21 questions for a better health goal, better plan, & better results
Do you make the effort to improve your health, but struggle to get the results you want? To actually achieve your goal?
It’s not that you don’t care about your health, or that you don’t try. You do try to make some changes to your lifestyle. You start the new diet or new exercise routine. You say no to the treats. You look up healthier meals on Pinterest. You follow new health accounts on social media.
But then maybe you struggle knowing what to do next, or you fall off the wagon pretty quickly.
Oof I get it - I’ve been there myself!
Here’s the thing…
The majority of us know what it is that we want (to feel better, to lose weight, to find energy, etc.
But we don’t know the how - we’re lacking in any real PLAN to get there. And here’s why the plan part is important - because improving our health (no matter what your personal goals are) will never come from just one single solution or one action to take. It’s very normal and common to have many different actions, behaviors, and changes that we have to piece together to take us to that ideal outcome. We have to piece together this how.
And so this is what I want to help you with today. In this blog post, you’re going to learn how to put together a well-thought out plan that feels manageable, motivating, and specific. One that will get you towards your goal weight, your goal energy, your goal health whatever your goal is, you’re going to learn HOW to put together a plan to achieve it.
Let’s get started.
If you’re reading this, you likely have some sort of health goal or challenge you’d like to accomplish for yourself. Now think of the next 3 months - what is a goal that you’d like to achieve by the end of that timeframe? Go ahead and say it out loud to yourself, or write it down in front of you.
Now what I’m going to do is offer 21 questions for you to ask yourself. These questions will help you fill in the different parts of your plan.
What we want to do first is get very clear on why this goal even matters - why it’s worth your time and your energy, and why we’re bothering to put a plan together for it!
And then we’ll get into some tactical questions to help you actually get there.
YOUR WHY
#1: What is my ideal vision for my health, my life, and my experience of motherhood?
#2: How does my goal fit into that vision? How would reaching it make my life better?
#3: What outcome I trying to accomplish with this particular goal? For example: so many of us want to lose weight, so we all watch that scale like hawks to see evidence of “success”. But is it really a number that we’re after? Does this exact number have to show up on the scale for us to be successful?
Or is this more about, say, fitting into our clothes better? Feeling better? Getting through the day with more energy and ease? Improving some of our lab numbers? Gaining confidence in ourselves? Making progress in a direction of our choosing? Sometimes there’s a goal under the goal that emerges!
#4: What has prevented me from making more progress with this goal? For example - is it something to do with this chapter of life and my current circumstances? Might I be struggling with some beliefs that are making all of this kinda hard for me? Do I have symptoms that are making me feel like crap? Really think through what might have been stopping you up until now, and may continue to come up for you as you work on this goal.
#5: What kinds of changes do I suspect I need to make to be successful with this goal? What probably needs to change?
#6: Have I had success in the past with this type of goal? What may have contributed to my success? How could I replicate that?
YOUR HOW
Alright, now we’re going to get into the tactical part of the plan.
#7: How can I break this goal down into smaller actions, changes, or steps? For example, “losing weight” or “improve my energy” are pretty big and general goals that don’t really give us much insight into what to actually do to get there, right? And this might not feel totally manageable yet. So whatever your goal is, I encourage you to think of how you might break apart this goal into mini, individual steps that need to happen to reach that goal.
Here are some questions to help you flesh each step:
#8: What is the actual step, and how does this step get you closer to reaching your overall goal?For example, let’s say your goal was to eat less sugar. Maybe a step will be to first learn how to read labels and notice what has a lot of added sugar in it. This way, you’ll be able to navigate the grocery store more easily and you won’t have to figure it all out in the moment.
Another step could be to plan healthy snack alternatives.
Another step could be to learn more about what actually causes our bodies to crave sugar in the first place - so you have a better understanding of why this happens, and how to even prevent it.
These are all individual steps that inform how you will actually successfully eat less sugar - beyond just relying on the willpower to say no in every situation for the next 3 months!
Another example - your goal is to improve your energy. Your first step could be to learn more about what exactly kills our energy, and how to get it back! (hint, I have a whole post about this very topic - read it here!)
#9: When am I doing this step? What’s the timeframe? Does this step have more urgency and priority over others? In what order does this all go.
For example, let’s say my goal was to improve my energy. Maybe I need to put at the top of the list to make a doctor’s appointment and request updated lab numbers, so I can have more clues as to why my energy is so lacking. This way, I can better prioritize which strategies to try.
Another example - I want to make it to a Tuesday and Friday morning pilates class. Maybe I need to first set out my gym clothes, bag, and water bottle every Monday and Thursday evening, so that when I wake up I feel more ready to get up and make it to that 6am class.
#10) Where am I doing this? Where does the action take place?
#11) How am I going to measure or track that I did this step? Will I tell someone, get a friend or my spouse involved for some accountability, will I mark it down in my calendar, will I input it into an app, will I log my numbers in my notebook?
See if you can pull out a series of steps, and ask yourself these types of questions for each step. Remember to get as specific and granular as possible!
So at this point you have:
the overall outcome you’re aiming for (YOUR WHY)
a 3-month goal to help you get there (YOUR FOCUS)
and you have this series of action steps (YOUR CLARITY)
Now, these next questions will help continue to set you and your plan up for success.
(Hint: the following questions may even reveal additional action steps! If you’re answering the question and it feels like a whole other step or another change to make - don’t hesitate to add it to your Action Step list. This will only help you feel more organized, and the path forward more clear)
#12: Do I have the skills, knowledge, resources, accountability to achieve this goal? What might I need more of? For example, let’s say I want to meal plan and prep healthier meals - do I actually know how to put together healthy meals, in a way that I can truly be consistent with? That will taste good for me and my family? That I know are healthy? Or is this something that I need to do a little bit of researching about?
#13: What additional support am I going to need while I take on this goal? Because Mom, if it feels hard to prioritize a new health goal while juggling taking care of your kids and raising them well, furthering your career, nurturing your relationship, being there for friends and family... it’s because it IS! So how can you increase your support as you make room for this new goal?
#14: What might get in the way of achieving this goal? What are the obstacles I can predict now, and plan ahead for? Think: a busy season at work or a looming deadline, a new extracurricular activity your child has that falls right during dinner time, an upcoming holiday or vacation. Or maybe you anticipate that your partner won’t be very supportive, and will continue to eat exactly what you’re trying to cut out right in front of you! Maybe it’s symptoms - headaches, lack of energy - that will make going to the gym feel hard. What can we predict now and plan ahead for, rather than trying to deal with it all in the moment as it happens?
#15: What am I currently doing to manage stress - and are these unhealthy coping strategies that may kind of sabotage my efforts and progress? For example, am I an emotional eater, and yet my goal was to cut back on sugar? And how will those two conflict?
#16: What are some healthier strategies I could try for managing my stress, that will also benefit my goal? Instead of reaching for that sugary treat, I go for a 15-minute walk to clear my head.
#17: How will I keep record of or document my progress, to help me notice that I’m making progress and keep me feeling motivated to continue?
#18: On a scale of 1-10, how would I rate my confidence in my ability to reach this goal or use this plan? (1 indicating low confidence, 10 is high) Now Mom, If your confidence feels pretty low - this is an indicator that your goal is still not clear, or doesn’t feel tangible or doable enough for you. Or maybe this goal doesn’t feel important enough just yet. Or maybe it’s just not realistic at this time. Either way, if you’re still in and want to keep moving forward, low confidence is simply a sign that may just need to revisit some of these questions and rework a few things.
#19: What would increase my confidence by even 1 point? (That’s a clue for you!)
And since Action Plans are not set in stone, here’s one last thought to work off of in case you need to adjust while you’re working through your plan:
#20: What has been working, what are you seeing success with? And why do you think that is?
#21: What is not working - why not? Beyond a lack of self-discipline or willpower, what can you think of that’s preventing a certain action step or part of the plan from working? It’s not a time to get down on ourselves! It’s a time to use our experiences as data and learning opportunities, figure out what we can adjust, and keep moving forward.
Happy planning!
Here for you, Mom.
If you’re in a place where you could really use more personalized support, I encourage you to check out my Healthy Mom Kickstarter 3-month coaching program. I offer free consultation calls to see if it’s the right fit!
