Goal Setting

Monday, August 17, 2009 by Dea.

I think one of the hardest parts of weight loss can be setting reasonable and achievable goals for yourself.  So often good intentions will be wiped out by huge disappointment when a goal that was set too high isn’t reached.  It’s important to avoid high expectations, which often lead to feelings of failure.

One guideline for weight loss goal setting is the 10% rule.  With this rule of thumb, you set your first goal to be losing 10% of your body weight.  For my starting point, that would be 25.3 pounds for my first goal, as my starting weight was 253 pounds.

A goal of 25.3 pounds is a lot less daunting than the full 75 pounds I want to lose.  It is still rather a large number, however.  To avoid feeling like it’s utterly hopeless to lose all the weight I want, I set several types of goals.  The first goal I determine is the total amount I want to lose.  I call this my Long Term Goal.  I want to eventually be 180 pounds.  So this is my Long Term Goal, and that means I have to lose 75 pounds total.  Seeing that large number can create panic, though, so I set my Intermediate Goals.  These are not nearly as large as my Long Term Goal.  For this, I use the 10% rule of thumb.  For other people who have less to lose, this can be a halfway or a third-of-the-way sort of thing.  Anything that divides the Long Term Goal into portions can work well here.

Since I have so much to lose, I find that my Intermediate Goals are still rather large.  I need encouragement and success to keep me going, which I am sure is something that helps any person trying to reach a goal.  So I set my Minor Goals.  These, for me, are 10 pounds.  Each time I lose 10 pounds, I reward myself.  Normally, I buy myself a new top or a pair of jeans.  Reaching an achievement point is a big boost to self esteem.  It can make or break a person’s journey.  This is why setting reasonable goals is so important.

Expecting a body that gained the weight over time to lose it quickly is unhealthy both for your bdy and your mind.  It’s important to maintain a healthy rate of weight loss.  Losing 10 pounds in a week isn’t sustainable weight loss.  And the following week, if you only lose 1 pound, you might feel like a failure and quit.  Which is better - consistently losing 1 to 2 pounds a week, or losing 10 one week and 1 the next then quitting and gaining it back?

So be kind to yourself.  Set several types of goals, small, medium and large.  Reward yourself in different ways each time you reach a goal.  And in regards to time limits, be reasonable and don’t expect more than a 2-pounds-per-week loss.  Remember - a journey of 100 miles is not finished in a short time.  And you must take the first smaller steps in order to get to the finish line.

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