Mini-Goals, 177.5 pounds, and PUNISHMENT.

So obviously, the major goal here is to be healthier and to lose weight. I have this image of what I hope my body might look like once I'm at my goal weight. I can wear sleeveless shirts without huge embarrassment. I can go running without worrying so much about my jiggly parts. I don't have to worry so much about muffin top and dimply parts. However!! I have a pretty dense little frame. I will never be one of those tiny petite size 2 people, I'm pretty sure. I think that my goal size would be a size 6. I love being a curvy little brick house. So my original goal weight was 145. That puts me right in the middle of the "healthy" category for someone my size. I don't want to teeter at the edge of healthy and overweight. I want to be well within the "healthy" range.

But! I weighed in last night at 177.5 (WOOO!!!), more than 30 pounds away from this target. It just seems like quite an unsurmountable goal. As it stands, each pound is a serious struggle, and from what I have heard, the last 15 pounds is a fuckshit.

So I have adopted a setup of mini goals to keep me motivated along the way. This was inspired by my weigh-in group on my friend's blog.
Quick side-note: Everyone who trying to lose weight should sign up! It's not exclusive to any group of people and she doesn't publish your weight. On there, she has the weekly losses/gains of everyone, weight lost so far, and two goals. In addition to the little community of support available to you on the weight loss journey, she is a wonderful cook. She posts all sorts of creative recipes that are weight-smart and DELICIOUS.
So back on track. My two current mini-goals are this:
1) To lose 5% (by the end of April). Since my starting weight was 185, a 5% loss amounts to 9.25lbs. So far, I've lost 7.5lbs! Looking back, this doesn't seem like a lot since I started this whole shebang on Feb 14. But! I'm in my 8th week of this journey, and a reasonable target is about 1lb a week. So! I'm sort of on schedule.
2) To go to the gym 5 days a week for 12 weeks. When I started on Feb 14, I went to the gym 4 days a week for 4 weeks. Once I had done that, I started going 5 days a week (starting on Thurs, March 17). So I'm in week 3 of this (provided I go to the gym today, which I will). I can totally do it. The reward is a concert with D.
One thing I noticed with the two goals I picked. Initially the "gym goal" was 4 days of gym a week for 4 weeks. I breezed through that. The goal was too easy, and I found myself on one day of the week thinking--gym today? Well....I have gone 4 times this week, so....nope! I decided that if the goal was a bit "muchier" (to quote from the Alice in Wonderland movie D and I watched earlier this week), I would be more motivated by the challenge.

With the other goal, losing 9.25lbs, it feels like it's coming along soooo sllooowwwlllyyy. So I added the "end of April" business today! Only because I like the challenge of a deadline.

My friend at this blog sets herself a weekly weight loss goal OR ELSE. For example, a recent one was to weigh in at a certain weight by X date or else she will eliminate an unhealthy indulgence (in this case, chips) from her diet for Y period of time (or until she reaches goal weight Z).

My initial thought was that I didn't like the idea that if you DON'T hit a target weight loss, you are...punished? by something that's probably good for you to do in the first place--restricting access to high fat/high calorie foods. So a sort of punitive weight loss scheme? At first (and for about a week and a half), I didn't like this. In fact, I commented about this pseudo-punishment based scheme about 20 minutes ago.

In these 20 minutes, I've continued to think on it. This weekend, she hit her goal. So there was a sort of..."reward" that she got to keep chips when she hit her mark. So it wasn't punitive after all.

I thought about this on lots of levels.
First: I think it's a great idea to have a weight loss target from week to week. Perhaps my goal should be 1.5lbs. Okay. That's it. My goal is 1.5lbs a week.
Second: I'm pretty sure she's not viewing it as a real punishment. (well, her earlier "punishment" was to get rid of chocolate, and she might feel differently on this front). From what I know of her, it's more like cutting out the things which are preventing her from reaching her goals.
Third: THE REWARD IS WEIGHT LOSS. Duh. The way I'm structuring my goals, it's like the weight loss is a means to an end. And the end is a petty reward. (an awesome petty reward, though). If the reward is a svelte new physique, that's an awesome end (heh. in more ways than one)!

I like my goals that I have. But I want to add a third goal to my system. One thing I really struggle with (and I know my "fatopera" friend struggles with, too) is junkk foood. I love it so. I love fast food. I love fried things. I love little high calorie snackie things that are just SO easy to shovel into my mouth by the handful.

So here's my new goal. I am hereby avowing to eliminate my favorite fatty indulgence for one month. No. Fried. Food.
I'm defining fried as anything deep fat fried (that is immersed in oil, not pan fried or stir fried) and anything which is battered (and then fried). No delicious fries. No chips (and salsa, by extension--oh glorious salsa). No delightful GB's Fish and Chips (a great British style place in Denver). And worst worst worst of all. My favorite fried indulgence. No. Fried. Chicken. Chick Fil-A, my old friend, you can totally suck it.

This isn't meant to be punitive (okaymaybeitisalittlebit) . It's more than that. I want to lose weight. I want to stop eating crap food (sort of). I also want to expand my abilities in the kitchen. I think that if I restrict my access to fast, fried, delicious, and cheap, I will be forced to create delicious concoctions of my own sort at home. Go-go-gadget self control!