New Year's Goals

I have felt ambivalent in the past about setting concrete weight-loss goals.  Wouldn't setting a goal mean I didn't love and accept myself just as I am?  I even read the Health at Every Size book to see if maybe I should stop shooting for weight loss and just ("just") learn to love myself as I am. I don't think it has to be either/or, though. I have set lots of other goals for myself without the implication that there was something "bad" or "wrong" about myself until I reached that goal.

I think for once, I feel like everyone else that I care about is fine with me just the way I am. I am even okay about the way I look now, but I know in my heart of hearts that I want to lose weight, for me.  I have gone over my reasons a lot of times, but the current problems I have been having with my foot are a big reminder that extra weight does have physical consequences.  I think this time my heart is finally in on the game. Before, I was trying to lead with my head, and it never worked.

Every year, the Fat 2 Fit Radio Show does a "goals show." I was listening to it and they referred me to the Fat 2 Fit book, which I have had for quite a while.  I decided to do the goals exercise in the book to get my new year started off right.  Here I will just be focusing on weight-loss goals.

One-year goal: 155 pounds, my old Weight Watchers goal weight. By this time next year, I will be maintaining at or below this weight.  If I decide I want to lose more once I get to that goal, I can always adjust downward, but I felt pretty good at 155 last time. I will do my "official" start weight tomorrow, but this would be a weight loss of about 30 pounds, totally doable if I maintain my focus.

Three-month goal: I will lose the first 10 pounds by April 1.  This is less than 1 pound per week.

Weekly goals: I will plan my dinners and exercise on Sunday evenings for the following week so that I will be primed for success. I will make sure to keep healthy foods stocked in the fridge, freezer, and pantry.  I will choose most dinner recipes from the Flat Belly Diet! Cookbook and my old Weight Watchers cookbooks.

Daily goals: I will log my food and exercise with Lose It! and my water intake with Waterlogged.  I will take my supplements daily.  I will use the meal builder in the Flat Belly Diet! Pocket Guide to help choose my meals and snacks.  I will give myself a little more calorie leeway per Russ and Jeff's recommendations and use the sedentary calorie level recommended by their BMR calculator as my LoseIt! baseline rather than the 1600 recommended by the Flat Belly Diet. If I am hungrier on days that I exercise, I can use some of the calories earned by exercise (but not all of them). I will make sure to have at least 3 meals and one snack a day. I will still shoot for a minimum of 3 vegetable servings and 2 fruits per day. I will use the #twitterdiet group to help with motivation.

This is just a baseline plan -- I will, of course, adjust as necessary. If the calories are too high for me to see weight loss, for example, I might nix the option for extra calories on workout days.

Tomorrow I will weigh in and take measurements and a starting photo.  I will post progress here at least monthly, though I will have more frequent updates on Twitter.