Losing Weight - Counting and Setting Goals

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Losing Weight - Counting and Setting Goals

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Effective weight loss hinges on goal setting. While weight

loss itself is our final goal, the end product we want to

achieve, our weight loss journey isn't just a one-step

process. If it were that easy everyone would likely have

done it already. Here are some tips and tools to help you

form the goal-centered habits needed to lose the weight, but

gain a sense of accomplishment.

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854 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line

Distribution Date and Time: 2010-03-15 11:00:00

Written By: Larry Tobin

Copyright: 2010

Contact Email: mailto:larry.tobin@...

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Losing Weight - Counting and Setting Goals

Copyright © 2010 Larry Tobin

Habit Changer

http://www.HabitChanger.com/

Effective weight loss hinges on goal setting. While weight loss

itself is our final goal, the end product we want to achieve, our

weight loss journey isn't just a one-step process. If it were

that easy everyone would likely have done it already.

The truth is that the ideal weight loss program will incorporate

many smaller goals that will be set and reached before the end of

the journey. Similar to the process of breaking a difficult

project into smaller and easily managed tasks, incremental goal

setting is key to making a weight loss dream into a reality.

Here are some tips and tools to help you form the goal-centered

habits needed to lose the weight, but gain a sense of

accomplishment.

Here, There, and Beyond - Three Types of Goals

The first thing we're going to look at is the importance of

long-term goals. These are the overall plans we have, the big

picture of sorts. The largest of these we've already discussed:

we want to get to our target weight and stay there.

Long-term goals help because they provide context to the

shorter-term goals. We aren't cutting back on our daily sweets

at random; it's part of a bigger effort and an objective we wish

to reach. Long-term goals provide meaning by establishing a

proper perspective, allowing us to look at our short-term goals

and remember why we're making them.

The next step after establishing our long-term goals is to set up

our mid- or medium-term goals. These are the increments and

benchmarks that will divide up the process as a whole, and allow

us to measure our progress as we're getting there.

For example, we know that it takes about 30 to 60 days to

establish good healthy eating habits. Our long-term goal is to

improve our diet so we don't overeat as many calories, so we set

mid-term goals to see how we're doing. We can have a goal of

eating only one snack per week by the two month mark, so we set a

goal to have cut our intake in half by the end of the first

month.

Finally we come to short-term goals. These are the goals that may

seem the most difficult, because they rarely have an immediate

effect. They break up the big picture of the long-term goal into

things we can do right here and now, steps we know we can take

and feel good about. Since we have the long-term goal of reducing

our sweets intake, and intend to cut it in half by one month, we

can break up the first month into weeklong, daylong, or even

hourly portions that we're going to use to control our snack

intake.

The Value of Rewards - Counting Goals for Success

Part of the difficulty that people find in dieting is that the

entire process is on their own shoulders. There's no teacher

handing out A's at the end of the course, no employer offering

paychecks and bonuses for good performance. When the entire

responsibility and interest sits completely on us, it can be hard

to keep motivated. This is where we must learn to marry our

goal-making to reward-giving for maximum effect.

Rewards are powerful. They help signify a great accomplishment,

and allow you both the enjoyment of the victory itself and a

tangible gift that comes with it. There's no reason then that we

shouldn't congratulate ourselves for each minor and major

victory we have in our goal-setting process.

For example, consider my own weight loss adventure. I set my

goals and a 42-day benchmark for meeting them. I took my daily

and weekly steps seriously, and made a specific eating plan to

stick to. I decided that if I did this for 42 days, I would

reward myself with a nice, whole pizza. I stuck to the plan and

managed to make every step, reminding myself about the delicious

pizza I'd have at the end, and I succeeded all the way to the

42nd day. Of course, sometimes it's the victory that's the

sweetest part - I decided that I wanted to go further with my

plans, so I only indulged in one slice, which tasted so good it

was plenty of reward in the end.

We can all harness this tendency. As we break up our bigger meals

into smaller ones that allow us fewer ups and downs in our diets,

we can check off each daily bit of progress in our activity logs.

Seeing our diets grow healthier and more reasonable from start to

finish can be a reward all in its own, and seeing the pages

between 'start' and 'chocolate muffins' grow fewer and fewer

can make us feel both accomplished and excited!

Take the time this week to look at your overall goal and your

day-to-day steps, and see what rewards you want to give yourself.

Start with the big steps, and break them up until you have a

small step for each day that you know you can accomplish. When

you only have to clear the next hurdle, the rest of the race

doesn't seem so difficult.

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Larry Tobin is the co-creator of

http://www.HabitChanger.com/ offering effective

and empowering solutions for losing weight.

Try our 42-day weight loss program at:

http://www.habitchanger.com/losingweight