Living The Lifestyle (LTL) Monday 1/30/2017

Jerdtrmndone

Everyone says it, but just how do you do it? How do you take the guidelines of the WW program and turn them into a lifestyle you can live every day...from now on? That is what we are here to explore. Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Newbie? Join in! Veteran? Join in! Your thoughts may be just what someone else needs to hear.

Monday -- Jerdtrmndone (Jerry)
Tuesday -- whathapnd (Emmie)
Wednesday --misterhub (Greg)
Thursday -- Imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday -- whathapnd (Emmie)

Today's topic: Setting Goals

How do you set doable goals?

Jerdtrmndone

My Goal is to get back to my lifetime goal weight but also eat as healthy as possible for I have also made progress with my health issues.
I set most my goals a day at a time but sometimes set them as challenges for instant if I start lacking on water to be sure I get what I need I write down how much I drink and try to meet what I should be drinking.

As for my weight loss, I just do the best I can to lose in the week and be happy with whatever weight loss I have because it is a victory! If I gain I need to re-evaluate my journal and make better choices.

podkey

I do have standards and habits I follow in a persistent way. I started walking, rehabing from head injury and pelvic fracture. First to bathroom in hospital bed then to hallway. This slowly increased to 3 miles daily. Didn't choose 3 miles but it is a nice walk to wetlands and back . I joined a group to track my bike mileage daily and they have one challenge to do 250 days per year so I do some most days (80-90%). I don't have an annual biking mileage goal per se but feel good doing 3000 miles or more (have done 6000+ miles twice). I kinda reluctantly joined the 250 day challenge again this year. I don't like to make resolutions that way but knew it was ok. I had no number for a goal weight or time in mind either. My goal is more the habit of being vigilant and living it daily especially since I am maintaining a healthy weight now for 8 yr.
I do strive to be as healthy as life permits without pressuring myself so much.

88olds

Low expectations.

In my standard newbie response I use to advise "Try to keep an attitude of experimentation." Odd the way things stick in your head, at least in mine.

At about 126ish, I joined a pretty good gym in downtown Chi. They said I should weigh 204lbs. I understand now that they were aiming for 10%. Instead of losing, I quit the gym and gained nearly 60 more lbs. But when I started losing my goal was 204 because years before I had belonged to a gym that said that's what I should weigh.

I spent years at about 215-220 lbs. When I finally got around to WW, I still had that 204 in my head. I joined, signed up for 3 months a figured I'd see if I could do 204. Then I tried for 200. By then it was going so well I thought I'd try for 190, then 184. It was all just an experiment.

184 lbs was the highest acceptable WW weight for me. Now, as long as I'm under that, I'm good to go. See 176 as my green zone though.

DavidKuhnsSr

When I joined WW, I set my goal at the highest acceptable weight for my height. That seemed pretty doable, and it was. I then set a personal goal that was 20 lbs. lower. I made that, too, but, in the end, it wasn't sustainable, at least not in the lifestyle I wanted. I have stayed well below that initial WW goal. I drift up and down in a 10 to 12 lb. span. I do it without fixating on my weight every waking moment. That is my ultimate goal: to maintain out of habit, not because I consciously follow a set of rules. I haven't gotten there, entirely. Maybe it isn't doable, at all. But it's the mark on the wall I aim for.

myallforjcbill

I do have a long term goal of getting back to lifetime status. But more immediately I am focusing on healthy eating in the process. Most of my immediate goals are around physical activity. Specifically walking every day. Stretching &/or foam rolling daily. Strength work 3-4x a week. And tracking.

beachwoman2006

Like others here, my "goal" is to get back to my official lifetime goal weight (140). But I feel much better at my personal goal weight of 135. So the beginning of the year, I set two goals for myself:

1) Weigh every morning as soon as I get up and record it in the spreadsheet I've kept since 2010. So far I have met this goal.
2) Lose an AVERAGE of 1 pound a week until I'm back to 135. I was CLOSE to this in January with a weekly average loss of 0.875.

After that I'll decide if I want to lose a little more or just maintain at 135.

leeless511

I set goals to do "a little better" -- I stay away from most challenges and specific numbers etc. they are "anti-motivators" for me.

Right now I am in losing weight mode to drop below my at home goal I think it will end up being 8-10 pounds (I've lost 4 already) but I am not "married" to that amount, just taking it day by day to find my happy place, as they say. Same approach for fitness, menu change ups, all things healthy or life improving for me. If I can sneak up on it, I am usually more successful than a full on effort.

It took a long time to learn this, and I still lapse into old thinking once in a while, but I get a little better at it as time passes.

TimDumez

This is my 4th time doing this with GoaD support, 3 times on WW and this time on MFP. It is the 8th major diet in my adult life since I turned 35 years old. I'm 67 years old now. I've lost and regained 100 pounds 4 times and 90 pounds one other time. I lost varying amounts on some minor diets, half-heartedly. Each time I decided that I would take a short break, or worse yet, I would go off the rails for about a month, and that would be it. The month turned into more months or even years.
Every time I left GoaD, my accountability was gone, and I would just slip further into the abyss every day. Then the weight would come flying back on. So I figure this time, that I will TRY to stick with GoaD forever and share my losses and gains with MY group of losers.
So, having said all of that, my goal is to simply lose weight, while trying to learn lasting habits that will keep me there when I reach goal.....

"Don't ever think, ("I made it.") This is just the beginning!"

Rachel0778

This time around I started with my maintenance calories and then figured out where I was willing to cut back that I would be able to stick with for forever. It has worked wonders on not feeling deprived and it is really do-able because it can be further adjusted at any time

Jimb376mfp

Over the last four years I have set and made some goals: Got from 376 to 299: then got to 276 to hit -100#. Then it was increasing my activity little by little. I added swimming 16 laps to my water aerobics exercise. Joined a Lose52#in52weeks challenge in 2016, lost 36#. I have learned here on Goad that setting a goal to "Lose X pounds by certain date" is a formula for disappointment. But the goal to lose a pound a week keeps me focused and provides me a month to month long term view.
I just made two of my mini goals;
earn -150# WW charm
Get yo 224 and be 24 pounds away from 200#, because I was 24 pounds away from 400 when I began.

My current goals include:
-Increase my swimming from 1/4 mi to 1/2 mile before my water aerobics. (My 2017 New Year resolution)
-Lose 25# to reach 199 (CW 224)
-Get BELOW Obese on BMI chart
-My Dr said I may get off my Type 2 Diabetes Rx IF I CONTINUE with diet & exercise.
-Set my Goal weight, below 190
- Try playing pickle ball again. (I quit after falling and breaking my wrist. That was two years and +50#)
- Take kayak lessons at Parks & Rec.

gadgetgirlIL

I do best if I take a "baby steps" approach to achieving goals. Deadlines don't work for me. But if I can just keep making forward progress on the habits that support a healthy weight, then I will return to my desired weight range. For the coming month, the baby steps consist of staying at my maintenance calorie goal as well daily posting in my accountability groups.

podkey

As far as weight related goals my current standard is to stay within the 151 LB to about 158 LB range where I have been the last several years. I had no number goal while losing until I got very close to the top of my healthy range with WW. At that point I shrugged my shoulders and thought it seemed reasonable, attainable, and I could become lifetime at 165 LB. I did drift above my "official" weight once or twice for a day or two but then trickled down under 160. Staying under lifetime weight is of course an unwritten standard for me.

minimyzeme

I think I have to credit WW for helping me find a methodology for setting doable goals. OR, alternatively, the riddle: "How do you eat an elephant" (One bite at a time.) And some credit to my doctor too, who suggested I lose five pounds (when he knew, but I didn't, that I had ~80 to lose).

Whether it's work-related or weight-related or activity-related or even relationship-related, I think the the key for me is to set 'mini-goals'. Strange as it sounds, I used to be the type that would think I had to do the whole thing at once, whatever the thing was. I do remember one point in my life when I was working for a photographer. It was in the old film and paper days, Depending on what size prints were needed, we might print a bunch of 5x7 industry client jobs side by side with senior portraits because for one reason or another, that made more sense than printing all the 5x7s, the 3.5x5 and the 8x10 prints in one job. So we'd constantly reshuffle orders, printing for maximum efficiency.

What does that have to do with weight loss? Not a damnthing, but it was my first experience with shuffling the deck, learning to schedule and multi-task and still get the job done. Somehow I forgot a bunch of that stuff for a while until my doc and WW reminded me that I can take a similar approach with goal setting. Between that and what I learned early on from GOAD, I barely cared about a goal weight when in losing mode. I mean yes, I worked in that direction and I realized it was going to be a milestone, but not the end of the trail. So here I am, still taking it a day at a time at maintaining.

TimDumez

Very well stated Kim! I find it very easy to grasp the thoughts that you offer on many subjects. Thank you...

minimyzeme

Thanks @TimDumez ! Sometimes I wonder about myself so I'm glad to hear some of my thoughts are helpful to you.

spospo1

Great strategies for weight loss are listed above. Like everyone, I want to get to goal weight in the long term. However, I am only looking short term as to following the plan, move as much as possible and begin an exercise program. I may "steal" some of the ideas above and make adjustments as I continue this journey.

misterhub

I try to keep my goals short term and achievable. If I go too far out, I get lost.

imastar2

Setting goals is probably the single most important thing as a formula for success. Set a realistic goal then write it down then focus on what it takes to make it happen. For myself I also have set goal to lose a lb a week somewhere in the scheme of things though I get behind on my goal. I don't give up on it but just have to figure out why and how to get that accomplished. So like @TimDumez I to have lost 100 lbs but Ive done it 5 times.

I do have a long term goal to get back to 185lbs and even at my agree and current weight I believe it can be achieved. Thus having scheduled an appointment with a dietitian today and week report back where we go from today.

Losing weight and goals are so difference any other tote of goal setting than any type of goal setting for the fact that the human body is much more complex when this subject chines up. Losing weight as we all know is not accomplished in a straight line because of the variables with the body. Won't go into those variables because I'm not qualified to discus any of the body's changes that take place on a daily basis.

More on this later as I hope to figure it out.