Works for Me Wednesday: Setting realistic goals.

I will be the first to admit that I do not like to exercise. I like the results of it, but really don't get a thrill out of torturing my body. I also admit that I can get easily discouraged when certain expectations aren't met. That is why setting up realistic goals for exercise and weight loss work for me. I'm not going to beat myself up.

Our church just finished up a 2 month version of "The Biggest Loser" (I've posted on it if you want to read more) and I lost 11 pounds. I averaged about 2lbs. a week. My goal became to create something that would be easy to maintain as a lifestyle. I knew that I could not realistically workout for 1 1/2- 2 hours 6 days a week. But I could realistically do 30 minutes everyday throughout the day. I also began to really monitor my eating, asking questions like, "am I really hungry?" "Can I be satisfied with this portion?" Really watching what I ate and how much I ate. Getting back on track to eating with self control and only when I was hungry.

The other thing I did was find ways to exercise at home. I have 15 stairs that go from our downstairs to our upstairs. Instead of walking up and down them, I run up and down them, or skip up and down them. Our porch wraps around the house, so I do some drills that we learned during our biggest loser around the porch. I purchased a set of 6lb. weights to use and will randomly pick them up and do at least 2 sets of 10 of something. I also plan to purchase a great kit I saw at costco that includes a big ball (drawing a blank on what they're called), video, book, band, etc.. with it and will do that because those things are awesome.

These things work for me because they help me set more realistic goals. Hubby and I are going to the gym (twice this week so far), but I need to be able to have things at home that will help as well. My mailbox is down the road so if possible, I walk or jog to get the mail. It may not seem like much, but doing "something" is better than doing "nothing". If I can lose 1-2 pounds a week, then in less than a year, I'll have reached my goal, and probably have a better chance of keeping it off.

We continue to replace things in our home with more healthy options, and I continue to look for ways to cook healthier for my family. It'll pay off in the end. 

With Joy UNquenchable,