FervourFervour

Guest post by Max Roger

This is the time of the year when most people set some New Year’s Resolutions. Another word for these is ‘goals’. However, by the end of January 2022 nearly every single one that is set, and set with great intentions, will have been failed and forgotten. So, what can you do to make sure that you aren’t one of those people? How can you achieve your goal?

This article will look at just that, covering: the 3 different types of goals, the importance of a date, and breaking it down into baby steps.

Firstly, it’s important to understand the 3 different types of goals so that you can then bear this in mind when making yours to ensure that you pick the best type (yes there is a best type). The 3 types are: process, performance, and outcome.

An outcome goal is what most people go for – and that’s a big reason that most people fail with their goal. It’s where all you think about is that end goal. Examples of outcome goals are; ‘losing 5kg of fat’, or ‘getting a faster 5km time’. There’s no detail here at all, and certainly nothing controllable.

A performance goal is better. It’s where you have a metric that you’re measuring that will contribute towards your outcome. For example, ‘I’ll run slightly faster than my last race in this next one for 4 out of the 5km’. Whilst that’s likely to get you a better 5km time, it’s still focused on the outcome and not detailed enough to make a difference to you. There’s also very little that is controllable there.

Having a date puts some pressure on you, as you know that if you do let things slip, you’re making it harder and harder to achieve your goal with that impending deadline looming.

The 3rd type of goal is the process goal. (This is the best one that I mentioned)! A process goal is one where you focus on the things that you can control (the ‘controllables’) that, if completed, will get you to achieve your goal. An example is ‘doing 3 training runs per week at the prescribed pace’, or ‘completing all programmed sets in the gym each week’. If you consistently do these things, that is what will make the difference and get you a faster 5km time.

Now that we know what type of goal you want, it’s important to add an end date to it. A date helps to keep you accountable to your goal. Without it it’s far easier to let things slip, saying things such as; ‘I’ll do it tomorrow instead’, or ‘another mince pie won’t matter’. However, having a date puts some pressure on you, as you know that if you do let things slip, you’re making it harder and harder to achieve your goal with that impending deadline looming.

The date shouldn’t be so close that it’s impossible to achieve, or so far that it seems distant and unimportant. It’s about finding that sweet spot where it’s challenging but possible if you perform your controllables.

That ties us into the third section: baby steps. These are the small goals along the way to your bigger one, that if you do focus on the process and the things that you can control, you will achieve. It’s important to have these as often a big goal can seem daunting. If it’s too daunting, then when things are really getting tough (and you will go through phases of this when you pursue any goal) it’s much easier and more likely that you will quit. However, if the focus is on the next baby step – the next small process goal – then that is a far less daunting task, so when the going gets tough making progress still seems achievable and so you keep putting in the required hard work.

Now that you understand the sort of goal that will give you the best chance of success (keeping it process focused, with an end date, and broken down into baby steps) it’s the perfect time to make your own. Write them down and put it up somewhere that you’ll see every day. Good luck!

If you want help in designing them, or what the process can look like for your big goal, then contact me at max@max-performance.co.uk

Guest post by Max Roger

You want your training and performance in the New Year to be as good as possible. This means that if you pile on the fat over the holidays that you’ll be trying to lose it come January. To lose fat you need to be in a calorie deficit (where you take in less calories through eating and drinking than you burn). In a calorie deficit your performance suffers as your body doesn’t have enough fuel to sufficiently support the performance that you want.

So how can you avoid this? Plan ahead. It starts now: throughout December get ahead of this. You want to have fun during the holidays, but you need to keep your bigger goals in mind – and so you don’t want to pile on the pounds as your performance (and physique) will suffer as a result.

The problem is that the holidays means 2 things:

1. More sitting around as you relax, spending time with family and friends.
2. More food and alcohol (it goes hand in hand with being with family and friends).

In more detail:

1. It’s not that spending time with your family is the problem – it’s that this invariably means that you are less active than usual. If you’re less active (less general activity, walking to the coffee machine or up flights of stairs in your office building, etc.) then you’re burning less calories every day. That’s part of the equation of what leads to gaining fat.
2. Increasing your food and alcohol intake increases your total calorific intake (the other part of the equation for gaining fat). Here’s a simple breakdown of the calories that the basic food groups contain: 1g of protein = 4calories (cals)
1g of carbohydrate = 4cals
1g of fat = 9cals
Alcohol = 7cals (plus the ‘carrier’ it’s in – ie. beer or wine has additional calories).

Not only this, but alcohol negatively affects the quality of your sleep, which in turn negatively affects your hormone balance: you’ll end up with less testosterone, and more cortisol. This means that you’ll feel more stressed, store more fat, and make poorer nutritional decisions the next day as a result, starting a negative snowball effect.

“If the food that you’re looking at doesn’t get you really wanting to eat it, then don’t”

This information is here to help you to be mindful of what you’re putting into your body. Think of this when you’re mindlessly snacking – do you really need that 5th cookie (as well as those 2 mince pies earlier)?

It can help you make better decisions. For example, if there’s a homemade dip on offer, do you have to use breadsticks or chips to dip into it, which have 4cals per gram? Probably not – you could use some carrot/celery sticks. The dip is the main event anyway.

Overall, take this mindset into your nutritional choices over the holidays, with a clear focus on the bigger picture of keeping yourself in great shape so that you can hit the ground running (pun intended) in January, rather than trying to simply get back to where you were: if the food that you’re looking at doesn’t excite you and get you really wanting to eat it, then don’t. It’s the mindless, mediocre food that is just wasted calories and will take your calorie intake up way past where it normally is.

We are delighted to announce a collaboration with Max Roger of Max Performance. Along with helping us test our men’s kit, Max will be contributing monthly guest posts on our blog, where he will be sharing fitness and nutrition advice. 

Max is a strength and conditioning coach from Scotland, who has coached in the UK, Australia and Hong Kong, and is now based near us in Bedford. He has coached at a professional level in rugby union, has rowing experience, and trained athletes to marathon and ultramarathon finishes. He has also coached applicants through military selection.

Max specialises in helping runners maintain the muscular physique that he and his clients are after despite long training miles. Most recently he has competed in a half marathon (winner of his age group) and ultramarathon (overall winner). You can find out more at his website and Instagram