What goals should people set?

IsMollyReallyHungry

From: Dr. Martin Binks, a clinical psychologist, obesity expert, and Clinical Director & CEO of Binks Behavioral Health, and Assistant Consulting Professor at Duke University Medical Center.

What goals should people set?

"People are bombarded with bad messages," said Dr. Binks. "They want to lose 10 pounds a week or exercise till collapse like they see in popular TV programs or commercials. While I do think that it's important to focus on ambitious goals, its best to realize that they can't reach those goals overnight."

Reputable weight loss programs spend a lot of time encouraging participants to set reasonable goals. For example, if a person is unable to do one pushup, setting a goal of doing 100 might be seen as unreasonable which is good, but sometimes they go too far by discouraging people’s "dream goals."

Plenty of people do reach those long-term "dream goals” goals, he says,"so who am I to tell them they can't" They'll start their weight-loss journey and say "within the next 2 years, I'm going to run a marathon." And they do!

Instead of "demotivating them in the moment by discouraging" that long-term plan, he looks at them and says: "OK – but what are we going to do this week?"

Those small goals fill the gaps between now and the brass ring that awaits.