Setting Goals for Weight Loss

I am a firm believer in the practice of setting goals for myself.  I do this in every day life.  I have to do lists and lists of goals and dreams in the works all the time.  Even more importantly, I like to create goals within my weight loss journey.  There is nothing better than the satisfaction of attaining my goals.  It spurs me on to accomplish bigger and better things!   I have done this for many years and in the beginning of 2019, I started to set monthly weight loss  goals for myself.

How to set a good Weight Loss Goal

When I started to create my monthly goals, I really put a lot of thought into my goals.  I came up with a few ground rules for my weight loss monthly goals

**Not to far fetched and easy-  I wanted to make sure that these goals were somewhat attainable yet still would make me have to push myself in order to be successful.

**These monthly weight loss goals had to be crafted and designed in such a way that if I did have a day or two of not being strictly adherent to my plan that I would not ruin the whole month.  I know that it is human nature to mess up and realize that there is no hope of reaching a goal so we give up.  In a weight loss journey it happens so often.  We mess up with our eating and instead of starting over right then and there, we continue to eat like crazy and say "I'll get back on track on Monday".  OH yes, we have all been there I imagine!  I wanted to avoid that mentality at all costs!

And with those simple rules, I came up with my monthly goals.  I have tweaked and adjusted them from month to month.  I have had to lower and raise the step count accordingly.  When I was NEVER reaching the 10 thousands steps per day, I decided that I needed to lower it to 5K steps. When five thousand steps was too easily attained, I raised the step count to 7500 average per day.  This is a constant adjustment from month to month.  And it works.   Sadly, a few months ago I got out of the habit of a monthly goal.  And that is changing right here and now!  

Monthly Weight Loss Goals

1.  Track every bite of food!  It doesn't matter what the actual results it, I must track.  The act of tracking my food makes me cognizant of my eating habits and seems to naturally bring my eating under control.  I currently track on MyFitnessPal (and not so consistently on the WW application) and would love to have you friend me there. (mfclingan)
2.  Put money into my savings.  Ok, not exactly a weight loss goal, but a worthwhile one nonetheless!
3.  Weigh less than I do now!  I don't care if it's a measly ounce...I want to weigh less!
4.  Do something active (a walk suffices) at least 3 times a week and aim for at least three sessions of formal activity a week!  It could be something as simple as a walk or as tough (for me) as a session on my Exercise bike.  (affiliate link).  What exercise and activity I actually do does not matter as much as the fact that I am moving!

5. Keep my eating in check for at least 6 days a week.   

7.   Walk and average of 5000 steps  per day. (total monthly steps divided by the days in the month....bike ride days on the trail are exempt from the 5K step goal, simply because it shard to get  steps when you are riding)  

8.  Transparency with my weight...even if it goes up!!

So there you have it.  My goals for this upcoming month.   Will it be easy?  Probably not.  I have been a bit crazy with my eating of late.  I have been a bit lax with my exercise recently.  In short, I have been struggling.  Step one to stop struggling with my weight loss journey is to set clear defined goals for weight loss.  I have set my goals and now it's time to soar!