You cannot just wake up one morning and decide that you don’t want any more chips, you don’t want any more soda, I love vegetables, more vegetables for me, please. it’s not easy. That is why we are going to talk about how to make realistic weight loss goals.
So you have stepped on that weight scale, just to confirm that indeed you have added a lot of weight, your mind starts calculations, looking for solutions, and you start to have expectations. As your mind is planning all these things, you should ask yourself, are you ready?
Is your body ready for the changes you are about to make? You never know unless you try, so you get motivated and start to have expectations.
Like in an interview session, my question would be, what motivates you? People do have different reasons why they want to lose weight, maybe;
- To fit in clothes better.
- To control blood glucose levels.
- To control blood pressure.
- To fit in a certain group of people, to belong.
- To look better and feel better.
This is where we find most of our motivation. When you’re thinking about making goals for weight loss, you will need to make very SMART goals;
- S-specific
- M– measurable.
- A-achievable.
- R-realistic.
- T-time-based.
When you sit down by yourself, you’re able to realize some of your eating habits, and lifestyle habits that could have made you gain weight. A good example is a habit of snacking on ready-to-eat fast foods, maybe you do not exercise at all, maybe you eat more than you should, or you are making unhealthy food choices.
When you find out the culprit, it will be a good time to sit down and draft a very simple plan for your weight loss journey.
Specific.
Just because someone else is on a particular diet, it doesn’t mean you should be on that specific diet as well and follow it blindly. It might not work for you as it does for them, because being on a specific diet entails, time, money, and resources that not all of us have in the same quality and quantity. Number two, our bodies are built differently and that is why every weight loss journey is individualized. You want to make sure that the goals you are about to make are specific to you. Based on your lifestyle, and what you need to change, an example of the goals could be;
- I want to stop eating chips starting today, or
- I want to do 30 minutes of exercise every day in the morning.
When you look at these two goals, you can quickly see a failure in waiting. A specific goal should be something like,
- I will only eat chips once this week, why? Behavior change is a process, and the more you deny yourself food you like, the more you will crave it, you are going to win yourself off slowly but surely.
Measurable.
Using the same example, I will only eat a plate of chips once this coming week, it’s measurable because after that one week you’re able to sit down, look back, and analyze yourself, how many times did you fall into the trap, were you able to achieve it? you cannot just wake up one morning and decide that you don’t want any more chips, you don’t want any more soda, I love vegetables, more vegetables for me, please. it’s not easy and that is why it has to be a process. I will eat at least four portions of fruits and vegetables every day this coming week, that is something you can achieve if you do it today and if you do it tomorrow, after one week, you able to look back, and was I able to do it, did I have any difficulties and what am I going to do to make it achievable.
Realistic.
It’s only realistic to start small because you cannot say I don’t want to drink alcohol, not anymore and then stop taking alcohol completely. No, it’s a process, your body needs to adapt to it. We start small and continue to make permanent solutions in the future. Realistic because you want to make a goal that you can actually start to do. You are not to make permanent goals on day one as the possibility of you giving up is extremely high.
Time-based.
You are looking at these goals, and you’re giving them a period. This week, I will exercise three times, for 30 minutes. After one week you can really perform towards achieving your goal. If you can continue, if you need to make another goal, then you can be able to know.
Are your weight loss goals realistic? based on what we’ve learned are they specific, are they measurable, are they achievable? are they realistic, and time-based?
