I'm a little over four weeks into my plan and I've lost about 12 lbs. give or take daily fluctuations. I'm very excited about the momentum and I'm loving moving my body, but I also realize that I have such a long road ahead. I can't say that I'm discouraged, really, but I was wondering what you all did to celebrate small victories without getting overwhelmed by what's left to go.
Would it be better to set goals by 5-10 lb. increments, or 10% of my body weight? I think I'd prefer the latter. At which point
217: Start Weight
196:
177:
160:
144 <-- this is what I'd like to get down to. Once I'm there, should I decide to lose more we'll see.

Does this really help you maintain focus?
Sticking with my plan (calorie counting at livestrong, on week 3 of c25k, some light weights/sit-ups/push-ups on rest days) has not really posed much of a problem because I have a treadmill now. I don't crave terrible food as much, and I'm also allowed to have a weekly meal or a few drinks while maintaining steady progress. I know eventually this will all work out, it just feels like such a pipe dream right now. :\ I've never been under 150, and spent most of my life above 180.

Thanks for your time. I love this forum, and I know I'll be able to do this with all of your help. I'm so glad I found this website.

Mini goals are one of the best things I've discovered for myself
I also set little gifts for myself if I make my goal.
I Love saying "Okay, when you lose 30 pounds you can go paint a pottery piece" (huge favorite of mine!)
and So I get so excited to hit that mark!
So all of my mini goals have rewards!

I have no doubt that mini-goals are a serious component of many people's success. Personally, however, I didn't set mini-goals, and I don't think it held me back. My reasoning was that (1) I obviously didn't want food rewards (2) I couldn't afford rewards that involve spending money and (3) I feel that anything non-food non-money related that will make me happy is something I should do when I want to, not save for a special occasion. Without any type of reward, mini goals didn't make sense for me.

If you want to do them, though, go for it!

I have a whole list of mini goals from my once upon a time weights (239-last time on plan, 216-son born, 180 preg with daugter, 137-High School) with lots in between. I haveabout 10 of them plus all the percents in 10% increments of body weight, then my onederland and halfway there goal. Whew. Then I have another of all the clothing that I want to fit back into with their sizes and how much I weighed when I wore them.

I keep it all in the same notebook that I have all my measurements and my food and exercise log. I am a vey visual person so I use star stickers for every lb I lose.

So far I've enjoyed having minigoals without any real reward associated with them.

I scheduled them as touchpoints that have meaning to me and also that spread them out so I'd have a goal every 10-15 pounds or so. You can see them in my sig!

I also associated "reasonable" goal dates on them so I could use them as a touchpoint of being reasonably on track. As I get ahead/behind, I'll update the dates so they don't become completely unrealistic, but they keep me a little more immediately accountable when it's not "lose the weight in a year" but "lose x pounds in 6 weeks".

I do set mini goals (as you see in my siggy) I don't reward myself with something material or food though. I see my reward as being 10 lbs lighter, my reward is being one step closer to a healthier, sexier me!

I never really set mini-goals per se, but the decade thing was big for me. It was oddly liberating to get out of the 170's or 160's, I thought the scale was broken the first time I saw the 140's and I have been avoiding said scale for a couple of weeks, but I'm pretty sure I've got to be crossing into 130's territory. I'm not sure why, but pushing through these decades were important markers to me, and felt like the closing of one chapter and the opening of another. I think this is true especially since I've never been in the 150's, 140's or 130's at any point that I can remember (well, I've never been there at any time that I knew my actual weight, maybe age 12 or 13?).

I never reward myself with stuff because I hate 'stuff' and because as someone else mentioned I can't do a food reward and don't really have the dough for much else. However I'm getting really close to my 100 lb mark so I might have to scrounge up some money and do something for that one!! I will say that the scale dancing is going to be EPIC that day!