changes in the kitchen I believe every health goal can be accomplished.