I came dangerously close to falling into a trap yesterday. Yes, a diet trap, they are real and they are prevalent in our society. What diet trap did I almost succumb to? I almost started to think in terms of co-ncrete goals with finite time limits to reach them! Ohhhh my, yes I did, but I caught myself just in time! I actually started to put a finite time goal on a certain amount of weight loss.
I actually said to myself "I can lose 25 pounds by Christmas/New Years". That is roughly 25 pounds in 2.5 months. What was I thinking????
I don't think having goals and a finite time to reach said goals is a bad thing. It's not bad at all...when you have 100% control over the results. The 75 Hard challenge that I did a while back was one such good goal to set. (You can read about the beginning of my 75 hard journey and what 75 Hard is here.) It was a challenge in which I had to physically do certain things each day for a very finite length of time. Reaching the goal was only reliant on my willpower and my actions. A perfect goal.
Weight loss on a finite time period is not a good goal...for me. I know that people frequently say "I want to lose such and such amount of weight by this or that event" and that is fabulous if it motivates you. But A finite time period for weight loss is NOT a good thing for me, and I suspicion a good thing for a lot of people. You see, sometimes our best efforts at weight loss result in large losses each week. But sometimes our efforst results in smaller losses. Sure it's always calories in calories out. So figuring it out on paper, if you eat in a deficit you should be able to correctly adjust and manage to have the correct loss needed in order to meet your goals.....but life isn't a math equation on paper. Building muscle in your body can alter weight loss......it can make you lose faster....yet building that muscle can actually cause the scales to pop up a bit even as your waistline shrinks. Conversely, if you lose muscle the opposite happens. A holiday or celebration can slow down the loss while conversely a stomach flu could speed it up. The variables are a plenty in a weight loss journey. And variables are ok...but they can wreak havoc on a finite time period for a goal.
As soon as I uttered the goal of losing 25 pounds by Christmas I came to my senses. No No NO! I am working to heal emotionally, mentally and physically. Putting possibly unreal expectations upon myself is not a healing behavior. Furthermore,setting a goal of losing 25 pounds in 10 weeks is doable (at my weight) but would require absolute precision and perfect conditions in life and in my body. Perfection is way overrated. Life is not perfect so why we aim for perfection and then get upset when we don't reach it is a mystery I will always ponder. But I know perfection is not what I am aiming for....because if I am for perfection I will certainly hit a week....or two..or three where I don't have the perfect weight loss and then I will be faced with the prospect of being physically unable to reach my goal of 25 pounds in 10 weeks. And when that happens, it's way too easy to be demoralized and to give up.
Giving up is not an option at this time. So I am refusing to set any type of finite goal in terms of weight loss. If I lose 1/2 pound a week and it takes me a year to lose that 25 pounds, then so be it....I am still losing! But if I manage to string together 10 perfect weeks where I lose 2-3 pounds (doable at my current weight) and I manage to lose the 25 pounds by Christmas...... awesome. But I am not planning...aiming for....hoping for....expecting it. I am not falling into a trap! My goal is simply to put my best efforts out there and see what happens!
Now to keep reminding myself of this fact, because human nature keeps spitting this thought into my head. "Be at such and such weight by Christmas........A great goal would be to lose such and such by Christmas.......2 pounds a week would be this amount of weight by christmas'. But no no no, not gonna do it!
