(no subject)
I can finally breathe again and I'm ready to continue the exercise program I started last week. While I was sick (and surfing the Internet) I found the idea of SMART goals -- goals should be Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely. So I've been trying to picture my health goals along that line -- and I realized that they failed almost every single criteria. My goals are VERY vague -- "lose weight", "get healthy", "lower blood sugars", etc. And when I DO make them specific, I make them WAY too grandiose. "Lose 60 pounds" "do 100 push ups" etc with NO middle plan of mini-goals or how I'm going to get there!
So I decided to sit back, drink lots of fluids, cough out bits of my lungs, and rethink. I can still have an end-goal of "lose 60 pounds" but maybe I should have some smaller goals in there. Some little things to celebrate -- some smaller goal with smaller steps that I can be proud of quickly. Magazines always talk about "the first 10%" but for me that was 20 pounds, which still seems far away. So I decided to make ALL my weight goals 5% of my body weight. 10% of 202 is approx 10 pounds -- which would put me at 192. 5% of 192 is 9.6 pounds... etc. My whole goal system looks like this:
Start - 202 (as of 4/26/09)
Goal 1 - 192 (10/10lbs) (5/31)
Goal 2 - 182.4 (9.6/19.6) (7/5)
Goal 3 - 173.4 (9/28.6) (8/9)
Goal 4 - 164.8 (8.6/37.2) (9/13)
Goal 5 - 156.6 (8.2/45.4) (10/18)
Goal 6 - 148.8 (7.8/53.2) (11/22)
Goal 7 - 141.4 (7.4/60.8) (12/27)
I'm 5'7" and kinda Amazonian, so I don't really want to go below 141. In fact, I have no clue what my final goal truly is, which is why I never really got there. I was 168 last year, and a size 8, and was pertty happy -- so 141 may be way too low. But having mini-goals allows me to reassess quite often. It calms me to have this mapped out, but the only thing I want to focus on is my first goal -- 192 pounds by May 31. I'm going to develop other goals -- bike 100 miles in a week, do a whole yoga video without pausing, etc, but for now I want to focus on little, concrete steps.
Specific -- 5%, 10 pounds. I think that's specific :)
Measurable -- very much so, set in numbers.
Achievable -- I gave myself 5 weeks to lose 10 pounds... a little tight, but doable, especially since weight tends to drop off me quickly in the beginning.
Relevant -- Even a 5% loss can lower my insulin resistance and thus my insulin needs. If my insulin needs drop, it becomes easier to lose weight. Not to mention stabilizing my numbers so I don't die young. Let's not even talk about dress sizes and my CA trip in August :)
Timeliness -- close enough to keep me motivated, far enough away that I can plan and even screw up a little.
Steps I will take:
- Completing 40 miles a week for the Tools To Keep You Active site -- by biking, blading, walking, DDRing, whatever, so long as I get some mileage in.
- Keeping my carb intake under 50g/day (and keeping those carbs consisting of veggies, wild rice, etc. Few if any processed carbs!).
For my first goal, that's what I want to focus on. For my second goal, I'll be adding yoga/pilates/weight training as well. I may do some of that now, but it's not counting as my goals.
So I decided to sit back, drink lots of fluids, cough out bits of my lungs, and rethink. I can still have an end-goal of "lose 60 pounds" but maybe I should have some smaller goals in there. Some little things to celebrate -- some smaller goal with smaller steps that I can be proud of quickly. Magazines always talk about "the first 10%" but for me that was 20 pounds, which still seems far away. So I decided to make ALL my weight goals 5% of my body weight. 10% of 202 is approx 10 pounds -- which would put me at 192. 5% of 192 is 9.6 pounds... etc. My whole goal system looks like this:
Start - 202 (as of 4/26/09)
Goal 1 - 192 (10/10lbs) (5/31)
Goal 2 - 182.4 (9.6/19.6) (7/5)
Goal 3 - 173.4 (9/28.6) (8/9)
Goal 4 - 164.8 (8.6/37.2) (9/13)
Goal 5 - 156.6 (8.2/45.4) (10/18)
Goal 6 - 148.8 (7.8/53.2) (11/22)
Goal 7 - 141.4 (7.4/60.8) (12/27)
I'm 5'7" and kinda Amazonian, so I don't really want to go below 141. In fact, I have no clue what my final goal truly is, which is why I never really got there. I was 168 last year, and a size 8, and was pertty happy -- so 141 may be way too low. But having mini-goals allows me to reassess quite often. It calms me to have this mapped out, but the only thing I want to focus on is my first goal -- 192 pounds by May 31. I'm going to develop other goals -- bike 100 miles in a week, do a whole yoga video without pausing, etc, but for now I want to focus on little, concrete steps.
Specific -- 5%, 10 pounds. I think that's specific :)
Measurable -- very much so, set in numbers.
Achievable -- I gave myself 5 weeks to lose 10 pounds... a little tight, but doable, especially since weight tends to drop off me quickly in the beginning.
Relevant -- Even a 5% loss can lower my insulin resistance and thus my insulin needs. If my insulin needs drop, it becomes easier to lose weight. Not to mention stabilizing my numbers so I don't die young. Let's not even talk about dress sizes and my CA trip in August :)
Timeliness -- close enough to keep me motivated, far enough away that I can plan and even screw up a little.
Steps I will take:
- Completing 40 miles a week for the Tools To Keep You Active site -- by biking, blading, walking, DDRing, whatever, so long as I get some mileage in.
- Keeping my carb intake under 50g/day (and keeping those carbs consisting of veggies, wild rice, etc. Few if any processed carbs!).
For my first goal, that's what I want to focus on. For my second goal, I'll be adding yoga/pilates/weight training as well. I may do some of that now, but it's not counting as my goals.