Week 2: Goal Setting
This week was rough, but good. I work from home, so I usually get to sleep in as long as I can—until the puppy wakes me up. But this week, I got up at 7:20 five mornings to meet my best friend and running partner, Sarah Austin, and go running.
We ran the South Creek Trail and traded off pushing her 9-month-old in the jogging stroller (hello, shoulder work out!). We met one morning at Phelps Grove Park to do pace work. Five mornings, up before the sun. This is good for me; I can feel it. Just 10 weeks until the half marathon.
Pamela and I did some really great training sessions this week, too. I am learning lots of new exercises to strengthen my core and firm up some areas that are too flabby—I just know I’m going to get “teacher wings,” the under-arm flab that sways as you erase the board, so we’ve been targeting my arms.
My favorite part of this week was goal-setting.
At the end of each session, Pamela and I sit down and talk. Early on, we looked at the half-marathon training plan I had put together. Another day, we discussed some of the small healthy changes Pamela wants me to make with my eating. Drinking only 12 ounces of Dr. Pepper a day is one that I am doing pretty good at so far—I’ve had 8 Dr. Pepper-free days since I started working with Pamela!
This week, we looked at long-term goals. Here’s what I’m aiming for.
Long Term Goals
- Reduce weight to 170 pounds by June 1, 2012
- Reduce body fat percentage to 32% by Thanksgiving
- Complete half-marathon October 23, 2011 with a time of 2:38 or under
Short Term Goals
- Complete all runs as outlined for the next 4 weeks
- Daily completion of food log
- 3-5 servings of vegetables per day
Eek. I love that these are specific, doable goals, but I hate that I’ve let myself go so far. How did I get to 34.9% body fat?! How did I get to the 211 pounds I weighed during our first session?!
Alas, I know exactly how. I stress eat. I don’t watch my portions. I don’t consciously to eat healthful meals every day. I stopped running.
But I have hope for change! Pamela is a great leader. She is asking me to step out of my comfort zone and make some small eating changes that I have trouble making on my own.
She’s teaching me to think differently about snacks and food and—another weakness of mine—beer. She accepts my excuses, and then reminds me that it is exactly those reasons that I am in this problem in the first place.
I’ll leave you this week with one final thought. We’re creatures of habit. We like our comfort zone. But how comfortable is your comfort zone really?
Is it comfortable to stand in front of the closet wishing you could still fit into that cute top? Is it comfortable wishing you could skip a social because you feel so self-conscious and fat in my clothes? Wanting to melt into the floor at work because your pants are so tight or your clothes so baggy?
No. That is no comfort zone. And it always takes some doing to undone what we’ve done to ourselves.
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