The New Year is upon us. After doing your year-end review, it’s a perfect time to set up some goals for 2023. Goal setting is easier to do around this time of year because many people around you are doing the same thing. It’s a good kind of peer pressure. But there’s also danger in setting a goal at this time of year. The majority of the people around you will give up by the second Friday in January. It’s called Quitter’s day. It’s hard to stick to your goal when everyone around you is quitting theirs. Fortunately, there are some things you can do right now that will set you up for weight loss success in the coming year. If you do these things, you will be more likely to stay on track, even when everyone around you is quitting.
Tip #1: Pick A Reasonable Goal Weight
Picking a goal weight can seem intimidating. Truth be told, a goal weight is at best an educated guess. You may find you get happy with your weight before you get to your goal. Or you may get to your goal and find that you still have more work to do. Despite this, I have found it very helpful to have a number in mind so that you are aiming for something.
When you pick a number, ask yourself why you think that will be a good number. And then, let those reasons, as opposed to the number per se, be your guide as you near that number. For example, let’s say you pick 175 because you remember that you used to weigh that and you felt really good there. You had good energy, shopping wasn’t a frustrating experience, and you feel like you could maintain it. As you near 175, keep asking yourself if you’re starting to feel good about where you’re at. And when you reach that point where you’re satisfied, give yourself permission to stop losing weight, even if the number is a little higher. More is not always better.
I found that aiming for somewhere near a normal BMI got me to a place where I felt really good, mentally and physically. At 5’6”, my normal BMI is between 115-154.5. In 2016, when I got down to 158, I decided to maintain for a year before I lost any more weight. If you don’t currently know what your BMI is, you can check it here.
Even losing 10% of your body weight can have a positive impact on your health, according to the CDC. It’s okay to just lose a little bit, stay there for a while, and then when you’re ready to lose more, lose more. Losing weight changes your life in more ways than having a lower number on the scale, and it’s perfectly fine to ease yourself into these changes.
Tip #2: Pick An Honestly Reasonable Plan
Write down a plan that you can stick to. When you’re writing it down, be careful that you only include things you are willing to do for the long haul. I define the long haul as the rest of your life. I was dishonest with myself when I struggled with my weight. Each time I’d go on a diet, I would tell myself that I was going to give up certain foods forever. No more chocolate cake for me! No more pasta! No more bread! I’ve got a wheat belly! I’m never going to eat fast food ever again. Oh, the lies I’ve told!
But in 2016 I finally got honest with myself: I believed all foods were good. I believed the real problem was that I was eating too much, and that was what I set about to work on. I wanted to learn how to eat the right amount so that I could get down to and maintain a healthy weight.
I’m an advocate for the eat-everything approach. Don’t cut out any foods from your life. Odds are, they’re in your life because you truly enjoy them. Food is not only about the food. Many times foods are tied to memories, to culture, or to your friends and family. These ties are important and shouldn’t be severed willy-nilly.
Keep your weight loss plan easy so that you can stick with it and reach your goal. Write it down. Remember that if you need to, you can make changes. My humble suggestion is that you err on the side of making your plan a little too easy at first. Implementing changes is difficult. For any change you’re planning to make, ask yourself if you can see yourself doing this plan in 5 years. If not, sit down and change it until you’ve created a plan that you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life.
Tip #3: Be Reasonable With Your Timeline
Weight loss is a long slog. A pound a week is a good number to shoot for if you’ve got a lot of weight to lose. If you’re just trying to lose those last ten pounds, fractions of a pound a week are more reasonable, at least in my experience. In 2016 I lost about 1 pound a week. Some weeks I lost none, some weeks I lost more, but the average was a pound. When I lost from 158 down to 142, it was ⅓ of one pound a week on average, and it took about a year.
You never really know how fast or slow you’ll lose weight. Most goal-setting guides tell you to set a strict deadline, but that’s not a good idea when it comes to weight loss. You’ll lose weight at your own pace. It’s not linear, even when you’re consistent. And consistency itself is extremely difficult, especially in the early days of the weight loss journey. If you have a strict deadline, you’re likely going to fall behind at some point, and then you run the risk of incorporating changes that you’re not willing to stick with for the long term, which will inevitably lead to weight gain.
I found it helpful to tell myself, I’ll get there eventually. Even if it took me years to get there, I made up my mind to be okay with that. I decided I’d rather it take five years or more to get the weight off, and keep it off for the rest of my life, than lose some weight fast and pack it right back on like I always did.
Tip #4: Consider Your Available Time
Weight loss will require you to set aside time to work on your weight loss journey. Most people think about the time commitment required for their exercise, but they’re forgetting the tracking and occasional troubleshooting that needs to be done.
Daily
You need to track your weight daily. This takes less than a minute a day, but having this data will make evaluating your plan quick and easy in the future. If you don’t do this, you won’t really know if your plan to lose weight is working. I recommend stepping on the scale first thing in the morning after you go to the bathroom, and then putting that number in a weight-tracking app.
Weekly
In the early days when you’re still figuring out your plan and getting consistent, weekly check-ins regarding consistency are helpful. That’s just a quick look back over the week to see if you’re sticking to the plan, or if you’re having off days. If things are going well, this should take ten minutes or so. If you’re having trouble and need to brainstorm, you probably need to set aside thirty minutes to an hour to journal and figure out what’s going on. Or, go for a nice long walk to get some ideas.
Monthly
Once a month, do a more in-depth check-in. Sit down with your numbers, look back on your progress, and make tweaks if necessary. This takes time. Put it on your calendar and honor the appointment with yourself. As long as you’re tracking your numbers and keeping things updated, this should take no more than 30 minutes.
A Word About Exercise
If part of your plan is to exercise, figure out how long that will take each day. Be honest with yourself about whether or not, based on your life, you’ll be able to commit to this. Don’t forget to account for time spent commuting to your workout, showering, setting up, etc. Quite likely, this will necessitate that you give up doing other things that you’re currently doing. Ask yourself if you’re willing to do that before you make it part of your plan.
Tip #5: Consider Your Available Money
The great thing about intermittent fasting is that it’s free. There’s no need to buy anything at all. In fact, it can lower your grocery bill. But weight loss will cost you money. For one thing, as you lose weight, your clothes will get looser and looser, and you’ll need to replace them. If part of your weight loss plan is to join a gym or buy a fitness tracker, take that into account. You’ll need decent shoes too. Put these things in your budget, and remember to plan for them going forward.
Bonus Tip: Set Non-Weight Loss Goals
While you’re setting your weight loss goal, it’s a really good idea to set a few other goals. There are many good areas to set goals in: financial, religious, social, intellectual, etc. Below this article is a free PDF goal-setting guide to help you. Pursuing goals in these areas can boost your weight loss success, especially if they reinforce your weight loss plan.
For example, two of my yearly goals are to walk 6 miles a day Monday – Saturday, and to read 52 books a year. This gives me two really good things to do during my fasting window, which makes it easier to stick with the fasting. Sticking to fasting, of course, led to weight loss. Another good thing about having multiple goals is that you can have victories in one area, which can help encourage you when things are not going well in another area. For example, maybe one week I lost no weight, but I did finish reading Les Miserables. It helps put small setbacks in perspective and keeps you in a positive frame of mind.
Goal setting, creating plans to get there, and implementation is messy. You won’t be perfect, but one thing I know for sure is that the fun is in the pursuit! Happy goal setting!
Download “Goal Setting Guide” Goal-Setting-Worksheet.pdf – Downloaded 48717 times – 88.83 KBDownload “7 Day Average Weight Tracker” 7-Day-Average-Weight-Template-From-Six-Miles-To-Supper-1-1.ods – Downloaded 51650 times – 68.57 KB
Download “End Of The Year Routine” End-of-The-Year-Routine.pdf – Downloaded 3822 times – 77.10 KB
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