Goal setting

Jessyd76

I'm at the beginning of my journey - again. I'm trying to do things differently. Including the goals that I set. In the past I'd set highly aggressive goals with unattainable timelines. Obviously, I'd miss them. And I'd give up for a while.

How do you set your goals? Do you set a number of lbs to drop in a specific amount of time? A pair of jeans to fit into? A certain number of gym sessions a week? Or ??

Would love to hear how y'all do this so I can get some new ideas for how to set mine.

Lourdesong

No timelines. I set lots of milestone-like goals. Drop 5 lbs, get into new decade (e.g., get into the 160's), get into lower category on bmi, drop a pantsize, get out of plus sizes, etc etc.

My goals to hit all the milestones are simple:
1. eat less than I burn to achieve a deficit;
2. weigh portions, log daily and be honest to ensure 1.
3. Hit 10k steps a day, minimum. (Or 70k min for the week) To ensure a bigger burn than sedentary so to get a little more food.

I might go through phases where I try things out (like c25k, or lofty protein intake goals) but this kind of stuff is just to keep things interesting. If I lose interest in this kind of stuff it's no big deal to me. My milestones aren't dependent on this kind of stuff.

chickiechickie

I try to set a timeline that is forgiving just so I have a goal. Like I'm ~150 right now and would be happy with 140 by Christmas. This is doable so I'm not killing myself but I have something to count down to.

OsricTheKnight

My goal is just to lose weight daily on my trend chart. Any point below the line is a win; any diamond above the line is a loss.

I find if I look at the chart every day and weigh every day I can keep on track. If I don't, I can't.

Here's 3 months where you can clearly see the correlation between weighing in and losing, and not weighing and gaining, except for my last vacation (near the very end) where I logged everything and allowed myself very little vacation food.



Osric

fiddletime

I aim to lose a little less than a pound a week. Some weeks I lose a half pound, some 1 1/2, and occasionally nothing. I don't want to lose too quickly and eat a ton at "the end" and gain it back like I did last year. I want to keep it slow and steady so that I know how to maintain when I reach my goal. I'm also exercising regularly.