FORGIONE: Setting weight loss goals can be heavy - Niagara Gazette
NIAGARA FALLS — A couple of years ago when I was trying to lose weight on my own, I made a list of goals.
Unfortunately, I had just finished watching an episode of the Biggest Loser during which a 400+ pound man lost 30 pounds in the first week. Inspired, I jotted down five things to accomplish in terms of weight loss, exercise, eating and organizing my time better.
If this guy could lose 30 pounds in a week, I figured that I could drop at least half of that each week. Times that by seven short weeks and I would be down 105 pounds and at my target weight.
The first week I lost a commendable six pounds, but I reacted as if I gained 50. Five days of "exercising" — swimming sporadic laps in the gym pool and sweating in the sauna — hardly seemed worth the effort.
Still, I was determined to do better the next week and get closer to the 15-a-week average I was certain was attainable.
The next few weeks' results resembled a second-grade math equation rather than the Biggest Loser: 1+2+0.
Three pounds total. Added to the first "big" week and I was at nine pounds half-way through my goal timeline.
So I stopped trying. Instead of seeing the positive of nearly a double digit weight loss, I became frustrated that I wasn't even 10 percent to my goal. It was just "easier" to scribble out that goal on a piece of paper than try for another three weeks and having to admit I had failed to reach it.
I've since gotten better at setting realistic goals but not by much. When I started ChrisFit Personal Training on April 26, I set a weight loss benchmark of 70 pounds in the six-month program — or just under a three-pound-a-week average.
After two months, it looked like I would blow 70 pounds away. Then came the plateaus, foot problems, vacations and, yes, a few weeks worth of poor food choices on my part.
Last month I came to the realization that I may not hit that goal within my first six months.
The good news is I've kind of stopped counting.
Don't get me wrong, hopping on that scale each week and seeing anything less than a three pound loss still drops my head. But instead of giving up, I use it as a motivator to do better and work harder.
Of course, that's a lot easier to do when you have someone pushing you. After passing the 50-pound mark two weeks ago, my trainer Chris Tybor and I set a few reasonable goals to keep me on track during the fall and winter months, which admittedly have been my downfall in past weight loss attempts.
The first is to keep training hard. Specifically, the goal is to get three, 30-minute weight sessions in a week and at least four hours of cardio. Sounds simple enough but will no doubt be challenging once the first snowflake falls. Apparently, the sauna doesn't count as cardio.
Goal No. 2 is to stop messing up on the weekends. A typical week for me goes like this: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday: Hit my food and exercise benchmarks 99.9 percent of the time; Thursday is weigh-in day, so I'm a little less strict afterward; Fridays and Saturdays are spent trying to eat healthier but my online food tracker is usually not updated; and on NFL Football Sundays, well that information is classified.
Honestly, it could be worse. I try to limit myself to "cheat meals" and not "cheat days" (or weekends). But Chris stresses that all I am doing Friday to Sunday is cheating how hard I worked earlier in the week.
So, the objective is to ALWAYS track my food intake and hit my numbers more frequently. Game on.
I also asked him if a third goal should include losing a specific amount of pounds by New Year's Day. In typical Chris fashion, his response was "hit the first two and you will have nothing to worry about."
For the record, we did (kind of) set a weight loss goal. He says I should hit the 100-pound mark by April. I say we can do it by the end of February.
Either way, I win.
Rick Forgione is the city editor of the Niagara Gazette. Contact him at 282-2311, ext.2257 or rick.forgione@niagara-gazette.com
04 Oct, 2011--
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