Setting goals is essential whenever you are looking at achieving a large objective. My overall long term goal is to become healthier. My mother died when she was 49, I was 27 years old at the time. She was seemingly in good heath, a healthy weight, an active life and no apparent medical problems. She died of an aortic dissection which is a rare condition that affects the main artery that runs to your heart. Now that I am only two years younger than she was when she died, it makes me pause and wonder about my own mortality. Because I am overweight and have poor exercise habits I know that I am at a higher risk for medical conditions that could take my life or perhaps even worse to have a medical condition where I would be alive but unable to participate in life.
I also want to be healthy and fit enough to enjoy an active life with my children and grandchildren. My Grandma Miller was really overweight and she also had many health issues. I remember her for the most part sitting in her big chair knitting. I really want my three grand kids (all boys) to remember me out playing with them. I also have 3 very active teenage girls still at home as well as a 10 year old daughter and I want to be a part of their many activities. It has taken me a whole lifetime to developed all these unhealthy eating habits and activities, (or should I say activity-less) and it will take major changes for me to obtain the healthy life that I want. This will require me to set goals. Setting realistic goals is so hard for me. I have the sensible part that knows what is realistic and obtainable and then there is that part of me that wants to achieve the outlandish. I know from many past diets that merely eating differently to lose weight does not work for long. My goals in the past have always been focused on weight loss alone and usually fairly unrealistic. I want to lose 50 pounds before the next family reunion, wedding, event or whatever, I want to lose 60 pounds before next summer, I want to fit into a certain dress. No matter what the goals all had to do with losing 4 to 5 pounds a week and so after a couple of weeks the goals became unattainable and I became frustrated. Now I would like to make goals that have little to do with weight loss. I know that by healthier living I will lose weight and feel better overall. So my new goals need to be better suited for the changes that I really want to make. I am going to start out with a couple of bad habits that I would like to break. I have a very bad habit of scheduling running errands around lunch time, then I have a good excuse for going through the drive through and buying lunch, in fact this has become something I do even if I am in the car between meals and I’m not really hungry at all. I am also a diet soda drinker. I know that soda is not healthy for you - even if it is diet. I also have a bad habit of eating sweets while I am reading. I think that you can tell what books I have read because of the chocolate smudges on the pages from the chocolate covered peanuts. These bad habits are not only unhealthy, but they are also expensive. Look for unhealthy eating habits or patterns and set goals to stop those habits. If you need help with suggestions for how to stop those bad habits you can e-mail me at womenandnutrition@gmail.com. I will post your challenge along with my suggestions and you may receive other suggestions from others using this blog, together we can achieve great things.
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