We all know the cautionary tale of Icarus who is given wings made of wax and feathers by his father Daedalus. Icarus is warned not to fly too close to the sun, but he gets caught up in the moment. In his joy and love for flying, he loses sight of common sense. He becomes ambitious and overconfident as he flies higher and higher, getting closer and closer to the sun, until his wings melt, and he falls to his death.
I, like Icarus, continually fly too close to the sun. I am notorious at
setting myself unrealistic goals to achieve in a ridiculously short amount of
time. I get caught up in the instantaneous joy of "making a life changing decision", "finally doing something", or "unleashing my full potential". Basically I get motivated to diet, and each time I choose the quick fix, knowing all the dangers, but assuring myself that "this time will be different".
In reality I become over ambitious, and stop thinking rationally about the consequences. I get caught up in emotion, that rush of desire to be amazing. I then measure my awesomeness based on two numbers: either my weight or my clothing size. More often then not I use both. This rush towards finally taking "positive action"/ "doing something with my life" leads to fad dieting, unhappiness and the motivation disappears as fast as it originally came. I crash and burn.
Some fantastic examples of past completely unachievable goals I've
set myself have been:
• lose
10kg (22lbs!) in a month
• do
2 hours of exercise EVERY day, no matter what.
• cycle
up Mount Wellington (which cycling fans will know is a HC rated climb. HC is
the HARDEST rating a climb can have. Enough to make Lance Armstrong's face a
canvas of pain!)
• cycling
from Perth to Melbourne, with no prior training (that's only 3,600km/2,237miles)
• Eat
400 calories a day, until I'm an Australian size 8 (US size 4)
ok, so by now you probably get the picture. You
probably also noted that none of the above goals are shining examples of a
healthy attitude to weight loss. OF COURSE I failed. Anyone with these goals
would fail.
... and let me tell you failing SUCKS! I would get
in this cycle of setting unrealistic goals, taking extreme measures to achieve
them, only lasting 3-16 days and feeling miserable because I was depriving
myself, then I would succumb and have a breakout. One breakout, would become
two, and before you know it I was eating the ENTIRE block of chocolate. This
would lead to feeling like I was incapable of doing anything, a loser who was
doomed to be fat forever, and I would beat myself up about being weak, lazy,
stupid and obviously not wanting 'it' enough.
Instead of realising that what I was trying to do was unhealthy and impossible, I would blame myself and see only inadequacy. Further as I slowly spiralled into being more depressed about it, I would comfort myself with - you guessed it - chocolate! At my lowest point I could eat FOUR blocks (that's 1kg or 2.2lbs) a week. This was on top of the sugary hot chocolates, the crunchy crisps and the bread and honey I would also regularly eat. As I said, my actions meant I was doomed to fail!
Instead of realising that what I was trying to do was unhealthy and impossible, I would blame myself and see only inadequacy. Further as I slowly spiralled into being more depressed about it, I would comfort myself with - you guessed it - chocolate! At my lowest point I could eat FOUR blocks (that's 1kg or 2.2lbs) a week. This was on top of the sugary hot chocolates, the crunchy crisps and the bread and honey I would also regularly eat. As I said, my actions meant I was doomed to fail!
So this time is different. I'm setting myself reasonable
goals and following a diet that is sustainable.
My weight goal is to weigh 64kg (142lbs).
I'm currently 85kg (187lbs) and my heaviest
weight this January was 93.5kg (206lbs).
That means that in total I would like to lose
29.5kg (64lbs)
My clothing size goal is to fit into an Australian size 10 (US size 6).
I'm currently a size 14 (US size 10) and my biggest
was a size 16 (US size 12).
So I would like to lose 3 dress sizes in
total.
Time-wise, I am going to try to
do it slowly and realistically.
To allow for life (stress, setbacks, breakouts,
holidays, parties, family gatherings etc) I'm going to try and lose 1.5kg
(3.3lbs) a month.
My weight at the beginning of August was 87kg
(192lbs). Here is a complete list of my weight loss goals per month.
2012
End of August = 85.5kg (189 lbs.)
End of September = 84kg (185 lbs)
End of October = 82.5kg (182lbs)
End of November = 81kg (178lbs)
End of December = 79.5kg(175lbs)
2013
End of January = 78kg (172lbs)
End of February = 76.5kg (169lbs)
End of March = 75kg (165lbs)
End of April = 73.5kg (162lbs)
End of May = 72kg (159lbs)
End of June = 70.5kg (156lbs)
End of July = 69kg (152lbs)
End of August = 67.5kg (149lbs)
End of September = 66kg (146lbs)
End of October = 64.5 kg (142lbs)
End of November = 64 kg (141lbs)
So in 16 months I plan on losing 23kg
(51lbs)!
By doing it this gradually I'm hoping to keep my lovely wax wings intact.
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