My Thoughts On Goal Weights

As I said yesterday I was intrigued when reading Diane's blog post titled "Do You Set A Goal Weight?" What got me thinking the most was that she never did. She just started losing weight and then kept on going until she felt comfortable with where she had ended up. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that they never set a goal weight, so it made me think. Why do we set goals?

She suggested that our nature is to be goal oriented, set higher goals to constantly better ourselves. That makes sense. Maybe it's also because we want to see a light at the end of our proverbial tunnel. If we have a goal in mind, then we know that someday this hard work will be over with. (wow...where did THAT come from??)

Maybe that's how we I think. This weight loss journey is a struggle, but if we have a goal and we reach it then we feel the struggle will be over. That's interesting though because these are life changes that hopefully will stay with us far beyond reaching that goal weight and keep us from ever having to work at losing weight again.

Okay, one more quick thought about goal weights.

I commented on her blog how we are different in that I have set a goal weight and she never did. However, I take it back. When I first decided that I was going to make small changes to lose some of this excess weight my goal was, "To lose enough weight by May 2011 so that I can buy a dress for my husband's graduation from dental school and it WILL NOT be in the plus sizes section of the store."

That was it. No numbers, just anything below "PLUS" and I gave myself two years to do it. I knew that was reachable, and because it was I wasn't scared to try and lose weight one more time.

In fact, I could only commit to making a few small changes and starting to walk a few times a week. Slowly but surely I began believing that I could really become the thin woman I felt was hiding inside of me. Now, almost four months later I know I will reach that original goal and most likely pass it.

If your curious as to whether or not I ever did set numeric goals, here's what I posted on Diane's blog:

My small goals are (A) 199 (just to break 200), then (B) 170 (what I weighed when I got married and a weight I have been down to only once since then) and finally my tentative lowest weight goal is 140.

I figured out this final number by looking at healthy weight ranges on various sites. I trust the Weight Watchers site and this is 6 pounds under the highest healthy weight they show for my age (33) and height (5′4″). I figure that gives me about 5 pounds to play with.

However, if I get to 150 (approx.) and am comfortable and can’t seem to lose more with starving/over exercising myself, then I’ll stop there. Or…(I really can’t imagine this now) if I get to 140 and I’m not feeling like that’s where I should stop, then I’ll go down a little more. Since I haven’t weighed near that since high school I can’t even think that far ahead yet.

So, I said all that to say this. ... Just kidding...

So, yes I have a numeric goal in my mind, but really...as long as I make that original goal of buying my "graduation" dress in the "regular" department then I'll make myself be happy. In fact, as I finish up writing this post I'm wondering if I should let go of my goal weight and just push on to get smaller and smaller until I find the right, healthy weight for me.

Okay, I really think I also have a goal because I'm scared I'll get lazy and stop short of it just because I'm too "tired" to try anymore.

That's it. That's about as honest as I can get on this subject. Sorry for the long post, but I think I covered all my thoughts and feelings now. :) (This will be an interesting one to look back up in a year and see if my thoughts/feelings have changed.)

Have a great day everyone!