Successful dieters know that losing weight requires you to set goals that are realistic and doable for your particular lifestyle.
Realistic goal setting will also help keep your motivation high because you’ll be more likely to stay on track and focused.
Being too lofty in your goal setting may seem encouraging at first but it really sets you up to fail.
If you want to start boosting your success, start following these four goal-setting tips:
1. Use the 10% solution. No matter what weight you are starting out at, setting a goal to lose 10% of your body weight is often doable for most people. For someone weighing 175 pounds, losing 10% means losing 17.5 pounds. Though this amount of weight loss may seem disappointing at first, please remember that this is only your first weight loss goal and once you achieve it and can maintain that weight, you can then set another 10% goal. Making smaller weight loss goals will help keep your motivation high.
2. Focus on specific mini-goals. Reaching a goal depends on the process of getting there. Setting specific mini-goals with specific timelines will help you stay on track. Mini-goal examples include such goals as “I will eat a piece of fruit for a snack three times this week” or “I will eat breakfast five times this week.” As you see, these goals relate to specific activities and have specific timelines. These types of goals work better than setting a general goal like “I will start eating healthier next week.”
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3. Reward yourself. We all need some motivation to stay focused on our goals. If you set up a reward system for reaching your goals, you’ll have something to look forward to. Reward examples include such things as treating yourself to a spa day or enjoying a special night out with your friends or purchasing some new workout equipment. Try setting up a reward system for when you reach your first 10 % goal. This will help you be more successful.
4. Re-evaluate and modify mini-goals. You need to pay attention to which mini-goals work well for you and which don’t. Though it feels really good when you’re able to reach your goals, you need to know what to do when something gets in your way. It’s important to take the time to evaluate what happened and modify your goals when needed. Sometimes you have the best intentions to make your bag lunch to bring to work but what happens if you oversleep and don’t have time in the morning? Don’t fret. Instead, modify your goal by committing to make your lunch the night before so your mornings aren’t as rushed.
I hope these four tips will help you set realistic goals and help you to reach them.
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