Why Weight Reduction Goals Are Important

Well done is better than well said. – Benjamin Franklin

Do You Have Written Goals?

In this article, you will learn the importance of setting goals for reducing weight. It is vital to understand that getting rid of weight is a process. There is no instantaneous solution to sustainable weight reduction. Achieving a healthy weight and maintaining it requires long-term changes to the way you think and feel about food.

View food as fuel for your body. Stop putting CRAP into your body. CRAP stands for: C = carbonated drinks, R = refined sugars, A = artificial foods, P = process foods. You are what you eat, so don’t be fast, cheap, easy, or fake.

Goals help you define what you really want, such as reducing weight, getting thinner, becoming healthier, or all of these. Your goals must be specific, realistic, and attainable. They can be accomplished in a timely manner. Some refer to this as S.M.A.R.T. goals. Your ambition to lose as much weight as possible is neither specific nor realistic. For example, saying, “I want to lose weight” or “I want to exercise more” are broad, vague statements.

Do you go to Las Vegas? You are probably wondering what does Las Vegas have to do with reducing weight? Absolutely nothing.

But it has a lot to do with illustrating the importance of setting specific, realistic, and attainable goals. Some people who go to Vegas have the attitude, “I want to win as much as possible.” What does that mean? Does it mean you want to win $500 or $5,000 or more? It’s not specific.

Others will have the mindset, “I’ll take $100 and stop once I lose it.” To me, that’s a defeatist mentality.

When I go to Vegas my goal is to win 20 percent of my buy-in for each session I play. So, if I buy-in for $500, my goal is to win $100 for the session. That is specific and realistic.

Have A Specific Weight-Reduction Goal

Are you starting to understand? If I ask you, “Would you like to weigh 20, 30, or 40 pounds lighter by this time next year?” you would probably nod your head, “Yes.” Would you agree that you could probably lose two, three, or four pounds in a month? That’s doable. If you did lose two, three, or four pounds each month for 12 consecutive months, after one year you have accomplished weighing 20 to 40 pounds less.

To be more specific with your weight-reduction goal, you might aim to lose one or two pounds per week. If you think losing one or two pounds per week is too small of an amount, you might be surprised that it is not. If you did lose one to two pounds per week for four consecutive weeks, you have lost four to eight pounds in a month. If you did that for 12 consecutive months, that would be 48 to 96 pounds in a year. So, losing one to two pounds per week is no small accomplishment as long as it is done consistently over a long period of time. Even if you cut that in half, you are still shedding between 24 and 48 pounds in a year.

It has been proven that simply making small adjustments to your daily eating behaviors consistently over a long period of time (like a year) will give you noticeable results. Think of it this way, making small adjustments to your daily eating behaviors to lose one to two pounds per week, done consistently for 52 weeks will result in a total weight loss of between 52 pounds and 104 pounds during a year. Now you might not be able to consistently shed one to two pounds per week because as you get lighter, your body needs to adjust to the lower weight and may plateau. But, if you can average three to four pounds per month for 12 consecutive months, that would be 36 to 48 pounds in a year.

For most, it took over 5, 10, or 15 years to accumulate your extra weight. If you have a burning desire to reduce weight in a healthy and sustainable fashion, your body can accomplish an amazing transformation. A weight reduction goal is a road map that provides an explicit idea of what you want to be and a plan of action to get there. W. Edward Deming said, “A goal without a method is nonsense.” Make certain you have a method to achieve your weight-reduction goal. A motivational meme said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Individuals who have successful weight-reduction regimens take the time to create a clear plan. Attempting to reduce weight without a plan is like going from A to Z without stopping in between.

Have A Plan To Accomplish It

Have you set a goal to lose weight but did not have a plan to accomplish it? Without a plan, did you fail?

Every life coach or personal trainer knows the importance of goals. They give something, an aim to achieve and a way to measure it. For weight-reduction there are two ways to measure your success: 1) the dreaded scale or 2) your clothes to tell you how you are doing.

The simple process to reduce weight is 1) decide to commit to reducing weight, 2) plan the lifestyle changes you intend to improve and how you are going to achieve it, and 3) measure your results along the way.

Decide your total desired weight-reduction goal and work toward achieving it in increments. People who are successful at reducing weight are very clear about their intentions. Those who fail are generally vague or uncertain. For example, if you decide to reduce your overall weight by 35 pounds, set a target to lose a three pounds each month for 12 consecutive months. Achieving the smaller objectives does three things: 1) Provides a systematic process, 2) Creates a sense of accomplishment, and 3) Gives you small victories to celebrate.

Achieving weight loss results, no matter how small, helps to keep you on course. As well as encourages you to stay motivated to continue to lose weight.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

How did you gain your weight? One bite at a time.

How will you reduce weight in a healthy and sustainable manner? One pound at a time.

Start small and create a win for yourself. When you do this, you build confidence. With confidence you gain momentum. With momentum, you take more action to move closer to your goal. Nothing sustains motivation more than a sense of accomplishment.

If you want to exercise you might say, “I’ll exercise every day starting now.” This is unrealistic. Very few, if any, people can exercise every day, seven days a week. A more realistic approach might be to say, “I’ll exercise three times per week for 30 minutes.” Rather than saying, “I’ll eat vegetables more frequently,” you might restate it as “I’ll eat a minimum of one serving of veggies at lunch and one at dinner every day for the next two weeks.” Clarity about reducing your weight and how you go about it is extremely important.

Are you starting to understand the importance of being clear on what you want to accomplish? The overall objective is to lose weight. But how you do it is the key. Setting time frames to modify or change your eating behavior is helpful. It gives direction and a plan to execute. Measuring your progress frequently is as important as establishing the goal. If you can quantify your results, you can objectively determine your success.

For example, a goal of eating healthier is not easily gauged. What does that mean? It means different things to different people. But, a target of eating 1,200 calories per day is quantifiable. You can get even more specific by breaking down the 1,200 calories into the amount of protein, healthy fats, carbohydrates, sugars, and fiber you will get in the 1,200 calories.

Riding your bicycle more often is not calculable. What does it mean to you to ride your bicycle more often? If you haven’t been on a bike in years and then ride it for a few days in the next month, does that satisfy your goal? Probably not. However, riding your bicycle for 45 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is easy to assess.

Make Attainable Goals

Set an attainable goal for yourself. If you have doubts about achieving your goal, you are setting yourself up for failure. Many people declare they will work out every day. This might not be achievable if you know your work schedule won’t permit it or your family obligations with the kids or grandkids will prevent you from working out every day. A more manageable expectation might be working out three days each week for 15 minutes. Be realistic when setting your weight-loss goal. Your goal should be sustainable, and pragmatic given your resources and time. Focus on a result you can attain with some effort. If you have a bigger goal, break it into smaller more manageable phases. Attempting to achieve unreasonable aspirations will only set you up for failure.

Make sure there is a specific time frame to achieve your desired results. This provides a sense of urgency to accomplish your weight reduction target date. If you don’t set a time frame to accomplish your weight-reduction goal, you will never get there. As the Nike slogan said, “Yesterday you said tomorrow.” We all know tomorrow never comes. It took me four months to shed 50 pounds. But I failed to do that during the previous eight years because I kept putting it off.

Make a list of reasons or benefits to accomplish your goal to reduce weight. This will help you keep engaged in your weight-loss process. For instance, the number one reason people reduce weight is for health reasons. Maybe you have high blood pressure, or maybe you are borderline diabetic.

Would you like to shed enough weight so that your doctor tells you there is no need to keep taking your prescription medication? How cool would that be?

In my situation, I needed to drop the weight to avoid having a heart attack, lower my cholesterol, and improve my overall health.

The number two reason people lose weight is to look better.

Do you want to lose weight because you have a special event to attend in the future? Maybe a class reunion, a wedding, or a vacation at a tropical resort and you want to look good in your swimsuit?

Do you find that being overweight is affecting your mobility? Do you think if you got rid of some extra weight, you would feel better? Have more energy? Maybe your knees wouldn’t hurt walking up a flight of stairs?

Determining a goal without knowing why or without having a reason to do it is a recipe for failure. Merely wanting to reduce weight is not enough. Most overweight individuals want to reduce weight. Acting and having goal-directed behavior is required to do so. Unfortunately, most people aren’t successful in either starting these behavior modifications or maintaining them.

Keep A Positive Attitude

Once you start acting to reach your goal, you will find that you will eventually attain it. Keeping a positive attitude is important no matter how small the weight reduction or what seems to be inconsequential or insignificant. Celebrate all wins no matter how small. We celebrate a lot of things – birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays – but when it comes to our accomplishments, we don’t celebrate them all that often. It’s important to celebrate your small victories because celebrating your wins makes you feel great and it reinforces the positive behavior you want to show up when you face a new challenge or obstacle.

Overlooking your successes can cause you to subconsciously take a negative view of your accomplishments. It’s a universal law that when you focus on what you haven’t accomplished instead of what you have, you are less likely to stay on task and complete your goals. What you focus on expands.

Celebrating your accomplishments can boost your confidence, help stave off lethargy, and motivate your continued weight loss success.