How we set Weight Loss Goals

Is your goal attainable? That means really thinking about yourself and being honest with yourself about whether the goal really is acceptable to you. Is this what you really want? Don't get so aggressive that you can never meet your goal. Remember the bottom line is being happy with you . . .YOU BE YOU!!!!!

With that said, as far as I'm concerned, anything is possible! It just takes work, effort, and keeping your head in the game. Don't ever beat yourself up (leave that to people on Twitter or Facebook haha) if you ate too much or you gained some weight. Keep looking at where you started and remember how much better you feel even when losing just 5 pounds.

Just remember, you can take something that seems impossible and make it happen by planning, staying on track (for the most part), and just overall going for it!!! Don't forget to always have fun!

Helpful questions to ask when setting weight loss goals:

• What exactly do I want to do?
• How much weight do I want to lose in a week, month, 3 months, 6 months, a year or two years?
• When am I going to start? It is important that when you make a decision to focus on weight loss start that day. Don't say I will start on Monday or next week. That is just another way of pushing it off 'stop procrastinating'. Pick a day and go with it!!! This is something to be excited about!!!!
• Do I want a partner/friend or am I better off focusing on this alone?
• What could cause me to fail
• Why do I want to lose weight?
• Are there different things I can do to lose weight? ie. limit food, count calories, weight watchers point system, exercise program.

CHANGE: not just for vending machines anymore!!

Any type of change in your life or daily activity can be scary. We as humans don't like change. So By writing down what you want to change removes the fear because you are putting a plan in place and you are taking control of your life! This keeps you focused on what you need and wants out of your journey so that you never lose sight of what matters most. For us, our ultimate goal was to lose weight.

Make sure that reaching your goal is relevant to you. YOU ARE NUMBER 1. You have to put YOU First. This isn't easy to do, especially for women.

As they say, you spend more time with yourself than any other person. Sooooo isn't it about time to start prioritizing YOU!!!

Some of the questions you might want to ask are:

• Why do I want to reach this goal?
• Do I have the right mindset?
• What is the objective behind this goal?
• Am I ready to take control of myself?
• Will this goal be achievable?

This might sound hard but don't worry we have a few simple steps to walk you through the process. Trust us it's worth it and it's easier than you think!

Remember, If you're feeling down or back slide always circle back to why you want to reach your weight loss goal.

Why do I want to reach this goal?

First of all, we are very competitive so we had to come up with a weight loos number that was realistic for each of us. Remember this is personal, and yes doing it with someone else is fun and helps keeps you motivated and accountable but it's still completely individual to you. We knew we had to make changes that were easy to incorporate into our daily routine.  We had to decide if we were going to start exercising OR change our diet.   If we tried to do both diet and exercise at the same time we knew we would fail.  We've tried that wayyyyyyy too many times before.  

This may be completely different for you. This is where you have to really look inside your mind and body and know what you CAN and WANT to do based on your lifestyle. So now that you are ready for this: ask yourself - Why do I want to reach this goal?

Do I have the right mindset?

We knew this time we were going to lose the weight!   Not sure why, we just knew it! The main thing was we put a plan in place and set goals this time. We individually figured out what we wanted and then we talked about it together. The key trick was to determine what can easily be changed first and how we were going to incorporate the changes into our daily routine. At this point, we both knew we were committed and, therefore, in the right mindset.

What is the objective behind the goal?

It is really important to understand why you want to lose weight.  Is it because of health? Do you want to feel better? Do you want your clothes to fit better? etc.  The only reason I can think of not to lose weight is that someone else is telling you to lose weight (or you don't need to lose any weight so good for you!! HAHA).  NO ONE can be successful if they are changing their lives because they are being told by someone else that they need to lose weight or that they look bad!!

Get yourself excited and stay excited like we did!!! Remember this is by you, for you!!

Am I ready to take control of myself?

There's a lot to consider and no quick fix or magic diet pill or surgery to give you lasting, sustainable weight loss. It really is better to take control and understand you, your habits, your likes, and your dislikes. We would encourage you to try something new or take up a new activity. Do something for you. Remember you be you! Find something you love that doesn't revolve around eating or drinking.

We love to cook so we decided to take our favorite foods and learn how to make the recipes diet friendly with portion-controlled sizes. I know that sounds strange but we decided we love to eat and were in really bad habits of buying easy-to-make high-calorie snacks. So we took on making our favorite foods at home and cutting out the calories while using a lot of spices. Hey, if I'm going to eat it. It has to be delicious. This has taught us to appreciate really good food and the importance of adding spice and taking out the fats (see we are really into this!!).

As our cooking knowledge grew we started looking more at where our food was coming from and became interested in new flavors and spices. We decided to start a small patio garden which we loved so much now we still have the patio garden with herbs only and a 20' by 20' full-in-ground garden in our backyard for other veggies and spices. Oh and it's fenced in to keep our crazy dogs out!!! Before we knew it we doing some major activity and didn't even know it. Well Amy knew it when she tilled up the garden. Hey someone has to be the supervisor!!!

For us taking control was modifying recipes and measuring/weighing the food we were eating. And then adding activities like gardening. What are you going to do to take control of your habits?

Will this weight loss goal be achievable?

When we set our goals we went through these steps with agreement and understanding that the weight was not going to come off overnight:

• Why did we want to lose weight?
• Were we really motivated to lose weight?
• How much weight did we want to lose?
• Determined our BMI (Body Mass Index)? Don't be afraid this just helps set a baseline.
• Set mini goals.  The mini-goals help keep you motivated toward the ultimate weight loss goal.  Our first goal was 8 pounds.  When we did meet that goal we set our next goal to be 5% of our starting weight.
• Agreeing that we would reward ourselves when we hit each mini-goal. Sometimes we would build a bonfire and open a nice bottle of wine, or we would buy a new pair of jeans, and Amy would always buy another pair of shoes!!!

Most Important. . .Stay Positive!

Now that you answered your questions and found your motivation it's time to set those goals!!!

Please feel free to send us any questions you might have.