Then I figured out how much I should weigh. This was a little tricky for me since I have never been my full height and anywhere near my goal weight at the same time. I looked up some goal weight calculators online for my height and am using that for my ultimate goal for the time being. I will have to re-evaluate as I get closer.
Lastly I figured out when I want to reach my goal weight. I decided Thanksgiving 2013 is the time. Since I know my personal deficiencies don't allow me to make an 11 month goal and be able to keep up momentum, I knew I would have to set some milestones. It occurred to me that there are some built in milestones for me this year that I can use to my advantage, so I began planning around those.
I started this a few weeks ago, but here's how all of the numbers break down:
· Mondays are my weigh-in days. (I use to weigh in on Fridays, but I found that if I did well I would celebrate over the weekend and end up gaining weight. I chose Mondays so I would have to keep myself in check over the weekend. I knew I had to face the scale on Monday.) I also decided not to weigh myself any time during the week. My poor habits will tempt me to relax if I find I’m doing well in the middle of the week. If I stick to my food and exercise goals, the weight should take care of itself.
· I need to lose a total of 95 lbs
· There are 45 Mondays between 1/14 and 11/24
· 95/45=2.11111. I rounded up to 2.2 lbs per week
· Goal 1: Lose 22 lbs by March 24
· Goal 2: Lose 18.4 lbs by May 18
· Goal 3: Lose 35.2 lbs by September 7
· Goal 4: Lose 24 lbs by November 24 to reach my goal weight
· This actually overshoots my goal by 4.6 lbs, but I’m going to leave it for now. Again, I don’t know exactly what my goal weight is.
Sometimes people are nervous about setting dates to goals. I’m not sure if they’re afraid they’ll get to that day and find they didn’t reach the goal and then feel demotivated or depressed and end up in a downward eating spiral. I’m not positive of their reasoning, but I think dates on goals are absolutely necessary. I also think the dates need to be kept in perspective. They are not something to hide from, regard as the enemy, or loathe. The dates are there to help guide your goals. They help you set realistic goals to make sure your expectations are not unreasonably high so you have a fighting chance to succeed. It’s not a date to pick in the future and then be afraid you will have failed when you get there.
Failure is nothing to be afraid of anyway. Sure it hurts and it’s disappointing, but if you haven’t failed at anything that probably means you haven’t strived for anything. I have failed at every weight loss goal I’ve set. Would you tell me it’s not worth trying now? Exactly. Don’t tell yourself that either. The important part is to never stop trying and, as they say, “fail forward.” For instance, if I fall short of each goal I set above and in the end only lost 60 pounds, I would have failed forward. I would have missed the goal, but made significant progress.
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