My 12 Week Year

twentytwoa

Hi all,
I came across the 12-week year framework recently and it really struck a chord. The idea is basically about using 12 weeks as a perfect timeframe for achieving goals - short enough to inspire a sense of urgency and allow for a sustained burst of effort, long enough to see real progress and allow for some ups and downs. The authors of the book also describe the importance of defining daily tasks/actions, which they call tactics, as well as leading and lagging indicators of progress.

Following two years of sustained weight gain after a big life transition, I really need to make a change and lose the weight I've put on. I know that weight loss isn't the key to happiness, but I do know that other goals that are important to me will be made easier if I can get to a weight I'm more comfortable with.

I tried my first 12-week year plan in January, but it didn't stick. The book talks a lot about accountability as a key ingredient for success, and I left that out of my plan the first time around. I find weight stuff excruciating to talk about with the people in my life, so I'm turning to this forum for a public record of my efforts instead. I've lurked the forums for a long time (you're such a nice, smart crowd, seriously) and would love to get some support here and chat to others who have used this framework, if there's anyone out there!

So here we go, Sunday 7th May is the start of my week 1.

My tactics (daily/weekly actions) for week 1 are essentially about planning my eating each day, tracking calories, reducing junk food calories (my major stumbling block), and keeping up my workout routine (reasonably well locked in).
At the end of each week I'll post my score - the percentage of tactics (daily actions) I managed to execute. I'm aiming for 60% this week.
I find it easier to be disciplined on weekends, hence why I'm starting my week on a Sunday - to get one solid day under my belt.

I might share more specific tactics and numbers as I go on, but for now, this level of detail feels good to me.

Thanks all!

nossmf

Never heard of this book, but essentially it's creating an action plan around the basic premise behavioral experts have championed for years: it takes about 3 months to cause a permanent change in behavior, either starting a positive habit or breaking a negative habit.

Good luck with your plan. Will you be posting once a week with the week's results, or daily?

twentytwoa

Thanks for your good wishes! I'll post minimum once a week with results, but I may post during the week too, depending on how the mood takes me, I think!

It's the end of day 2 and I'm pleased with how today went. Being disciplined around food isn't easy, but I feel so much better in myself when I'm able to do it compared to the days when I throw discipline out the window and just eat mindlessly. It's a lesson I learn over and over, and yet it's so hard to remember in the moment sometimes.

GaryM_25

Yay! I just started week 7 of a 12-week plan.

Mine's a fairly intense plan between diet and exercise.

So far... I've almost 20 lbs. I'll be happy to have knocked off another 5 lbs. at the end of the 12 weeks.

Then... Some vacation time. And then... I plan another 12 weeks after that to knock off another 5 or so lbs. to get to my target weight.

twentytwoa

@GaryM_25, congratulations! You've made great progress in just a few weeks and it sounds like you've really set yourself up for success in the weeks to come. I'll be rooting for you.

End of day 3, and I've had another good day in terms of sticking with my plan. I hit my goal distance on my run today, but it was slow and pretty listless. I think I need to figure out how to better support my running with my nutrition... but tackling the junk food calories is the primary focus for this 12-week year. Can't fight all the battles at once.

I've chosen to set a daily limit on my junk food calories. For the first 4 weeks, the limit is pretty generous (but well below what I've usually been consuming), and I'll reduce that limit in the last 8 weeks of my plan. Allowing myself this relatively generous amount for the first few weeks of my plan felt like a difficult step - like I would never move the needle with that sort of incremental approach.

But I've been listening to some of coach Sohee Lee's content and she said something in a podcast that really struck me. To paraphrase, she spoke about how she sets very attainable goals for her clients and sometimes they say, "That's way too easy, that's never going to make a difference." To which she says, "Okay, if it's so easy, show me that you can stick to it for two weeks, and then we'll set a harder goal for you!" Her view is that high adherence with an "easy" goal is better than poor adherence to a harder goal. Consistency over the long term is what wins the race, not extremes or an unsustainable sprint.

So I'm experimenting with that approach to see if it will work better than the more intensely restrictive approaches I've tried in the past. I don't know if this 'generous' phase puts me in a proper calorie deficit, but I think it will help me build psychological muscle and better habits, and it's definitely an improvement on how I've been eating lately. It's hard for me because I'm not a naturally patient person, but I can see the logic!

Thanks for your comments - this thread already feels like a really helpful support.

GaryM_25

I like your thoughts on easy goals.

I look at goals this way...

There are two ways to "get what you want."

Method 1) Be happy with what you have.

Simply find happiness in the present. Gratitude is the proven path to inner peace.

Method 2) Set a goal and git'r done.

Pursue realizing your potential. Goals give direction, purpose, focus, and motivation to aspire to be more and to accomplish results.

I personally like to reflect on this paradox and wonder how to find balance, if not somehow fully both.

twentytwoa

Day 4 yesterday went pretty much to plan, although I did go over my junk food calorie limit by a bit (less than 10%).

This morning I’m checking in early because it feels like one of those days that might go off the rails. Do you ever get days like that, where you just have a feeling from the start that you’re going to be more susceptible to poor choices? I’m not sure why it’s happening today - early morning gym session so not much sleep last night, and a run of successful days always makes me feel like I can take my foot off the gas. Will do my best to rein that in and be particularly mindful about my choices today.

nossmf

How are you enforcing your junk food calorie limit? Pre-packaged candy, and you get X of them per day? Do you measure out into a bowl, and once the bowl is over you're done? Or are you just eye-balling it and hoping it's good until you log it and learn the results?

I prefer using MFP logging as a pre-log, posting at the start of the day (or even the day before) what I expect to eat. This lets me see if I'm high on calories, low on a nutrient, etc before I even take a single bite. I may add/remove food to make the plan fit a goal, or swap my Thursday lunch for my Friday lunch, etc.

Once my plan looks workable, then I go through the day, and at the end of the day I compare my plan against what really happened, adjusting as needed for larger/smaller portions consumed, adding unexpected snacks or removing food I didn't get to eat for whatever reason. If my day still looks good, success!

If it no longer looks good, I try to learn from it as to why. Was my plan too restrictive, and my munchies overwhelmed me? Maybe I need to tweak future plans to include more snacks, which may mean slightly smaller mealtime servings. Did I learn after the fact a serving of cookies is actually two, not the three I thought it was? Oops, make a note for the future.

There are plenty of methods of accurately logging, such as using actual kitchen scales to measure, or estimating a pack of cards equals about this many ounces of chicken, etc. But I think the biggest help for me came when I started being intentional in planning my log, rather than bracing myself afterwards to see how my day went.

twentytwoa

@nossmf Thanks for your comment! Your approach is exactly the same as mine - I prelog my plan in the morning or the night before and make adjustments where necessary as the day goes on. I agree, it's an extremely helpful strategy, especially when I prelog everything I expect to eat, including treats and snacks. The choice I face is whether or not to stick to what I've planned, of course, rather than "what will I make for dinner tonight?"

To answer your question, it's all pre-packaged candy, cans of soft drinks, or sometimes home-made treats that I've logged as recipes in MFP. I choose what I want for the day up to the limit I've set myself.

I do use kitchen scales a lot and try to be as accurate as I can be within MFP, but I'm aware that calorie measurement (both in and out) is only one metric on what I'm doing and it's a less exact science than it appears to be. So I try to take the calorie counts seriously but with a grain of salt. If MFP says I overshot my limit by 10% or whatever, there's a margin of error in that figure and I know that it was probably still approximately in the right ballpark. It's closer to the end of the scale that I want to be on.

So this is the end of day 5. The sugar cravings were definitely present at times during the day but I was able to stick to my plan with simple strategies - a healthy snack, brushing my teeth, a long walk right after dinner. I know that all these things work, but it just feels so hard to actually do them some days! But today I did and I'm really pleased.

twentytwoa

Day 6 of Week 1 done. Today was kind of a fail, honestly! I really overshot my junk food calories - I indulged in a few treats in the morning, before lunchtime, and that set me up for some "well, you've blown it now, may as well carry on" thinking for the rest of the day. This is a common problem for me. I know that every good choice counts and that it's never too late to make a different choice for the rest of the day, but I just didn't dig deep enough today.

Following @nossmf 's example, why did that happen today? Not sure. End of the week, some fatigue setting in, a run of successful days making me feel like I can take my foot off the gas, feeling discouraged at work (which always bleeds into the rest of my life). I'm not really an emotional eater, in that I don't eat in response to stress - but stress does really compromise my ability to resist sugar cravings when they come. Tomorrow I have lots of errands to run, and being on my feet and keeping busy really helps me to stay on track, so I'm optimistic.

Still, I got some things right today. I still logged everything truthfully in MFP, I still hit my water goal, I still went for a decent walk after dinner and got some steps in, and I'm still posting here. When I started this thread, this was the moment I was most nervous about - that I'd have my first 'bad' day, then another and another, and I'd just ghost the thread and give up. I'm really going to do my best not to do that. Every day is a fresh start!

sandramarshall200

Hi there. I’m really interested in your approach. Part of me thinks that any more considered attitude to diet and exercise has to be good. But setting small goals makes so much sense. I have a 9 week plan going on because I have a date for hip surgery, and the operation and recovery will be easier if I am not obese. I find life gets in the way, holidays birthday celebrations etc. I am trying to limit myself to 1 treat item a day. I also trying not to carry over yesterdays behaviour, so if I eat too many calories 1 day, I don’t try and claw them back the next. It’s not a moral crusade!
I would love to lose 15 pounds, but I know that’s unlikely, I will lose something and that’s better than nothing.
I will follow your journey and cheerlead for you.

nossmf

Well, @twentytwoa, it's the start of week 2. How did your weekend fair?

twentytwoa

Thanks for checking in, sorry I’m late! 😂

I’ve done my scorecard for Week 1 and it’s so revealing. My overall execution score - percentage of individual actions achieved over the course of the week - was 80.5%. That’s far above the 60% target I set myself, which is great!
However, looking just at the individual actions related to calories (staying within my junk food and overall calorie limits each day), my execution score was 57%.

So even though I didn’t do so well on the calories specifically, I’ve done well on the actions I’m taking to support that piece of the puzzle - pre logging my meals, faithfully logging in MFP, drinking enough water, working out and running. I approached Week 1 as a sort of settling in week to establish an attentive mindset and bed in some of those supporting habits, so that part has been achieved and now I know where the room for improvement is in Week 2.

Those are my leading indicators, in 12-week year terminology. My main lagging indicator is weight change on the scale, and I dropped a little more than my target this week. That’s to be expected for week 1 of any change in nutrition, but it’s an encouraging start!

Today is day 2 of week 2. I’m not off to a very strong start for a variety of boring life reasons/excuses, but posting here has helped to refocus my mind for tomorrow. Thanks for your nice replies on this thread, I really appreciate it!

twentytwoa

At the end of day 6 week 2 and ohhh week 2 has not gone well - only one day where I ticked the boxes. I'm moving house this weekend and pulled between several projects at work, and my 12-week year plan has just not been in focus. Not posting here in this thread and not prelogging my meal plans let me slip back into a pretty mindless way of eating.

I've been weighing myself most days, and my weight hasn't fluctuated at all since the middle of last week. Vaguely wondering if the scale is broken Maybe this is a sort of maintenance zone for me, calorie-wise?

Tomorrow will be a busy day, lots of packing and fetching and carrying. I'm going to aim to prelog my meals and snacks, get a good breakfast, and bring some more intentionality. Just because days 1-6 have been poor doesn't mean that day 7 needs to be as well.

My last effort with the 12-week year approach went through a phase like this and fizzled out. The accountability of this thread is really helping me not to throw in the towel, so I'm grateful to everyone who's left a comment!

AnnPT77

twentytwoa wrote: »

At the end of day 6 week 2 and ohhh week 2 has not gone well - only one day where I ticked the boxes. I'm moving house this weekend and pulled between several projects at work, and my 12-week year plan has just not been in focus. Not posting here in this thread and not prelogging my meal plans let me slip back into a pretty mindless way of eating.

I've been weighing myself most days, and my weight hasn't fluctuated at all since the middle of last week. Vaguely wondering if the scale is broken Maybe this is a sort of maintenance zone for me, calorie-wise?

Tomorrow will be a busy day, lots of packing and fetching and carrying. I'm going to aim to prelog my meals and snacks, get a good breakfast, and bring some more intentionality. Just because days 1-6 have been poor doesn't mean that day 7 needs to be as well.

My last effort with the 12-week year approach went through a phase like this and fizzled out. The accountability of this thread is really helping me not to throw in the towel, so I'm grateful to everyone who's left a comment!

Also possible that you're experiencing some water retention if you're been under extra stress, doing unaccustomed physical stuff because of the move, and/or "mindless eating" has meant a little more sodium/salt or carbs than you had been eating (even if a reasonable amount of either).

Pseudo-stalls of a week or two are common. A fairly common time for them is after a quick-ish loss in the first week or two (which included some water weight loss). Next up, a bit of water retention rebalancing follows and water can masks ongoing fat loss on the scale.

Wait it out. Averages over 4-6 weeks are meaningful, when it comes to scale changes. A single week taken alone - especially one out of usual routine? Meh, who knows?

nossmf

Glad you're still plugging away, but just to be devil's advocate, did you know about the whole moving thing when you started? I personally try to keep major life changes to one at a time, so if I knew I was going to be moving or changing jobs or graduating or getting married or whatever else, I would've held off on a major dietary change until things were more settled, maybe just committed to a smaller change at a time (drink water before bed this week; log everything next week; etc).

twentytwoa

Hi all - checking in on day 4 of week 3. My metrics for week 2 were as poor as I expected them to be - 47.5% execution of my tactics. I hit my calorie goals only one day out of the seven, and my other supporting habits - prelogging my food for the day, drinking enough water, etc. - were also pretty spotty.

Week 3 is not going perfectly to plan, but it is going much better so far. I'm travelling for work two days this week, so will have to try to keep some focus to avoid the "calories don't count while you're travelling" mindset that I sometimes fall into! Eating out is always tricky to log in MFP but I'll do my best.

I've moved into my new place and have a new set of bathroom scales, which are giving me a different (higher) reading than the set at my last place. The reading on the scales isn't the be all and end all, of course, but I am pondering over how to handle the change. I guess I could take the first reading on the new scales as a new baseline and measure weight change from that?

@AnnPT77 , thank you for your thoughts on the meaning (or lack thereof) of short-term change in weight. I've definitely found that the scales can fluctuate pretty substantially from day to day, so I try not to put too much stock in that number. The 4-6 week timeframe is a sensible way to think about this - thanks for the reminder!

@nossmf , this is a very valid point! Yes, I knew about the move ahead of time. I see the wisdom in what you're saying, but I knew that the move would be a 'disrupting' moment in my life over the course of at least a few weeks, and I am not a patient person so when I felt the psychological readiness for change, I didn't want to wait. I also knew that because I would be moving from living with other people to living on my own, there would be a natural shift in my lifestyle and particularly my eating habits - cooking only for myself, doing all the grocery shopping myself, choosing what to bring into the house, greater freedom to try new recipes and refresh my rotation of meals. For that reason, a week or two prior to the move felt like the right time, rather than the wrong time, to try to get into a new way of thinking and harness the energy of this big 'fresh start'. I guess we'll see if it works out!!

Thanks again for your comments - again, this thread has helped to keep me in the game.

megelza

I hadn't previously heard of the 12 week plan but reading your posts it really sounds doable for my life. I've failed in the past to live up to my 1-year goals. Small steps off plan lead to days, then weeks, then abandoning everything.

It was a pleasant surprise to find MFP still remember me and had my previous previous data saved. June 1st will be my start date. The couple of days I have before then will be my time to get prepared.

Thanks for the inspiration!
Meg Elza

twentytwoa

@megelza I'm really excited for you, best of luck! I definitely recommend reading the book or some in-depth articles about it - the authors have great ideas about leading and lagging indicators and how to choose the actions (tactics) you're committing to for maximum effect. There's much more to it than what I've described in my post!
I would love to follow along on your journey if you'd like to share!

twentytwoa

Hi all, returning to this thread pretty embarrassed but ready to start over. Week 1, Day 1 - a Monday start this time. I realised that a weirdly big barrier to keeping on track was the record-keeping, for want of a better word - the idea was that I would sit down at the end of the week, open my notebook, tot up my score for the week and prep my scoresheet for the next week. That was fine for the first week or two, but then it started to slip and day 2 or 3 or 4 of the week would come and I still hadn't got round to doing my scoresheet. Procrastinating on that made it hard to get into the right mindset to start the week strong. So I've prepped my 'paperwork' in advance and I'm planning to check in here more frequently during the week to try to keep my head in the game.

Feeling a lot of shame as I write this, but I'm trying not to sink too deep into it. It's a really useless emotion! Every time I start fresh, I'm doing so with more knowledge about myself from the mistakes I've made or weaknesses that have been revealed. That's not a bad thing.

bleuchez

thanks. looking for actual meaning describing my goal-set
this might help me set long-er term goals
I mean goals arent a bucket list but mine kinda are

donidaily

This is really interesting, thanks for sharing. I like to observe the changes of the seasons, it’s not exactly twelve weeks but it’s a period of time
I find useful. Today is the solstice, the longest day of the year and the first day of summer (in the northern hemisphere), so we are at the beginning of a new season.

bleuchez

oh saw the moon and venus? i guess
wow

not to ignore that

made a random 12 week goal: no donuts. can track this weekly. not particularly important but I can practice creating and tracking a goal