The unrealistic goals confession thread
 

I was just fooling around with my sparkpeople account which I’ve had for about 2 ½ years and was looking at my graph that showed my weight loss..boy did I have unrealistic goals in the beginning. Needless to say, I’m about 40 lbs shy of where I should have been a year and a half ago…lol! My goal was to go from 234 to 120 in, what now, seems like the snap of a finger, 1 year…lol. How misguided I was. I must have thought that I was always going to lose 3-4 lbs a week, that I was never going to have weeks or months where I just gave up…
Hindsight!
Anybody else write down goals in the beginning that now you know were totally unrealistic?

i see where your coming from, but i read recently that coming up with a hard to reach goal may actually result in greater weight loss, regardless if you meet that size 2 goal or not. i guess maybe your more inclined to push yourself a bit harder, than settle for mediocre results. so i'm sticking with my size 6 goal. maybe even size 4. i can do it!!!!!! heh

Uhhuh. I remember making a chart a few years ago and taping it to my bathroom mirror. It had a very pretty line that just went straight down at a very steep angle - and I was determined to follow that line. It was a totally unrealistic rate of loss and after my actual line veered off so far from the "plan" I gave up.

Craziness.

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The diet plan I described for myself at first was way too strict and had really too little calories. About 900 I think and I was hungry all the time. My dietist was my saviour... she looked me into the eyes and said: "You will never be able to keep this up. It is really too little, there is no need to be hungry all the time!". On her advice I upped stuff here and there and that's more or less how I still eat.

Yup. Back when first I started out I went through my entire day planner and wrote down "target" weights on target dates. Fortunately, I learned enough along the way that those silly targets now give me a giggle rather than make me feel like a failure.

lol, you mean like my goal to be 230 by Christmas? When I was starting in October? lol I've been there done that. I am now setting more realistic goals.

I've always been pretty realistic about a weight I can get to with my body type.

When I was in highschool at a pretty solid weight for me, about 130... I dropped to about 122 by essentially starving myself, and eating Atkins style. Sure, I weighed very little... but people also expressed serious concern about me, and I was hungry all the time. I lived off of cheese strings and hamburgers without the bun, and then carbs found me. :lol:

Even on these forums, when I see people talking about fitting into size 2s and 4s (no offense to anyone intended!!!) I'm like, "Really? Have you ever been that size before?" Because I don't think there's ANY way that I could EVER be a size 2 without being SERIOUSLY unhealthy. I simply don't have the frame for it... I'm happy with an 8 or a 10, because I know that somewhere around those numbers is where I'm no longer "overweight," I'm average. And that makes me happy. :) ...If I happened to through keeping up the exercise, continue to lose inches and rock out a 6? My life would be complete. :lol:

And see, I'm your same height and wearing a size 10 at my current weight (which is 161). By the time I lose 30 more lbs, I'll easily fit into a 6 and probably even a few 4s, I suspect.

When I first started losing I thought, well, if I can fit into an 8-10, I'll probably be close to my goal. As it turns out, at a size 10 my BMI is still in the "overweight" range ... although no longer obese.

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i cant use sizes as a goal, becase they just vary so much. i dont want to feel bad about myself if i fit in a 6 in one place and not the other.

Very true! I feel the same way about sizes. I used to think about them all the time, and the girls in the office at my old job didn't help either! :(

In my opinion, it seems like too many people focus on the wrong numbers.

This is why I am falling in luv with this place! Most people here are super supportive about wanting not only to lose weight but also maintain a healthier lifestyle! :trampo:

Lol, wow. Yeah, see... at 151 lbs, I'm like.. a size 12-14... more on the side of the 12 I think, lol. And we are the same height. It's nuts, body types are so varied... And yeah, I'm still "overweight"... I'm determined to get rid of that, lol.

i remember a year ago wanting to lose 20 pounds in 1 month! lol And when it didnt happen i just kinda gave up :(

True i know people who are about 50 pounds + that wear the same jean size i do i was also a size 14 when i was 160-155 but now its an 8 WOOT WOOT!!

Yes yes yes. When I started losing in September I set up a goal chart for myself, where I would consistently lose 7 lbs a month til I got to my goal of 130 in March. Wow, for the first two months that went well, but the closer you get to goal the slower it goes. Oh well I guess, I'm enjoying where I'm at, at least I'm into my size 8's!

I alway set unrealistic goals! I need immediate gratification or I wasn't interested. Even now my goals might be kind've unrealistic but I have mini goals to keep me in check. I also know I can't do that pant size thing. Especially cause from the time I started gaining a lot of weight fast, I gained 60lbs, yes 60LBS!!! and only went from a 14 to a 16, sometimes an 18. And I assume its cause the weight is well distributed and I'm tall. So pant size means nothing to me!