In 2013 I lost 34lb. By some standards that’s actually a decent result – but it wasn’t even halfway to the 70lb target I had set. Why had I failed to hit my target? Had I been too unrealistic in setting my goals? Had I allowed my old excuses to creep back in?
Had I been too unrealistic in setting my target?
I’ve said before you should be able to safely lose 1-1.5lb per week – but what I’d not considered is whether you should assume that you can lose that week in week out for a full year? Is it reasonable to expect to lose (and ultimately keep off) 52-78lb in just one year, which is effectively what I was shooting for? Well it’s certainly possible to lose that much in that timeframe, but thinking a little more objectively after the event it’s probably not incredibly healthy. My loss of 34lb translated to a loss of over 12% of my bodyweight, which is a fairly sizeable loss in itself; even if only halfway to the target I had set.
You may have read like I have that a 10% weight-loss target is a healthy goal – and that once you get there you should then work on maintaining that loss for a period of time (of say 6-12 months) before embarking on the next loss challenge if necessary. This, I guess, is to get your body used to your new weight as the new baseline – erasing the old starting weight from your body’s memory.
Personally I’ve never been sold on that logic as I’ve seen others succeed with greater losses, but the proof to me will be if I can reach my goal by repeating the losses of 2013 in 2014, and keeping it all off going into 2015 and beyond.
Looking back I think a more sensible target would have been 50lb (or 52lb if you wanted to say a pound a week on average). But I unfortunately didn’t even hit that – so what else kept me from my goal?
Had I allowed my old excuses to creep back in?
After reviewing my actions particularly over the last quarter of 2013 I acknowledge that a number of slips in diet contributed massively to my missed target. These were my old excuses creeping back in. Based on where I was at the end of quarter two and even at the end of quarter three I should have been able to hit 50lb. These excuses then were really my biggest failing and disappointment in 2013 and something I must address going forward.
Reassess and set new goals
Put simply my goal for 2014 is to lose the remaining 36lb to get me to 15 stone. This is not necessarily my ultimate end game but it’s my initial marker in the sand, at which point I will be better equipped to reassess where I want to be and fine-tune what I need to do to get there.
I could be more aggressive in the timeframe I’m setting but I’ve proven to myself that the real challenge will be maintaining the loss through quarter four and into January 2015. I fully expect I will make my goal weight – and I believe I can achieve it by the end of September – whereas maintaining that position for at least 3 months will be the true test for me based on my past experiences and my excuse demons!
A new approach?
My approach for 2014 will be much the same as it was for 2013, as outlined in my fat loss guide. My fat loss guide is still very relevant to me and my goals and I still stand by the reasons and rationale I’ve outlined. It is what has got me down 12% in weight in one year after all! My personal reasons for my goal have not really changed from my first post and still act as the motivation for what I’m doing. I do however now have another year of learnings under my belt and so it is only right and appropriate that I adapt to what went right and wrong.
Whilst I will still largely follow the same plan I have decided for 2014 I will take a slightly different approach in terms of my breakdown of goals and my accountability.
Breakdown of goals
I’ve mentioned before that setting and monitoring smaller goals or tasks is incredibly important to hitting your overall goal or objectives. It might sound arduous keeping track everyday of your mini-goals or achievements but it really isn’t a big or time consuming job. I’ve shared with you before my own accountability spreadsheet, which can speed up the daily task and I’ve also recently been trialling some mobile phone apps that will do this too.
I don’t intend to change these daily monitoring habits – because I know they work – but I do now believe I need to set better short to medium term goals. Last year my daily habits were essentially for monitoring my exercise, food and water intake in a very basic and simple way, whereas my long-term goal was in the detail of the numbers (weight loss, fat loss, measurements etc). The short-medium term goals I set however were just monthly weight targets, and in retrospect this wasn’t a strong enough tool nor a great motivator.
I found that when I was slipping from that monthly target (and hence my overall goal) it was a double hit mentally and didn’t provide any sort of win or motivation. So what I thought about doing this year is to set short-medium term goals that are not directly related to the overall goal but should complement each other.
A good example of this is when I decided to quit smoking. One of the reasons for quitting was to improve my fitness and in turn my running times, and as I have found my breathing to improve and running performance to improve this reinforced my desire to stay quitted – even though I still have cravings to smoke.
So, at the start of this year I decided to finally put pen to paper (or is that keyboard to monitor?) and set some specific fitness goals, which by the nature of me striving to achieve them should put me on course to lose weight.
Fitness goals
I’ve being saying to myself for a while now (at least 7 years!) that I’d like to achieve a sub 30 minute 5km running time. I know it doesn’t sound like much but I once read it was a good indicator of (a basic level of) fitness. I tried to hit it several times in the past but never managed much better than 33-34 minutes and I’d never put it down in writing for fear of failure. So this is to be my first fitness goal – to tackle something that is a bit of a mental block for me – and I believe achieving it would put me nicely on track to achieving my target weight.
The other big fitness goal for me is to be able to complete a proper pull-up. There’s something about a pull-up that I’ve always thought looks so incredibly awesome that I’ve desperately want to complete one – and never have – not properly with good form anyway. It’s always felt like something I’d never achieve but lately as I’ve gotten fitter generally I’ve started to (dare to) believe I can do it. So I’m calling myself out right here right now by committing this goal to writing.
Here are all my current fitness goals for 2014:
- to get a sub 30 minutes 5km time (sub 28 minute is extra challenge)
- to get a sub 65 minute 10km time (sub 60 minute is extra challenge)
- to complete 1 full unassisted pull up (set of 5 reps is extra challenge)
- to bench 3 reps at 70KG (75KG is extra challenge)
- to complete 1x rotation of ‘Insanity’ (2x rotations is extra challenge)
Accountability
Finally, I’ve written before about the power of accountability and I will re-commit again for 2014. I intend to keep you all posted and keep me honest about my achievements and challenges but I’ve decided to report on a quarterly basis as opposed to every 4 weeks.
I’m doing this to take a little bit of the pressure off writing these specific updates so I can concentrate on the work instead. Over a period of 3 months I will have more detailed findings to share and it won’t feel as repetitive – this should give you a better read too!
I will of course continue to measure and monitor my results personally on a regular basis, but I will reduce and better refine my reporting to you at the end of each quarter.
So there we have it – my weight loss goal is to lose 36lb and maintain a 15 stone weight going into January 2015 – and to achieve that I will once again be (simply) monitoring my daily exercise, food and water intake, whilst striving towards 5 key fitness goals. As with the smoking (that is remaining smoke-free) I intend to align all my other goals together – so each reinforces each other to maximise my chance of overall success.
If you remember the purpose of Smart Way To Fat Loss is to find the best ways to get in shape and reach the weight you want but in a way that is sustainable. We’re not about counting calories per se, we’re about keeping things simple, setting clear goals and putting in place mechanisms to remind you and push you to do it – so you spend your time doing what you need to do rather than stressing over mistakes or trying to keep on top of some ridiculous fad. We’re about making a change in your life so that – for the most part and for most of the time – you do the things that are going to best contribute to getting you to where you want to be. Ok… that’s my semi-inspirational ramble over for now!…
Please check back with me in a few weeks for the results of quarter one – and let me know what goals you have and how you’re getting on.
Photo: Swen-Peter Ekkebus
