1. Setting Healthy Eating & Physical Activity Goals
Aim: How can we self-analyze our strengths and weaknesses to help set goals?

2. Do Now When was the last time you set a goal for yourself?
What was it?
Did you achieve your goal?
If yes, how did you achieve it? If no, how come?
How do you go about achieving a goal you have set for yourself? What things make achieving a goal difficult? What things make it easier?

3. Physical Activity
Per week, how many days do you engage in physical activity?
How many minutes do you spend on vigorous aerobic activity (cardio; anything that increases heart rate)?
Muscle strengthening? (like weight training)
Endurance? (Doing one movement many times; reps)
Flexibility? (Stretching, yoga, dynamic, etc.)
Bone-strengthening activities? (Bone/joint impact)

4. My Eating & Physical Activity
We will read the Eating Behaviors section of the ASSESSING MY EATING & PHYSICAL ACTIVITY BEHAVIORS worksheet.
After we read each guideline, complete your self-assessment of your own eating and activity habits.
example: I rate myself good on guideline 1. I always have a piece of fruit (1 cup) at lunch and a cup of vegetables at dinner. But I could also choose fruits and vegetables as snacks, add fruit to breakfast, etc. to meet the recommended amounts.

5. My Eating & Physical Activity
Complete the Physical Activity Behaviors section of the worksheet.
Make sure to complete the questions on the bottom about areas of strength, needs improvement, and which you would like to work on.

6. Room for Improvement
You may already be doing well in one or both of these areas. However, there is always room for improvement.
You will be establishing a goal for improving one of your eating or physical activity behaviors. But first, let’s talk about how to write a goal that you can really achieve.

7. A Well-Written Goal A well-written goal meets these criteria:
1. It is SPECIFIC.
A clear statement that says exactly what the goal is.
2. It is REALISTIC.
Something you can actually do in the next few weeks.
3. It is MEASURABLE.
Lists criteria for success, so you’ll know when and if you have achieved your goal.

8. What’s wrong with these?
I’m going to show you some poorly written goals. Your task will be to rewrite them so that they are specific, realistic, and measurable.
1. I’ll exercise more.
2. I will never eat junk food again.
3. I’ll eat more fruit and lift weights more often.
#1 is not specific enough. What type of exercise? How often? #2 is not realistic; it says what you won’t do rather than what you WILL do. #3 is not measurable and contains more than one goal statement.

9. Setting A Goal
When you set a goal, there are certain steps you can follow and questions you can ask to help you succeed.

10. #1: What’s your goal?
First, you need to decide what your goal is. Remember that your goal should be specific, realistic, and measurable.
A goal that’s very broad, like improve my fitness, will be difficult to measure. How would you know what you mean or when you’ve reached it???
Also, set a goal around ONE behavior. If you include more than one behavior, it will be harder to make a plan.

11. #2: What will be the benefits?
It is very important to know what benefits you expect to get from reaching your goal.
Looking ahead at the benefits that you will get and noticing the benefits along the way helps keep you motivated.

12. #3: Why is the goal important?
Knowing why the goal matters to you is also important.
You want to pick a goal that you care about so you will be willing to work hard to reach it.

13. #4: What must you do?
Next, it is time to make your plan for all the things you will need to do to reach your goal.
When you make your plan, think about your strengths; what are you good at?
What personal qualities will help you reach your goal? You’ll also want to consider what you will need to help you reach your goal.

14. #5: How will you start?
How you will begin your plan is very important.
Taking that first step is sometimes the hardest, but once you get started, you’re on your way.

15. #6: Who can help?
Think of the people who can help you reach your goal.
Support from family, friends, and others can help keep you motivated, and moving toward your goal.

16. #7: What could get in the way
There are always barriers, or things that can get in the way of a goal.
What things could stop your progress or limit your success?
If you think about these ahead of time as part of your plan, you will be better prepared to deal with them when they come up.

17. #8: How to evaluate & adjust.
Finally, you will want to evaluate, or look over how things are going and make changes to your plan as you need to.
As you work on your goal, you will learn a lot about what works for you, and you can adjust your plan to help you succeed.

18. Common Barriers
What are some common barriers teens might encounter when they try to change their eating behaviors?
2. How about for changing their activity level?
Many things can come up that could get in the way to improve our goals. Thinking ahead about these possible barriers and strategies for overcoming them is part of a successful goal plan. Sometimes we won’t be able to anticipate a particular barrier or problem ahead of time. But if you’ve practiced brainstorming solutions to common barriers you can predict, it’ll be easier to solve or work through other barriers that can come along the way.

19. Practice Goal-Setting
Let’s practice going through the steps to set a goal around healthy eating or physical activity.
#1. Choose a goal. Remember that it should be specific, realistic, & measurable.
#2. What will be the benefits of reaching this goal?
#3. Why is this goal important?
#4. What must a person do to reach this goal? Write down the steps needed.
#5. How will you start?
#6. Who can help?
#7. What could get in the way of reaching the goal?
#8. How could you evaluate, or keep track, your progress and adjust your plan?

20. Summarize
Not only are making goals important in our lives, but being to make them attainable is crucial as well. Our goals have to be specific, realistic, and measurable, and why it is important to us.
After we make our goal, we must come up with ways to start the goal, be consistent, make an action plan, attack barriers, and evaluate how we are doing.
We cannot just tell ourselves that we want something. We must be ready for what’s to come in order to obtain it.

21. Homework #9 Complete the My Healthy Eating worksheet.
You are going to set your own goal around eating healthy or physical activity.
Use what we went over from your self-assessment to help you choose a specific, realistic, and measurable goal to work on in the area of nutrition, or physical activity.