Healthy Living

Setting Small Goals To Reach A Big Goal

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I’m finally admitting defeat. Okay, that sounds dramatic. But I’m admitting defeat that my haphazard attempts at losing weight – going to the gym, adding a vegetable to my lunch – isn’t really working. And to be honest, I really wasn’t working all that hard to make changes either. I wasn’t setting small goals.

So I’m changing up my approach.

Setting Small Goals

My overarching goal is to lose 50 pounds. That is a crazy huge, terrifying goal. I can’t deal with that goal right now, because it seems overwhelming. I can deal with 5 pounds.

So I’m challenging myself to lose 5 pounds. And then 5 more pounds. And then 5 more. It doesn’t need to be in a super quick amount of time. It’s probably better if it’s not. But I’m hoping that making little changes and meeting small goals will help me meet my big goal.

What I’ve Been Doing So Far:

  • Planning out every meal and entering it into MyFitnessPal at the beginning of the day. I hate counting calories and think its dumb. But if I enter it into MyFitnessPal in the morning, then I have my plan, I’m prepared, and I can see how my food is fitting my macros. It’s been working for the past week.
  • Making exercise a priority. I’ve been going to the gym regularly, but haven’t really been giving it my all. This week, I focused more on working hard and have a plan in place for the nights that I’m working late and can’t get to the gym. Something is better than nothing.
  • Staying positive. It seems silly, but it’s so common to get into the mindset of “I messed up, I did something bad” and I don’t like that. So I’m making a plan but also giving myself some grace when things don’t go perfectly.

So here’s to week 1 of really trying to meet small goal #1.

Setting Healthy Goals for Weight Loss

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Ah, Wednesdays. Happy hump day! Today is all about setting healthy goals…

I’ve mentioned briefly that I used to write a healthy living blog. It was about living my best life, being active, losing weight, and finding balance. Throughout my life, I’ve experienced ups and downs particularly when it comes to weight loss. I’ve gained and lost weight – multiple times. I’ve tried different approaches to combat this and have found different types of success.

Over the past six months or so, I’ve unfortunately gained weight. This is partly from personal struggles that have been incredibly stressful and partly because I haven’t cared as much as eating healthy or exercising as I should have. I’m at a point now where I feel ready to start focusing on losing weight and incorporating more healthy habits into my life.

Setting Healthy Goals for Weight Loss

Setting Healthy Goals

Over the next month, I’m setting healthy goals for myself. I want to begin to lose weight, but more I want make healthy decisions and feel better about myself. I keep reminding myself that what I do every day is more important than what I do once in awhile. This means that I want to make good decisions for my health most of the time.

Eat a serving of fruits or veggies at each meal.

I’m not sure when this happened but I’ve become a carb and sugar queen. I’ll sneak in fruits occassionally, but veggies have somehow become non-existent in my diet. My goal for June is to include a fruit or veggie at each meal. This is a small step, but I find that adding things to my diet, instead of restricting, seems to help. Plus, fruits and veggies make me feel good!

Cut down on sugar.

Ok, I just said I don’t like to restrict. That being said, my sweet tooth is out of control. I’ve become accustomed to each sugar regularly, not to mention all the added sugar that I eat in my daily food. I’m not saying I cannot have any treats, but I want to be more intentional with the types of food I put in my body. This means enjoying french vanilla cream in my coffee but not having 2-3 little sweets throughout the day.

“Exercise” 4 times per week.

I like to exercise. Somehow, I’ve stopped exercising – less dog walking, less resistance training, less overall movement. To me, exercise doesn’t mean go to the gym. It means be intentionally active. So, my goal is to exercise 4 times each week. Whether it’s a long dog walk or a quick 30 minute HIIT workout, I want to move more to feel better.

Stay positive.

This seems silly, but I am the queen of negative self-talk. I could make good decisions all day, make one bad choice, and use that as a reason to destroy myself and all the progress I’ve made. So, I want to stop that – or try to! When I feel self-talk coming on, I want to focus on the progress I have made. I know this is going to be a journey, but I won’t be successful if I am constantly putting myself down. This will be tough for me, but I am going to give it my 100% effort.

“What I do every day is more important than what I do once in awhile” – thoughts to keep in mind with weight loss

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This is where I’m starting. I am weighing myself to track progress, but want to keep track of other accomplishments too. As I continue on my journey, I’ll update you on how I’m going!

Comment below – what is your go-to healthy living tip?