Stack + Track Method: Five Steps to Reach Your Health
Planning out goals to build or maintain healthy habits can get us motivated. We get amped up at the thought of reaching that goal line. We did it! Well, in our minds, anyway. But the one thing that tends to deflate our motivation is doing what it takes to reach them. If we fail to achieve our goal for the day or week, we can easily give up. Becoming easily defeated ultimately keeps us back from focusing on our health.
The key to achieving your ultimate goals is to set realistic expectations. Doing this requires having an experimental mindset. It is about trial and error over the fear of failing. Not reaching a goal is not about failure–seriously! It’s about staying flexible and making tweaks to your goals. If maintaining the goal seems impossible, what do you need to adjust? What do you need to pull back on a bit? The critical part here is that you are gauging your approach so you can shift where needed. Building up your experimental mindset helps you objectively measure your initial steps to make sensible shifts where need.
As a first responder, you know better than anyone the demands you have on your time and energy. Still, the job also requires you to stay physically, mentally, and emotionally fit. And only you can stay focused on keeping your health a priority. It can be daunting when you are drowning in demands–but there are tips and tricks you can use to your health in check. The “stack and track” method is a simple technique that can support your health goals. Check it out!
Step 1: Be Specific
It is so easy to bite off more than we can chew. We might make a goal like “I want to focus on nutrition, so I look good for my promotion ceremony.” Well, that is a big goal and requires you to break it down into attainable steps. Also, it is imperative to ground yourself into the goal. Start with asking yourself these questions:
What has pushed or inspired me to take this goal on?
What is involved in achieving this goal?
What do I need to think about to ensure success?
What is my timeline to work on this goal?
Using the nutrition goal, here is one example of answering these questions.
My goal is to lose 10 pounds in the next six weeks. I will focus on eating better during my shifts by focusing on making healthy lunches and drinking water. I need to plan and research recipes I believe will be delicious to eat. I want to tackle this goal because I need to focus on my health. I want to look and feel better than I am right now.
Step 2: Start Small
The focus here quick wins so, make a list of 3-5 mini-goals. Start super simple, like, “Find three recipes I know I would like.” Or “Grab one recipe to make this weekend.” What mini-goal can you take easily do to jumpstart your main goal? Remember to focus on attainable. It’s truly the most challenging part!
Step 3: Spread Them
Now that you have a few mini-goals, you need to spread them out. Taking them all on at once can be unmanageable to take us back to square one. Make a schedule of doing one thing at a time. Here is an example:
Week 1: Find three healthy recipes I know I like.
Week 2: Test out 1 or 2 healthy recipes to adjust them as needed.
Week 3: Pack lunch for two shifts using at least one recipe.
Week 4: Make two healthy recipes for three lunches.
Step 4: Stack Them
Now we are in the home stretch! After you get through your first mini-goals (remember, play around and experiment!), you can start to “stack” mini-goals. Stacking is essentially combining your mini-goals in a way that makes them effortlessly achievable.
Week 5: Drink 8oz of water with each lunch.
Here you are adding another healthy part to the meal you already prepared. So, you are achieving two goals in one setting. Easy!
Step 5: Track Them
As you build your mini-goals, you also need to track your progress. It’s best if you can see your progress as you go through it. You can use a journal or even a mobile app. With mRes, you can track your mini-goals under one theme (e.g., Nutrition). You can set up your goals weekly to focus on one week at a time. Reminders keep you on track so you can build a weekly schedule to nudge you and keep your target in sight. Once you completed a mini goal, you can cross it off your list. You did it!
With these steps, you can shape your goals to build and strengthen healthy habits to help you throughout your career. Just remember to stay curious about yourself as you go through this process. If you find you are struggling to maintain your goals, remember that experimental mindset. It’s about adjusting your needs to fit your life rather than believing you failed. Adjust! Adjust! Adjust!