Friday, March 22, 2013

Goal weight?

I've been pondering today, well for a while now.  Weight watchers wants us to pick a goal weight. They recommend choosing a weight inside your healthy BMI range. For me at 5 feet 4 inches, that range is between 117 and 146.

 I've been all over the place with what I want my goal to be.  Lose half my weight to be 125 lbs, 135 lbs because it sounded small, then I talked to a personal trainer who was smoking hot and weighed 165 lbs, so I chose that, then I figured it sounded cool to lose 100 lbs and get that 100 pound medal, 145 lbs is just within the 100 lbs lost and the BMI range.  So that's been my goal for a while.

I hate that weight watchers makes you choose a goal.  I love the program and plan to go to meetings for the rat of my life.  I get so much out of them. But I really want to lose this "gotta get to goal" mentality!  I've lost 84 pounds!  I've already won!  If I'm healthy, eating well, staying active, living life, isn't that where my goal should be?  The number really shouldn't matter. 

The past few weeks I've been staring at that 145 lbs like its so far away. I feel great in my body these days. I feel comfortable in my size 10's and M/L's. I'm confident, I feel healthy, I can do everything, move without pain, run up the stairs, around the block, with my kids. As far as I'm concerned, I'm at goal!  So why the hell do I need to struggle to lose another 23.4 pounds to reach a goal that I'm going to probably take 2 years to get to, then struggle to stay at.

I'm wondering if that weight is unrealistic for me.  I've been comfortable being in the 160s for a while now, my legs and arms are skinny, my collarbones stick out and my butt is so boney it hurts to sit on anything hard!  I do still have a great deal of extra skin. My family doctor said a couple of months ago that that skin weighs more than I think it does.

I'm thinking of asking my doctor what she thinks my goal weight should be.

I don't want to meet my goal weight because I want to start cheating more, I don't want to give up.  I just think my body is choosing a healthy weight.  If I choose a weight goal, I can still lose beyond that if my body so chooses.  I just think it might be coming time to close the weight loss doors and open the maintenance one. Live my life on plan and whatever my weight ends up being, that's what it'll be.

My husband suggested I pick a goal date instead of a goal weight. Follow program in the weight loss portion, then when I hit my goal date, whatever my weight is on that day, is my goal weight.  He thinks my goal date should be early summer.  That way I have the summer to maintain and will hit lifetime around labour day. He might have something there!

I'm sure I'll hem and haw over this for the next few months. In the end though, I'll be at goal weight no matter what the number is :)

Your thoughts on the matter are appreciated!  Love you all!

3 comments:

  1. I think the goal date is a great compromise. It's nice to hear you're so happy - you set your goal and no one can tell you what that should be. I'd go with the goal date and keep tweaking what you're doing (more water, less sugar, more activity - whatever) until you feel you are creating a lifestyle you want to maintain. Then you're there.

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    1. Thank you! I've actually gotten some flack about not wanting to get down to the BMI. As if I'm giving up, I'm glad for some positive comments!

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  2. i had asked my doc about goal weights in the past. she asked me what i weighed in high school (181 my senior year) at that point i was around 195. i was confused cause i have never been skinny. so my doc suggested that we do 5 lb incriments and do blood drawings to check blood sugar and other random things they can check and go from there.

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