There is no failure only feedback.
In all honesty, 10 pounds a month is unrealistic, and most likely not healthy.
I also don't like time based goals, your mind may be willing, but your body, well, some days, not so much.
It takes time to learn to get your mind and body on the same page. As long as you keep doing the things that your mind knows are right, your body will follow, maybe slower than you'd like, but it will.
So, I'm going to tell you a little story about myself and my journey in weight loss and maintenance.
In early August of 2011, I came home from my WW meeting, tired and depressed. It was taking forever to lose the last 7 pounds and I was cranky and frustrated. So, I went to the garden to pull weeds, a great stress reliever for me. While on my hands and knees, pulling weeds and petting the cat and the dog, I was also having a pity party, wondering why I couldn't just be like normal people and not have to count my points, and my servings of veggies and protein and fruit and yada, yada.
In the middle of the act of throwing yet another weed over my shoulder, it dawned on me, maybe, I needed to redefine my notion of normal.
So, as I continued to pull weeds, I mulled this over in my mind. What did I really think normal was?
I thought about all of the people I'd seen in the last few days, at work, at the grocery store, at the gym, the gas station. One woman particular came to mind. I was 51 at the time, this lady whom I know is several years younger than me, and obese, and has been for a long time. I had just seen her earlier in the day at the grocery store. With a cart load of nasty junk food, and wearing support stockings. The kind that don't have toes and came up just above her ankles. Her toes were almost black and you could see the purple/black creeping up above the support stockings!
On the same visit, I also saw a several folks who are regularly at the gym, fit, healthy, their carts were full of mostly good, healthy, nutritious foods.
Yeah, I'm weird about looking at that kind of thing.
As I sat in the garden amongst my organic beans and carrots and squash, etc. watching the cat and the dog play, I realized, NORMAL, isn't a big ole average of people, normal, is what works for ME.
I realized that if I want to be at a healthy weight and have a fit body, and avoid the support stockings, and the threat of all of the health issues that come with long term obesity, I have to count my WW points, and get in all my servings of fruit and veg, and lean protein and calcium, etc. and work out.
It was very refreshing to finally define normal, for myself, not for some goofy notion I had about the world around me.
It took me another 2 months to lose the last 7 pounds but I did it!
The good news is, now in 2013, I'm down another 3 pounds, I work out, I love my WW lifestyle. I do indulge now and then. But I make sure it's something I really, really, really want, like my Mom's home made date cookies, that only appear one day a year, Christmas! This year I did not eat this cookie at Christmas dinner, because I knew I would eat it in the midst of all the visiting and hub bub and not even realize it. So, I brought 1 home and waited until I had a quiet moment, made a cup of apple cinnamon tea and totally enjoyed the 1 cookie!
This is a long journey of learning your mind and your body.
My best advice, track everything, if after awhile it's not working, research it, ask questions, be willing to go out there and change it up. See your Doctor.
Most of all "BE PATIENT" with the process, and "BE KIND" to yourself.
