Goals

Ready To Rethink My Goals And Get Real With Myself

I’ve been writing about weight loss – on and off- for more than 2 years.  In that time, I’ve managed to lose about 100 points.  But, I’ve also managed to gain 100 pounds.  That’s right.  I weigh almost exactly the same amount today as I did two years ago.  I could go on and on, giving you reasons for ‘why’ – but there’s only one real reason.

I want results, and I want them to me immediate.  So, I follow a particular program, lose 10 or 15 pounds, and get excited.  Then, once the rapid weight loss stops, I get discouraged, and quit.  I’ve done this several times – not just over the course of my blog – but over the course of the last 15 years.

Yesterday, I had a long talk with a very good friend.  He was going on and on about my finance success – and he pointed out something very important.  He said, “You do a great job of creating financial goals, but you do a pitiful job of setting weight loss goals.  When you set a financial goal, you push yourself, but you manage to live in the ‘real’ world.  But, when you set a weight loss goal, you always go crazy, demanding ten pounds in two weeks, or fifty pounds in one month.  You need to have a goal – and it needs to be aggressive – but it also needs to be realistic.  And, you need to honor each meal, just like you honor each dollar.”

Pretty honest, right?  It’s good to have friends who will be ‘real’.  And, he’s right.  When it comes to weight loss, I want to work six weeks and undo a decade and a half of bad habits.

So, here’s my new, realistic, optimistic, doable goal.

I want to lose 1 pound, per week, over the course of the next two years.

Right now, I weigh right around 250 pounds.  If I lose a pound a week, I’ll weigh 200 by next summer and 150 by 2010.

I’ve done some calculations.  I’ll continue to eat consciously and follow the “I Will Make You Thin” principles – but I’ll also focus, just a bit, on calories.

If I eat 2500 calories, I should maintain my current weight.

If I eat 2000 calories, I should lose, roughly, 1 pound per week.

I plan to eat between 1800 and 2200 calories, and continue to walk 45 minutes per day.  I also plan to eat four or five small meals, instead of two or three big ones.  And, since I’m no longer drinking sodas, I’m already drinking copious amounts of water.

4 thoughts on “Ready To Rethink My Goals And Get Real With Myself

  1. It’s hard to do, but the slow and steady is what wins in the end. (Yeah, that did sound very cliche, didn’t it? But it’s so true!) 🙂

  2. I think 1 pound a week is a realistic goal. That is about what i lost last year when I was losing 40lbs. Some weeks I lost 2 or 3 so that definitely sped things up. Good luck – we’ll be watching!

  3. I’d keep a moving average of your weight over time. It’s too easy to weight an extra pound or two due to water weight and body fluctuations and have that throw you off track.

  4. Few tips from someone who went from 250ish down to 185 in a year or so. I sit around 200 now.

    -Lift weights. You want to get skinny and look good? Lifting weights is the way to go: preserves muscle mass (the good looking stuff) and is super effective at elevating metabolism immediately after lifting and for the long term (muscle burns a lot of calories. build more of it).
    -Forget 1lbs. per week. That’s weak. With a correctly dialed in diet that focuses on quality foods rather than quantity control, you can achieve your goal much faster.
    –to that end, I’d take a look at the abs diet. It emphasizes quality of food rather than quantity. That’s a good thing. I can sum it up in a few words: eat 1g protein/lbs of bodyweight, Eat a good amount of essential fatty acids (think olive oil, fatty fish, and red meat), avoid simple carbs (I avoid all starchy carbs all together, getting most of my carb intake from fruits).
    -Lift weights. Oh…I said that already…it’s worth repeating.

    Above all else: forget the scale. If you must weigh yourself, do it once/week on the same day all the time and wearing the same thing.

    Good luck! feel free to contact me if you want any more tips or help.
    -CD

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