I had a very good day yesterday. I felt it deep inside that my body knew what I wanted it to do and was responding. I drank enough water to drown a fish, and then started in on tea. I knew I was destined for a big loss this morning. I began to think about what I would say in my blog post this morning...OK...I actually started writing it. I put in a figure for this morning's weight. Life was good, even though I was a little concerned about having to justify losing too much weight too fast. That was a good problem to have and I was ready. Ummm...I'm not using that preliminary draft.
This morning I'd lost 0.6 lbs, a very good loss. Who wouldn't be happy with that? Maybe me. Honestly, I had worked myself in to such a state yesterday that I could hardly wait until this morning to get my official results. I got on the scales this morning and they didn't have the number I was expecting, so I was disappointed briefly. When I realized that I had indeed lost weight, just not as much as I wanted, I was better.
This episode brought to the forefront once again my issue with goal setting and more specifically expectations. When I set a goal getting anything less than 100% of the way there is unacceptable to me. I've really worked on this - at least I thought I had! But I think the way I worked on it was not to set goals at all. If I had no expectations, then I'd not fail. That isn't a good way to handle the issue.
I've got a lot of work to do in this area. I'm not sure how. I'm not sure what to do. I need some help. Any suggestions?
Lessons Learned
4 years ago
It's a blessing and a curse. :}
ReplyDeleteYour strong determination to reach a goal you set must result in you reaching a lot of goas and being productive. But, naturally, the disappoiontment is great when you don't achieve what you set your mind to do.
Some people are able to look at goals as an aiming point--something to shoot for--and then do the best they can to get as close as they can. Those people are able to recognize their efforts and be satisfied with their final results. Others, not so much. But, the first group can get complacent or lazy, too.
I'm one of the others. Like you, I see not hitting goal as a failure. With some goals that's true, of course, but not with most. Mostly the failure is in my perfectinistic mind.
I've been working on that, too. One thing I try to be careful about is to not set a "must hit or fail" kind of goal about something over which I have no control. Like how fast my body loses weight.
I have control over (theoretically!) my eating, exercise, drinking, etc--but not the number on the scale. I have to remind myself of that frequently.
So with pounds, I try to set a "like to." :} I'd like to weigh 152 by September 26th. Then I set goals r/t what I can control. Like sticking to my calorie budget.
Well, except that I've been off my feed for months and have not met the goals I do have control over so there's no way in... Well, never mind. That's anouter issue.
Besides all of that--maybe the gigundo loss was just delayed and will happen tomorrow! :D
Deb
Oh this is the exact scenario that I had today! I was soooooooooo good yesterday and I expected a loss. I weighed EXACTLY the same as yesterday :( ... but, I went back to bed and when I woke up a couple of hours later, I was down quite a bit...and that gave me the mental boost that I needed. Of course, that # won't translate to tomorrow unless I continue to WI later in the day...the head games we play! I'll take it though. I needed the boost!
ReplyDeleteDawn
I have a suggestion. Change your goals! One thing that I learned from many other wise bloggers this past year is to focus on those things I can control. I can control (in theory) my eating, drinking water, how much I exercise, etc. I cannot control what number I see on the scale. So if your goals are behavioral, it is all within your power to meet them or not. BTW - I believe that eventually the numbers WILL follow all the other goal stuff.
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