I have a Plan...

I have a plan for the rest of 2024.

I've been reading the book Mind Over Weight by Ian K. Smith, which had a couple of really good chapters on goal setting and motivation. He suggested that along with making your goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound (SMART), you also make sure you have a reward system in place. He also recommended that you have some goals in place that are not tied to the scale.

So I put a bit of thought into coming up with a weight goal for the rest of the year, along with a non-weight goal for July to give this a go. I'm hoping the reward part was what I've been missing from my previous goal-setting attempts.

So in terms of overall weight-loss goal, we have approximately 6 months of the year left to go. I am thinking that I can aim to lose 20lbs over the next six months, which is a slow and steady approach. This would equate to approximately 3lbs a month, which is a little more aggressive than the 0.5lbs I was aiming for earlier in the year, but still a leisurely approach to help me build healthier habits. I'm going to make it "lose 18 lbs" just to make the math easier.

I'm going to use 230lbs as the rough guide (through June I've been fluctuating between about 229 and 231, so 230 is a reasonable starting point). That means I want to be down to 227 by the end of July. I decided that if I make it to 227, as a reward I'm going to watch a YogaBody Masterclass (I unfortunately had to buy it because it was only on sale for so long, but I will hold off watching it until the end of the month - if I don't succeed, I don't get to watch it).

As a non-scale goal, I am going to do the yoga for back pain routine I like twice a week for four weeks. Before going on vacation, I was consistently doing that routine once a week (Mondays). So I am going to schedule it in a second time every week, most likely on Thursday or Friday, depending on what is going on. I'm not going to reward myself every week for sticking to that, but instead will give myself a reward every second week: if I make it the first two weeks, I get to look for 5 new songs on iTunes. And if I make it for the full four weeks, I will buy myself a new nail polish for August. :)

I am excited to give this a try - I hope it works to get me motivated!

Weight Update for June 24

Today I am officially finished some vacation time and am back to work. So it's a good day to see what my numbers are showing:

weight: 231.0
fat percentage: 56.3
hydration: 30.0
muscle: 21.4
bone: 10.5
cal: 2416

Weight wise, I'm down a little bit from last week, which is good. But my fat percentage is a bit higher and my muscle percentage is a little lower, so that's not great. The muscle percentage is a bit surprising because I was fairly active last week - I was swimming a few times, went sea kayaking, and did a bit of yoga one day. But I am getting closer to my period starting, so that might be impacting things as well.

I should note: I've been trying to prioritizing eating more protein at each meal like that Yogabody Masterclass I watched suggested, and I've noticed a difference in my hunger and energy levels overall, which is great news. I'll definitely be continuing to consume a little more healthy protein!

Some June Weight Updates

Just some weight updates for June:

June 5:

weight: 229.8
fat percentage: 54.8
hydration: 31.0
muscle: 22.1
bone: 10.5
cal: 2410

June 10:

weight: 229.8
fat percentage: 54.3
hydration: 31.4
muscle: 22.4
bone: 10.5
cal: 2410

June 17:

weight: 231.6
fat percentage: 54.5
hydration: 31.2
muscle: 22.3
bone: 10.5
cal: 2420

I'm not surprised that the June 17th one is a bit higher than the rest of the month - that was a few days after my birthday! We'll see how things are looking tomorrow.