Ramona’s blog

Traditional goal-setting wisdom has taught us that a good goal must be a) written, b) challenging, c) believable, d) specific, e) measureable, and f) have a specific deadline. Unfortunately, it’s not too difficult to think of an example that directly challenges any of the above goal-setting criteria. For instance, the goal “to live a more spiritual life” may be a valuable, meaningful goal for many, but it’s hardly measurable and assigning a deadline makes little sense for a permanent alteration of lifestyle.

This traditional checklist of things that “make a good goal” is largely a product of old technology: pen and paper. The old-school of goal-setting suggested that people write down goals on a small slip of paper and keep it in their wallet or purse. Suffice to say that slips of paper rapidly dissolve into lint. Today we have email.

A different question is, “What makes a good Goalplan?” On this, our position is precise: A good Goalplan is one that when followed, offers a reasonably high probability of success, given sufficient time.

“Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.”
-William Stone

1. Don’t compare yourself to others. Every body is different. It stands to reason that everybody will lose weight differently.
2.Identify your ideal weight. If you’re 5′5″ with a certain build, there’s an ideal weight that matches your body type. Find it - and make that your goal.
3.Scale up. If your measurement tool sucks, upgrade it. If it’s analog, dump it.
4.One pound a week. If you’re not losing at least one pound a week on your chosen weight loss regimen, you’re (a) stalled, or (b) finished. You might need to push yourself even harder, or (in some cases) let up a little bit while your body plays catch-up. If you lose more than one pound a week, then you’re doing better than average. Expecting to lose five pounds a week just isn’t realistic, though.
5. Walk the walk. You burn calories when you walk, did you know that? Certainly, you don’t expend as much energy as you do when you run, but you burn it nonetheless.

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.”
- Abraham Lincoln

“The moment one give close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”
- Henry Miller