Setting Realistic Goals - 02.03.08 - D13P2R4

R4P2 Starting Weight 184.4
Yesterday - 169.4
Today - 168.2
1.2 lb LOSS Overnight
7.2 lb UNDER LIW of Round Three (175.4)
16.2 Lost Since Start of R4 (VLCD) 01/22/08
82.6 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Here is my menu for yesterday. This is what I had:

Ok, I am so over yesterday with my on and off headache all day. I am going to chalk it up to some detox thing that was going on and call it a day! I had an apple for a morning snack, and then I decided to 'experiment' with broccoli so had some Chicken and Broccoli soup for lunch, my grapefruit for mid afternoon snack and then dinner was a Grilled Hamburger Patty with lettuce salad and mustard dressing. Oh yeah, yesterday was a good eating day. The broccoli did not affect my losses, so guess I will be doing THAT again. I do love my broccoli, it actually feels like I am cheating! ROFL

A total of around 450 calories divided this way: 8 Fat, 42 Carbs, 54 Protein

GO HERE AND SIGN UP FOR UPCOMING HCG NEWSLETTER!!! I actually have a date! Look for it on February 15th! WOO HOO!!!

Let's not forget the HCG BOOK CLUB - join in on the fun! If you haven't signed up for it yet, please do so now. eMail Address Form

Our FAQ Question this go round is the following, please spend some time if you can answering this survey:

One more day to leave it up!!! New question tomorrow! Any others willing to approach this subject?

Foods on Phase 2 - Do Some Work Better Than Others?

Experimentation: SUCCESS!

I had a little talk with myself yesterday morning and asked myself if I was willing to perform a little experiment with the trying of the broccoli - so since I have had this miraculous weight loss in just 12 days (as of yesterday) - I was like, what the heck, I can afford to stall for a few days in the interest of research! So that is what I did.

Honest to goodness, I felt like I was "cheating" - now keep in mind, for me to even USE that word, this feeling had to be sinister and devious. It was like I was hoarding my bowl of soup, afraid of the "Protocol Nazi's" that might show up to remind me that broccoli was NOT on the Dr Simeon plan. I would look around, sneak a taste, and savor the wonderfulness of broccoli. OMG! I consider BROCCOLI A CHEAT! How extremely funny is that???

Suffice it to say it was delish, and I will be doing the broccoli thing again today. Do you even consider how much is open to me by using broccoli? OMG, the menu is limitless!!! I am gonna make some good ole fashioned "Beef and Broccoli" tonight for supper, I will let you know how it turns out, but you just know it will HAVE to be good!

So what is with the freaking 1.2 loss this morning??? I seriously DO NOT KNOW! Could it be all that shaking my body was doing when I was fearful of the "Protocol Nazi's"??? HA! Whatever it is, I will take it and not argue.

Here are the numbers:

Day 12 (Complete) - Round 4 = 8.79% Body Weight Loss
Day 12 (Complete) - Round 3 = 7.25% Body Weight Loss
Day 12 (Complete) - Round 2 = 6.16% Body Weight Loss
Day 12 (Complete) - Round 1 = 5.90% Body Weight Loss

Say it with me! WOO HOO FOR ME!!!

Goals

Ok, there are some of you out there that feel that my goal for this round was unrealistic. Let me tell you how I arrived at that goal, and then I want to discuss how I feel about goals, and what makes or breaks them with me.

Since I had planned on doing a 4 week round this time, minus one day that is, I decided to look at the two rounds I did that had more than 4 weeks in them to see what my average would be. Since I always look at body weight percentage loss instead of actual pounds lost, I use that number.

Round 1 - 4 week mark minus one day = 9.33%
Round 2 - 4 week mark minus one day = 9.98%

Add those together and divide by two to get an average, you get = 9.65%

In my mind, I could look at that number (9.65%) as what I could reasonably expect my body to lose based on past performance - so I took 9.65% of what my starting weight was on this round (184.4) and it came up with 17.79 lbs. This is how I arrived at the start of this round with the 17 lbs - At the start of this round, I seriously had NO IDEA that I was gonna be as far as I am, quite frankly, I thought it was gonna take me like at least a week to lose my numbers above LIW - little did I know that would happen and give me MORE within the first week.

But my goal was realistic. It was planned without any knowledge of the future, only what was based on past performance. There is so much that can happen in the future that can throw a monkey wench in it. When I look at past performance and base my goals on that, maybe a bit better, I work to get a little bit better each and every time. Do you see what I mean?

My goal of 17 lbs this round, I look at it now, sure, I am like .8 away from achieving it, but it was realistic, and I am gonna surpass it and that is going to make me feel WONDERFUL - not like I am striving after the wind! Gives me confidence instead of feeling like I am a loser at everything I do.

Setting SMART Goals

I learned this a really long time ago, and it has served me well. We need to set SMART Goals:

• S - Specific
• M - Measurable
• A - Attainable
• R - Realistic
• T - Timely
  

Let's break them down:

Specific - Your goals need to be very specific, you need to break them down to the lowest common denominator - you can't just say, "I want to lose weight" that only gives us the what - you need to tell us why you want to lose weight and how you intend on losing it.

My experience in using this aspect of SMART GOALS

• I wanted to lose weight
• I was going to use the HCG Protocol by Dr Simeons
• I wanted to lose this weight to become more healthy, regulate my hormones, live longer, look better, feel better
  

Measurable - You have to be able to chart progress, that is what this is all about, being able to see a day to day progression of things so that you can make changes along the way to meet your goal. There is a certain amount of satisfaction to watching a chart go down, down, down (in the example of weight loss) - being able to see your goal being reached because of the trend you taking gives you the confidence to keep moving forward.

My experience in using this aspect of SMART GOALS

• My measuring takes place round by round - I had an ultimate beginning goal of 150 lbs - but I have always separated my goals by the rounds I do to get to the ULTIMATE goal of 150.
  

Attainable - This one is rough - kinda in line with what I talked about yesterday about our 'ideal' weight. Can we really reach our goal? It would have been silly to set a goal of 108 lbs (what I was when I was 18) - but a goal of 150 was very attainable. The thing about this aspect of setting goals is that this particular one needs to be just a bit of a stretch, enough that you can commit to it and take it seriously - instead of something so easy that you don't appreciate the process of getting there.

My experience in using this aspect of SMART GOALS

• Each round I would set a specific goal. For my first round, I wasn't exactly SOLD on the "one pound a day" business, but based on the research I had done, I saw that losing a half a pound a day was pretty much par. So I set that as a goal. By the 2nd, 3rd and now the 4th round, I had back data I could use to set goals for myself. It's my body and it behaves in a certain way so I could use those numbers to set what I felt were attainable goals.
  

Realistic - Ok, this is super important - are your goals realistic? Sometimes we talk of this aspect of SMART Goals as "Baby Steps" - Realistic does not mean EASY - but definitely DOABLE - Set these goals high enough but not so high that you are doomed to failure, but also the opposite is true. Don't set them so low that you surpass them with no effort and pretty soon you might feel that is all your capable of doing.

My experience with using this aspect of SMART GOALS

• This ties in nicely with the "attainable" portion - all of my goals have been realistic, with each and every round, because I base them on past performance, the only thing that is "real" - all expect for the first round that is. I had nothing but pure conjecture on that one!
  

Timely - Oh yeah, this is mondo important - give yourself a limit. What is really funny about this aspect? Time needs to be ATTAINABLE, REALISTIC AND MEASURABLE - how about that for wrapping things up??? Give yourself a deadline.

My experience with using this aspect of SMART GOALS

• Again, I make my goals per round. This is kinda funny. Looking back on some of my early postings in the Yahoo Group I had this silly notion about making goal by winter - well, winter has come and is almost gone - yet I am not there. Going round by round is the way to go, at least in my book. But I set my goal at the beginning of the round, what my weight is on my first VLCD day and I know how long my round is going when I start it, and so I know the things necessary to make a goal.

Well my, my, that was a lot of writing! But I hope you can now understand why I set the goals that I do.

On to my commenter's - these are my responses to yesterday's comments:

Crystal - thanks my pal! I sure have been on this long enough to know that the HCG is the miracle DR S said it was, so I am just gonna let him do his thing!

Jenn - GEESH GIRL! You are so demanding! ROFL - You know I WUB U! There is something to the whole letting your food digest before you go to bed thing going on there. I think the number is 2 or 3 hours (someone help me here who knows the real number) and well, we all know that Miz Biz goes to bed early! The latest I ever go to bed is around 10pm - so I have a cut off of 7pm. I have found in my experience with this protocol that I have less success when I eat later. Yesterday I ate at 5pm and lookie there, 1.2 loss today! Something to be said for that!

Mary - Geesh girl! I read about your day, and I was like, OMG - you poor baby, I hope this weekend you get to recoop. Here are some hugs for you {{{{MARY}}}}

Mariel - Thank you friend for the kind words. Shoot, I cannot even believe I am chatting about less than 20 lbs to my goal, that is so UNREAL!

CB - Helps put things into perspective eh? Another thing we have to remember? Is that because of HCG we are at a different place at the same weight. So what you may have looked at 150 lbs without HCG can be completely different then you at 150 lbs with HCG! Blows the mind!

Liz - WELCOME to our little community! Just starting eh? Let me tell you that the people that are in this community will help you with your journey! We always love new people finding this protocol! Start a blog, even if all you do is post your stats. We need to get the word out!

Monica - WOO HOO!!! We are neck and neck! Loving life right now eh??? Always remember the sculpting. It's miraculous. Let the HCG do it's thing. I hate to think of life without coffee right now, but whatever, the migraine is worse.

Becca - oh geesh, another hubby out there that doesn't know what the heck he is talking about. Don't listen girl, do what you need to do to get where you want to go. We are women, hear us roar!!! WOO HOO FOR US HOT MOMMAS - what do the youngins have on us girlfriend???

Lili - Oh yeah girlfriend! I keep trying to remind people that losing on HCG is different than anything else they have ever done before. I had to laugh my friend, you and your purdy smile. You need me to start up the emergency fund for your jewelry store again???

Have a wonderful day!!! Full of sunshine and rainbows!

Biz