Goal Reaffirmation

Current Weight: 222lbs
Body Fat: 37.4%

Having a written goal is an important part of achieving it. Writing your goal down assists you in visualizing it, seeing the success you want to achieve, and working toward achieving it. As I mentioned before, goals should be specific and achievable.

A common problem with most goals are they are only a single, long term goal. This can become discouraging, and make it harder to see the progress you are making toward that goal. To prevent this issue, take your long term goal and break it down into smaller steps. This gives you intermediate goals you can achieve and helps you see the steps you are taking.

An important part of goal setting is defining a time limit. A goal without a time limit is only a wish. Goals are things we WILL accomplish.

My Goals are:

• Get below 20% body fat by January 1
  
• Drop 2% body fat each month for the next 10 months
  
• Perform 12 pullups without assistance or kip by October 1
  
• Perform 2 pullups without assistance or kip by May 1
  
• Perform 4 pullups without assistance or kip by June 1
  
• Perform 6 pullups without assistance or kip by July 1
• Perform 8 pullups without assistance or kip by August 1
• Perform 10 pullups without assistance or kip by September 1
• Make my 12 mile work commute on bike (both ways) within 45 minutes by January 1
• Make 12 mile commute within 55 minutes by June 1
  
• Make 12 mile commute within 50 minutes by September 1
  

Take It Slow

Current Weight: 233 lbs.
Change 3: Take it slow.

Don’t make too many changes at one time, especially drastic changes. My first impulse when I wanted to lose weight was to change everything I could toward achieving my goals. However, looking forward toward the long-term, I realized this was a quick path to failure. It is easy to become overwhelmed by too many changes and give up far short of reaching any milestones.

Everyone is different, and is more open to changing different aspects of their life easier than others, so set your own change pace. For me, changing two or three things about my lifestyle and habits a week should be attainable, so that will be my weekly goal. Some changes will be much easier to make than others, some will be harder, but the harder changes can typically broken down into smaller changes.

Start slowly, make one change. If you can keep to that change for a day or two without too much effort, make a second change. If you find yourself slipping and unable to keep to the current change, go back 1 step. It is far easier to recover from one step back than to stop completely and start over.

Set Achievable Goals

Current Weight: 235 lbs.
Change 2: Set achievable long- and short-term goals.

Set long- and short-term goals that you can reach. My current goal of 50 pounds until the end of the year means that in the next 31 weeks I want to lose an average of 1.6 pounds. Some weeks the weight loss will be greater, other weeks I may have no loss, but 1.6 pounds per week should be an attainable average. My short-term goal is 10 pounds in the first month, which is an average of 2.5 pounds per week. It's a higher average than the long-term goal, but it is typically easier to lose the first few pounds.

When you have a target, even if you fall short of that target, at least you progress. If you don’t set a target, you have nothing to aim for and are guaranteed failure. Decide what you want to achieve as an end result. Write it down to clarify and specify your goal, and then create short term goals that will bring you toward that end result.

When you set outrageous goals, you get easily discouraged and give up. A healthy, achievable change in weight is 2-3 pounds a week through rigorous exercise and good diet. I'm trying to take this slowly and make only little changes to my lifestyle so it will be easier to maintain those changes and keep the weight off.