My Weight Loss Journey: # 2: Goals, Planning & Tracking

Hey Guys,

So here is part two of yesterdays post all about my weight loss journey, if you missed yesterdays post you can catch up here. Basically it's a little introduction to my weight history and realising where my problems with weight gain lie.

This part I'm going to talk about the importance of goal setting, planning and tracking, I'm also going to share with you my personal goals and the way I track progress.

First up: Goals! 
The importance of goal setting is that if you have no end goal how do you know when you've achieved something? This kind of goes for everything.
I like to set a long term end goal and also little goals in-between. This ables me to keep on track and know what I'm doing. I just think it's a bit depressing setting a 'I want to loose 5 stone by next Jan' because come April I'll be like oh I'm still so far off that goal. So by setting little goals in between it gives you the motivation to keep going and carry on!

For my goals I set up a little picture which I've stuck on my wall:

 As you can see I've reached my first mini goal and my second goal I'm 2lb off!
I'll be honest I had to re-adjust my goals because with my new job I don't have as much time to exercise so It's going to take a little longer to reach my goals.

As well as setting goals of what you want to loose you need to have other goals in the sense of why are you doing this weight loss and want do you want out of this at the end. From my personal journey I want to improve my relationship with food, I want to be aware of what I'm putting inside my body and when loosing my weight know at the end I can maintain it. So I don't just want to eat rabbit food for the next year I want to eat well and healthy.
However my main goal at the end is I want to be able to wear a pair of TopShop light blue skinny jeans and a pale pink jumper from Ralph Lauren. This is quite specific but I see my friends buying Topshop jeans and I'm so jealous as they just do not fit me. In terms of the Jumper when I was 12 I went to Ralph Lauren feel in love with the jumper, which my friend ended up buying in white, and I was gutted because even the large didn't fit.

Planning
Planning comes with two aspects. The first one is plan your goals with achievable dates, be realistic, like me I know with my job I can't exercise as much as last summer because back then I had to much time but now my time in limited. So being realistic my weight loss may not be as stable as before.
The second aspect of planning is planning what you are going to eat, when your going to eat it and when your going to buy it!
For the last 6 months every Saturday morning I'll plan the meals for the week, go food shopping and only buy what I need. I find if you don't plan what you're going to buy you will end up buying stuff you do need and that extra stuff I bet you anything will be chocolate and fizzy drinks.
I also plan when I eat my food:

• 7:30 am: Breakfast: Typically high fibre cereal 
• 11am: am Snack: a Banana 
• 2pm: Lunch: Leafy green salad and a form of low fat meat 
• 4pm: pm Snack: This tends to be my down part of the day when I get really tired and hungry so I'll have 35g of nuts and dried fruit
• 7pm: Dinner: Typically 40g brown rice, chicken and green beans 

My dinners do vary so it's not boring but you get the idea. However next months post will be dedicated to what foods I eat and what works for me.

Lastly is Tracking

Pure and simple: How are you going to track your progress? 

Again tying in with planning, I weigh myself every Saturday morning at around 10:30am. I only weigh myself once a week because your weight on a day to day basis can change so much and I find doing that gets me down. For example one day I'll be a l lb lighter the next I'm 2 lb heavier, who's got time for that disappointment eh? Although once a week works for me, I've got a friend who likes to weight herself everyday and that works for her, so it's what works for you. 

Tracking progress is so important, simple to know where your at. I personally use the Nintendo Wii to weigh myself as it keeps track for me, tells me my BMI and also what category I'm in (obese/overweight). I also like using this because you get a little graph which you can see below. 

I also, once I've weighed myself I write it down on my calendar so it's an everyday reminder of how far away from my next goal I am.

So that's the end of the second part, part three will be posted next month on the 10th February. However depending on how well these posts go down I may start posting about it like every other week, if you would prefer that then please comment away and I'll see what I can do.
Again I'm not saying what I've done will work for everyone but if your stuck in a rut and don't know where to begin it could be worth a try? I really hope I'm making sense and I can make a difference in your weight loss!

For you beauty readers if you've got this far I will be posting a review on Thursday and a beauty or fashion related at the weekend, but for now have a good rest of the week and I'll be back soon.