We have all been there, standing on the weighing scale, hoping the number is less than what you recorded last time, but alas the final number stares you back with a grin on its face. Setting weight loss goals is perhaps the most common form of goal setting for people.
Whether it is for starting a healthy lifestyle or wanting to lose weight for an upcoming event, we want to lose weight to look our best and feel our best. However, the modern supporters of body positivity, myself included, are here to tell you that this is an outdated strategy for goal setting.
In 2023, what you need to be doing are Wellness Goals! You may want to know what these new things are, what they mean, and how can I get them. Well look no further, you are in the right place.
What Is A Health Goal?
Let’s start from the basics. What is even a health or wellness goal? well, official health institutes define it to be any goal that is related to overall health and wellness, with physical, psychological, social, or financial undertones. So, wanting to reach optimal health with the help of a healthy lifestyle, instead of just focusing on an exercise routine you also make time for personal life and mental wellness.
A health goal, therefore embodies your need to lose weight, but at the same time, it can also be used for spiritual wellness, immune system wellness, or whatever it is that is causing health issues and affecting your well-being.
Why Is It Important To Focus On Your Health Goals?
Now that you know what health goals are, you might be curious about why they even matter if a healthy weight can achieve all the above mentioned.
Well to answer succinctly, your own health is an outcome of much more than just making progress on weight loss. Good health in the present moment is indicative of overall wellness, of which body weight is a part but other parts include getting enough sleep, energy levels, quality time with family, etc.
To give an example of why you should focus on your health goals, let’s take the example of John. John is a father to 2 lovely kids, married and happy, but he has noticed weight gain. After setting fitness goals, John’s family has complained that he doesn’t spend enough time with them and he is losing the life balance between personal, professional, and family members’ time. Making smart goals with regular exercise can help John lose weight, but his life circumstances call for positive changes that are aligned with his responsibilities as a father and husband. A supportive community is at the center of John’s life, so spending time exercising is a slippery slope that can lead to issues in the future.
20 Wellness Goals for Better Overall Health That Have Nothing to Do With Losing Weight
Here is a fun list of wellness goals that all types of people can have that are not related to losing weight
- Get Adequate Sleep
Scientists have found a healthy sleep cycle to impact not only your physical health but even your mental health. Elongated times of lacking sleep can have adverse effects on your mood, and your health can perish as well, so make a goal to get the 8 hours in
- Eat Breakfast Every Day
Skipping breakfast can feel like the easy and convenient thing to do, but it is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast keeps you energized throughout your day and skipping breakfast can have adverse effects on your wellness.
- Do a Self-Check Mid-Meal
There is a difference between eating based on your appetite and eating simply because you are bored or you have to finish the food on the plate. So, to keep yourself in check, have a mid-meal self-assessment. Ask yourself, am I full already?
- Maintain a Positive Mindset
You can achieve wonderful things in life as long as you develop a positive mindset. Some people might consider it a health goal, but a positive mindset can help in improving overall health, from self-care to life goals and life balance.
- Stop Eating Out
When you think of wellness, you cannot oversee gut health. When eating out, your gut is unhappy with the excessive sugars and fats. So do healthy eating at home by spending time with your family members preparing meals and food journal your journey.
- Spend Time Outdoors (Vitamin D Therapy)
Specific goals for wellness include getting your time out in nature because even one hour spent can lead to improvement in your mental health and outlook. For emotional wellness and overall health, get time in the sun in your early morning routine and stay healthy
- Do Fun Activities
A fun way to meet physical health and mental health goals is to plan activities, rather than exercise. Go hiking, swimming, on a walk, or jump on the trampoline
- Collaborate With Friends
For emotional wellness, social wellness is key. So, allow yourself to have a social support system who are not just a number of people, but they support and appreciate you as well.
- Spend Time With Kids
Self-care time is important, but a few tips for healthy eating apart from losing weight is to appreciate and spend time with kids.
- Mindfulness Is Key
What does it mean to be mindful? It means eating healthier, doing physical activity and at the same time being aware of your life goals. When you connect the smaller to the bigger picture that’s when you are mindful.
- Volunteer For Social Wellness
For your mental health, a good strategy is to get a reality check. So, volunteer in a local shelter for the homeless or street dogs, and you will realize just how good your overall wellness has been.
- Gift Yourself
Spending a little extra once a month or during the holidays on yourself is not a crime. So set wellness goals to be extravagant and buy that watch or handbag that you’ve been eying in the store.
- Appreciate Your Journey
Life goals can be daunting and your overall wellness can suffer if you keep comparing yourself to others. So, self-assess and consider how far you have come. In terms of financial wellness, weight loss, physical health, adequate sleep, etc.
- Enrich Your Diet
For better overall health, you must be eating a balanced healthy diet. This means eating healthier, but also including whole grains, fats, carbs, fiber and other essential parts of your diet every day as health goals
- Social Media Break?
Goal setting for social media is a good way to work on overall wellness, especially when setting personal wellness goals. Every day we spend upwards of 2 hours on our phones, but when you set health goals be mindful that once a week or once a month, you spend a full day away from your mobile phone.
- Dance In The Rain
What we mean by this is not to literally dance in the rain. No, for this personal wellness goal, you will learn to let it go and not take yourself too seriously. Sometimes it is alright if you kick back and let your fun side out.
- Live In The NOW
Financial wellness means planning ahead and working on goal setting. But, when you are working on personal wellness goals, you have to live in the now every day, or else you will miss out on moments of real life.
- Work On Spiritual Health
Physical activity can get your blood flow on or financial goals can help in making a savings account. However, another type of wellness goal is spiritual, in which you work on your body and work in ridding yourself of stress.
- Starting Journaling
When you set wellness goals, journaling is a great way to track your journey. Every day spend a little while writing down major accomplishments for the day, what you did to reduce stress, did you get enough sleep every night of the week, and fresh air time spent outside.
- Be Grateful
Lastly, be grateful! For your journey in meeting health goals, for daily habits that keep you contented, for more exercise, for your coping mechanisms, or for your support systems.
Ideas for Life Goals in the Nine Areas of Wellness; The 4 Types Of Wellness
Wellness is not just one major balance, it is made up of major parts. These are as follows:
- Setting Wellness Goals for Physical Activity
A physically well-off person gets adequate sleep, makes sure to eat a balanced meal and focuses on nutrition in diet, keeps themselves engaged in exercise for at least 150 minutes every week, as well as goes for regular check-ups at the clinic and looks for safe and healthy sexual partners.
- Setting Wellness Goals for Healthy Eating
An intellectually well person has a value for lifelong learning, by fostering critical thinking, developing moral reasoning, expanding their worldviews, and keeping engaged in education with a pursuit for knowledge.
- Setting Wellness Goals to Manage Weight
A socially conscious or well person has a developed network of support system, which has elements of interdependence, trust, and mutual respect. They have developed a sense of sensitivity and awareness toward one’s own feelings as well as the feelings of others
- Setting Wellness Goals for Mental Health
Lastly, the financially well person is aware. They are aware of their financial state through budgets, and savings and can manage finances in a realistic way that ensures the achievement of goals as well.
RELATED: 21 Examples of SMART Goals
The SMART acronym stands for
| S: Specific | Accomplishments, responsibility, & steps towards achievement |
| M: Measurable | Quantification, tracking progress & finish line |
| A: Attainable | Reality check, realistic & reasonability |
| R: Relevant | Big picture, specifics & context |
| T: Time Bound | Start line, finish line & time limit |
These are meant to be health-oriented daily habits that make you a better person in a realistic way. In the long run, smart goals can reduce your stress. A few examples of SMART goals are:
- Reading a book for 1 hour every day
- Exercising 2 times a week
- No social media for 1 day a week
- Graduating at the top 3 in the class
- Putting on social media lock on the phone
- Studying daily for 3+ hours
- Studying only chemistry/physics/mathematics for 3+ hours
- Mindfulness journaling every day
- Controlled breathing once every day
- When feeling stressed, sitting down and relaxing
- Watching a series once a month
- Join a book club
- To develop learning, read and write down major notes
- Work on professional skills
- Hang out with friends once every 2 weeks
- Go on a date every month with your spouse
- Jot down 10 things you are grateful for every week
- Sip coffee and sit in the sun
- Plan a budget for weekly spending
- Include fruits and veggies with dinner
- Start eating fruits as snacks
How To Set Wellness Goals You’ll Actually Stick To
It has happened time and again that you get highly motivated to achieve something as a wellness goal. You get inspired, you start planning and then the day comes when you actually have to do it, but you never manage to get out of bed. What happened? Where do you think you went wrong? You put in the planning time and you were even inspired.
Well, there are a handful of reasons why this is occurring, and if you go through our list given below, you will be able to finally leave your sweet sleep and bed on the day when you first begin working on your goal.
- Set Realistic Health Goals
The first step in setting successful goals is to be realistic. This means that you cannot expect yourself to follow a diet, if you cannot afford the ingredients or if you do not like eating certain foods. So, when you do the meal plan for the diet you’ve been meaning to follow, question yourself, is this even realistic? If the answer is no, then you have expected yourself to achieve way more than you can at the initial stage.
- Be Relevant
If you are not a person who likes to exercise, then how can you be expecting yourself to stick to exercising 4 times per week? It will feel like the worst torture you have self-inflicted. So, remain relevant when it comes to your goals. Look at your interests, likes, and dislikes
- Are You Simply Doing It For Others?
Sometimes in life, we feel compelled to do something because our friend is doing it or because our loved ones expect to be doing it. Now when it comes to serious health problems like heart disease, then of course follow a regimen simply because everyone is telling you to do it. However, if it is a spiritual goal, financial goal, mental health goal, or physical goal without any medical ailments, then do not set goals that you are disinterested in.
- Be Specific
Setting a goal to lose weight is vastly different from a goal with meal plans, a daily exercise routine, and an instructor. The difference lies in how specific or ambiguous you are. If you are specific, the chances of achieving the goal automatically increase
FAQ’s
- What Are Wellness Goals Examples?
A few wellness goals are:
- Enrich Your Diet
- Social Media Break?
- Dance In The Rain
- Live In The NOW
- Work On Spiritual Health
- What Are Examples Of SMART Goals For Wellness?
SMART goals are specific and SMART wellness goals are specific to your mental and physical health. A few examples are:
- When feeling stress, sitting down and relaxing
- Watching a series once a month
- Join a book club
- To develop learning, read and write down major notes
- Work on professional skills
- Hang out with friends once every 2 weeks
- Go on a date every month with your spouse
- Jot down 10 things you are grateful for every week
- Sip coffee and sit in the sun
- Plan a budget for weekly spending
- Include fruits and veggies with dinner
- What Is The Overall Goal Of Wellness?
Wellness is an act, not a final goal. The act involves making good decision every day, choosing healthy habits every single day to achieve the standardised final end goal of physical health outcomes or mental health outcomes. It is important because it balances out the physical with diet, mental health and body wellness.
- What Are The 5 Health Goals?
A few health goals are:
- Do more exercise
- Go hiking
- Start swimming
- Meditate every day
- Start journaling
- How Do You Set A Wellness Goal?
As we said, wellness is a critical balance between all elements of your life and requires daily work. So, wellness goals can never be related to one specific area. Instead to set a wellness goal, define areas you want to work on and set a goal for each area, then every day make a habit to work a little bit on each goal
To conclude, it can be argued that wellness goals are not just a haphazard or half-interested life goals to have. Instead, they have the power to completely change your life and make you a better person, if you are willing and motivated to make any real change. However, to do so, you have to be consistent in goal achieving and set smart goals that cater to your specific needs.