As mentioned in another thread, this is a thread for us to have our long term and short term goals.
Be it for diet/weight loss, exercise, or overall health issues. Motivations or other tips may also be included.
Also to post when you have success in one of your goals.
I will get it started.
Long term -
*I need to lose 50-70 pounds by November. If for no other reason is that I want to fit in my clothes and not dread clothes shopping.
*Cut out half the processed products from our diet. At least try to stop getting stuff with added corn syrup which is in about everything.
Short term -
*Get my soda consumption down to once a month. I already am down to one a week the first quarter of the year. And when I DO order soda, I am going to see about getting stuff that is either hard to find around here (Vernon's Ginger Ale) or made with real sugar (Jones)
*Going to the gym 5 times a week. By the end of this week I want to be able to stay on the elliptical machine for 10 minutes.
*Getting healthier choices in our diet. Do more with my Zonya cookbook and other healthy cookbooks for meals.
Long Term - lose 41 pounds by Christmas. Sounds easy right? Not when you are me. Cardio five times a week, 40-60 minutes at a time. I added strength training when nothing was happening. Shaking up my routine, weight watchers, cutting out soda... I have been losing at a rate of 1 pound a MONTH. Had levels checked at the doctor. All is fine. Frustated and gave up, been maintaining. But, I know I can't just forget it. So I'm trying to keep with it.
I have a treadmill at home now. I am going thru a very stressful period right now, as well as a mandatory move in 2 weeks and family visiting before and after. I dont' know how I'll have time as we'll be out of town a lot, but once we are settled into the new house and the family is gone I want to start a cardio routine at home of treadmill and dog walks, as well as the gym a couple times a week for the weight routine and rowing machine.
For now my short term goal while my life is turned upside down is to just not gain anything. Try to maintain, take my vitamins and get my daily water. Small steps for now then back into the routines consistently with the workouts in a couple weeks.
I'm really negative right now so I could use the support. I suppose that I'm even here is helpful and says something.
Long term goal -- reach 175. I don't care how long it takes, so I'm not putting a deadline on it.
Short term goal -- lose just 1% of my body weight. That will put me at 229.2. Again, I'm not putting a timeframe on it. I've long ago learned the folly (for me, at least), of trying to lose weight on a deadline.
Good thought PrairieGirl, because if I put a time on it and I don't make it, having to push that time back just gets really discouraging.
The short-term goal is to shoot for 1400 calories and 30 grams of fat a day, as well as at least 30 minutes of exercise three days a week. The long-term goal is to become a size 12 again and maintain that size while also keeping up a basic level of fitness.
Longterm - lose weight
shortterm- have daily discipline with exercise (at least 20 minutes of something) every day.
Quick little
Went to the gym tonight (Third night this week, thank you). Last night I had done 9 minutes on the elliptical and tonight I made it to my mini goal of 10 minutes.
Dana, I can empathize where you are coming from. I get discouraged fairly easily with my weight. (Health-wise, I have better bloodwork numbers than most of my friends.) That is why I really liked the idea when someone mentioned in a different thread to do short term as well as long term goals.
And I plan on celebrating when I get even my little goals accomplished! Especially since I know that being able to accomplish smaller steps gives me a sense of satifaction and that this weight may not be that hard to lose if I do it in small steps.
One thing I was always told - Don't look at like you want to get to xx pounds by yy date. Look at it like this, "I want to lose 5 pounds. That's it. A mere 5 pounds." Then when you meet that goal, keep going - only losing 5 pounds at a time. Don't think of higher amounts, just 5 pounds. If it takes a month, then so what? You lost 5 pounds!! If the next 5 pounds takes only 2 weeks, great for you! And so on...
Next thing you know, you've lost enough weight to drop a size and get into those jeans you outgrew last summer...then that dress you wore to a party 2 years ago...then those 'skinny' pants you've been hanging onto, hoping one day to get into them.
5 pounds at a time. That's all it takes.
So who's with me?
Since we're also celebrating here, DH and I were both sick about a month ago; violently so.
I don't think it was the fault of the pizza we had just beforehand, but because it happened that way, we haven't had pizza in about a month. Our eating habits had really become trash lately, to include ordering pizza almost once a week.
Now, not only have we just not bothered with pizza, we've also taken to starting a Sunday tradition in which we cook something that will be used for the entire week in our lunches at work. We're making something fun and new every week, and as a consequence, we've found ourselves cooking more often on the other days of the week (not that we didn't cook before, but we rely less on instant stuff and microwave meals).
We're not to the point where we're really scrutinizing all the recipes for the specific nutrition information, but we're not being stupid about what we choose, and just getting away from pre-made, processed stuff for more than one week is a big step for us.
Next step, getting back into a regular exercise routine, no matter how minimal... We're so swamped with work and school though that we're not looking into anything serious until about June when our schedules will open back up and we can both get enough sleep. So for the time being, it's still all about the parking farther away, taking stairs at work, and dancing like mad while cleaning house.
Good points Fiona.
One reason why I'm debating on continuing weight watchers. The support and motivation is good, and I learn a lot. But there's a lot of negativity. Such as make yourself a goal to weight x amount by x date. AND they go by the scale only. I used to weigh 109 and had a very HIGH body fat percentage. So what's the point of trying to aim for just a number? I hope to get to 115 or so (I'm just 5'0") but if I just go by that, I'm going to be where I was back then and I'm not going to be happy with my body. Yet if you build muscle and you don't lose you kind of get a bit frowned upon, and everyone wants to know how you did. It's discouraging to see everyone celebrating their successes and you feel kinda crappy week after week.
Now also, with ww I don't like that these women bitch and cry if they "only lose one pound a week". Now I know for me, that's all I'll ever do and if not, then something is wrong and it won't stay off. I'm never going to be one of those that loses like 5+ in one week. And I'd rather not anyway. But gosh they make you feel like your one pound isn't good enough. Or they talk about how much of a "porker" they were when they started, yet they were smaller and taller than I am currently! And I'm not that big... so I don't know, I feel it may not be the best environment.
But then a friend tells me I should ignore it. What do you all think?
I'm finding motivation again, so that's good... slowly but surely!
I'd love to start losing weight again. I'm afraid to step on the scale right now. I guess that will be the first step... I feel enormous.
I like Fiona's idea of parceling it into 5lb increments. That makes it more doable. I estimate that I have about 15lbs to lose right now, I just can't get motivated to stop eating yet.
Dana Wrote:Good points Fiona.
One reason why I'm debating on continuing weight watchers. The support and motivation is good, and I learn a lot. But there's a lot of negativity. Such as make yourself a goal to weight x amount by x date. AND they go by the scale only. I used to weigh 109 and had a very HIGH body fat percentage. So what's the point of trying to aim for just a number? I hope to get to 115 or so (I'm just 5'0") but if I just go by that, I'm going to be where I was back then and I'm not going to be happy with my body. Yet if you build muscle and you don't lose you kind of get a bit frowned upon, and everyone wants to know how you did. It's discouraging to see everyone celebrating their successes and you feel kinda crappy week after week.
Now also, with ww I don't like that these women bitch and cry if they "only lose one pound a week". Now I know for me, that's all I'll ever do and if not, then something is wrong and it won't stay off. I'm never going to be one of those that loses like 5+ in one week. And I'd rather not anyway. But gosh they make you feel like your one pound isn't good enough. Or they talk about how much of a "porker" they were when they started, yet they were smaller and taller than I am currently! And I'm not that big... so I don't know, I feel it may not be the best environment.
But then a friend tells me I should ignore it. What do you all think?
I'm finding motivation again, so that's good... slowly but surely!
I am surprised at that for WW. I thought they were all about the healthy lifestyle. Hmmmm. I think they should also be celebrating the small weight loss as well. It IS after all still a loss and that one pound closer to your goal.
Back in the day (about 6 years ago) I belonged to a Curves Fitness Center. I loved it. They weren't so much about the weight loss but more about the inches loss. Some push the Curves diet stuff (book & protein shakes) but I liked ours. The manager and assistant manager were always quick to point out that muscle weighs more than fat and that getting strength along with weight loss go hand in hand.
I did sixteen weeks of WW and lost a grand total of five pounds. I did not like having to get on the scale each week. I followed the program religiously. I tried all its variations from week to week on the advice of my meeting leader: eat all your points, don't eat all your points, vary your points. I was exercising 4-5 days a week. The problem turned out to be a combination of the meds I was on and the undiagnosed POF.
I just wasn't a huge fan of the meetings. They seemed kind of hokey to me, and I hated being the only one who wasn't losing a lot of weight every week. Guys at the meeting were the worst. They would drop 3-5 pounds a week consistently. I also hated the people who brought their kids. I'm normally a pretty social person, but WW felt kind of "off" for me. Once you make it through 16 weeks, you have pretty much all their materials and can do it on your own anyway if you want to. (I think they may give out different recipe cards or motivational materials, but you have the basics you need to do the program at the end of 16 weeks.)
Doing a program with my husband and my doctor seems to be giving me the motivation I need (along with posting with everyone here). I weigh in today again and will let you know how things are going.
gingerzing Wrote:I am surprised at that for WW. I thought they were all about the healthy lifestyle.
Each meeting location (and meeting leader) tends to develop its own culture. This one seems to focus on the numbers, so it's the wrong meeting for Dana. I live in one city, but work in another, so I can choose between two meetings. The work-meetings are upbeat and positive, and focus on a healthy lifestyle. The home-meetings focus on how to substitute ingredients in food, and it "tastes just like the original". I'm not a fan of fake food and plastic cheese, and I don't care if they are zero points, I'm not going to eat them, so home-meetings aren't any good for me. I hated the constant talk about "Oh, I found a recipe for potato salad, and it tastes just like the real thing!" That's not my thing.
Oh, and the home-meetings also focused more on how to eat MORE food per day, while only tossing in a nod to the healthy choices now and then. If someone found a one point dessert, they brought it in to show us. They constantly touted the WW snacks. It was really all about snacking! I may be quite overweight, but it's not because of snacking. It's because my portions are too large! I needed a meeting where they talked about healthy portions, and healthy choices, not about how to "cheat" so you can include more snacks in your daily routine. But others may need that, and want that. You really just have to shop around for your meetings.
I've never been to WW, but two of my former coworkers go, and they are doing really well with it. They seem to have a very supportive group at all levels at the location they use. One of them is not able to do a whole lot of exercise because of some knee trouble, so she hardly ever has dramatic weekly losses, but the location she goes to must be doing something right. She stays pretty motivated and has lost 30 lbs so far (it's gone up and down in between, but from what she tells me, people in her group are great about it even when people gain on some weeks).
No matter what the SOPs are for large companies, there's always going to be some variation from place to place... I'm sorry that the one you're going to doesn't have the right chemistry for you, Dana.
Weigh in is over. The verdict is 17 pounds lost since January 24th for me, 21 for DH! Things are going very well so far. We return in two weeks, and our next "cheat day" is coming up a week from today. I'm pleased with the progress we are making and with the good counsel we get from the doctor.
Yay dune67! w00t.
That is great news dune! Congratulations!
I meant to post sooner, but I've been fighting off this cold thing that has now turned into an ear infection. Until that is cleared up and my fever is gone these won't apply:
I will try to walk the dogs for 15 minutes every day. I hope to work this up to either more time walking or a slow jog, depending on how my knees and back will hold up. Hopefully I can start walking them again later this week.
I'm cutting out every drink except for water. That's no easy feat as I'd much rather drink my calories (both non-alcoholic and alcoholic) than eat them, but more water keeps my skin clearer, lowers my BP, and of course lowers the caloric intake.
That's all for now, I was hoping to start working out more and walking the dogs regularly this week but I'm just too sick right now.
I'd like to lose 25 pounds by August 1, but we'll see I'm also not a stickler for setting specific dates as I get easily discouraged when it's clear I won't make it, but I need some sort of goal.