Updated Goals

I never really set goals and I usually just go with the flow. If progress comes, then progress comes. However, I do think implementing goals is useful and fuels your fire to keep the motivation constantly burning. If you have a specific goal in mind, you push harder for it because you don’t want to disappoint yourself if you never achieve it.

After my little hiatus this winter, I’m going to start ramping up my goals. They will be more specific, because specific goals are easier to achieve rather than setting a rather broad goal which almost certainly increases the chance of failure. For example, if you’re looking to clean up your eating goals, I would say that it is better to start with a goal of “I will include a veggie in at least one meal per day” instead of setting the goal of “I will refuse to eat anything unhealthy for an entire month.” It’s easier to focus on the specific goal because the other one is far too broad and causes too much pressure on an individual.

Alright, I’ll stop blabbing now and state my goals. 

1. Drink at least a gallon of water per day.
I’m really bad at slacking off on my water intake. I drink more than the average person does, at least five water bottles per day. However, a gallon is equivalent to about 8 500mL water bottles which is my ultimate goal. I talked to a few kids at my school and many of them say that the maximum amount of water that they drink per day is three water bottles. That doesn’t seem like enough to me. Although I HATE having to pee every 30 minutes, I know drinking a lot of water is important for proper functioning of the body. It should be noted however that although drinking a lot of water is good for you, drinking TOO much can cause damage to your kidneys, so don’t go and drink four gallons per day. ;)

2. Focus on lifting heavy for upper body.
My legs used to be sticks, let’s face it. But now, my legs are huge due to the amount of squatting, lunging, leg pressing, stepping up, etc. that I’ve been doing to build my legs. I can’t even fit my old jeans around my butt anymore. And that’s a good thing! But my upper body hasn’t quite caught up yet. I want to focus on building the strength for my upper body. I’m not saying it’s not strong; it’s just not as strong as I feel like it could potentially be.

3. Implement more core work.
I don’t completely slack on the core, but I feel like I could do more to ramp it up. After every workout that I’ve been doing so far with my training partner, I have been doing one or two core exercises that focuses on a different section of the core each time. For example, after my chest day I did upper body core work, and after my back day I did lower body core work. I also want to have specific metabolic core workouts that challenge the core in unimaginable ways. I recently did one that involved a circuit of exercises including cable crunches, standing barbell twists, kettlebell oblique twists, stability ball planks, and many more pain-inducing core exercises. I see SO many people do “ab” workouts that are simply bicycle crunches, or standard crunches, or maybe a few sit-ups. Although bodyweight core work has its place in core training, it’s important to also throw in some resistance to challenge the core. Bodyweight core exercises target the shape of the abs, while resistance-based core exercises challenge the bulkiness of the abs. So a balance of both is proper for the body. I will continue to change it up and keep my core guessing, not simply because I want “abs” but because I want to strengthen my core (which includes the abs AND the lower back). It is the powerhouse of the body.

One of my favorites--but extremely difficult! (Source)

4. Get at a minimum seven hours of sleep per night.
I know for a teenager like myself that seven hours of sleep per night is not enough. For a teenager, at least nine hours is recommended. However, considering I usually get between 4-6 hours of sleep per night, I think aiming for nine is too far of a stretch, so I will settle for at least seven. Between my AP classes and their rigorous workloads and my typical inability to sleep at night (those darn thoughts that just bombard my head!), I haven’t been sleeping much lately and it has not only affected the intensity of my workouts, but also my mental energy. I need to prioritize sleep more than ever at the moment.

5. Increase the weight I use on at least three exercises.
I don’t want to fall into that trap where I am always using the same weights for each exercise. So I want to also focus on increasing the amount of pounds in the weight I use. More weight = stronger Brittany! I’m hoping that I at least raise the weight for the essential compound exercises like squats, shoulder or military presses, Olympic bar rows, deadlifts, and bench press. Particularly, I would like to increase the amount of weight I can lift on the deadlift. But I definitely will take what I can get.

So those are my goals that I hope to achieve by the end of the school year. I hope everyone has a fantastic day. :)

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