Do you set goals? I mean seriously challenging yet realistic weight-loss, health, or life goals?
I been putting a lot of thought into my goals and dreams lately. I’ve been updating my weight-loss timeline with my short, medium, and long term weight-loss goals for the year. I’ve also been trying to update my life goal list with anything and everything I’ve ever wanted to accomplish or experience. You might have seen similar lists over at other blogger sites like Kepa, Mary, or Ann.
It’s always difficult to set goals that keep you motivated over long periods of time. They have to be achievable but not so remedial that you treat them as inconsequential. They should be large enough that they challenge you to grow yet not so large that you can’t ever attain them. It’s also ideal to have a high level of self-efficacy when achieving them.
So many people say they’re going to do something and might even call it a “goal”. Until they actually write it down though, they’re just pissing into a worm hole, unsure where in time and space it might land.
Goals vs. Dreams
So what separates a goal from a dream, or pissing into a worm hole as I call it?
Dreams are things you wish would happen but don’t really control. Goals are things you can achieve by making realistic plans that define how and when you will complete them. This usually entails defining dates and intermediate goals (or milestones) targeted at getting one closer to reaching said goal.
“Goals are the bridges that span our dreams.”
This is one of my favorite quotes ever. It really concisely encapsulates what a goal is in relationship to your dreams. Without this perspective you might never see how goals can be used to achieve your dreams.
You won’t likely find someone who sets a goal to watch TV or answer a ringing cell phone. Instead you set goals that are meaningful and help you to attain or reach something of importance. The most motivating goals are the ones that help us reach our dreams … those things that make us or someone else feel amazing or maybe even experience something completely new and interesting.
Setting Goals
One of my biggest pet peeves is listening to someone say that they want to lose weight and yet they do nothing about it. They’re just pissing into that wormhole again.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been there and hindsight is indeed 20/20. But how can someone expect something like weight loss without putting in any effort?
Instead they should set some goals like losing 15 pounds of weight in 8 weeks by working out 3-4 days per week and eating 5-6 good healthy meals daily. At least then they’d have something to measure their success or failure against and adjust accordingly.
Have you created goals for the next 4 weeks? 12 weeks? 6 months? If so fantastic, if not, why not?
Maybe you need some practice, what if you started out with something small but substantive. How about setting a goal to comment on every fitness blog post you read that hits home or makes you smile? It’s something that will make others feel good, your learning about being healthy & fit, and is easily attainable.
Maybe you envision something larger like setting a goal of running a 5k race in the next 3-6 months. People of all shapes and sizes are able to run races so don’t immediately think no way can I do that. Instead try setting some incremental goals like walking 1 mile @ 3 mph, then bump it to 4 mph, then jogging 1 mile @ 5mph. From there you can bring the distance up and speed back down and move forward in a stair type pattern or you can just increase the distance.
The most important thing to realize is that there is no right an wrong way to set goals, you just have to set them and hold yourself accountable. It’s all about your comfort level with finer or coarser grained goals. Are you comfortable saying you want to lose 10 pounds this month and leave it at that or are you a person who wants to set a week to week goal of 2.5 pounds and adjust from there?
In the end you can’t get it wrong but you have to actually start somewhere. Remember, there is no shame or harm in failing or missing a goal.
“I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” — Benjamin Franklin
Are you ready to stop pissing into your wormholes?
Before we get to the pants, it’s that time of the week again … the assault of the scale. I’m coming off a few weeks of 3 pounds losses and heading into today @ 315.6 lbs. I’m hoping to continue the trend but mentally also preparing in case I hit a plateau soon.
I had a good week, I’d put my exercise workouts at a 9/10 and my food at a 7/10. The reason the food isn’t higher is because my weekend lunches and dinners still aren’t firing on all cylinders. I always find myself eating something I regret or know I shouldn’t like a baguette from Panera. I know I don’t need or want the calories but damn if they aren’t tasty dipped into their soup.
Anyhow, I digress … on to the numbers. Today I weighed in at 311.4 lbs. That means I’m now down 4.2 lbs for the week and 78.6 (138.6) lbs to date. Nice, much better than I had thought!
Another 11.4 lbs and I hit a pretty huge personal milestone, 300 lbs baby! It’s been something like 15 – 16 years since I weighed that much. I can’t even imagine what it’s going to feel like but I’m extremely excited to be getting closer to it.
Pants on the ground
I was forced, against my will I might add, out of my house this weekend to purchase a new outfit. I usually wear jeans (or sweats) on the weekend since I can’t during the week, damn day job. Anyhow, my wife had finally had enough of my pants falling off me. Despite my belt they were just too big on me, nothing I could do.
So she kicked me out of the house and go buy some new pants, said I had earned them. Off to the Big & Tall store I traipsed in search of a new outfit. What I found upon arriving was surprising and very exciting.
I somehow fit into 44″ pants. Now don’t get me wrong, that’s still big but you have to realize I started out in 58″ pants. You also have to realize that Big & Tall stores start around 44″ and go up from there.
I then realized that the next time I buy clothes it’s highly likely I’ll be able to buy from a mainstream department store like Macys or *gasp* Banana Republic. I haven’t shopped at a normal store in so long I can’t imagine the label not saying “Big & Tall” somewhere on it.
Weekend Warrior Challenge
I figured this would be a good time to announce my participation in Weekend Warrior Challenge by Brandon (@solongfatass). The goal of the challenge is to help us all make it through the weekend without regretting the decisions we made. The weekend is a period of great temptation and relaxation that has killed oh so many weight-loss and fitness dreams.
My goals for this challenge are:
- Lose Weight — Any amount of weight, I’m not picky. It’s important to realize that Friday evening is usually when I partake in my free meal for the week. It’s important that I make healthy decisions the rest of the weekend so that meals doesn’t cascade into the next few.
- Run 2.5 Miles — I’ve been trying to run more but sometimes my body stops me, damn shins. Anyhow, I want to get in at least one running session where I run further than last week which was 2.0 miles @ 5 mph.
I’m excited for the challenge and can’t wait to see how everyone else does. Look for an update next week on how we all did.
This past weekend was full of new food recipes, some good and some bad. I started by planning meals for the week and decided to not just pick one new recipe but to shoot for four. I don’t know what got into me but it was worth a shot and they all sounded good. I was really excited about two of them in particular though, the snacks!
The Good, I Dream of Coconut Balls
They look good don’t they? The Cocoa and Coconut Snacks are what I tackled first and the adage of saving the best for last was completely inverted this weekend. These were the best snack I’ve ever made period. They are just the right combination of sweet and nutty and really satisfy my hunger cravings.
If your slightly shopping dysfunctional, like me, make sure to add some extra time to your trip for finding ingredients like Coconut Oil. Maybe your grocer is more intelligently arranged than mine or maybe you’ve purchased it before. I however had the double whammy of a poorly laid out store and having never even seen what the darn stuff looks like. Funny thing, when I arrived home with the bottle of Coconut Oil my wife mistook it for suntan lotion, I swear.
It even looks like Coppertone doesn’t it? Yes, before you even ask those are indeed plier marks on the bottle. I don’t know what the manufacturer was thinking but I was completely unable to squeeze out the oil from the tiny little spout provided. I put every ounce of muscle I had into squeezing that bottle and barely got 1/2 a Tbsp so I resorted to manly engineering methods.
Note to self — Next time your buying a new ingredient, like Coconut Oil, don’t buy the pretty bottle … instead buy the functional one.
While making the the nut mixture (step 1 mind you) I thought I had messed up … I know, how hard is it to mix nuts right? Seriously the recipe said that after blending the nut mixture to put the powder into a separate bowl.
I don’t know what nuts they bought but my mixture of nuts at that point certainly wasn’t a powder, it was more like a clumpy mess of nut particles. No matter how much I mixed them in the food processor the oil in my nuts was too high to allow them to turn to powder. No worries though, even though they were clumpy they worked out great since they were thoroughly mixed.
One mistake I did make though, other than using pliers, was not making small enough balls. The recipe called for a dozen balls and I doubled the recipe so I was expecting two dozen. I ended up with only 18 which in itself isn’t bad … just be aware that nuts have quite a few calories so my 18 balls come out to about ~200 calories per ball.
Personally I know everything in them is 100% healthy and the fat calories are some of the best you can get (from nuts and coconut oil) so I feel zero guilt eating two of these as a snack.
I did tweak the recipe slightly as I was unable to find any Brazilian nuts at our fancy new ethnically diverse grocery store. Even without them they tasted great so don’t be worried if you can’t find them either.
In short I see this new nutty snack becoming a part of my staple snack regiment and likely will replace any meal bars in the future as well. I just to buy a cleaner pair of pliers to cook with.
The Bad, Garbanzo Gaboring
I’m not sure why but I was very excited about making these Crispy Roasted Chickpeas. I think it’s because I’ve tried chickpeas as a dried snack before and they were pretty tasty, these however turned out to be everything but.
I don’t have any witty or fun stories about this recipe. It went uneventfully and I was really confident while making them that I hadn’t messed anything up. In the end though I was expecting some pop of flavor but was left with a empty dull nothing. Maybe I didn’t let them get crunch enough? That might explain something but certainly wouldn’t explain the lack of flavor. Any ideas what I can change to improve them?
No, it’s not what your thinking … get your mind out of the gutter will ya. Go on, get out of there … oh the shame.
No, it’s not because of the huge selection of junk food, though I’m sure I’ve stopped at a fair number for that reason over the years.
No, it’s not to fill my gas tank or buy a lovely scented car deodorizer.
Back in 2000 when I started working out I had a lot of trouble finding someplace to weigh-in. In the end the only place I found with a scale that could measure up to 450 pounds was at the interstate truck stops. So on my trip home to Michigan every few weeks I’d stop at one just inside of Indiana and do my weigh-in.
It’s something I’ve never told anyone and really never given much thought until this past weekend when I was trying on old clothes. In hindsight I’m sure it was actually quite odd to anyone watching me. I’d usually go into the restroom and mill about at the sink washing my hands or fixing my hair until everyone had left. Then I’d quickly pull out a quarter, drop it in, and step on the scale.
While I was certainly embarrassed having to resort to truck stop scales to weigh in I was also highly motivated to lose it. I certainly would have been more embarrassed having to goto a doctors office, explain why I needed to use their scale, stand in front of a nurse or doctor to do it, and publicly share those numbers. I guess I felt I would have had to explain the number to them whereas at the truck stop no one knew me and I was accountable to only myself.
I don’t know what it says that I’m willing to share this story online today whereas back in 2000 I wouldn’t have. I guess I’ve grown in more ways than I’d thought. I’m certainly more comfortable with my story and the journey I’ve taken to try to lose this weight.
After I’d managed to lose 50 or so pounds, and weighed in a dozen or so times, I dropped some decent coin for a Tanita doctors scale. I could then safely and sanely weigh in at home without having to take those interstate diversions, unless it was to fill-up or get some water.
Just like I grew (or shrank depending on your point of view) out of having to weigh in at the truck stop I look forward to growing out of this scale and replacing it with a more modern one. In time … in time.
“Life, the ultimate challenge, is not a race to the finish but rather a process of continual growth” — Bill Phillips
I was looking for a good blog title as an excuse to use this picture of my two Boston Terriers, Shelby and Margot. Cute aren’t they?
Anyhow, this week was full of a ton of great blog postings. It’s hard to pick just a few but these postings resonated with me the most.
- so long, fat ass! — Announcing the Weekend Warriors Challenge
- A great idea by Brandon to help people stay motivated and on track over the weekend. It even has a great logo put together by @nomorebacon (Ryan).
- I don’t know about you but the weekends are very hard to stay motivated. Without the 9-5 and the rigorous schedules of the weekdays the weekend tends to go long and introduce far too many temptations. This challenge is an attempt to keep you motivated during the weekend by setting goals and being accountable to everyone participating. I’m participating in the Weekend Warriors challenge, are you?
- Nerd Fitness — What Do You Want To Do Before You Die
- If your like me you wrote MTV off many years ago. This new The Buried Life show looks like it might redeem them a bit and be worth checking out. Watch the preview over at Nerd Fitness and word on putting together you list of things to do before you die.
- Prairie Mod — FanGuide in the Chicago News
- Shameless self promotion alert! This is an iPhone application I worked on for all of 2009 and feel very strongly about. Anyhow, it was highlighted in the Chicago Tribine this past weekend and given a very good review. Take a second and check out FanGuide if you have an iPhone or iPod touch. Take a walk, burn some calories, and learn about great architecture.
- Marks Daily Apple — 8 Signs You Are Overtraining
- Some great things to keep an eye out for if your not hitting your goals and feel like somethings amiss. An aside, I don’t know about you but I almost always get sick when I start working out after taking some time off. Not overtraining, but something to make note of.
- Fit Hacks — 10 Ways to Debug Your Fitness Program
- I’m constantly looking for good advice on how to debug my fitness program. This is a good read and has some great pieces of advice on just you can do it. I found it interesting that I’ve been doing a number of these things with this year.
- I’m changing my environment with a new gym that actually has people fitter than me … my last gym was kinda geriatric.
- I’m repeating things that work, one word … Circuits.
- I’m measuring all inputs and outputs with LoseIt!.
- Does your program need debugging?
- Zach Even Esh — Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
- Before your get turned off by all of the huge muscles on these guys or the horrible MySpace-esque site design you have to read this post.
- This is the hardest thing to explain to people. You will be uncomfortable doing this if your doing it right. Your shocking your body, your working hard, your sweating, your breaking down and rebuilding your muscles.
- Uncomfortable is the new comfortable.
- Green Lite Bites — Simply Spiced Chickpeas
- Always on the lookout for healthy & tasty new snacks to break the monotony of my everyday snacks these look tasty and easy to make. I’ve already added all of the items to this weeks shopping list.
- Marks Daily Apple — Cocoa and Coconut Snacks
- Great Balls of Energy!!! These looks absolutely awesome and amazingly healthy. I’m excited to give these and the Chickpeas a shot this weekend. I haven’t been this excited about cooking a snack in a while.
- Losing Weight Daily — I Can Lose Weight, Because I Know YOU Lost Weight
- One of the great things about blogging about weight-loss and the journey to a healthy happier me is inspiring and helping other people. The launch of MyJeansFitMe is a great example of sharing and inspiring other people. It’s not to sell a new fad diet or a piece of equipment but instead because it’s the inspirational thing to do.
- Prior Fat Girl — Post Workout Glow
- A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work. Some pics of people enjoying a good sweat after some hard workouts. I wonder if men can submit pics?
- The Anti Jared — My cardio workout!
- His post was an ode to Jen and her style of blogging. It’s a very entertaining and personal look into what drove Tony to lose his weight and continues to drive him to keep up an awesome energy level to build some big guns. But dude, you need to throw in some Prodigy or Chemical Brothers, too much Lady Gaga will damage ya.
Successful people are doing what they love because at some point in time they had to deal with a lot of doing what others would NOT dare do.
