Goal Setting - What works for you?

[Effie]

I came to a realization tonight... well, maybe it's just a hypothesis. I think I might need a no-pressure kind of plan. The thought of this makes me nervous. Part of me wants to shout, "NO! I need to lose X amount of weight by X date! And I need to exercise X amount of days per week! And I need to drink X amount of water per day! And I can't eat more than X grams of carbs!"

I've been on this weird on-again/off-again cycle for months now. Everytime I fall off and try to get back on, I pick something that I failed at the last time, and I try REALLY hard to do that thing right this time. Well wouldn't you know, the results have not been favorable at all. I used to drink plenty of water everyday. I used to run a few times a week. I used to fitday everything I ate and measured out every morsel of food. But then, when the scales stopped moving downward, I decided that maybe I needed to be more strict. So, I sealed up any potential gaps in my WOE, by figuring out everything that I wasn't doing perfectly. This lasted for about 3 days and then I'd be much worse than I was before. Instead of dragging my feet off the edge of the wagon, I took a wholehearted plunge off the wagon. It took a lot of strength and courage to jump back ON the wagon, but then the same thing would happen after a few days and I'd be in total carb oblivion.

So, I'm admitting it here. I'm going to try an experiment. I'm not putting any pressure on myself. I'm not going to count carbs. I'm going to loosely follow the Atkins rules and eat rough estimates of the foods from the rungs that I think I've passed. (Gee, maybe now would be a good time to delete the "Read the Book!" picture in my siggy, eh?) My ONLY goal is to weigh less on New Years than I do today, and then to weigh less on Easter as I did on New Years, etc. (I stole that from a Weight Watchers leader!) I'm putting away the scale, which I've never done, and I'm going to weigh once a week at most. I'd love to not weigh for 6 weeks, but that, of course, is too much pressure. If this backfires and I find that I'm out of control because I can't trust myself, then I'll report back with the results of my experiment and beg you all for forgiveness.

And now I ask all of you, what works better for you? Do you find you are more successful when you set specific goals, or are you a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants sort of loser?

[wannabethintoo]

Re: Goal Setting - What works for you?

I need to keep track of everything I'm eating using fitday or else I'm not sure what I'm eating and I tend to overeat. I guess I'm the kind of person that likes charts and numbers and graphs. It keeps it more interesting too.

[Effie]

Re: Goal Setting - What works for you?

I love charts & graphs & numbers.... when I'm doing well. When it levels off, I tend to trade in my colored pencils and graph paper for a box of Little Debbies.

[Sheshy]

Re: Goal Setting - What works for you?

Hi Effie,

Good question. Regarding goal setting, I don't worry too much about not making each and every goal. After this long on Atkins, I know I can't force myself into losing weight, I realize I lose slow and this is going to take awhile to get the rest of it off.

Flying by the seat of my pants...no it doesn't work for me.

Everytime I try it on my own, I tend to overdo...I'm just not properly trained yet! I don't go back to the really bad habits, but I do eat too much in general.

I find I do the best when I keep track on Fitday and see what I'm consuming, it helps me make better decisions. I don't know about everyone else, but when I'm making decisions for dinner, I'll add and delete stuff if adds up too to much carbs/calories and it doesn't really mean that much to me. It's that accountable thing.

Best wishes to you on your journey!

[2big4mysize]

Re: Goal Setting - What works for you?

I was a happy go lucky big loser who tracked foods and followed rules and was just estatic pounds were flying off for the first 120 pounds. Then I was convinced I needed gols and stuff and I became a very frustrated made that goal look what is next, got to make that announced goal. Made me feel a lot of pressure to preform and took all the joy out of my Atkins experience for me. just be fore I entered premaintenance I made a big post that I was punting all goals and was going back to being a happy go lucky loving my Atkins oh oh gosh lookie what I found this morning when i got on the sclase and never measuring again Atkineer.

I really enjoyed my experience again cause all the presure to make weight was off.

If you don't need goals in the rest of your life why do you need them in this part is my philosophy.

[cleochatra]

Re: Goal Setting - What works for you?

me, they are time-based goals, like the MYResolution. I treat everyday as though I'm in the last 2 weeks of the callenge. I work hard, I go for it. I make goal oir I feel great knowing I got incredibly close!

It's great reading the different methods we all employ!

[Brook]

Re: Goal Setting - What works for you?

There's never been any real joy in the "Atkins Experience" for me, as 2big called it. I've always been bent I've needed to have an Atkins experience to begin with. lol

I write my goals out every 3 months. I write out 5 specific, attainable goals and read them before my head hits my pillow every night and before my feet hit the floor in the morning. I do log everything I eat and all the exercise I do.

When I avoid doing these things, I tend to do really dumb stuff- like regain 20lbs.

[BabyDreamer]

Re: Goal Setting - What works for you?

Effie,

I have to write down all that I eat, drink and the exercise I do. This is the only thing that makes me feel like I have any control over my food and body. I like keeping tabs because I tend to carb creep when I let myself "follow" the rules by using Debbie's Atkins plan. I like planning. But, then again, I am an anal person who works one full-time job and teaches part-time at four other schools so without my schedule and planner I am LOST!

Deb

I came to a realization tonight... well, maybe it's just a hypothesis. I think I might need a no-pressure kind of plan. The thought of this makes me nervous. Part of me wants to shout, "NO! I need to lose X amount of weight by X date! And I need to exercise X amount of days per week! And I need to drink X amount of water per day! And I can't eat more than X grams of carbs!"

I've been on this weird on-again/off-again cycle for months now. Everytime I fall off and try to get back on, I pick something that I failed at the last time, and I try REALLY hard to do that thing right this time. Well wouldn't you know, the results have not been favorable at all. I used to drink plenty of water everyday. I used to run a few times a week. I used to fitday everything I ate and measured out every morsel of food. But then, when the scales stopped moving downward, I decided that maybe I needed to be more strict. So, I sealed up any potential gaps in my WOE, by figuring out everything that I wasn't doing perfectly. This lasted for about 3 days and then I'd be much worse than I was before. Instead of dragging my feet off the edge of the wagon, I took a wholehearted plunge off the wagon. It took a lot of strength and courage to jump back ON the wagon, but then the same thing would happen after a few days and I'd be in total carb oblivion.

So, I'm admitting it here. I'm going to try an experiment. I'm not putting any pressure on myself. I'm not going to count carbs. I'm going to loosely follow the Atkins rules and eat rough estimates of the foods from the rungs that I think I've passed. (Gee, maybe now would be a good time to delete the "Read the Book!" picture in my siggy, eh?) My ONLY goal is to weigh less on New Years than I do today, and then to weigh less on Easter as I did on New Years, etc. (I stole that from a Weight Watchers leader!) I'm putting away the scale, which I've never done, and I'm going to weigh once a week at most. I'd love to not weigh for 6 weeks, but that, of course, is too much pressure. If this backfires and I find that I'm out of control because I can't trust myself, then I'll report back with the results of my experiment and beg you all for forgiveness.

And now I ask all of you, what works better for you? Do you find you are more successful when you set specific goals, or are you a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants sort of loser?

[Zarabelle]

Re: Goal Setting - What works for you?

I have been weighing every Monday (although if I'm honest, I usually have an unofficial peek at the scales every morning). I also set time goals such as for a vacation or for the NY challenge. I find it keeps me on track. I have thought about hiding the scales for a while so that I don't get quite so obsessed but I would still need a goal such as to fit in to a size 16 jeans (comfortably instead of squished in like at the moment!) for example.
Good luck x

[Effie]

Re: Goal Setting - What works for you?

If this backfires and I find that I'm out of control because I can't trust myself, then I'll report back with the results of my experiment and beg you all for forgiveness.

Dear STAC members, I beg for your forgiveness. I thought I could be footloose and fancy free and the weight would magically fall off because I was in a good mood. I was soooooooo wrong.

I admit, it was fun for the first 3-4 days, but by the end of the week, I was so far off course that I didn't even realize what I was doing. I ended up gaining 2 pounds this week. I don't think I had any vegetables either, which was a result of lack of planning, which was a result of me thinking that if I plan, then that would be too much pressure. That was stupid.

So, here we go again.

Note:
Today's weight: 195
Last week's weight: 193
Last month's weight: 188
September's weight: 185.5

I've gained almost 10 pounds back. HELLLLLLLP!

[Finelly]

Re: Goal Setting - What works for you?

I have vague goals (hit 200 lbs, hit 180 lbs, be able to fit into size 10 jeans, etc) but absolutely no time frames.

I find that deadlines and time required goals never work for me, because I panic if I'm not going as fast as I thought I would. My body loses at its own pace, regardless of what goals I set, so it's ridiculous for me to say "I will lost 15 lbs by Xmas", or whatever.