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Every January a new round of “New Year’s Resolutions” come around. After a couple of months those goals you were so excited about usually fall through, leading to feelings of discouragement. How the goal was approached, or lack of motivation are often blamed, but maybe the goal itself is the issue. The Cahoots’ Nutrition Essentials for Real Moms course provides a solution to goal setting in Module 1. After goal setting you learn about principles of good nutrition, like macro- and micronutrients, vegetables, meal prepping, and more! Module 1 is also FREE! Go here to listen to the first module for FREE!  Different Types of Goals In Module 1, you learn about different types of goals. There are behavior goals and there are outcome goals, and not all goals are created equally. Outcome goals are, well an outcome, a result. They’re what you expect to happen after a certain time. For example, if you say “I want to lose 10 lbs. in one month,” you’re setting an outcome goal. Behavior goals are based on specific behaviors. Saying “I want to exercise 3 times a week” is an example of a behavior goal. We may be inclined to make outcome goals, but behavior goals are often more effective. Why Don’t Outcome Goals Work? Why shouldn’t outcome goals be the go-to for goal setting? For starters, there are a lot of factors that can affect an outcome, and some of these factors are outside of your control. Because of all those factors, it can be overwhelming setting an outcome goal. Let’s use losing weight as an example. You set a goal to lose 10 lbs. by the end of the month. You start to plan what you’ll need to do: go to bed early, drink lots of water, exercise, eat more veggies, cut back on sweets, etc. It’s overwhelming trying to make all those changes. Maybe you feel overwhelmed and don’t do as well as you hoped, or maybe do everything as you planned. At the end of the month, you weigh yourself and you haven’t reached your goal. Maybe you feel guilt because you don’t think you tried hard enough, or maybe you feel hopeless because you did your very best and still didn’t achieve your goal. Choosing a Better Goal Instead of an outcome goal, try behavior goals. Your behavior is in your control and you feel empowered when you develop those behaviors. Instead of feeling like you have to do everything, you’re able to start small. Gradual change is more effective than trying to do everything at once. Take some time, pick an area of your life where you want to improve. Pick something that matters to YOU, not what you think other people want you to do. What is ONE behavior you can change to make the improvement you want to see. Choose a goal that will make you feel healthier, don’t worry about the numbers. Instead of waiting weeks to maybe see results, you get to celebrate every day, every week that you complete your goal. Maybe you’ll lose weight, maybe you won’t, but no matter the outcome you’ll be making healthy choices and feel healthier and better. You’ve got this! A healthy and happy lifestyle is possible without feeling overwhelmed or discouraged! Just take it one step at a time and celebrate each new healthy behavior! - By Jessica Stein, Movement Preschool Instructor If you want more information about outcome vs. behavior goals, listen to Module 1 of the Nutrition Essentials for Real Moms course for FREE. 
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by Bri Hintze and Heidi Phelon   Why it's Difficult to Love Yourself at Times We love social media. It allows us to connect with loved ones near and far, find adorable clothes or ideas we wouldn’t find otherwise, and get all the latest information. But with the strong presence social media has taken in our lives, it becomes all but impossible to look at posts without comparing our own life and worth. The long string of families posing so candidly as they enjoy a blissful moment while wearing coordinating outfits and enjoying their organic creme brulee, or the endless supply of stylized bloggers, toned and tan, with the perfect ensemble made by Peruvian alpaca farmers, that costs only $3,000 to replicate, is enough to make anyone question whether they are good enough. What can a person do to fight the negativity that is growing inside of them as they view this content on a daily basis? 5 Ways to Love Yourself May we suggest five tips to help you more fully embrace, love, and appreciate yourself. 1. Think about everything you can do Sit down and write everything you do for your family, for your friends, for your job, for yourself. Doing this will help you recognize how talented and unique you are! And hopefully it will help you see you don’t need to be like anyone else to be enough. What you are doing right now is more than you realize and you need to give yourself more credit! 2. Don’t compare yourself Everyone has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. You can’t compare your weaknesses against someone else’s strengths. It’s not fair or even accurate. Instead, allow yourself to celebrate others’ strengths while recognizing and valuing the unique strengths you have. And may we add, if you ever get stuck in a rut of the comparison blues, try taking a hiatus from the social media world and getting back into the real world. This usually helps a lot! 3. Practice self-care For some reason, women—and especially mothers— suffer from a guilt complex when they take time to care for themselves. It’s easy to feel as if you’re being selfish or taking away precious time you could be spending with your family or doing something “more important.” However, taking that time for yourself will leave you energized, less stressed, and more optimistic about your current struggles. Take that extra time and do your hair! Schedule that girl’s night with friends! Treat yo’self! You will come back refreshed and ready to tackle the day with more zeal and vigor than you would have otherwise.  4. Stop with the self-criticism You are your own worst critic. The voice inside your head can do a lot of damage or a lot of good, depending on what your internal narrative sounds like on a daily basis. Try going a whole day without saying a negative thing about yourself. Try implementing “I am” statements such as: “I am strong” or “I am capable” to replace self put-downs. You will quickly learn how much better you feel when you stop with all the negativity! You wouldn’t be that hard on anyone else in your life, so give yourself the same courtesy. 5. Live an active life There are so many benefits to exercise we won’t try to list them all here. But one we want to highlight - women who exercise report loving their body more (Kotz and Haupt, 2017). People who exercise also report being able to deal with stress better: despite being just as busy as those who don’t make time for regular exercise, people who workout daily have a better outlook on life and the problems they face (Ibid). Make exercise an essential part of your life!  The Bottom Line
The bottom line is we think that you are strong and beautiful. If you haven’t already been to Cahoots, please come and join us. We are a community of great women to befriend and work out with! Visit www.cahootsfitness.com for more information! Source: Kotz, D. and Haupt, A. (2017). 7 Mind-Blowing Benefits of Exercise. [online] U.S. News and World Report, Health. Available at: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/slideshows/7-mind-blowing-benefits-of-exercise Photos by Shaelynn Marne Photography and are owned by Cahoots Fitness  At Cahoots Fitness we are committed to developing kids and replenishing moms. As a way to help replenish you, we are starting this blog to share helpful tips, thoughts and stories. We hope you find something here that replenishes your mind and spirit! Let us know if you have a topic you’d like us to talk about.
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