Thoughts on Goal Weight Setting....

I was thinking this morning about goal weights in general, and the tendency I had at the beginning of the journey to "not really think" that I could actually GET to a BMI of 21 which is what Medifast/TSFL recommended for me since, oh, 2006!

In working with people on accomplishing THEIR health goals, I see this tendency of setting our GOALS to accommodate our ACTIONS, instead of setting our ACTIONS to accommodate our GOALS.

What do I mean by this?

Well, so many people I speak to who are obese when they begin this plan tend to set their "goal weight" instinctively somewhere in the upper-over-weight zone, or sometimes even the Class 1 Obesity zone.  I believe this tendency springs from their idea of what is "realistic" for them, based on what they may have accomplished in the past, or where they may have "felt comfortable", because, for some people, they have truly never BEEN a healthy weight before!

I ALWAYS redirect, and let them know what the very top range of healthy would be for them, encouraging them that it IS POSSIBLE to be a healthy weight.  I think for many people, myself included for a long time, we just didn't believe it was possible.  Or that we had it "in" us to be ACTUALLY HEALTHY. 

But that is what this whole thing is all about for me. 

I want OPTIMAL HEALTH.  I didn't want "still overweight".  I didn't want "still obese".  THAT was not inspiring to me.

So I had to put aside what the little voice in the back of my head was whispering, you know that little voice that tells us that we CAN'T?  That little voice is a liar.

We can.

When I was maintaining for a 18 months last year, before making this final push to a BMI of 21, I was maintaining right on the cusp of overweight/healthy weight.  A BMI of about 25.   I would fluctuate a little here and there, and after my Gall Bladder surgery 11 months ago I was actually a BMI of 28 and brought it back down to 25 again, but I was still right there on the edge of overweight/healthy weight.

And I thought I looked pretty good!  I thought I looked GREAT actually!  Now that I look at pictures from that time, I know that my brain was pulling a fast one on me, not allowing me to see my true size.  Granted, I came down from 272 pounds and a BMI of 48, so to my brain smaller is smaller!  A BMI of 25 or 26 or even 28 was DRASTICALLY and INDISPUTABLY smaller than a BMI of 48.

However, now that I have a BMI of 23 those pictures of me at 25 and 26 look a little puffy if you know what I mean! 

So apparently I am dragging my self-perception and my brain along to health, kicking and screaming, because my brain didn't "see" me as puffy when I WAS still puffy.

Bottom line is I can't trust my self-perception, I need to go by the chart.  I need to go by the National Standards with the National Institute of Health, and what THEY say is healthy, with my frame size factored in.

Now, that doesn't mean that if I had a LARGE frame size that it would be a good goal to shoot for a weight in the OVERWEIGHT category.  No.  The BMI chart has accounted for frame size in the 33 pound swing of what it classifies as a HEALTHY weight for person (male OR female) who is 5 foot 3. 

My healthy weight range is, in black and white, 107-140.  That represents a BMI of 19-24.9 and THAT is healthy.

So when I talk about letting ACTIONS accommodate GOALS instead of the other way around, what I mean is this.

For about 18 months I allowed my PERCEPTIONS of what I THOUGHT I could accomplish dictate what my GOAL was.

What I CHANGED in April of this year is that I made the DECISION objectively that I was going to SET A GOAL and then make my ACTIONS align with my GOAL and not the other way around.

I was comfortable where I was, but I was not optimally healthy.  The difference in how I feel with a BMI of 23 as opposed to a BMI of 25-26 and even up to 28 after my surgery cannot be described, it is amazing.

Things were GREAT at a BMI of 25-26 though, I don't want to say they weren't.  But it was as if I was waiting for something to spur me to finish the job, it was like I was waiting to be motivated externally by something outside myself, and what I finally realized is that:

A)  Whether I BELIEVED I could get to my goal of a BMI of 21 or not wasn't the issue, the facts are that I can

B)  I was waiting to be motivated by emotional pain and conflict, which would be consistent with a yo-yo pattern of dieting, and since I wasn't GAINING my weight back that emotional pain and conflict was NOT ever going to arrive (YAY!), so I had to change my motivation.

C)  When I changed my motivation to what AWESOME and AMAZING things I could ACCOMPLISH and bring IN to my life as a result of obtaining my health goals as spurring me towards action (instead of a negative goal of emotional pain and conflict or what I wanted OUT of my life), I realized that I could finish this thing!  I could take my health and my journey exactly where I CHOOSE to take it.

So, I'm on my way.  I am presently 130, or a BMI of 23.  My goal is 118, or a BMI of 21. 

And so I am setting my ACTION to accommodate my GOAL and I set my GOAL by an objective standard not a subjective one.

Rinse and Repeat!