Is this too ambitious?

fishiewishes

OK, I'm 270lb right now (weigh in tomorrow so HOPEFULLY a lil lower)... is it too ambitious of me to want to be at around 250lb by the end of January? Its my birthday Jan 23rd and it would be awesome to be under 260lb for it.

My activity level is sedentary - I'm a seamstress by trade so spend all of my day sat at a sewing machine. Im also disabled (I have seizures triggered by sudden loud noises or surprises such as car horns, dogs barking, someone touching my shoulder etc) I try to do two 35min walks a day minimum, these are done either with my headphones in or with my husband. Because of the seizures I find gym/swimming very difficult to do due to the amount of other people around and it being very easy to set off my seizures in both settings so gym really isn't an option for me. I've asked Santa for some weights for Christmas so I can do some strength training exercises in the new year.

Food wise my diary is public and I log everything honestly - feel free to take a look, my past few days (fri, sat, sun) haven't been ideal but prior to these days you can see my typical kind of week. I am aware I don't eat much fruit but I eat a lot of vegetables, I'll be honest I just don't like fruit! I also eat a little too much chocolate - its significantly less than I used to eat but still working on it.

So basically - am I setting my sights too high? or with my current activity level/food intake is this doable?

ironmonkeystyle

I don't like pressuring myself with specific LBs / time period goals. I feel that they are a set up for yo-yoing. IE: if you make it, you relax your habits after you hit your goal. That's not good. If you don't make it, you tend to give up and revert to old habits, even if you are doing everything right.

ParkerH47

20lbs in 2 months is a lot, but if you stick with your goals it could be possible, though the math may not add up, I'm not entirely sure.

My suggestions:
- Talk to your doctor!
- Try and find a way to get in some weight training at home, even if they are just sit ups and lunges/squats.

But also... make sure that you go easy on yourself, because of the seizures, you may not want to push it too hard. Maybe try and give yourself a dress size goal instead. Because if it doesn't work - strictly based on math, even though you were diligent and working hard, you dont want to set yourself up for disappointment, ya know?

If it were me, I would be happy if I put my best effort in on a regular basis

Good luck, I hope it works out for you!

ParkerH47

I don't like pressuring myself with specific LBs / time period goals. I feel that they are a set up for yo-yoing. IE: if you make it, you relax your habits after you hit your goal. That's not good. If you don't make it, you tend to give up and revert to old habits, even if you are doing everything right.

Also this^^^ great points

farmwife3815

That gives you about two months to lose twenty pounds. It could be doable. What would your next goal be? I agree with the above. It could be easy to slack if you make it or be depressed if you don't. Good Luck and you've done well so far!

tuckerrj

Shooting for 2 lbs. a week with about 9 weeks, an 18 lb. loss is feasible. I'm usually happy with one pound a week. So shoot for 18 and be happy with 9 is my sage advice.

jbwegner

You can't control what the scales says. You can only control what you do. Would you consider adjusting your goals to maybe something like:

Eat at or under calorie goal 90% of the time
Exercise 5X a week

Then, by the time your deadline rolls around, you can take responsibility for your actions and be proud of your actions/choices. The scale is a tricky, fickle fiend. Rely on you, not this treacherous machine. Either way, good luck!

RVfrog

good advice has been given....it's what I was thinking also.

HoneyIShrunktheMom

I don't like pressuring myself with specific LBs / time period goals. I feel that they are a set up for yo-yoing. IE: if you make it, you relax your habits after you hit your goal. That's not good. If you don't make it, you tend to give up and revert to old habits, even if you are doing everything right.

^^^^This. Exactly this.
Especially for someone just starting out on a weight loss journey. I would guess that you have started and not stuck with many diets over the years (like most of us who are overweight adults, so please know that you're not alone in that area!)

It's SO easy to give up and if you set yourself up for failure from the get-go, you are more likely to do just that.

fishiewishes

In all fairness, I mostly made this thread to see if people would think it would be realistic for that sort of a loss - Im very thankful for everyones input on this so far and some VERY good points have been made.

I dont want to set a solid goal of "I MUST be x by x date" - its more a "I want to keep losing, it would be nice if I could be x weight by my birthday". The suggestions people have made have been great on here, focusing more on being under and getting the exercising in is a lot more important than the numbers ticking down. I would focus on dropping dress sizes but for some reason i find it hard to drop dress sizes - before I was on the seizure meds I dropped over 80lb. I went down TWO dress sizes. After regaining all the weight (plus more) after I started having the fits and being on the meds.... I only GAINED two sizes back. So I tend to ignore the labels on clothes and if it fits nicely, score!

I am really hoping to get these weights for christmas, I used to love doing strength training back when I was able to go to the gym and I think being able to use them at home will be a great help for me.

mq68

I don't like pressuring myself with specific LBs / time period goals. I feel that they are a set up for yo-yoing. IE: if you make it, you relax your habits after you hit your goal. That's not good. If you don't make it, you tend to give up and revert to old habits, even if you are doing everything right.

Ditto what he said! And for me, my tape measure is better for my state of mind than the scale..