Goals

Last month I set a couple of goals for October and stated that I would update my progress weekly. I forgot to include my goal progress in yesterday’s post so I’m sharing my goal progress now.

My two goals for October were to lose 5 pounds and write and publish a non-fiction book. I haven’t made much progress towards either one of those goals. Starting the new job and traveling back and forth to Kansas City contributed to my lack of progress but the goals are still achievable.

On the weight loss front the news isn’t all bad. I lost 2 pounds in September without really trying. I lost half a pound the first week of October despite eating too much junk food. I’m thinking the weight loss might be because I have successfully given up soda for the past three weeks and I no longer crave it. However, I’ve replaced the soda with sweet tea. Sweet tea does seem to be gentler on my stomach and doesn’t have the additives that soda does so I think it is at least a minimal improvement.

I haven’t been tracking my food intake like I planned. If I resume tracking my food and cut back on my sweet tea and junk food intake I should get back on track to lose 5 pounds this month. Getting back on track will be my goal for this week.

I haven’t written anything for my book. I did get a cover for the book made. That was just another way to put off actually writing the book. My new plan is to start my writing as soon as I get home in the evening. If I wait until later I never feel like actually writing.

I’ll let you know Sunday how I do on my goals this week.

Monday I posted about a couple of things I wanted to accomplish and stated that I would post them as SMART goals today. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, SMART goals are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.

One of my goals is to write a book. I will have one non-fiction book written and published to Amazon by October 31, 2012. To do this I will simply write one hour a day, five days a week. I have already done a lot of research on the topic I’m writing and have an outline. The book will only be 20-30 pages because that is all it needs to be. I’ve also researched publishing a book on Kindle and have published a book to Amazon for someone else. This goal should be easily attainable if I just put in the time.

My other goal is to lose weight and get in shape. I will lose five pounds by October 31, 2012. To do this I will quit drinking soda, track my calories daily with MyFitnessPal.com, and work out/run at least three times a week. I will also refrain from eating chips, cookies, and candy for the month of October. I’ve tried quitting soda a few times, but this time I think it will actually work because the last few times I’ve had soda it has severely upset my stomach. The pleasure I get from drinking soda is no longer worth the after effects. Since I go to the gym everyday to shower, it won’t be a problem to exercise three times a week. I’m already doing that. I might increase my running outdoors since I actually enjoy that and this is a good time of year to run outdoors.

I also plan to change my eating to mostly low carb/slow carb. Living in the van makes that difficult since I can’t really cook, but I still think it is doable. This part of my plan isn’t too specific yet. Just giving up the junk food and soda should be enough to reach this goal, though.

Next week I promise my post will be less self-absorbed and more helpful to the readers. What do you think of my plan to achieve these goals? Are they SMART? Do I need to change anything?

On my birthday, my mom asked me what I want and I couldn’t think of anything. Since then I’ve been thinking about what I want. The only thing I can think of is a tablet computer. But that isn’t something I want very much and I think if I put off buying a tablet for a couple months I’ll either find a really good deal or decide I don’t even want a tablet. When it comes to material goods there isn’t much I want.

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.”
— Socrates

Although I am content, there are a couple things I want. One thing is to lose weight and get in better shape. The other is to write a book. Both of these things are achievable. I will turn these wants into SMART goals and post the details on Friday.

I set a goal of losing 50 pounds this year and have made almost no progress towards that goal. To provide myself with some more motivation I am launching the $100 weight loss challenge. If you have been reading this blog for a while you may remember the $500 weight loss challenge, which was a complete failure. I think the reasons that I failed at that challenge was because the goal was too big and the end of the challenge was too far off. This allowed me to keep procrastinating until it was too late to meet the challenge.

The $100 challenge will be a short term challenge. My goal is to lose 5 pounds by August 15, 2012 or I’ll pay $100 to the readers. This deadline is soon enough that I should realize I need to start working on it immediately. My current weight is 217.8 pounds. My goal weight will be 212.8 pounds. This should be easily doable.

My weight is down from 220.4 pounds on Sunday. It seems that having a slow carb breakfast is leading to weight loss. It is hard to believe that having bacon and eggs for breakfast would cause me to lose weight but I haven’t otherwise changed my diet or exercise habits. For the challenge I’ll be making a second meal a day slow-carb and doing my version of the kettlebell swings from The 4-Hour Body. I might also try cold showers and ice packs.

To participate in the challenge leave a comment on this post. The first 20 people to leave a comment will receive a $5 Amazon gift card or $5 PayPal cash if I don’t meet my weight loss goal. That is the stick approach. For the carrot I’ll be allowing myself to spend $100 on something for myself guilt-free if I meet the goal.

I won’t have an extra $100 on August 15th unless I earn some more money before then so the challenge should also motivate me to make more money.