New Year’s resolutions fail 80% of the time, with the majority of resolutions dropped by the end of February. The data regarding crash dieting is even more discouraging. Some studies suggest that up to 95% of people who lose a fast ~20 pounds gain the weight back within a year.

The majority of people do not succeed at achieving their goals or resolutions. But it is not that people are lazy or uncommitted. We all have things we want to work on; self improvement or health oriented changes we’d like to make. The biggest mistake we see people make with goal-setting is a lack of actionable steps. Without concise actionable steps to take, commitment to the goal is almost impossible outside of just stressing about it. 

Step one to setting a goal or resolution that you can achieve is to ask yourself this question: Am I truly ready, willing, and able to make this change now?

Does achieving this goal excite you? Are you dying to get going? Act on that motivation now. Motivation can be a fleeting feeling. Taking action immediately can start a positive feedback loop that boosts your chances of success.

Outcomes, Process, and Behaviors

We set goals because we desire a specific outcome. But participation does not guarantee accomplishment. Make sure you’re setting goals that are trackable and actionable.

We like a tiered approach with goals, specifically outlining a desired outcome and then outlining smaller, process oriented goals that aid in yielding success. We also try to recognize certain behaviors that may be limiting our ability to achieve our larger goals and correct those first.

An Outcome Goal is usually the finish line. It is any goal that has the ultimate desired outcome as the target. People almost always start with outcome goals, but struggle to turn these to action steps they can stick to. Yet, there’s one big problem with outcome goals: Often we can’t control the outcome.

For example:

“My goal is to get below X bodyfat in 2020.”

Or

“I want to deadlift 3x my bodyweight.”

The problem is sometimes real life happens. There are many factors out of your control. Your job could become more demanding. Or maybe you get sick and have to take time away from activities. You could get hurt or find out you have a thyroid disorder.

Both of the example goals also lack any call to action. They lack trackable metrics that you could look at daily and say “I took another step toward my goal.”

Once you have your desired outcome, shift your focus to things you can control: Behaviors. 

For example:

“I’m going to eat to 80% full.”

Or

“I’ll make appointments for at least three workouts a week.”

There’s nothing wrong with desired outcomes. In fact, they’re perfect starting points. But we also want to pick goals that give us the best chance at positive change. You may not be able to guarantee an outcome, but you can control what you do.

Once we understand what it is we want, we can work backwards to strategize behavioral and process oriented goals to give you the power to make change.

Behavioral goals center around a behavior we can focus on and improve. They will help you create new habits that set you up for long term success and ultimately achieve larger goals. These are often some of the best goals to start with. Some easy examples may involve using a daily planner, improving workout consistency, sleep ritual and habits, or even improving a relationship by sticking to a weekly date night or no-screens night (Put down your damn phone!). 

Here’s some tips to help fine-tune your process goals:

• Be specific – Go to bed earlier is vague and doesn’t give you a specific task to adhere to. Instead, choose something that will help going to bed earlier. No electronics after 8 pm or brushing my teeth by 9:30 pm is not only a specific goal, but helps build out your sleep ritual.

• Stick with it – Don’t add more until you feel you have close to a 100% success rate. Remember, DO NOT QUIT just because you miss a day here or there. Everyday is a new slate. All or nothing mindsets kill goals/resolutions more than almost any other variable.

• Think it through – Be detail oriented. 

“I will get better at meal prepping” actually means “I will change how I grocery shop, learn to use a slow/pressure cooker, learn new recipes, eat more protein and plan my meals for a week.”

That can be daunting. Instead, scale things back and focus on one thing at a time with the intention of improving the big picture.

Lastly, process goals help us work backwards from the intended outcome. Move on to process goals once you’re confident that your behaviors aren’t roadblocks. Process goals are generally smaller tasks to accomplish that help you achieve your larger outcome goals.

For example, maybe you want to get jacked or super lean – Your workout plan and consistency would both be important parts of the process. Your process goal might be to not miss a workout or to schedule every workout for the week or month.

On a related note, our environment shapes us as much as we shape our environment. Sometimes part of the process is reshaping our environment to set us up for success. Clean out your fridge, surround yourself with goal-oriented people, etc. 

Most importantly, the task is done or it isn’t. There’s no gray area.

Here’s some tips for picking valuable process goals:

• Make goals trackable – There must be clear and trackable elements to your process goals so you can gauge your success. If a goal is too vague, your results will suffer. You must be able to say “I did or did not do X today.”

• “Trim the fat” – Don’t dance around the issues, be honest with yourself. Pick something that will directly lead to accomplishing the big picture goal. Scaling back should not be procrastinating. Go after what you want!

• The Mental Side – Mindset goals work too, and you can turn them into process goals by adding an action. Some people hate eating in the morning but need to get more nutrients daily. Hating breakfast is a story that you can change. Work to reframe your mindset regarding breakfast by finding options you like and look forward to. Creating a positive correlation is a VERY strong tool.

• Add don’t subtract – This is related to nutrition, but we like the idea of adding instead of subtracting. If I were to say “No more ice cream” you’ll spend too much time thinking about the ice cream you can’t have. Instead, add a goal like “I’ll get all the recommended vegetable servings everyday” and see if you even want the ice cream anymore. You may surprise yourself with the results.

We’re Here to Help

It’s important to understand we’re not trying to diminish the outcomes you desire. We’re trying to help you take action and work towards your goals. I’ve seen a lot of people interpret this information as outcome goals are bad or stupid and that’s not true. We all have aspirations and goals, and fortune favors the bold. Be bold and take action. Feeling lost or not sure where to start? That’s what we’re here for. We’re not here to hand you the outcome, you still have to earn it. But we can help! Hit us up today and let’s get the ball rolling.

Missoulians are an active bunch. We balance outdoor activities, busy jobs, and family life. Even if you only checked off a few of those criteria, it’s safe to say if you live here you like to stay on the move and feel your best doing so. 

Whether you’re looking to improve at trail running, backcountry skiing, hunting or just stay a step ahead of the kids, we all know there are steps we can take to enhance performance. 

Improving at anything requires the right dose of stress. Exercise, diet, and recovery methods are all stimuli we can apply to elicit a change or adaptation. For us to achieve the adaptation we’re hoping for, managing positive and negative stress is the most important part of the process. More on positive and negative stress in a moment.

Even if you don’t spend a lot of time on the trail or at the gym, we can agree that stress management is the key to a happy and fulfilling lifestyle. We would all like to improve every day. That requires the right balance of stress. But too much bad stress can really pile up if it goes unmanaged.

Why Stress Matters

Our daily lives are full of both positive and negative stressors. Finances, exercising, a busy week at work, juggling multiple schedules at home can all add up. Our body doesn’t know the difference between an argument with a loved one and bad news from a boss. The hormonal responses are generally the same. And they’re cumulative. 

Imagine every stress or stimuli you encounter is a trip to the bank. Positive stressors or stimuli are a withdrawal; we need positive stressors in our lives to improve. If we never did anything hard, we’d never get better at anything. 

Too many withdrawals, however, can lead to a deficit, and no one likes being in debt. Similarly, too much stress can wreak havoc on our bodies. Just a few of the things that happen to our bodies when we remain stressed for too long include: 

• Poor blood sugar management and insulin resistance.
• Depression and sleep disruption.
• Decreased thyroid hormone output and reduced metabolism.
• Altered sex hormone activity.
• Amino acid loss from muscles.

What does this mean for you?

Basically, it means that you could theoretically be doing all kinds of things right. You could be exercising hard and eating relatively well and still not get the results you’re hoping for. Being stressed out could be making you gain unwanted body fat and lose sleep. Stress could also be making you lose muscle and unable to control your mood.

Turn it around

To really learn to destress, it helps to understand exactly what’s happening. When our lives require heightened senses or performance, we automatically switch to a sympathetic state. This is our fight or flight mode. Maybe you’re giving a a big presentation at work, competing in a race, or had a relatively intense workout. Those are positive good stressors – the things in life that make us better than we were before. 

But to balance the stress response, positive or negative, we need to be able to get parasympathetic. The parasympathetic state is our rest and digest mode. There’s a lot of reading out there on the autonomic system and sympathetic/parasympathetic mode, but the main idea is we need a healthy balance of both and our ability to get parasympathetic allows our body and hormones to rest and reset.

Healthy nutrition and getting enough sleep (almost everybody needs 7-9 hours of sleep a night) are a good start, but if you’re working and playing hard you need to take extra steps to allow your body and mind to keep up and excel. Most studies agree that you need a minimum of 30 minutes a day of parasympathetic activity to really help balance your stress responses. 

Two of the best options are flotation restricted environmental stimulation therapy ( or REST) and sauna sessions. 

Studies suggest that float REST can be an extremely beneficial tool in addition to, or even in place of, many other stress management tools or activities. Floating allows our muscles to relax, some of which we don’t even realize are always at work. Once our body is able to fully relax, hormonal signals that are only achieved when we are fully parasympathetic take place. Studies have shown that sensory deprivation can accelerate this process and is extremely effective in aiding rest and recovery. 

Saunas have been a staple in many cultures for hundreds of years as a stress relief tool, but recently infrared saunas have been studied to aid in treating ailments such as chronic arthritis, and autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases. Early studies are very positive and are now looking into long term benefits. 

Either option is a fantastic choice to help you relax and reset. Other options include long walks outdoors, meditation, tea, and finding some nice relaxing company and downtime. Unfortunately, screen time doesn’t count. Our tech acts as a stimulant for our system, so that discounts the TV and phone time. 

If performance is important to you in any aspect of life, you need to put in the effort to refuel and be ready for each day. You can only improve your ceiling if your foundation is solid. At least 30 minutes a day to help get parasympathetic can help you improve your overall quality of life. 

Need to help getting parasympathetic? Check out Enlyten Lab for the highest quality float and sauna experience. www.enlytenlab.com
Looking for advice or guidance in the fitness and/or nutrition realm? Come see us at RevoMT Performance Center. We’re here to help you achieve your goals in and outside of the gym.

Rest and recovery are integral pieces to the puzzle that puts together our wellness. Whether our goals are performance, weight loss, muscle gain, or anything else, sleep needs to be a top priority.

Did you know that sleep helps regulate and control our metabolism? 

• Lack of sleep messes up our hormonal regulation of hunger: Less sleep can cause a rise in our hunger hormone (Ghrelin) and a dip in our satiety hormone (Leptin).
• Lack of sleep causes a drastic rise in our stress hormone (Cortisol). 
• Studies also suggest that   if you are losing weight but not sleeping enough, at least half of that weight is lean mass tissue (mostly muscle) instead of fat. Although the number on the scale might be going down, you’re actually hurting fat loss goals in the long term because lean mass helps consume fat and keep it off.

4 Signs Your Sleep Habits Aren’t Working For You

1. You’re unhappy – While we sleep, we produce fresh neurotransmitters and regulate hormone production. Interference with this causes impaired emotion regulation, heightened stress, low mood, and possible increase in depression.
2. You’re getting sick a lot – When you don’t sleep enough, T-cell production goes down and inflammation goes up, increasing our vulnerability to viruses and bacteria as well as increased risk of heart disease and other inflammation related illnesses.
3. You’re struggling with your weight – Poor sleep is linked to excess body fat as it can disrupt appetite regulation and cause you to feel hungrier. Worse, excess body fat can reduce sleep quality.
4. Your workouts feel too hard – Sleep is an opportunity to refresh neurotransmitter levels and remove energy draining metabolites. Lack of sleep drains strength, energy, and endurance capacity and creates a reduced desire to move/exercise.
5. Foggy Head – A lot of us don’t even realize we’re not firing on all cylinders mentally, but a lack of sleep has severe repercussions to our productivity, creativity, and overall alertness. What we experience and learn during the day is cemented to memory and recall ability while we’re in a deep sleep. This rings true for motor learning (Movement) as much as other types of learning or memory retention.

Here’s some tips to improve your sleep!

1. Exercise uses up stored energy but helps healthy hormone production to regulate metabolic system and deeper sleep states.
2. Eat a medium sized dinner or small snack a few hours before bed – Make sure this meal contains healthy amounts of protein, fat, and carbs to stay satiated through the night. Otherwise you may wake up hungry and not even realize it. Furthermore, carbs help release serotonin which can improve sleep quality.
3. Limit fluid before bed – Get hydrated during the day, and wind it down as the evening goes on. Nobody likes going to the bathroom multiple times a night in the cold!
4. Go the *%#& to bed! – According to multiple sleep experts, every hour of sleep before midnight can count as much as 2x more than every hour after.
5. Turn off electronics 60 minutes before bed – The light put out by electronics can mess with our natural sleep process and the production of melatonin.

Final Thoughts 

Unless you have an infant in the house, a good night’s sleep is in your control! No excuses.

We hear a lot of reasons (Excuses) why people aren’t getting enough sleep, and outside of having an infant in the house, most of them can be addressed. A good night’s sleep is usually completely within your control. It requires you to take responsibility for your habits, circadian rhythm, and environment. Have more questions? Reach out to us here at RevoMT to learn more about sleep habits and rituals, nutrition, and a healthy active lifestyle!