New Goals!

Well whaddaya know? I managed to keep my promise to myself,  as I've been trying to do as much as possible lately, so here I am! 

I've been doing a lot of pondering lately about all of the work I've been doing to lose some weight in order to reach a healthier BMI. And I've faced my other motives: to look better in clothes (and make it easier to find ones that fit) and feel a little better about myself. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I let my body image rule my life; I never have. But this is (was, at the beginning of my health journey) the heaviest I've ever weighed.

So this pondering.... I realized that making my goal to lose one pound each week will not be as productive for me as I thought it would be. I've caught myself, at times, putting too much emphasis on the number on the scale, and then I end up getting frustrated when it decreases by 0.1 pound, or stays the same, after a week of good effort. (Plus, my weight fluctuates based on how much water I've drank that day, how much I've eaten, if I'm on my period... any  number of factors. Also, I don't know how reliable my scale is, to be honest. It's new, but I weigh myself in one spot of the kitchen, I'm one weight. I move it to the other side and reweigh myself, it's off by a pound.) I realize that the long-term changes and weight trends are what matter most, and that nothing is going to just happen overnight, but it's nice to be able to reach shorter goals regularly.

With that said, I'm going to commit to some new goals for the rest of this month and for June. They are:

1. Scratch losing a pound a week as my continuous weekly goal. My overall long-term goal is to lose weight, but I'm talking short-term here.
2. My new week-to-week goal will be to increase my running time by at least a few minutes each week. I've started enjoying jogging on the treadmill. Right now I can run 30 minutes at a 4.0 mph pace (two miles exactly). Each week I will push myself to add at two minutes onto the 30 minute base. I will start this increase this coming Sunday, May 29th, and record it on my exercise calendar. (Note: I read about running programs a few weeks ago, and it looks like most programs up the length of time by two to three minutes each week, so I figure that's a good start.)
3. I will continue to do my best counting calories, keeping my intake around 1800 or less, depending on the amount of exercise I get that day, how my body is feeling, and the types of foods I've eaten over the course of the day (i.e. higher protein and fiber intake = fuller longer = less snacks). I'll still need to create a calorie deficit if I want to continue losing weight.
4. I will continue to weigh in this Thursday, May 26th, as I have done each week since the last week of March. For June, I will weigh myself on the first and the thirtieth, and not a single day in between. I might even put the scale away... who knows? 

Well I could continue writing, but I must retire to bed. I will continue writing about these goals in future posts!