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How Can SMART Goals Help You? Hello! It’s been a while since I have had a newsletter, so I thought I would start fresh in 2024! Happy New Year to all and hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy this Winter. Quick introduction: I’m Dr. Asha Subramanian, also known as “Dr. Asha.” I am a family physician and lifestyle medicine physician who is passionate about the power of diet and lifestyle change to transform health. I am also a survivor and thriver with endometriosis, which is a chronic complex hormonal and immune-mediated disease that affects women worldwide. My “day job” is at a community health center where I work with underserved patients. I also do lifestyle medicine consulting through Diya Lifestyle and Wellness. I love educating the community about the power of diet and lifestyle change. Lifestyle medicine can help improve a wide variety of chronic conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure; lift your mood; increase energy; promote skin health; assist in losing extra weight; support brain and heart health; and so many other wonderful benefits. Nothing to lose and so much to gain! :-) Today, I’d like to briefly talk about SMART goals. These are goals which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. Saying “I’m going to eat better and exercise more” is a common goal for New Year’s Resolutions, but rarely works. It’s better to focus on what is realistic and actionable for YOU, and then fit that into your life. So it might look like “I am going to eat one more vegetable for dinner on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next 1 week.” That is a much more specific goal than “eat more vegetables” and helps us define our goal and create a plan on how to achieve it. Next, you might take the strategy of telling your partner, friend or kids about your SMART goal to keep yourself accountable. And then post the goal on your fridge, so when you are in your kitchen, that goal is visually front and center for you. When you are at the grocery store, you might think about trying a new vegetable or two that is new for you, and looking up a recipe. We’re lucky these days in that there are so many great ideas and recipes online at our fingertips! Then, in a week, you EVALUATE: how did it go in the past week? How many days did you add that extra vegetable? What were the challenges and barriers? How might you change your plan for the following week? We ALL have challenges! The important thing is to know how to address them and keep moving forward. For example, it’s perfectly ok if you only ate 1 more vegetable on just ONE day that week - that’s a WIN and something you hadn’t done before! Another thing I like to do is keep track of my wins, however small. So, going back to our vegetable example, jot down in a notebook or on your smartphone any wins you have with your SMART goals. Celebrate those wins, however small, each day. Our minds tend to focus on and remember the negative/what we did wrong - and it’s good to focus on what went right. When things get tough, it’s helpful to have that positive context easy available to remind ourselves of how far we’ve come. Cultivating a growth mindset is key to behavior change. Build upon your successes to achieve your vision! SMART goals can be applied to changing eating habits; adding physical activity into your daily life; starting a gratitude practice; goal setting at school and in the workplace; and more. We will talk further about goal setting, mindfulness, and all things lifestyle medicine in upcoming newsletters! What are your thoughts on SMART goals and goal setting? What goals do you want to achieve in 2024? What are some of your challenges? Please hit REPLY to this email to let me know!
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