Before a season begins the coach and coaching staff set goals. For example, they may say that they want to win a minimum of eight games, finish in the top ten, and/or go to a championship game. Coaches also help their athletes set individual goals, such as getting so many at-bats a season, passing 20 times a game, making 75% of all free throws or running a 4:10 mile. These goals help the team and athlete set their sights on a certain level of achievement.

As you and your family set goals for your family's fitness, I recommend that you first set long-term goals (lifetime, a year or anything in between) and then establish intermediate and short-term goals. The short-term goals should be activities that are directly under your control. For example, you may want a slimmer body (that's a general goal). Or you may be more specific and say you want to lose 25 pounds and keep the pounds off. That's a specific lifetime goal. To attain this goal you formulate a short-term goal such as "I want to lose a pound a week for the next 25 weeks." Your intermediate goal may be "At the end of three months I want to have lost 12 pounds."

The problem with these goals is that none is directly under your control. A woman's menstrual cycle, one's tendency to hold fluids or one's muscle mass may not allow the loss of a pound a week. Or, by some quirk of your physiology, you may be able to lose only five, ten or 15 pounds. And if you don't lose 25 pounds, you may feel like a failure, even if you did the best your body would let you do.

To avoid the frustration, establish short-term goals that are under your dominion. If you determine that you want a better-looking body, you might establish short-term goals such as: 1) Walk one to three miles a day, five days a week; 2) cut 250 calories a day from your diet; 3) learn assertiveness techniques that will allow you to express your feelings when you don't want to eat certain foods.

Your intermediate goals might be: 1) Run two to four miles a day, five days a week; 2) maintain your reduction of 250 calories a day; 3) develop assertiveness techniques; 4) learn how to cook with less fat.

In terms of specific long-term or lifetime goals, you might determine to: 1) Run from three to four miles a day and enter road races four times a year; 2) eat mostly nutritious foods, i.e., use the U.S. Dietary Guidelines; 3) continue using assertiveness techniques; 4) like your body as it is because you are doing all that is possible for it in terms of your time, ability and goals.

Often when people reach a goal they think the battle is over. If they slip a bit, they feel defeated and therefore soon revert to old behaviors. When setting fitness goals, it's important to recognize that no one is perfect. We need flexibility for upheavals in our lives that may temporarily thwart goal-seeking.

Dr. Kelly Brownell, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and co-director of its weight-control program, illustrates this point nicely. In experiments he conducted, he found it was best for dieters and exercisers to set an upper limit to what they could attain before they took action. For example, a woman had been running for six months and had worked her way up to running three to five miles a day, three days a week (her lifetime goal). She made a pact with herself that she would never miss more than three days of running in succession. If she did, she would increase the number of days the next week. In other words, she gave herself a three-day threshold, which signaled the start of corrective action.

Some examples of thresholds are:

Threshold-

1. No exercise for three days.

2. Gain weight to 130 pounds.

3. Calorie intake level above 2,000 calories for four days a week.

Corrective Action-

1. Ask parent to walk with me. Begin keeping a diary. Take one hour each day from watching TV to ride my bicycle.

2. Make sure I walk four times a week; food record.

3. Post weight chart on refrigerator door. Get brother to ride bicycle with me.

Thresholds such as these are important. Most people do not change their habits all at once. People fail or make small slips now and then. The thresholds permit failure without you bagging it because of indulging in a rich dessert or taking a few days off exercise.

Now down to specific goal setting:

Step 1. Write a specific, controllable, long-term goal on a sheet of paper or a fitness card. For example:

Save it! Review it once a week. Or post it in an obvious place.

Step 2. Now establish short-term and intermediate goals. A short-term goal might be to walk 15 minutes twice a week. An intermediate goal could be to take two 30-minute family walks a week. Also, have each family member, on his or her own, exercise aerobically (walk, run, bike, swim, row and/or do aerobics) for 15 minutes once a week.

Step 3. Plan ahead. You'll need to recognize obstacles and plan how to get around them. Also, determine target dates for achieving your goals and design or develop a reward for having achieved them. Record all this on a chart.

• Chart progress. Have an obvious place where family members and friends can see the progress being made. You can use a wall map or a calendar with dates designated.
  
  
• Commit time. Things take on an aura of importance if they're built into your schedule. You try to be at church at a certain time and eat dinner at a certain time. Do the same with exercise. Poll the family and figure out what time is best. Everyone may need to compromise.
  
  
• Choose the best time. With something like a family walk, after dinner seems best, since everyone is home. Find the time by keeping the television off for a half hour.
  
  
• Develop a schedule. Don't skip all over the place with your time - morning one day, evening the next. Keep it at one particular time to build consistency and lessen the chance of forgetting.
  
  
• Think the part. Have motivational posters, pictures and/or sayings around the house. Tell everyone to think positively about exercise. No put-downs. Only positive talking and thinking.
  
  
• Emphasize success. Talk about the days you've exercised, not the days you've missed. Share your success with each other and with friends.
  
  
• Variety. Don't always go the same direction - take a new route. Play games as you walk. How many different smells, cars, barking dogs or mailboxes do you see?
  
  
• Dress the part. Have a walking outfit - special shoes, pants, coat, mittens - the works.
  
  
• Enjoy. Don't make it punitive. Keep it fun. Don't do it because it's good for you. Do it because you like the chance to be together, to talk, to relax, to play.
  
  
• Don't overdo. Exercise is pleasurable - not some masochistic event. Make haste slowly. Go at a pace and distance that is comfortable for all.
  
  
• Think commitment. A commitment is a commitment, and it's intensely personal. It is your responsibility to make this decision and then put it into and keep it in practice. Once you make the decision, no excuses are permitted, except that you choose not to make a healthful change.
  
  

Selection taken from: Kuntzleman, C.T. Healthy Kids for Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988