Julie’s Weight Loss Goal
Julie is 28 years old now and weighs 126 pounds, but just 3 years ago she weighed in at 240 pounds! This is the story of what happened.
Julie had been overweight her whole life, starting from when she was a child. When she was 18 she weighed 200 pounds, and when she went to college her weight continued to creep up.
Julie had tried to lose weight many times before, from slimming classes, to whichever popular diet was around at the time, and usually lost weight at first. Of course the weight always came back on again and more, because she as soon as she stopped dieting she went back to her normal eating habits.
One day Julie saw a photo of herself, and decided she had to change. Instead of starting another fad diet, she decided that this time had to be different.
In the past, she had always focused on how much weight she had to lose overall, instead of breaking the goal into small steps. This time Julie took a different approach, she decided she was going to make her goal more realistic and attainable, and lose just 10% of her body weight. With only 24 pounds to lose, Julie set about reaching her weight loss goal.
weight loss goal
She began to eat low fat food and walked to work everyday rather than driving. This seemed easier because she knew she only had 24 pounds to lose.
The first week she lost 5 pounds, and thereafter 1-2 pounds a week. Although it was slow progress at times, Julie knew she was working toward a clear, specific, attainable goal, only 24 pounds to lose.
By the end of the first month he had lost 10 pounds and only had 14 to go. It took Julie 10 weeks to lose her 10% but when she did, the feeling of success encouraged her to carry on.
Again she decided to lose 10%, since it worked so well last time and again she worked hard at eating healthy. With each 10% she lost, she had the feeling of success, encouraging her to carry on. The incremental goals made it easier to focus on losing weight. Had she set a goal to lose 100 pounds it likely would have been overwhelming, but 10% felt attainable.
It took her 2 years to reach her goal, but by the time she did it she had changed her attitude about weight loss, seeing each step as success.
Julie came up with an attainable, goal driven way to keep the weight off, too. She uses her goal setting attitude to maintain her healthy weight by allowing herself 10% weight change either way before losing weight, so she never gets into a position she was before.
By setting realistic and achievable weight loss goals, we are far more likely to achieve them, as opposed to a huge goal that seems impossible. Like Julie, the small, consistent daily activities will offer you reward every step along the way. Julie saw her weight loss in manageable steps which she seemed attainable and that she believed she could accomplish. The result is a new, healthier happier Julie.
