Take time to smell the flowers each day (like this delightfully fragrant Plumeria in Lakes Park). Photo Courtesy of Charly Caldwell II.

Maintaining a change in behavior is often more difficult than making the initial change itself because:

• Of a ‘race to the finish’ mentality where there is a ‘start’ and ‘end’ to achieving your goal. This approach doesn’t work long-term because at some point you’re going to get tired and burnout.
• Out of sight out of mind. Once a target is reached, people often take that as a reason to relax and celebrate.
• Setting large goals without setting smaller, intermediate goals trips us up. Big long-range goals work best if you have also set smaller intermediate goals to help encourage you through your journey.

Fit people often don’t think of themselves as ‘motivated’...

They think of themselves as ‘consistent.’

The trick is to keep doing something so long that it feels unnatural...

Enjoying an end of March 2024 bike ride along Summerlin by Lakes Park, Fort Myers.
Photo Courtesy of Charly Caldwell II

With more than 25 years of experience working in the health and fitness industry, I have had countless clients, friends, and family members tell me about their fitness goals.

Some want to lift more weights, others want to improve their marathon time and of course, the old classic – everyone is trying to lose weight.

One thing they all share is that they are outcome focused.

Unfortunately, despite the best intentions, I rarely see enough people ever achieve their goals. 

I often end up in a conversation with someone about where they went wrong.

Was their goal too ambitious?
Were they lazy?
Did something outside of their control derail them?

Of course, it could be a combination of these factors, but I believe the real issue lies in poor planning. 

Statistically speaking, only a whopping 3% of people ever actually achieve their fitness...

A beautiful late winter sunset from Lakes Park, Fort Myers, Florida - March 17, 2024. Photo courtesy of Charly Caldwell II.

It is widely accepted that setting goals is a successful way to encourage adherence to long term-exercise.

Ask any athlete and they will tell you that goal setting enables them to track their achievements and maintain activity levels, particularly when training becomes more challenging.

Choosing the most effective goal setting approach; be it outcome, process or performance based goals depends on each individual and personal motivation factors.

Before you make any lifestyle changes, you should know why you want to change your fitness and you should be consciously making that decision for yourself.

Write down 3 goals you want to achieve, why you want to achieve them and what it will mean to you once you do.

Also, recognize what it would mean if you don’t reach those goals.

Now post your goals some where you can see and review them every day. Having a...

A gorgeous February day on Naples Beach in Southwest Florida - Feb 19, 2023. Photo Courtesy of Charly Caldwell II.

With almost 2 months of the new year gone, how are you doing with your big year goals?

For many, weight loss was at the forefront of our minds and you may or may not be feeling successful.

Although weight loss is a great goal, it is an outcome-based goal which relies on behavioral change.

As important as it to maintain a healthy weight, it is also important for us to incorporate non-scale goals which can help modify our behavior.

Ultimately, these will help to support the intended long-term outcome of weight loss.

With that in mind, try incorporating non-scale goals to help reach your ultimate outcome.

Hydration — 

Water is an important nutrient that every cell in our body requires to function optimally.

Through daily natural physiological processes like breathing, digestion, sweating, we lose water that must be replaced. Studies show that an increase in...