{"id":3938,"date":"2010-02-01T11:07:14","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T16:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/?p=3938"},"modified":"2017-06-22T10:56:39","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T15:56:39","slug":"week-2-setting-and-keeping-realistic-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2010\/02\/01\/week-2-setting-and-keeping-realistic-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 2: Setting and keeping realistic goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that I know what it takes to get started<\/a>, I need to figure out exactly what I plan to accomplish.\u00a0 That means setting goals.<\/p>\n

I am not the goal-setting type, though, so I turned to the Internet for some information on how to set and keep weight-loss goals.\u00a0 What I found really surprised me.<\/p>\n

Apparently, setting small goals is better than setting big goals.\u00a0 Self Magazine<\/a>, WebMD<\/a> and the Mayo Clinic<\/a>\u2019s Web sites all said that small goals, such as losing a couple pounds a week, are more likely to be met than large goals, such as losing 30 pounds.<\/p>\n

Time frames are also important in goal setting, according to WebMD.\u00a0 They said setting both short-term and long-term goals could help someone keep track of milestones.\u00a0 They also said long-term goals can be more manageable when broken up into a series of short-term goals.<\/p>\n

Goals must also be realistic and attainable, according to howstuffworks.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Their health section says unrealistic goals can set up a no-win situation that will result in a person losing faith in their weight-loss program.<\/p>\n

All this information adds up to setting small, manageable goals that can be obtained in a reasonable, not rushed, amount of time.\u00a0 Knowing this, what can I do to make sure I keep these goals?\u00a0 Instead of asking the Internet, I asked a couple of my friends.<\/p>\n

One of my friends told me I should never do it alone.\u00a0 She is part of a challenge group that has set up a point system and a grand prize for members to strive for.\u00a0 She said the challenge group does support each other, but because competition is involved, it\u2019s much more motivating that a support group.<\/p>\n

Another friend suggested that I create a motivation collage and keep it in a place that will remind me to make healthy choices.\u00a0 She suggested including pictures of myself at my heaviest and lightest as well as images or phrases likely to motivate me to achieve my goals.<\/p>\n

Both of my friends suggested sparkpeople.com<\/a> as a resource for accountability, meal plans, nutritional information and more, so I made myself an account.\u00a0 At first glance, it is full of more information than I could ever use, which makes it a good fit for a beginner like me.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, I have determined a set of goals to reach before I graduate Sinclair.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Track what I eat and when I exercise<\/li>\n
  2. Regularly attend a group exercise class at the gym<\/li>\n
  3. Find healthy snacks that will satisfy my need for crunchy, salty, sweet and filling foods between meals<\/li>\n
  4. Pack my lunch when I can\u2019t eat at home<\/li>\n
  5. Lose 25 pounds before I graduate<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I know what I want to do now.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to figure out how I plan on doing it.<\/p>\n

    Next week: action steps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Now that I know what it takes to get started, I need to figure out exactly what I plan to accomplish.\u00a0 That means setting goals. I am not the goal-setting type, though, so I turned to the Internet for some information on how to set and keep weight-loss goals.\u00a0 What I found really surprised me. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[477,1400,1976,897],"class_list":["post-3938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-meagan-ewton","tag-weight-loss"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-11w","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3938"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4009,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3938\/revisions\/4009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}