Set Yourself Goals and Make them Known

If you follow my personal blog on this site or read my tweets on Twitter, you’ll already know I’ve been having a rough go the past month or two.  With all of the personal crap I’ve been dealing with I haven’t made much time for the gym or exercise in general including my sports that I love to play.  My diet has also suffered quite a bit by drinking a lot of beer and back into eating pizza and burgers.  I’m actually up about 6 lbs in the last 2 months.  I can’t remember the last time I put ON weight.  It’s actually been really bugging me that I’m letting myself slip like this but I’m finding it hard to motivate myself to get back into everything.

Last night I sat myself down and had a talk with myself (not really, just figuratively… I’m not crazy… ) about what I needed to do to get my act together.  As I’m sitting there, thinking about everything that’s going on in my life right now,  I had something trigger a memory of one of my old tricks that I use to use to motivate myself in the initial stages of my weight loss; Set myself a goal and then tell EVERYONE about it.

Anyone can set a goal and not follow through on it, which is what a lot of people do, including yours truly.  It’s actually very easy to do.  But, if you tell everyone and anyone you know what your goal is and what the time frame is that you’ve set for yourself, you’ll feel more inclined to actually follow through on it because if you don’t follow through or if you bail on it, you look pretty stupid.  You may not achieve the goal you set which is OK, as long as you try and don’t give up.  If someone asked me “how did xyz work out for you” I’d feel a lot better about myself if I replied “I did it and I feel great” or “I gave it a great go and was really close, I’ll just push harder next time” rather than saying “oh, I gave up and didn’t get anywhere with it”.

After coming to this realization, I came up with 5 goals for myself. Some are short term and some are long term.  But here they are:

1. Lose the 6 lbs I put on.
   This is as simple as smartening the hell up.  Stop eating like crap, drinking empty calories and getting my ass back to the gym and back to playing sports. Done!
2. No alcohol for a month
   My birthday is coming up next week, and after that I’m not drinking any alcohol for a month. I’ve done this before and I’ve mentioned before how hard it is to do in Halifax as there isn’t much else to do on the weekend here, especially when you’re single, but I think I’m going to be busy enough in the next few months with some design work, this site and training that it shouldn’t be a problem.
3. Run the Bluenose half marathon
   This is one of my long term ones.  The marathon is May 21-23 and I haven’t started to train yet.  I’ve never been a long distance runner. I use to run the 200m and 400m in high school and I think the farthest I’ve ever run has been 5 or 6km, so this should be interesting.
4. Get my Nova Scotia Fitness Assoc. Fitness Theory Certification
   This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and I’ve talked about it a lot and I’ve finally decided to do it.  It’s a 6 week course that runs April 8-May 27^th and I’m really excited about this one.
5. Eat Clean, Eat Well
   I’m terrible for eating fast food.  I eat a lot of Subway, Burrito Jax, pre-made sandwiches and salads.  I’m always on the go, but I know that’s not an excuse.  I want to start prepping my meals, freezing them and having them with me and eating clean and well, all the time. I’m a great cook, but once again, I just need to get my ass in gear.

There… I’ve said them out loud.  My goals are now set and I’m going to show you all and myself that I can do them.  Do the same for yourself and let people know what they are and follow up with them.

Wish me luck!