Friday, March 11, 2011

Changing the Rules, Again

     Per usual, I am reconsidering my goals for the month. I am relying more and more on processed foods, mostly fiber and protein enhanced foods. I don't like this trend, but it's helping me to reach my goals. I also think it's keeping my cravings for sugar up. I should cut out most of these foods. I tend to have an 'all or nothing' personality, and I really want these changes I am making to have a lasting impact. I want to change habits, and that takes thought and time. Swearing off all processed foods is unrealistic, overly stressful and setting myself up for a let down. In keeping with my theme of 'doing' instead of 'not doing', I am thinking of what I can focus on and incorporate to help achieve this goal.
     I am clear about my objectives, right? 1. To fit into my size 12's and eek! my size 10's again! 2. To get my speed up and my time down for my mile as well as my 5k 3. Move closer to an all natural (and really all natural, not green washing all natural) diet. I am back to the drawing board for this portion of my goals. More from MayoClinic to help me reconsider my goals. This article is focused on weight loss specifically, which is part of my focus right now. It's helpful to hear that changing my goals is ok and, in the same vein, planning for setbacks is an important part of setting realistic goals. Such flexibility gets pushed to the back of my brain and ignored so these reminders are helpful for me.
    I want to be clear on my focus, so I will try to decide tomorrow or Sunday. Don't worry, you'll be some of the first to know what I decide. I haven't been out for a run since Tuesday. This will be my first run with a heart rate monitor in a long time and I am eager to see how long I can go. I know my speed will decrease, which flies in the face of objective #2 listed above, to get my time down and my speed up. It's all for the greater good, and I know that running longer will feel just as great as running faster. As long as I am running, it's all good.
   How do you evaluate and change your goals? Does it frustrate you to change your goals after you have them set?

4 comments:

  1. These days my goals often change depending on my work schedule. Some weeks I have time to get in all the running and swimming that I want, and other weeks it's a struggle just to get in one run because I'm exhausted. Whether or not I get frustrated depends on what the cause of the goal change is. Being forced to change my goals because I'm working too much and am often over-tired frustrates me. I want to push my body to a level I know it can handle when I'm at full capacity, but right now I'm not always there and so I push and fall short. I try to be gentle with myself, allow myself to fail, pick myself back up and keep going. But that's not always easy. I'm working hard on not judging myself for being slow or not running this day or that day, working on allowing myself to have off days and just roll with them.

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  2. Don't overwhelm yourself. You're training for a half-MARATHON, for Pete's sake! If everything you eat wasn't raised locally, oganically, biodynamically, and harvested by happy hippies who each own an equal share a share in the company... it really is ok. You're cultivating a habit: RUNNING. Your all-natural diet will fall into synch with your new dietary needs eventually, but for now you're still trying to figure out what those needs are. It's perfectly reasonable for you to eat the things designed for the activities you're undertaking.

    That said, sugar IS the devil. I tried to cut out sugar just to see how difficult it would be. Let's just leave it at "very". But ONE thing at a time. You focus on running, and once that's in the bag, than you can cut the processed crap which (while admittedly not ideal for you or anyone else to be eating) is, at the moment, helping you to get the job done. Eat as well as possible, of course, but don't be too hard on yourself when you grab whatever's close to satisfy your fiber and protein needs.

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  3. The devil, right. I agree. The more I eat, the more I want. It's not an Earth shattering revelation to me, but something I seem to lose sight of every once in a while. I really think it was those blasted Girl Scout cookies!

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  4. The hardest part for me is starting my goals today, instead of tomorrow. I talk a good talk about what I'm going to do tomorrow. Meanwhile, today's effort falls short of my expectation and then I throw in the towel and binge. Because tomorrow, I'm going to meet my goal. Right?

    I need to be gentler with myself and make smaller, shorter-term goals. I need to start thinking that if I take every action of today, and adjust it 50% of the way towards my goal, that's a win! (Another glass of water, a second serving of salad with just the balsamic vinegar instead of a second serving of meat, some time spent stretching if I can't make it to a whole workout).

    It's in the details for me.

    whit

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