I'm checking in today to honor my commitment to blog daily, but I have very little to nothing to report. I did very poorly at achieving my goals yesterday. I don't want to appear to make excuses but I do have a reason, I was not feeling well from the time I got up and all out sick to my stomach by the time i got sent home from work 2 hrs early last night.
Today, I'm still nowhere near 100% but starting fresh anyway. My ultimate goal is to check everything off my daily list of steps and to-dos - today that includes putting together another post to continue detailing my large goals and the steps and rewards to that point. Here I go, let's see what happens...
Friday, October 14, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Goals ... and rewards
External Me...
Lose 80 pounds
consistently lose weight each week
1200-1500 calories daily
10000 steps a day
7 servings of fruits &/or veggies each day
15 minutes of exercise every day
track, track, track
take regular weight and measurements
be prepared for plateaus
(I'm still working out the steps to this one... I know they'll happen later
and I HATE them but no giving up this time)
take daily pictures to track my long term progress
Take care of my face and skin
lotion each morning (arms, legs & torso - hands don't count)
wash my face every night
moisturize nightly
Appear more professional
hair and make-up done every day - work or no
nails painted at all times
nail fill every 2 weeks
clothes clean and wrinkle free - before I'm headed out the door
I would love to be more specific with my weight loss goal, to say 2 lbs a week until mid-July 2012, but it's unrealistic to put such a definite goal on such an ethereal process. What I can realistically expect is to not have a weigh-in that goes up as long as I'm sticking to the 5 steps to consistently losing weight. And that's where the reward will come in.
Of course I have no idea how to reward for this particular goal. I believe in most cases a reward linked to the steps to achieving it is most effective, but I can only think of 2 related rewards and I'm particularly interested in either one as motivation. Food is out - period. That's counterproductive and not something I care to reward myself with. The other possiblity would be clothes - but I don't really like that either. The easy thing to say would be that for every 2 weeks that I complete all 5 steps I can have a new piece of clothing. But... if I'm still in the process of losing I will hopefully just need to replace it anyway. And in all honesty I spent plenty on clothes less than 2 years ago, when I had dropped to easily 35 lbs lighter than I am now. I have a wardrobe that will fit for the next several stages of the process anyway. And then there are always a few things that I need (work pants for winter) but when it's a reasonable need I'm not comfortable tying that to a reward either. So for now weight loss is it's own reward.
Rewarding myself for a professional appearance is a bit easier. I have a small problem with jewelry - there can never be such a thing as enough. I don't have a specific piece in mind at the moment, but I do know that I'd like to have a new long necklace, something chunky to wear with sweaters. So my first short-term reward will be that necklace, when I have checked off all of my daily appearance and skin care steps for 2 solid weeks.
And as time goes on I expect that steps and goals will be updated, my reward system will be refined. I want this to be an ongoing process so it'll have to grow and change as I do. But I do believe that maybe I've got the right process this time.
Lose 80 pounds
consistently lose weight each week
1200-1500 calories daily
10000 steps a day
7 servings of fruits &/or veggies each day
15 minutes of exercise every day
track, track, track
take regular weight and measurements
be prepared for plateaus
(I'm still working out the steps to this one... I know they'll happen later
and I HATE them but no giving up this time)
take daily pictures to track my long term progress
Take care of my face and skin
lotion each morning (arms, legs & torso - hands don't count)
wash my face every night
moisturize nightly
Appear more professional
hair and make-up done every day - work or no
nails painted at all times
nail fill every 2 weeks
clothes clean and wrinkle free - before I'm headed out the door
I would love to be more specific with my weight loss goal, to say 2 lbs a week until mid-July 2012, but it's unrealistic to put such a definite goal on such an ethereal process. What I can realistically expect is to not have a weigh-in that goes up as long as I'm sticking to the 5 steps to consistently losing weight. And that's where the reward will come in.
Of course I have no idea how to reward for this particular goal. I believe in most cases a reward linked to the steps to achieving it is most effective, but I can only think of 2 related rewards and I'm particularly interested in either one as motivation. Food is out - period. That's counterproductive and not something I care to reward myself with. The other possiblity would be clothes - but I don't really like that either. The easy thing to say would be that for every 2 weeks that I complete all 5 steps I can have a new piece of clothing. But... if I'm still in the process of losing I will hopefully just need to replace it anyway. And in all honesty I spent plenty on clothes less than 2 years ago, when I had dropped to easily 35 lbs lighter than I am now. I have a wardrobe that will fit for the next several stages of the process anyway. And then there are always a few things that I need (work pants for winter) but when it's a reasonable need I'm not comfortable tying that to a reward either. So for now weight loss is it's own reward.
Rewarding myself for a professional appearance is a bit easier. I have a small problem with jewelry - there can never be such a thing as enough. I don't have a specific piece in mind at the moment, but I do know that I'd like to have a new long necklace, something chunky to wear with sweaters. So my first short-term reward will be that necklace, when I have checked off all of my daily appearance and skin care steps for 2 solid weeks.
And as time goes on I expect that steps and goals will be updated, my reward system will be refined. I want this to be an ongoing process so it'll have to grow and change as I do. But I do believe that maybe I've got the right process this time.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Day 2
So what was reinforced for me yesterday is that I start strong but finish weakly. I had no problem with the early part of the day and I guess the bigger things too, the ones that had been on my mind for awhile - but by late afternoon I needed a nap that I followed with wasting time on online games and then I just forgot completely about the routine I wanted to start at bedtime.
Lack of planning didn't help (I got less than 2 1/2 hours sleep night before last) but I don't want to make excuses. Of course I don't want to beat myself up either. I just want to get on the right track. I want to happy with who I am. I'm somewhat better prepared today... I still don't have a clip-on pedometer and I haven't established a new identity on SparkPeople but I got 7 hours sleep last night, I have a pretty good idea of what's in the pantry and today's list is even more detailed. I can do this. I may not succeed as quickly as I'd like, but by the "real" New Year I am confident that I'll be showing marked improvement.
Today's trick is to keep my to-do list front and center all day. I also want to break it down into goals, I've been looking at different goal sheets that are available around the net and working to incorporate the best features into a system that I can use. A system of small goals that build a larger goal and have a concrete reward system is my ultimate goal. What I'm starting with today is the first working prototype - and figuring out which system of organizing the whole thing works for me on a work day. Yesterday I just set a clipboard with my to-do list on the the breakfast bar and crossed things off as I completed them, today it all goes in a binder. I need to have a pretty constant reminder to stay on track but I do have a job to focus on also, and honestly I'm not sure I want to broadcast or explain this little program quite yet. Wish me luck... : )
Lack of planning didn't help (I got less than 2 1/2 hours sleep night before last) but I don't want to make excuses. Of course I don't want to beat myself up either. I just want to get on the right track. I want to happy with who I am. I'm somewhat better prepared today... I still don't have a clip-on pedometer and I haven't established a new identity on SparkPeople but I got 7 hours sleep last night, I have a pretty good idea of what's in the pantry and today's list is even more detailed. I can do this. I may not succeed as quickly as I'd like, but by the "real" New Year I am confident that I'll be showing marked improvement.
Today's trick is to keep my to-do list front and center all day. I also want to break it down into goals, I've been looking at different goal sheets that are available around the net and working to incorporate the best features into a system that I can use. A system of small goals that build a larger goal and have a concrete reward system is my ultimate goal. What I'm starting with today is the first working prototype - and figuring out which system of organizing the whole thing works for me on a work day. Yesterday I just set a clipboard with my to-do list on the the breakfast bar and crossed things off as I completed them, today it all goes in a binder. I need to have a pretty constant reminder to stay on track but I do have a job to focus on also, and honestly I'm not sure I want to broadcast or explain this little program quite yet. Wish me luck... : )
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Happy New Year!!
No I’m not confused, and I’m not crazy – just thinking outside the box. The calendar doesn’t change today, there’s no big celebration, no fireworks, in reality few people will recognize the significance, but today is my birthday, my new year. Which works well for me since in our society we tend to equate the New Year with resolutions and I am resolved to change my world.
Well maybe not “my world” – I have a wonderful husband and a 16yr old daughter that is near perfect in her adolescent imperfection, I have a job that I enjoy and am fairly good at. We own our home, it’s modest but enough for the three of us, and it’s affordable. My relationship with my family is good. So it’s not my world that needs changing but more how I interact with it.
I am now officially 43 years old. That's not a complaint, just simply statement of fact. I’ve never been the one to complain about getting older; true I’m not thrilled about the side effects, but are my aches and pains more to be blamed on age or lifestyle?? Hence the resolutions…
I may be being overly ambitious but I am resolved to start making changes in 9 major areas of my life. Is that crazy? Probably. Is it impossible? Absolutely not. Most of my goals overlap, and ultimately it’s all from the same place, it's all about making me a better person. Here's the short list of what I'm planning to focus on:
I may be being overly ambitious but I am resolved to start making changes in 9 major areas of my life. Is that crazy? Probably. Is it impossible? Absolutely not. Most of my goals overlap, and ultimately it’s all from the same place, it's all about making me a better person. Here's the short list of what I'm planning to focus on:
Exterior Me
My Mess
My Stuff
My Relationships
My Work Life
My Creative Self
My Commitment
My Money
Interior Me
Not necessarily in that order, really I prefer to think of it as not having an order at all but as a concurrent thing. It all ties together - losing some weight will impact how I feel about myself which will likely impact my sales job which will definitely improve my cash flow. Purging a large chunk of my things will make it much easier to control the mess which in turn will make more room and opportunity to be creative and hopefully that leads to more income. It's all about that improving me and how I interact with my world.
That is obviously the very short list; over the next days and weeks I'll record more of the details and my progress. Today starts simply enough with a very detailed to-do list and recording the befores.
That is obviously the very short list; over the next days and weeks I'll record more of the details and my progress. Today starts simply enough with a very detailed to-do list and recording the befores.
Getting this posted lets me cross one big item off today's list (and qualifies for at least 3 of my goals - it's creative, I'm following through on what I set out to do and it's about what's going on inside of me).
Happy New Year. Wish me luck...
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