For me, looking at the BIG PICTURE is something that is not going well. So instead of saying, "I need to lose 80 pounds", I am going to say "I need to lose 5 pounds." I have given myself smaller goals. With that, I have given myself even smaller goals of just 1.5 pounds and tracked what weight I "should" be at by a certain day (mostly holidays).
My mini goal weights are numbers ending is 4 and 9. I started at 197-198, so my first goal is 194. Once I make it to 194, my goal will than become 189. And so on until I get down to 115-118 (or until I feel comfortable enough to stop). I say this second part because even though 115-118 is right in the middle of "where I should be" for my height which is 5'2", I fear that I will be to "skinny" once muscle weight is factored in. Yes, even though I am "obese" I worry about being to skinny. I want to be healthy and fit, not skinny and sick.
For my future use and a little more detail, here is my "mini goal" list. Each time I make it to my goal, I was list that date.
194 -
189 -
184 -
179 -
174 -
169 -
164 -
159 -
154 -
149 -
144 -
139 -
134 -
129 -
124 -
119 -
Happy Place (115-118) -
If you follow the rewards program, meaning that you reward yourself with something when you make it to a goal, you can list what reward you have given yourself. I follow it, and when I make it to 194, I will be giving myself my Kindle Fire that I was given by my bank. I opened it, got it all set up but than packed it away until I "deserve" it. Some other rewards of mine are clothing items, make-up, new workout items, accessories (shoes, purses), etc. Anything that I would like but don't think I should be buying until I get rid of some weight.
The other set of goals... more like guidelines... are the weights that I would like to be at by a certain day/holiday.
Halloween - 187
Thanksgiving - 181
Christmas -175
New Years - 174
Valentine's Day - 165
Easter - 154
Memorial Day - 144
4th of July - 135
My Birthday (August 3rd) - 129
Alaskan Vacation (August 19th) 124
How did I get these weight? I took my current weight 196.5 on Wednesday, September 17th and subtracted 1.5 pounds. I then wrote down all the dates for the holiday's and looked at the Wednesday before it. So the Wednesday before Halloween if I was to lose the 1.5 pounds each week, I should be at 187.5 pounds. Just to make life easier for me, I rounded down if it wasn't a solid number.
Now, of course not everything goes according plan. It took me a couple weeks to get the ball moving and to actually realize, hey you really need to stick to this plan or else nothing is going to happen... so I am behind a little. But, hey, so what? As of right now, I am 2 pounds lighter than I was a week ago even though I am only at the goal weight I should have been at on the 24th. I may lost 5 pounds this week and make up for it. Or that 5 pounds will come off in a month and I will be off for a month... what matters is that the number on the scale goes down SOMETHING each week. Or more so, that is doesn't go up anymore. It is more so how my clothes fit and how I feel more so than the number but having that number gives you something to go by and track.
