Fitness goals -- helpful? (Page 2)

You might ask them what the craziest goal that if they could wave a wand they would like to do. Even if they say, 'climb mt everest' you can help them choose activities that work toward whatever big challenge they're interested in right now. Have them write down what they think they can do now and help them set a goal for each week, and a month later that they can get to. If you can, revisit with them and help them see progress.

Help them identify a person or two in their life that will be encouraging and supportive of what they're doing. Someone they can go to and say 'I did my walking every day this week except Tuesday.' and that person will say YAY YOU! and not 'Well what was wrong with you on Tuesday?' The attaboys/attagirls are crucial to the day-to-day success of saying no thanks to the coke, etc. Peer pressure is hard enough for dieting adults.

Help them learn to celebrate success too.  It is way too easy to lose 5 pounds and then beat yourself up because "it could have been 7 if I had just stuck to the diet better". Or finish a race that was a big goal and then the negative voice says well you could have done it faster if you hadn't skipped those workouts. The great positives just turned negative, not good enough.  The negative voice can come from self, family, friends, whoever, but it's important for them (and all of us really) to stop and be able to say "I achieved this goal I set and I'm proud of myself."