Goal setting is something many of us do. Those goals may be home related directed, such as cleaning the closets out by _____ date. Work related goal setting may be completing a certain project by _____ date.
In the “weight loss” arena, there tends to be lots of goal setting. “I want to lose ____ pounds by my birthday.” “I need to lose ____ pounds by the time my daughter has her wedding reception.”
Goal setting is a good thing, as this provides a certain motivational aspect to weight control efforts. However, I believe it is very important to make those goals reasonable and achievable. For example, a 60 year old person that needs/wants to lose 50 pounds should not construct a goal of losing 20 pounds a month. A 30 year old person, 160 pounds that wants to lose30 pounds should not goal=set for all of those pounds to come off in 12 weeks.
Setting goals that are unreasonable to achieve will result in frustration, some anger and unhappiness when that date comes and the goal weight was not reached. These emotions will often turn to the “Screw it” mentality that will then follow with giving up efforts entirely.
In weight control, reasonable goal setting should be broken into increments that are very achievable. For example, a 200 pound person should very reasonably lose 10 pounds in the first month of efforts. A 160 pound person may set 6-7 pounds as a goal weight loss in the first month.
During a long-term weight control journey it is important to not feel frustrated by feeling that your efforts are not being rewarded with results. Make the goal-setting reasonable and then when the goal is reached, you feel invigorated to then work hard for the next (reasonable) goal.