Six months ago, I set a target of getting to 195 pounds (or less) by my 33rd birthday (see prior post). To make things more interesting, I also put $1,000 at risk. With one day to spare, I achieved my goal. In the last 3 months, I've gone from 208 pounds to 194.8 pounds.About a year and a half ago, my wife decided that she was going to lose 19 pounds and go from 139 pounds to 120 pounds. This morning, she achieved her goal as well.
I have to admit that it's satisfying to have met my goal. But I don't really like how I got here. Even after missing my last goal and setting up this self-bet, I didn't take it seriously for the first three months. Then I got motivated and pulled out the stops in the last three months and just barely made my target. It's the moral equivalent of cramming for an exam the night before and then getting an A. It's satisfying but it's not the work ethic that I want to teach my kids. I much more of a believer in "slow and steady wins the race" and not cutting things so close. At some point, these other tactics are going to catch up with you and not going to produce the results you want long-term.
That's why I'm so much more proud of my wife achieving her goal. She's been at this every day for the last 18 months. She injured her knee at one point and she battled through it. We decided to discontinue our membership at the YMCA so she did her workouts at home - early in the morning before the kids got up. The last 5 pounds were just as challenging as the first 14 but she didn't give up. She just stuck to it and made it happen. That's the example that I want my kids to follow, not mine. I couldn't be more proud of my wife's accomplishment.
As an aside, even though I won my self-bet, I just made a $20 donation to Heifer.org to buy a flock of geese for a family in need somewhere in the world.
PS - If folks have ideas for maintenance goals, please let me know. Thanks.
3 comments:
From my wife...
first off, i am seriously proud of you. you may have gotten off to a slow start, but once you became invested, you did lose the weight in a slow and steady manner - just what is recommended. take a look at your chart! i am happy for you and your improved health.
small detail but i in no way set out to lose 19 pounds. i just set out to get under 130 because my knees were acting up. then, somewhere along the line (maybe 10-12 months in) i decided to lose a bit more and get the "marriage weight" off. then when you set your goal, i decided to set my 120 goal just to see if i could actually accomplish a goal related to myself. :) now, on to maintenance. love you
p.s. i was going to put more exclamation points in the first paragraph but censored myself after remembering hg's story at s.h.
What's! Wrong! With! Exclamation! Points!
They work for Captain Kirk.
Maintenance goals for weight are tough. You might want to consider setting an exercise goal, like training for a half marathon every few months. That can help you stay in shape.
You could have a goal to stay the same size (34 waist, or whatnot). That might help keep the weight off.
Congratulations on making your goal.
Way cool on making the goal. And you beat yourself up too much on the 3-months -- you still did it in a safe way, which is what counts.
And big congrats to Mrs. GNP!
I second anonymous' point that maintenance goals are hard, but a renewing event or milestone goals can work well. In general, I find changing something easier than keeping something constant.
Some suggestions:
1) "reduce body fat to x% while keeping weight at 195lbs +/- 5 lbs." This one is hard, and requires changing how you eat and doing weight training, but my wife approved of it when I tried it :)
2) "train for and run a half marathon by X date, while keeping weight at 195lbs +/- 5lbs"
3) "rock climb 3 days a week, and be able to scale x feet in y minutes by z date". Ask a rock climber or coach for good targets
...
You get the idea!
Lastly, I find reporting my weekly progress is very painful, but very motivating :) It keeps me (so far) from slacking off for more than a week.
Congrats again!
- Art
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