In the last section we mentioned the term ‘process goals’ and so before looking at the means by which you can adjust what you are aiming for, we will define process goals and their opposite – the outcome goal. An outcome goal is a goal that focuses upon a numerical or binary ‘yes/no’, ‘true/false’ outcome at some point in the future. You may lose 10kgs, add 20kgs to your bench press or reduce your 5k time by 2 minutes, for example.
This is very important in the pursuit of an overall aim but it is self-evidently not the full picture because it doesn’t answer one very important question – how do you go about putting things in place to do this? After you have set your SMART and stretch outcome goals, you need to set process goals which largely amount to actions you will take to succeed.
Earlier in this course we looked at various things that you can track and one of the things mentioned was habits. Habit tracking is an example of process based goal setting, but to truly make these effective you need to apply SMART principles.
Looking back to the example above of the future bride. The defined goals involve dropping dress sizes, and this involves alterations to her current behaviours around food and activity. She is currently consuming more than or as many calories as she expends, meaning that she isn’t the dress size that she wants to be, but that statement isn’t fully descriptive.
She doesn’t simply eat too many calories because people don’t eat calories, they have an overall diet comprised of foods. She likely chooses foods which don’t satisfy her hunger or which lead to cravings, she probably fills her home with foods that would encourage snacking, she likely consumes very calorie dense foods that are easy to overeat, she may not know about the importance of calorie balance or the calorie content of her food choices, she may have very low levels of EAT, NEAT or both, and she may not sleep as well as she should.
Eating too many calories is the net result of a number of different actions and behaviours, some done habitually, some done intentionally due to a poor understanding of the consequences (meaning she doesn’t realise that snacking has such an impact) or an insufficient knowledge of the action (meaning, she may choose to eat a cake not knowing how many calories it contains and how much that relates to her calorie needs, or she may drink blended coffees without realising the calorie content). Regardless of the why, the goal of dropping dress sizes represents a lot of behaviours that the bride needs to change. Process goals help an individual to guide themselves through a period of behaviour change in a manner that is relevant to their overall aim. Here’s how you would apply this principle to this goal (of course, the information learned in module 9 may need to be applied to this approach, too).
Once this is planned out, our bride needs to work out SMART process goals which will guide her towards this. Let’s look at three common steps taken and apply the SMART model to see if they will match up:
It’s specific and measurable. Is it attainable? Only the bride can answer that, but her hen do and other pre-wedding social engagements may need to be taken into consideration. Making allowances and applying the principles of flexibility to allow for short, calculated lapses in overall adherence would more than likely allow the bride to make this goal attainable. It may also be relevant to consider whether or not the bride currently drinks enough alcohol to make up a meaningful amount of calories. If the bride is only drinking half a bottle of wine per week this is unlikely to make any kind of noticeable impact on her weight loss, meaning that this should be reconsidered and thought of as a small part of a number of process goals. Of course, this goal is time-bound. Overall this is likely to be an effective process goal.
Again, this is specific, measurable, time-bound and achievable. Is it relevant? As you learned in module 1, the only way that weight loss can be achieved is through a reduction in calorie intake relevant to calorie expenditure. In module 2, however, you learned that carbohydrates are nutritionally non-essential, and that energy can be extracted from fatty acids. This means that, provided the bride doesn’t replace her reduced carbohydrates with additional calories from fat and protein, she could succeed (in fact in some, a lower carbohydrate approach to fat loss results in greater adherence and therefore greater fat loss). She mentions only starchy carbohydrates, too, indicating that she will still be consuming vegetables and the micronutrients contained therein.
What must be considered, is that a lower carbohydrate diet will not have a more meaningful effect compared to a lower fat diet or a moderate carbohydrate and moderate fat diet provided calorie balance is equal across all three scenarios. Rather, the benefits (if they can be referred to as such) of a lower carbohydrate diet should be spoken about in terms of adherence, and it is true that these benefits do not manifest in everyone (not to mention that lower carbohydrate diets negatively impact sporting and exercise performance). As such, the bride should be aware of the full picture and decide for herself whether or not a lower carbohydrate or a more moderate approach better fits her temperament, lifestyle and preferences. With all considered, this may or may not be a good process goal.
This is a measurable yes/no goal, either the bride starts running or she doesn’t. It’s also time-bound and potentially achievable. The specificity is lacking, however, meaning that it is difficult to discern whether achievability is in fact present – how often will she run, how far and at what intensity? Currently a short jog around the block once per month would be successful, meaning achievable, but there are very clear issues with this when considering the purpose of the running.
Here we need to assess the relevance of this goal. Considering what we know about the impact of EAT on TDEE, and what we know about the interrelationship between EAT and NEAT it can be difficult to state that taking up running would actually help our bride to reach her goal. Other training modalities may be more beneficial and as such, we can use our critical thinking skills, our knowledge of nutrition and calorie balance and the SMART model to determine that this process goal is not as likely as others to lead to overall success.
You can also use this same principle to set stretch process goals (or SMART process goals can be applied to your stretch goal – whichever way you prefer to apply it). One clear example of applying stretch process goals would be with calorie intake. You may decide that you are going to track calories using level B tracking, and then you may decide that you will aim for a 10% restriction on calories until you reach your goal, but you could also set a stretch process goal of aiming for a 20% calorie deficit. Every day you could then go by hunger, energy, cravings and your social situation to determine which end of the spectrum (or where in the middle) you will aim for that day. If you achieve a larger deficit you will be able to reach your outcome goal faster, but if you do not you will still reach your goal in time. A win win scenario.
As you can see, this process clearly maps out your approach and makes the abstract aim nothing more than the end-product of a concrete set of steps.
To summarise, the process for setting your goals is as follows: