I am a very goal oriented person. I never used to be, I was more of a dreamer. Wishing and meandering through life. I saw some lovely places but was in a job I didn’t like and lived in a place I didn’t like either.
Goals sorted that all out.
Then when I found myself unhappy and extremely overweight I used goals to get me out of that position.
I was a size 10 in 1997 when I arrived in the UK. I wanted to be that size again.
Knowing what didn’t work for me helped. Because I had been overweight for many years I know what diets that I had only lost 5 pounds or so on. So they would not work.
When I decided to have weight loss surgery I researched the average weight loss, the length of time it would take me and calculated what my weight loss should be each month. One site mentioned that most people lose 75% of the weight they want to in a year.
2 months in I was not on track, in fact I was not even close to meeting my target. If I had not had the monthly milestone in mind I probably would not have know that I was so bad at the weight loss. Because I did not reach my goal I called my dietician and discussed what I was eating.
She helped me see what food issues I was having and put me on the right path. I slowly changed my eating and over months it changed drastically, just with the small changes I made.
Exercise had to change as well. Since my bariatric medical team insists that weight loss is sustained for life through a healthy diet and exercise it meant I needed to exercise.
I was walking 10,000 steps before my operation and tried to do that right after. That was not a good idea. My energy levels went down 2 weeks after the op and I felt I was walking through sand.
I over did it. I was not eating enough for the amount of activity I was doing at work.
Free-Photos / Pixabay
By dropping my daily step goal to 1,000 and taking the bus more as my diet improved I slowly increased my steps. So I set a goal to reach 10,000 steps again.
I added 250 steps to my step goal each week. It was an amount that I could add and not notice during a day, maybe an extra trip to the tea point and an extra trip to the toilet.
Some weeks I felt well enough to add another 250 steps mid week.
As my fitness increase and my diet became more nutritious I lost a lot more weight. The fat was sliding off me.
I reached my goal in 7 months, that was just over 150 pounds lost.
I now set more goals and am more conscious about making the milestones short enough that I can reach them within a couple of months, hopefully shorter.
Take a look at the 3 day course on goals if you would like to reach your goals faster.