How To Achieve Your Health And Wellness Goals According To Experts

Have you ever wondered how to achieve health goals? If this question stumps you, we are here to help. Keep reading to find the top tips from experts on how to achieve your health and wellness goals.

You set goals every year, but every year seems to slip by before you achieve your goals. If you can relate, keep reading. In this article, we will walk you through exactly how to achieve your health goals. This article contains tips on goal setting and advice from health and wellness experts.

This post is all about how to achieve health goals.

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How To Set Health And Wellness Goals

If you have a health and wellness goal you want to achieve, start by setting a goal. Here is exactly how to set a health and wellness goal.

1. Determine what you want

What do you want to achieve? What results do you want to see? Start by determining exactly what you want.

2. Set SMART goals

Now that you know what you want, set SMART goals to help you get what you want.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-bound

Setting SMART goals is key so that you can track your goals and measure your progress. If you want to lose weight, don’t just set a goal of losing weight. Choose a specific amount of weight you want to lose and a date to achieve it by. For example, a SMART goal would be “I want to lose 25 pounds by September 1st.”

3. Write down your goals

Now that you know what you want and you’ve set SMART goals, it’s time to write them down. Write your goals and put them somewhere you will see them every day. People that write down their goals are 20% more successful in accomplishing them than those who do not write them down.

4. Create a plan

Now, you need a plan to achieve your goals. It’s not enough just to set goals, you need to put a plan in place. If your goal is to lose weight, what will you do to lose weight? Will you change what you eat? Will you start working out? Create a plan and stick to it.

Another tip when creating a plan, add this plan to your calendar. Add monthly alerts to your calendar to check in with yourself. Are you on track to achieve your goals? If not, what can you do to reset and get back on track to put you closer to your goals?

5. Put your plan into action

You are now ready to put your plan into action!

6. Re-evaluate and track your progress

It’s important to revisit and re-evaluate your goals often. Checking in with your goals ensures you are on track to achieve your goals.

Top Tips To Achieve Your Health And Wellness Goals

Here are the top tips for achieving your health and wellness goals according to experts.

Determine your motivation

Figure out what your motivation is. Often times just looking better isn’t a strong enough goal to make us stick to our fitness plans. What really makes a difference is finding an intrinsic motivation that means a lot to you that you can remind yourself of when you don’t feel like getting out of bed and getting to the gym. It could be something like – finding out what your body is capable of, or to be able to be a good example for my kids, or to feel strong and confident. Find something that really speaks to you and gets you fired up to chase your fitness dreams and goals.

— Jenna-Caer Seefried, certified personal trainer, certified triathlon coach and creator of the Endurance Fit App

Bring your own food

My tip is very simple. Bring. Your. Own. Food. Anywhere you go, have a snack or meal handy that fits into your diet, or else you’ll be tempted to stray. It’s easy to go back to your old ways when you are feeling snacky. Best be ready.  

— Emily Krill, blogger at Resolution Eats

Understand that goals are a commitment

Being fit and healthy isn’t an instant goal that you can achieve in just a week. It is a long process that you must commit to every day. Remember that your smallest efforts count, so never procrastinate. Set attainable goals to work on every day and if you are still busy, just keep moving forward and take a short exercise every day, and even a 15-minute run or exercise is enough instead of not doing anything at all. If you procrastinate and try to reach your goal, you are just hurting your body and this isn’t what ‘love your body’ means. 

— Daniel Maman, co-founder and Marketing Director of My Phenom Fitness

Win each day

My best tip is to win each day. As humans, we get very caught up in thinking too far into the future, especially when it comes to health and fitness goals. We set lofty goals of losing 20, 30, 40 lbs and get easily discouraged when we don’t reach those goals in a short, completely unattainable amount of time. Instead, set a goal of working out today.  When you work out today, guess what? You just won that day. Congratulations. Set a new goal of working out the following day. Setting micro-goals and completing each one will build so much more momentum and be better for your mental health than setting a lofty goal that you won’t end up reaching because you’ll get discouraged and quit too quickly. Just focus on today. Did you work out today? If that answer is yes, then you’re one day closer to your lofty goal. Little steps add up to big progress.

— James Green, Owner, Build A Head

Be consistent

To achieve health and fitness goals, be consistent. Start slow with small and easily attainable goals such as working out for 30 mins a day, 5 days a week for at least 21 days. A long-lasting routine can be established by starting in this way. A routine will eventually become a habit!

— Cher-Ann Barnett, of Good Ohmens Fitness

Build on momentum

Just like anything in life, the first day is always the hardest. As you continue, each day gets easier. It becomes easier to wake up on time, show up workouts, eat right, and keep a solid sleep schedule. Don’t forget, momentum is your best friend in your fitness journey. Things that seem hard now, will become routine after they’re implemented into your routine and executed on a regular basis.

— King Holder, former D1 college football player, Sports Performance Trainer and Founder of PROCUSSION Recovery

Show up, or face fees for missing workouts

Some gyms, like OrangeTheory, are now charging their customers for missing gym sessions. For some people (me, I’m some people) this is the additional motivation needed to actually make it to the gym when I say I’m going to make it to the gym. I hate wasting money, so being charged for missing sessions is just what I need to make sure I don’t miss sessions.

— Daivat Dholakia, VP of Operations, Essenvia

Track your workouts and nutrition

I like data, so I like to use a journal to record both my workouts and my diet. Tracking my diet helps me stay on track and stay focused, while recording my workouts helps me reach goals and subsequently set new ones. It’s also fun to look back to see my progress over a few months’ time.

— Brian Donovan, CEO, TimeShatter

Bridge your habits

My biggest tip for success with our wellness and fitness journeys is a technique called habit bridging. Using the daily habits already in place, we piggyback healthier habits to achieve our goals. An example would be getting up and exercising during commercial breaks. We already have the habit of watching TV, but seamlessly add activity into it. This lets you build habits without changing your life completely. Big life changes are often unsustainable in the long run and fall off when we lose our initial motivation. Creating small and sustainable changes means long term success!

— Scott Drapeau, strength and nutrition coach, Alliance Athletics

Make recovery a priority

For as long as I can recall, I have never been able to actually be fit without suffering from muscle pains. From playing every sport you can think of, I knew that tight muscles were a cyclical misfortune. Such being the case, it’s hard to improve my fitness performance. A percussion massager, also called massage gun, can quickly and effectively relieve your muscle pain and help you recover faster from working out. Therefore, you can achieve your fitness goals much easier.

— Chris Lin, Co-Founder of Achedaway

Prepare yourself to respond to “failure”

The key to success is responding to “failure” with strategic adjustments to goals and plans. If I view “failures” as just guidance on how to proceed, and I refuse to give up, I’ll eventually improve my health habits. Think of each setback or slip-up as merely an inevitable signal that the plan needs to be adjusted.

— John F. Tholen, PhD, Retired Psychologist and author of FocusedPositivity: The Path to Success and Peace of Mind

Just start

My biggest tip of all – start. The only thing holding you back from achieving your goals – health, fitness or otherwise – is you. Once you embrace that you’re the problem, you’ll also discover you are equally the solution. It doesn’t have to be hard, but like anything – it does require commitment.     

— J.P. Gaston, CEO and co-founder of The Biz Dojo Inc.

Get enough sleep

Getting enough sleep is essential to living a happier and healthier life. It improves immunity and overall mood and even boosts appetite. Getting too little sleep can lead to insomnia and increased stress hormones that result in weight gain or loss.

— David Skates, founder of Skates.co.uk

Make it convenient

Make your workout logistics madly convenient. Get a gym bag, prepare your clothes every night, keep protein/snacks in your bag, and locate a workout/shower facility that is extremely close to your home or workplace.

— Michael Garrico, Co-Founder and Marketing Director at TotalShape

Be mindful

Creating mindful habits in your daily life and decisions has positive implications in just about every area, even your diet. The concept of Intuitive Eating is based on the idea of mindfulness. When we are mindful of our bodies’ needs nutritionally, our fullness, and what we are putting into our bodies we are more likely to achieve balance mentally and physically. When we are intentional about being mindful it begins to carry over into even the simple moments in life that have a big impact. Each meal is an opportunity to be mindful of what your body needs, but also to intentionally allow yourself to indulge on occasion. Mindfulness enables you to live in balance in this way.

— Lisa Richards, nutritionist and author of the Candida Diet

Slow down when eating

Slow down when you are eating. It usually takes me a long time to eat because I am chewing slowly, thinking about my food, enjoying it, listening to how my body responds to it, etc. This can help you to enjoy your food more and feel satisfied with less. It also helps with digestion and regularity because you won’t be dumping a bunch of food into your system at once. 

— Heather Hanks, Medical Solutions BCN – Nutritionist and Medical Advisor

Set realistic goals

When you are setting your goals, be realistic. The reason why so many people fail their New Years’ resolutions when it comes to fitness and health is because they set lifestyle goals that are a complete 180 from what they are currently doing. If a person currently does not work out at all but makes a goal to work out six days a week, the likelihood of them sticking to that for more than a couple weeks is very slim. So, you have to create goals that are a realistic step up from your current habits. The ideal outcome is that you adapt to a new health/fitness lifestyle, and then down the road you can create a new goal that is another slight step above your current habits. 

— Jeremy Yamaguchi, CEO of Lawn Love

Get daily light exposure

Light regulates brain chemistry and circadian rhythms that control appetite, energy, sleep, libido and many other body functions.

— Ken Ceder, Director of R&D, non-profit Science of Light (SOL)

Find an accountability buddy

Accountability is key. It is much easier to give up on your goals if you are the only one who knows that you are working toward goals in the first place. If you have one person, or a couple of people, who know what you are working toward, you will be more motivated to stay on track. You can even ask some close friends or family members if they want to work toward your goals with you, like being a workout buddy or cooking healthy meals with you. They will provide accountability, AND they will be a great support system for you. 

— Andre Kazimierski, CEO, Improovy Painters Ann Arbor

Reward yourself

It’s important to reward yourself for success when you reach your goals. A reward can be anything from watching a favorite TV show or eating a special treat. You also may consider a non-food reward.

— Brett Edmunds, Paramount Health

Start intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting is a free way to improve your health. Fasting can help you lose weight, boost your metabolism, reduce inflammation, increase fat burning, increase muscle mass and lower blood sugar. If you’re new to intermittent fasting, start with a daily 12 hour fast. As soon as the 12 hour fast feels easy, move up to a 13 hour fast. Continue to slowly increase until you reach a daily 16 hour fast.

— Macy Michelle, certified personal trainer and founder of Macy Michelle Blog

Find exercise that you love

I believe when you find exercise that you like to do, you automatically change the way you nourish your body, and that will keep you healthy fit with your mind and body connection.

— Bonnie Frankel, founder of bonniefrankel.com

Schedule your workouts

Schedule your fitness routine just like you would any other important appointment. Scheduling it into your day will help you actually work out as opposed to trying to squeeze it in with any left over time you might have in the day.

— Shaun Price, Head of Customer Acquisition at MitoQ

Stop seeking perfection

Stop seeking perfection, and just get moving. When we overwhelm ourselves with reaching certain weight patterns, numbers of miles or something else it can distract us from the larger goal – to move our bodies and feel good about it. Find something you like doing and get used to doing it consistently. This next part is important: notice how you feel. It can help to tell a friend about it or journal about it. Noticing that you feel better than before will help motivate you to move forward consistently. Then with the routine established, you can start to tack on other specific measured goals to improve even more.

— Nicholas Vasiliou, CEO BioHealth Nutrition

Avoid the “all or nothing” mentality

Try not to have all or nothing thinking- you’ll have bumps in the road but keep moving forward. Make MOSTLY good choices with your nutrition, workout MOST days of the week, find something you enjoy- and keep trying things with an open mind if you haven’t found the workout of your dreams yet. Stay consistent, even on days you don’t feel like it. Walking counts as exercise. Move your body DAILY. You can’t jump to the top of a mountain, and there are no short cuts but you should enjoy the ride because this is your life. If you really can’t do this alone get yourself a coach

— Saara Haapanen, personal trainer and coach at Performance Is Haapanen

Eat food that is quick to prepare

Look for recipes that call for fewer ingredients, using whole, unprocessed foods. You’ll be more likely to stick to a healthy eating routine. For example, soups can be very healthy and are usually easy to prepare.

— Kent Probst, Long Healthy Life Blog

Keep it simple

Simplify, simplify, simplify. Also, have FUN! What do you LIKE doing that moves your body? Even if it’s just walking around the block or doing some sit-ups, you have to start somewhere. If you live in a state that is cold during winter, find something to do at home so weather isn’t an excuse for not working out. There are plenty of online workouts you can try, and many subscriptions give you a trial period. If you’re curious about yoga, you can get a simple mat for $10-$20 (or borrow one from a friend) and check out some free beginner classes on YouTube or Instagram. Try Zumba or another cardio workout; you just need comfy clothes and tennis shoes.

— Lisa Odenweller, Founder and CEO of Kroma Wellness

Make changes one at a time

Making changes one at a time and making sure they stick before moving forward to the next works really well. Change your portion size first. make it stick. Move onto changing to add more protein next.These small habits add up in the long run creating a sustainable lifestyle for you!

— Heather Carroll, founder A Balanced Life Training

Be patient with yourself

Be patient with yourself. Fitness is a journey and it’s something that can transform your life. If you expect to reach your goal in just a couple days or weeks, you’re going to be sadly disappointed. There will be ups and downs, but focus on taking one step in front of the other and eventually you’ll get to your destination!

— Andrew Blakey, Director of Your Future Fitness

Find a training partner

Find a training partner. We are great at procrastinating, delaying things, and even just not doing them. But, knowing that someone else is relying on us can make all the difference in the world. Since we don’t want to let our friend down, we will find it in ourselves to get up and get to work. Just make sure that you find a training partner that will motivate you to actually do the work rather than sit at home with you and not work for your goals.

— Jay, Founder and creator of Divuni.com

Find a community

One of the best tips I can recommend is to try and find a community to be a part of that will help you work towards your goals. Trying to maintain discipline and consistency is hard enough and being on your own makes it even harder. By surrounding yourself with others that have similar goals and working on them together it helps to keep you accountable and find motivation when it gets difficult.. On top of that it allows you to learn from others and potentially reach your goals faster than you would on your own.

— TJ Mentus, member of the expert review board at Garage Gym Reviews

Add essential amino acids to your diet

Essential Amino Acids (EAAs) are the building blocks of protein, energy, and total body health. They help you grow and maintain lean muscle mass, speed up recovery, improve mental performance, and more. As the foundation of protein in your body, being deficient in any amino acid could hold you back from reaching your health and fitness goals. That’s why taking a high-quality EAA supplement is a great way to get the aminos you need to reach total body health and peak performance.

— Ariana O’Keefe, PR Specialist Kion

Incorporate adaptogenic herbs

Taking adaptogenic herbs is a great way to improve your health and wellness. Adaptogens are a class of herbs that help to build your body’s resilience to stress. Adding adaptogens like ashwagandha, rhodiola, or schisandra to your morning smoothie is a great way to improve your brain function and productivity. Having better focus and mental energy allows you to make better decisions throughout the day, which can lead to better health and wellness.

— Daniel Powers, herbal writer and researcher at Botanical Institute

Put it in your calendar

Plan the steps to achieve your goals in your actual calendar. Putting my workouts, shopping, and food prep in my schedule is one of my biggest success strategies. I don’t want to stand up myself, and it makes sure that I don’t run out of time to take care of my fitness and health.

— Dr. Ericka Goodwin, founder www.doctorericka.com

Use affirmations to create a positive mindset

If we are not actively feeding our mind positive thoughts and mantras around achieving our goals, the noise of the world and noise of mass media will begin to seep into our minds. Whether or not we realize it, we are bombarded with thousands of messages per day, and most of them are negative. All you need to do is turn on the TV to see struggle and unrest, or sitcom characters throwing their diets out the window. To be proactive, we need to have a set of affirmations and mantras that we imprint into our minds. Whatever dominant thoughts we have will determine our mindset towards our goal. And as we know, mindset matters!

— Dipal Shah, mindset expert

Take care of your emotional health

Our emotions play a huge role in our lives and can often be the deciding factor between success and failure. Talk to somebody about how you’re feeling, whether that’s a friend, family member, therapist, or journal.

— Himanshu Jain, founder MantraCare

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you achieve total health?

First determine what total health means to you. Then set up a plan to achieve it.

How do you achieve your fitness goals?

Revisit your goals daily and schedule time in your calendar to achieve your goals.

Bottom Line

You may now be ready to commit to your health and wellness goals. Congrats for taking the first step and reading this article. We hope these tips will help you to commit to and achieve your goals!

This post was all about how to achieve health goals.