Appropriate Goals and Timelines
So we’ve got your “why” established (and if you don’t, click here to read yesterday’s blog post on “Finding your Why”). Now what?
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Now we get to do a little bit of planning. It’s important to decide if your goal is reasonable in both type and timeline. This is a super individual answer. No one can tell you how fast or slow it should take you to lose 20 pounds, just like no one should tell you how fast or slow it should take you to save $5,000. Everyone has different incomes, metabolism types, priorities, and circumstances that make that goal more or less achievable for them.
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Weight loss is a tricky area because we have a tendency to get super emotional about it. And while your feelings are completely valid, it can be helpful to take emotion out of it for a second and think about things logically. A lot of times, people feel that if it’s going to take them a whole year to lose 20 pounds, they may as well not do it because their neighbor did it in 2 months. “20 pounds in a year is nothing!” they say. But let’s think about it like our $5,000 example above. If it took you a year to save $5,000, that’s about $400 per month, which is a pretty decent chunk of money for most people. But Jeff Bezos would save $5,000 faster, much faster. Do you care how fast or slow Jeff Bezos saves $5,000? No, your circumstances are much different than his. So why do you care how fast or slow you lose weight relative to anybody else? Your metabolism, life circumstances, and priorities and different than other people’s, so it makes sense your goal and timeline will be different than other people’s as well.
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Now that we’ve taken some pressure off the timeline, let’s consider a few things:
What type of goal is this? Lifelong, or short term?
A lifelong goal should have a long timeline. If you want to lose weight and become healthier forever, it’s ok that your timeline is longer. There’s no finish line for the rest of your life. You are going to be building long term habits.
A short term goal can have a short timeline. If you just need to lose 20 pounds to compete in a boxing tournament, those habits can be sustained for the short term.
What is your history with this goal?
Is this the first time you’ve ever tried this goal? If so, you do not know what to expect as far as rate of progress, challenges, setbacks, etc. Give yourself some wiggle room.
Have you tried this before and had difficulty? If so, expect some resistance this time around as well, but plan differently.
Have you succeeded this goal before, but slid backwards? What habits were too difficult to maintain? Take stock of what worked for you and what didn’t.
Are you being realistic about your life circumstances?
If you’re a mom of three who also works a full time job, you’ve got priorities that come before weight loss and things that will come up to throw you off. This does not mean your goal is impossible, but let’s be realistic about your timeline. Things will likely happen slower than you’d like them to.
Are you being realistic about how much you’re willing to sacrifice?
Any goal requires sacrifice. When setting a goal, we are basically saying “I want to change this part of my life”. This requires us to let part of our old life die, either for the short or the long term. Which parts of your life is your new goal asking for you to sacrifice? How attached are you to those parts?
I have a lot of people come to me asking for a 6-pack when they are not willing to live a lifestyle that reflects what a 6-pack means. And that is completely ok. Living super lean is neither fun nor easy. Are you willing to sacrifice happiness and potentially health so you can have abs?
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I’ll close here with a frame of reference for typical, healthy fat loss:
I usually tell my clients they can expect between 0.5%-1% of total weight loss per week. If you’re 200 pounds, that looks like 1-2 pounds per week, less if you weigh less, more if you weigh more. That does not include any of the other things I’ve spoken on in this post (life circumstances, sacrifice, etc.). Take all of this into consideration before you set a weight loss goal and go from there.
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Good luck setting your goals! As always, if you need help deciding what a realistic goal is for you as the individual, please do not hesitate to hit that “Contact” button above.
