If you’re trying to lose weight, you’ll often set yourself a goal weight. That’s a useful strategy, but you shouldn’t lose sight of the improvements that become evident along the way.
I’m reminded of this point by Adro Sarnelli, the guy who lost 51.3 kilograms to win the first Australian season of The Biggest Loser. Promoting his latest venture, the New Me weight loss retreat centre, Sarnelli points out that concentrating too much on the final figure can make it harder to reach:
Acknowledge the mini goals or objectives that you achieve as you achieve them; it is not good to expect yourself to get all the way to the end goal without any praise, reward or acknowledgement. Make sure you never reward with food or similar as that would be going against you’re trying to achieve by changing. If you finally fit your dream outfit lash out and buy a new smaller greater one to work towards.
Your weight is always going to vary, so concentrating too much on a single number can be counter-productive.
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5 responses to “Enjoy The Weight Loss Journey As Well As The Ultimate Destination”
“If you finally fit your dream outfit lash out and buy a new smaller greater one to work towards.” Karen Carpenter probably followed a similar ethos. Just sayin.
I’ve found it helpful to gamefy the routine. I tried apps like RunKeeper and they worked to some extent by I’ve found ingress to be the most helpful. I’m fortunate that there are a pile of ingress portals 30min walk from my house and have found myself much more committed to get going with knowledge that there’s something a bit more immediately tangible.
I’m setting these low-blow jokes on eating disorders to be the standard that I can post on LH now.
I wasn’t making a joke. I was pointing out that the advice contained in the quote was dangerously unhealthy.
I’m going through a lifestyle change at the moment, including a huge weightloss goal. My original problem was that I focused on the final goal of my ideal weight (some 50kg down) so I readjusted my goals to make it feel less daunting while I got into that habit of good food and exercise. Now that I’m at the gym 5+ times a week and eating great, healthy and home cooked meals I feel less daunted by my total goal.
Breaking it down early kept my motivation focused on the small gains, once the landslide starts and it’s suddenly not a chore to go to the gym or cook up some vegies you can focus on the big goals. I’ve so far lost 20kg and I’m still a long way off but it’s getting better every day.