REFLECTION

Tomorrow I will be doing my traditional end of month blog post. I'll look at how I fared with my goals for the past month as well as setting some new goals for the next month. 

If you've been around here any time at all, you'll know how much I love goals and to-do lists.

You'll also know that I appear to love them far more than I love doing the things that are on them! While that holds some truth, in actuality... I do have the best intentions when creating them.

So, tomorrow... I will talk more about those in specifics. But, for today, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on goal setting and how (and if) it is really helpful.

I'd like to think I'm pretty ambitious. Day dreaming is NOT a problem for me. I'm pro to-do lists and daily/weekly/monthly/yearly/big picture goal setting. I really do believe that you at least need to acknowledge what direction you want your life to go. Maybe you talk to friends/family about it, maybe you write it down, maybe you do a vision board. Whatever.  

But, there are some drawbacks to this. For me, there is no filter. I just think about it and add it to the list. My "lists" are forever long. Which is great... but it's also kind of a mess. And... sometimes I think that there is so much on my "want to-do's/need to-do's" that I am sort of walking in circles.... like I'm basically in the same place as someone who has nothing on their list. Does this make sense?

I've spent a lot of this past month thinking about why I can't seem to get going with certain things... okay... ALL THE THINGS.  I joke and say I'm lazy or busy or whatever. And those are definitely things to consider. But really? I think there is more to the problem. Comparison has really started to be an issue for me. It's something I definitely need to work on. But the other issue... the one that I think plays the biggest role in my forever feeling stuck... is that I have no true direction.

You can see this in all of my goals (seriously I have weekly, monthly, season, and big picture goals). You can even see it in my post about my dream career. Y'all, I'm scatterbrained!! The truth is, I probably wont ever stop making these lists. But, I do need to learn to edit and prioritize. 

What does any of this have to do with weight loss? Well, I think this is an area of my life where it's sort of all or nothing in my thinking. And so, I set all these goals. I feel like they are reasonable enough. I mean, I should be drinking 88 ounces of water and getting at least 2 servings of fruit and vegetables. I should be doing cardio and strength training. I should be tracking my points and going to my meeting. I should be watching what types of food I'm eating. I should be getting enough sleep. 

But, the problem is... all these years (and for multiple reasons) I HAVEN'T been doing these things. So, though they are all pretty basic health goals... it's really asking myself to go from nothing to all the things. (Sidenote... this is just about my story/journey. I do realize lots of people would think my unaccomplished goals for the week would be a walk in the park). 

So my all or nothing mentality produces mega-lists with no productivity (or, very little). I can't help but wonder if I focused less on ALL and more on a few key elements... if I wouldn't have MORE success?

I've had several readers email or comment suggesting just that. It make sense. And, I mean, it can't get much worse! Ha.  So, while I will still make these lists (fairly certain it is in my DNA). I am going to challenge myself to pick one or two things to REALLY focus on.

As for my dream of losing weight? Nothing is really changing. Getting healthy is definitely a priority for me. But the way I go about it is going to change. My weekly goals (that I posted yesterday) are still my weekly goals.

But, I think right now I'm just going to focus on tracking my food. If I have time to get the points figured out... great. If I get in all my healthy guidelines and stay on program? Wonderful. But, for now... I just want to write it down (well, track it in the app). 

I am finishing up It Starts With Food, and I am definitely sold on the Whole 30 plan. C and I still both want to challenge ourselves. And, I am going to try and incorporate a lot of what I have learned into our daily lives. But, right now, my only focus is to just track what I'm eating. That is how I will gauge my "success" (and I use that term loosely) for the week. Once I've mastered this, or at least made it a pretty solid habit... I will decide what I want to conquer next.

Wow. When I sat down to write this post, I didn't realize I would be writing a novel. But this month of writing about weight loss... while not bringing any real weight loss.. has been quite a learning experience. And, I wanted to share some of what I have been thinking about with y'all.

 Bless you if you made it to the end. And, thanks for your support :)