Making Realistic Goals

kiela64

I'm very good at planning. Specifically, somewhere between 3 and 5 am when I'm staring at the ceiling, not sleeping, I can plan out a really specific daily structure that will change my life for the better. I make lists of things to buy, places to go, times to get up, times to go to bed, I'm going to lock the internet for hours at a time, I'm going to make a points system to get me to do all my tasks. I'm going to make lunch, take breakfast on the bus, go swimming every morning.

What I'm not good at is making these grand plans actually realistic. Making the leap from "I literally can't sleep and feel awful right now" to actually doing stuff for more than a week or so when I'm on holiday. I did lose about 15lbs putting calorie counting & exercise into practice over the summer (so I know I can do it & it's not that hard), but I was doing literally nothing else. It's the mix of going to school, preparing food ahead of time, packing clothes for the gym, washing my gym clothes, finishing reading & assignments, getting enough sleep & getting up early - that tends to trip me up.

I really want to actually work out & prepare food in advance this semester. Last semester was a complete wreck. Partially because I wrecked my knee, but things just snowballed out of control & I never caught up. Exercise & eating right were the first things to go, because they were recent habits that I was still figuring out.

I know everyone is different, and some people just start full-speed-ahead with new habits. But I'm slow. I've got the dunce cap on with health. I was wondering if you've had success with an approach or strategy to build better health/fitness/nutrition/etc habits, from waking up early to working out more to making food in advance, etc. What helped you get there? Did you have progress goals? How did you keep everything from balling up into a huge conglomerate of "aaaaaahhhh I should do things but howwww"? lol Any & all advice from any situation would be helpful

kdcomstock89

I went onto to pinterest and found instructions on how to make up a huge batch of crock pot meals to freeze in one day. It really helped keep me on track. All you have to do is dump a bag into the crock pot in the morning and when you get home dinner is ready. Knowing dinner was at home cooked and ready stopped me from getting fast food after work. I always had leftovers to take with me for lunches as well.

fiddletime

I bought a crock pot too and use the little instruction cookbook that came with it to batch up food. I buy a big box of lettuce and 3 avacados and a Costco turkey breast and take a salad (big Tupperware box with lid) to work for lunch every day. Lettuce and meat are filling. I freeze the turkey but the lettuce is fresh of course. It isn't that expensive to eat well, and it takes me 5 min max to make my salad. I add nuts to it if I need more calories. Carrots too.

ARC1603

Start small. If it's all too much to keep doing change one thing at a time, then once you get into the hang of it, change something else.