Failing to meet a Goal

autumnleann

Hello All! I am 2 full months into my new life and I have found it overwhelmingly EASY! I have been watching my food and working out 4-5 times per week. And so far, so good. My clothes are already very baggy... (I even already had to retire a pair of my fattest "fat" jeans) LOL, I feel great, and I think my face is become way more slim. However, I had set up some mini-goals for myself and I have a fear that I may not meet the first one. My goals are as follows:

*Under 200 lbs by April 2010
*175 lbs by June 2010
*Look god in my bridesmaid dress on Saturday, June 12, 2010
*Feel good in any bathing suit Summer 2010

I have been making wonderful progress (I am down 26 pounds), but I have a fear that I will not be under 200 lbs by April 2010..... What do you do to keep yourself on track with your mini goals? Do you stick to each and every one or do you let yourself slide if you are doing good?? Also, just so you know.. My goal weight is only 170lbs, and 39 lbs lost would be my half-way point.... So, with that being said, what is your personal philosophy?? Should I be more strict on myself, or should I just go with the flow and let it come off like it has been???

Accepting all the help & support I can get.

Thanks and God bless!

LittleSpy

As you'll see below, I met my last mini goal late. I also changed my next mini goal because what I had set just isn't going to happen. It was the first goal I hadn't met early or on time ( my very 1st mini goal was to be 250 by Halloween).
Guess what, no one plans for plateaus when they make their mini goals. I had been losing 10-12 pounds every month. Well, at the beginning of Feb I hit a plateau for 3 weeks. I've gotten over it now, but it meant that I only lost 5 pounds this last month.
I celebrate the same whether I meet the goal when I planned or not. I know I'm doing all I can because if I could do more, I would do more, you know?

So, my advice is keep working toward you goal. If you meet it on time, great! If you meet it late, GREAT! You only fail if you stop trying.

BrendaLee

Hello All! I am 2 full months into my new life and I have found it overwhelmingly EASY! I have been watching my food and working out 4-5 times per week. And so far, so good. My clothes are already very baggy... (I even already had to retire a pair of my fattest "fat" jeans) LOL, I feel great, and I think my face is become way more slim. However, I had set up some mini-goals for myself and I have a fear that I may not meet the first one. My goals are as follows:

*Under 200 lbs by April 2010
*175 lbs by June 2010
*Look god in my bridesmaid dress on Saturday, June 12, 2010
*Feel good in any bathing suit Summer 2010

I have been making wonderful progress (I am down 26 pounds), but I have a fear that I will not be under 200 lbs by April 2010..... What do you do to keep yourself on track with your mini goals? Do you stick to each and every one or do you let yourself slide if you are doing good?? Also, just so you know.. My goal weight is only 170lbs, and 39 lbs lost would be my half-way point.... So, with that being said, what is your personal philosophy?? Should I be more strict on myself, or should I just go with the flow and let it come off like it has been???

Accepting all the help & support I can get.

Thanks and God bless!

The key to reaching goals is to make them reasonable and attainable. You have your heart set on a 25 pound loss between April and June...2 months isn't enough time to lose 25 pounds. 2 pounds/ week will give you, at best, 16 pounds of loss in 2 months, and that doesn't take into account fluctuations and minor setbacks. I don't set mini-goals. I have a general idea of what's possible between now and a certain date, but as long as I'm making progress, I won't kick myself too hard if I'm a little off.

KatWood

Work towards your mini goals but make sure they are realistic. There is nothing worse than setting unrealistic goals and then getting discouraged when you fail to meet them.

Kudzu

Sounds like you are doing wonderfully!! I personally haven't set any mini goals....Im in this for life and get too discouraged if I miss a goal. I have only lost 9 lbs in about 1 1/2 months...I'm in no big hurry...I can feel a difference in my body and see a difference in my clothes and I am LOVING it! I only walk about 30 mins a day, for 4 or 5 days a week, although I am trying to plan different outings that require walking....I plan to start doing more toning exercises but I needed to show myself that I could just walk more and feel better and get stronger! I find myself thinking more and more about starting more exercises, so I know I am getting stronger!! Keep up with what you are doing!!! And if you find you haven't met your mini goal, just look at how far you have come since you began and give yourself a BIG pat on the back anyway!!!! :happy:

autumnleann

Thanks to you all!

Brenda- I had not realized that those may be unrealistic until you mentioned it, but I will definitely take that into consideration.

lt_mrcook

“I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed: and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I fail and keep trying.” - Tom Hopkins

The key is to NEVER give up! Just admit you might have been to agressive/hopeful/unrealistic with your goal setting, set a new goal, and work towards that. You have never failed unless you quit!

P.S. Congrats on your awesome loss so far....that alone should be motivation enough, even if you do miss your guess...er goal by a little bit. Remember it was a guess too, so don't feel badly that you didn't pick all the winning lottery numbers. You picked enough of them to lose 26 lbs, and that's a great prize to have won...:)

tiffanygil

Hello my fav. workout gal!!!

With your loss you gotta remember that your also doing strength training which adds wt too. (ive seen your arms youve gained muscule wt)

Take measurments too. Like this last 3 months havent had a whole lot of wt loss but lost major inches.
Love ya
Good luck sis. I'm proud of you....

epj78

I agree with what everyone else has said. Make sure those goals are realistic so you don't get discouraged. I can tell you from experience going from 200 to 175 in two months isn't realistic. Shoot for 2 pounds a week - trust me, that will be hard enough!!

I do like setting mini goals, they keep me a lot more motivated than looking at a really huge number that is out a long ways. You may also want to consider setting "challenges" for yourself - like getting 45 minutes of exercise 5 days a week or eating 7 fruits/veggies a day. That way you are creating healthy habits along the way to losing weight.

ngm1692

i don't make goals based on my weight. because it's not something i can control, but missing that kind of goal can lead to huge disappointment, i figure it's best to aim for things i have 100% control over.

because we've all had "perfect" weeks, where the scale doesn't behave as we expect it to. if you base your goals on that, where will you be when you've missed? a lot of people might throw in the towel "well, it doesn't matter anyway. where's my cheeseburger".

that's not really the best way to look at it in my book.

my current goals:
-go to the gym 15 days in the month of march (i only have access 4 days a week, so it gives me a few days leeway if something comes up and i can't make it).
-do 10 minutes yoga/stretching at each end of the day for 15 days out of the remaining 21 (not necessarily on the same day, but 10 minutes for 15 days in the morning and 10 minutes for 15 days in the evening).
-250+ minutes of exercise a week. this actually has a reward system - $.10/minute to be used to for massages.

i also have a budget/grocery goal that goes along with meal planning, which has really helped with food intake. i need to be very organized with what i'm making and buying and packing for this one.

goals i've had in the past - mostly to try to make good healthy habits along the way (and many have worked):
-X number of fruit veggies/day
-exercise portion control/food scale in everything i eat for X amount of time (i got a bento box for this, really helps with portion control!)
-drink X amount of water/day
-enlist a buddy for an afternoon walk for 2-3 days a week

if you still want to have your weight related goals, that's fine, but please don't beat yourself up or give up if you don't make them. just move on. it's not like you won't get there eventually.

good luck.

angelface12004

you are doing a great job, i joined a while ago but just started on my diet Jan 01/10. My goals are a little different, when i lost my 20lbs i got a new haircut, i expect to weight 170 in April(that is only 10 more lbs) I am not doing it for anything special but just to feel better. If you don't make that goal still be proud of yourself, any weight lose is great, all the people who have tried to lose it can tell you that. It gets harder and harder as time goes on. You are doing fantastic, and if you don't make that goal by a certain time then make it for a different date, we all put goals before we started losing weight not knowing how fast or how slow we will be able to do it. You are doing all the right stuff keep it up.:flowerforyou:

bksteve26

I think you are doing awesome and you are an inspiration to everyone here on MFP. As long as you feel good about what you're doing, the pounds will continue to fall off and they might come a little later than expected but at least they are coming at all! Don't get down on yourself because you might miss a battle by a couple of weeks because in the end you will be winning the war!

emberd

My motto is to shoot for the moon because even if I miss I'll land in the stars. So, if I don't meet my mini-goals, am I better than I was at the start of the journey? I tend to be very hard on myself but that just makes me discourage easily. Hang in there you'll get there!

sleitner

I have seen other MFP members set rewards instead of mini-goals. For example each time they lost 10 lbs (or whatever amount they chose), then they reward themselves with a massage, new clothes, do something fun, go on a trip, etc. I like this idea and will probably set some rewards myself. Good Luck!