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Posts tagged ‘goal setting’

Feb 18

Time to up the ante on food tracking

Awareness + Accountability + Focus on Long-Term Goals vs. Short-Term Wants

It’s a pretty undisputed fact: Research has shown that people who keep track of what they eat and weigh are more likely to succeed at losing weight and keeping it off than those who don’t.

A New York Times article I re-read recently quoted a research expert who summarized it this way: “Self-tracking teaches people how their environment and behaviors affect their health, said Carly Pacanowski, a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow who studies eating behavior. “It’s a preventive daily strategy that always stays with you,” she said. “Over time, it provides a lot of interesting information. It lets people be more in the driver’s seat with regard to their health.”

I agree. Though keeping a daily food log and tracking your activity takes focus and consistency, and it doesn’t work for everyone.

If you’re a regular follower of this blog, you know that I believe the process of losing weight and keeping it off is PERSONAL — meaning what works for one person is not necessarily the answer for everyone. My overall approach to weight loss, as with most things that fall into the personal development category, is to “know thyself.” Read more

Jan 27

7 tips for keeping your motivation mojo

New Year. New In-the-Equation You! How are you doing at keeping your motivation mojo?

For so many years, I’d start the new year by setting lofty goals or New Year’s resolutions — usually aimed at losing weight, exercising more and getting “healthy” — only to fall off the wagon by mid-to-late January. Join the club, right?!

I would inevitably feel bad about losing my motivation and start beating myself up. I used my failure at achieving my goals as evidence that I couldn’t succeed. That I wasn’t good enough. My negative self-talk countered any positive progress, and I often ended up feeling worse. Ironically, this became a self-fulfilling prophecy. I stayed overweight, unhealthy, and totally out of the equation of my life. I continued to feel unworthy. And I continued to set resolutions and start anew at the beginning of a new year.

Luckily, that’s NOT how my story ends!

Like many of you reading this, for me, New Year’s resolutions are a thing of the past. So is the negative self-talk that accompanied them and kept me stuck. The NEW healthy and in-the-equation ME doesn’t wait for Jan. 1st to set personal goals or challenge myself to do the things I want to do. I say YES! to life now and embrace a personal growth mindset — all year long.

That said, I absolutely take advantage of the calendar year close as an opportunity to reflect on the lessons and experiences of my year (The Five Lessons of 2016). And, I get focused and intentional about what I desire most in the New Year by setting clear intentions. In fact, I get totally jazzed about this work. I just no longer force it or rush it to meet an arbitrary January 1st deadline. Read more

Jun 5

1 Comment

Defining success. It’s personal. That’s a good thing.

LoriSchaefer-After-7People often ask me how I’ve been successful at keeping my weight off for two years. My answer: I work at it every day.

The goal I set when I started this journey was not a weight loss goal, but rather a mindset. I decided that I would “never, ever quit” and that’s how I’ve been successful. This is now my mantra, and it’s how I define success. I am successful if I’m still going, still learning, still growing, and keeping Lori in the equation every day. Because the truth is, if I do those things, the weight will stay off.

To do this requires focus and diligence. It doesn’t leave my conscious just because I hit a number on the scale or wear a size 8 instead of a plus size. Rather, it’s something I know I have to actively work at for the rest of my life. I accept that. Embrace it. And live it. It certainly beats the alternative! Read more

Jan 6

3 Comments

No more New Year’s resolutions!

Non-Negotiable

It’s true. I’m throwing in the towel and asserting that, for me, New Year’s resolutions are officially a thing of the past. I don’t believe they are the right approach to real, lasting, and transformative change. And this is coming from someone who for most of her adult life was a New Year’s resolution gal.

Like so many, I used to look to the New Year with hope and inspiration and the idea of a fresh start (I still do) and then I would make my laundry list of yearly goals, habits I wanted to change or break, i.e. set my resolutions. It’s probably no secret that losing weight and getting healthy made the list year, after year, after year.

After resolving to change and jumping in head first with lots of gusto, I would quit or fail — depending on how you look at it. Just like the stats show here. By mid to late February, I was throwing in the towel and feeling bad about myself wondering why I couldn’t stick to it.  And then I would get over it and do it again…the next year!

Well, no more. There is a better way. Read more

Jan 1

3 Comments

My word is love. LOVE in 2013!

“Do all things with love.” – Og Mandino

There’s an abundance of hope and inspiration being spread today and I just love that! Of course many New Year’s resolutions are being set in living rooms around the world. The New Year brings hope, promise and good intentions, perhaps like nothing else. (Read my NY Eve HOPE blog here.) Read more

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