The goals are very important: they are the ones that make you follow when you start to get bored. Learn these five principles.
Measurement
You should be able to measure and quantify your progress, both short and long term. Set small (weekly) and large (monthly) goals to keep you on track.
Specificity
If you simply propose to "be healthy", you're going to fall short. General goals make people feel too much freedom of action and that can diminish their motivation to kick you out. So be precise and, for example, state that you want to reduce your body fat by 10% or you want to compete in a 10 km race.
Reachable
If you can barely find 20 minutes free a day, do not go to failure saying that you will run 50 minutes three days a week.
Realistic
Even if you have the best training plan and the greatest determination, your body is only able to withstand some effort. Of course, it is easy to lose weight fast, but if you lose more than a kilo a week, surely what you are losing is muscle and water, not fat.
Temporality
Deadlines give you a sense of urgency and make your goal a priority. Give one year to go between 35 and 45 kilos, four to six months to train for a marathon (if you are a rookie runner) and two months to lower 10 to 12% body fat.
