Setting Weight Loss Goals

I’ve talked a lot about setting weight loss goals, but I just realized my quest is not only about weight loss. It’s about developing a healthy lifestyle.

Goals

So what are my goals for developing a healthy lifestyle?

Look forward to exercising
Exercise with joy in my heart
Exercise because I love it
Stop obsessing about food
Eat when I’m hungry, stop when I’m full
Love the foods I eat and savor every bite

That’s a pretty hefty list when I look at it. And while I’ve made progress on every single item, there are days that exercise just feels like work, and all I think about is what’s in the pantry to eat.

Sticky Notes

I’m looking at the list of sticky notes I wrote last week when was writing the blog about mental clutter, a technique from Diane Carbonell’s blog about banishing mental clutter.

While I still struggle with these goals, I’m very proud of the first item on the list—I stop eating when I’m full. I can think of only one time in the past two years when I’ve eaten to discomfort. That is a huge accomplishment for me!

Accomplishments

As I look at the list of goals, I find it overwhelming. But when I look at the list of sticky notes with all my accomplishments, I see I’ve made tremendous headway in the last two years.

I’m 70/30 on eating when I’m hungry. I’m 80/20 on eating smaller portions. I’m 40/60 on eating smaller portions of the foods I love. With exercising, I’m doing it regularly 98 percent of the time, but I don’t always do it with joy in my heart. There are days I want to be a couch potato and do nothing. But I’m encouraged when I realize I feel that way because I haven’t exercised. That’s huge progress for me!

When I look at my list of goals, two stand out that I really want to work on—love the foods I eat and savor every bite, and stop obsessing about food. The first goal seems far less daunting than the second one. Like anything in life, there are times I’m fixated and can’t focus on anything but what I’m preoccupied with. Other times life goes along without a bump in the road.

Manageable Goals

I’ve decided I need to approach the second goal with baby steps and whittle it into manageable parts. Here is how I plan to do it:

Every day I will celebrate, the day, hour, minute, second I’m not fixated on food.
Every day I will search for other actives that take my focus off food
Every day I will celebrate my successes in my healthy lifestyle quest

Fall Colors

What are your goals, and what do you struggle with?

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