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I have always pursued a weight loss goal. I chase the number over and over. For the record, I don’t think I have ever actually hit the number because it’s always some large target way out in the distance and is easily lost in the day to day ways of life. I have taken a new approach recently and feeling really good about it. I am not chasing a weight goal or even a direct weight loss target. Instead, I am pursuing daily effort in a few meaningful, fun, and challenging areas of life. It has taken so many years of getting it wrong to learn there are a couple ways that really work for me. Here are a couple of them:
1. I am using an eating window rather than strictly tracking calories. Tracking typically leads me to restriction and restriction leads to deprivation and that leads me back to binging or giving up altogether. I will keep working on this piece but that is how it usually ends up for me so I am sticking to an eating window.
2. Pause before purchase. (I just made that up right now) If I go out to eat or to the store for my daily food run, I am pausing as I shop and decide what I will be happier with an hour or two from that moment. That still includes a hell yes to PB M&Ms. I’ve noticed I am eating more fruit and less “packaged” products.
3. I am really emphasizing WHO I am becoming by staying consistent (not perfect) and am not going to give up when I fail to stay perfect on all my targets. Last week I had 77% completion on my list where in the past I would have likely given up after a day of mostly X’s. I am so much less focused on outcomes right now and remaining focused on my efforts.
What are some things you have found to work for you as you pursue health, wellness, and happiness?
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3 Comments-
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![Profile picture of Craig Smith]()
Hi Kellie. I am tracking very limited. Most of my focus has been on movement. I’m averaging just over 14K steps daily over the past 3 weeks. Pausing before purchase has changed a lot and as @bradjensen knows from our coaching days, I wasn’t good about having healthier, dense snacks on hand and I would often end up going to eat out. The eating window closes at 9pm. I have honored that for all days except 2. One day was literal hunger and the other day was giving in and not caring. I have really loved the eating window and feel it helps so much because I have always ended the night with less self control and eat with no regard after 10 pm. I am also not trying to get to a certain weight right now. I am losing weight, quite steadily actually, but am not focused on losing weight. I am solely focused on hitting these daily targets that I have identified for myself based on my own personal value system. Do you really not care about the actual number? I have said this in the past but then when the number spiked on the scale I felt a shift in my mental and emotional self. Right now I really am not concerned about the weight and I know it is because I am focused on the behaviors rather than a physique or weight goal.
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![Profile picture of Cass Zimmerman]()
Craig I love this.
I fall into very similar patterns and have in the past.
what has worked for me is changing the way I view what I do – and looking at who I really want to become, more than just the scale.
I have gotten clear that it is so important for me to be functional and live a long healthy life that is full of activity with my loved ones, and meeting new people and enjoying moving my body.
So after identifying what am I really chasing here and why am I chasing it.. I was able to look at what I am doing on a day to day basis.. and how is it moving the needle forward.
what are habits that do not serve that version of me, how can I limit my time spent on those.. and then what are the habits that help move the needle forward and do serve that version of me.. and how am I making sure I alott time daily to doing those.
also … doing my best to plan and schedule my days to include those things. and also remembering to be flexible and give myself grace.
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The eating window. Tell me more about that. I am curious what that looks like. Are you still kinda tracking? Or because of things like #2 the pause before purchase you are relaxing on the tracking because of what it does to you AND if you are being intentional about your choices AND keeping it to a window, you find that works?
For me, I am still finding my way. Tracking is such a burdensome thing for me. I always thought it was because I didn’t want to face what I was doing BUT for the last 7 years I have had to track my time at work. I’ve never had to do that before and it is awful. I mean I struggle daily with it. I, do it, because that is what the job requires but …..oh man. I just reread what I typed. I do it because that is what the job requires. The. Job. Requires. I have let myself off the hook from tracking food because I see how much I struggle to track when I’m getting paid to do it so…. it is just something I struggle with. Since I HAVE to for my job I give myself a break on the food tracking. But…..just right now typing this to you, I read my words and had another small epiphany. The job requires. Now I have to think about that too.
My god. Let’s lighten it up. As for pursuing happiness: I love bowling. Have bowled for years. Bowled in college even! I haven’t bowled in a year due to a lot of things but just this month joined a new summer league to get back into it and will join the more serious one in the fall. And maybe I can concentrate on getting better at that for a while. Give myself a little reprieve from my sole focus on myself being weight loss. Which I honestly believe will help turn this next corner in my pursuit of my weight loss goal.
I still have a target. But I’ve said for months that I don’t care about the actual number so much as how I look and I feel as I arrive at that target. If 5 lbs heavier seems to fit, I’m good with that. And inversely if I hit my target and believe that I can aim lower, I’ll adjust.