Setting goals

First, let me say, I hate setting goals.  I have set a lot of goals throughout my life and made very few of them.

When I joined Weight Watchers in 2004, I set a goal to stick with the program until I became a Lifetime member.  I reached my goal weight 6 1/2 years after starting.  That goal was met.  Then I stopped working the program. Stopped going to meetings.  And eventually just stopped. Looking back on it, I should have made my goal to never quit WW, regardless of making Lifetime or not.  But hey, live and learn...

Now that I'm going to back to the WW meetings (I've attended 1 meeting out of 1 week, so 100% attendance so far... yea me!), I want to make a goal that has nothing to do with the number on the scale.  That number does not define me.  Yes, I have let it in the past, but this is a new road on the weight loss journey and I want a new destination in mind.  The number on the scale is just a number, and that number can fluctuate by 5 depending on the week, what was eaten or drank the day before weigh in, stress, lack of sleep, hormones, and life in general.  Yet I let the number on the scale push me into near depression and let it lift me into moments of joy and happiness.  A number did that.  A number on stupid, inanimate object.  I don't want that anymore...

Instead, I want a goal on this journey that will keep me moving.  Literally.  I want to run.  Not only do I want to run, I want to run half marathons. 

So, my goal is to complete half marathons.  At least one a year.  And run as many local races as I can with the time I have between work and the Lego business (and the money needed for the race fees).  

I kept telling myself I needed to be in shape to do that.  I have to lose 40, 50, 60 pounds to be able to do races.  

No, I don't.

the last time I completed a 1/2 marathon,
(with friends Sibyl and Julie, April 2015)

I could finish a 5K today.  Okay, it would take me a long time to complete a 5K, maybe need to walk the whole thing, be sore as hell tomorrow, but damn it, I could do it.  There are a lot of overweight (even obese) athletes that complete races.  Sure, not all of them run, but they get out and do it.  I don't want to wait to be the perfect weight to do it.  I want to do it now.  I'm tired of putting something I enjoy doing on hold until scale says I can.  Oh wait... scales can't talk!  It's not telling me anything.  It's just sitting there, displaying a number that doesn't mean much when you break it down.

So my goal?  To move.  To move more today than I did yesterday.  To get outside and walk.  Walk on the treadmill on bad weather days.  To stretch.  To do a Weight Watcher workout DVD occasionally.  

Disney Tinkerbell 1/2 Marathon
January 2012

Then... my goal to get me back in the swing of running a half marathon (or walking... or crawling, if need be) is to sign up for a half marathon in September 2019.  Why then?  To celebrate my 50th birthday.  What better gift to give myself than the feeling of accomplishment that comes with completing a half marathon.  A feeling I have not forgotten, even though it's been three years since my last half marathon.  The joy, the happiness, the motivation to keep moving.  No party or weekend away can come close to that.  Not for me anyway.