Short-Term, Medium-Term, and Long-Term Motivations

I've been thinking a lot lately about short, medium, and long-term motivation. I think when people talk about their weight loss goals, they focus most of their energy thinking about long-term motivation: Be XXX weight, get off blood pressure meds, bead diabetes, wear a size XX, and so on. For some of us, accomplishing those goals are months, if not years, away.

But what about today? And tomorrow? Wouldn't it make more sense to focus on what's motivating me right now? One of my favorite Blogs, DeepExistence.com, had a great quote a few weeks back. I even wrote it on a post-it note and placed it on my moniter:

Ask yourself if what you're doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.

This relates to almost every facet of life, but I'm going to focus on weight loss. So let's break it down:
What do I want tomorrow? To me, this means the long term goals described above. My long term goals are the usual--Fit into a size 6, be 144 lbs or less, etc.

So what am I doing to get me closer to those goals? This is where short term and medium term motivations come in. Each of these is designed to get me closer to where I want to be tomorrow.

My medium term goals are a few days or weeks away. For example, one goal is for me not to go crazy with my eating this weekend. My motivation is that my weigh-in day is Monday!

My short term goals are what I can do today. My goal today was to wake up early before work and take the dogs for a walk. My immediate motivation is that my dogs need exercise and drive me crazy when they don't get it. This action is immediately rewarding with tired dogs but it also gets me closer to where I want to be tomorrow...and where I want to be next year.

What are your short, medium, and long term goals?

And what are your motivations to accomplish them?

Clothes!

One of the very best things I love about having lost weight is being able to wear MUCH cuter clothes. I recently discovered a site called Stitch Fix and I am thrilled! You can read a more detailed review here.

If you're interested in joining Stitch Fix, please use my referral code by clicking here.

The maroon sweater and dark skinny jeans are both from Stitch Fix. The necklace and the cuff are from Wantable.com

I get a ton of compliments every time I wear this outfit. It's flattering and modern but also has a classic flair that is exactly my style. Wearing these kind of outfits makes me feel more confident...which has the great side-effect of helping me stay on track. If I feel good, and I look good, then I want to perpetuate that feeling!

I highly encourage anyone who is struggling to find at least one outfit that makes you feel smashing. I don't care what size you are, there will be an outfit you can piece together that makes you feel like a million bucks.  For me, the outfit pictured below is one of those! It's a lot easier to stay on plan and workout if you feel happy!

This picture was after my husband starting teasing me... This one is just for fun!

Don't forget to enter my first-ever giveaway by clicking here.

Stress Eating

It happens to the best of us. Stress sneaks in. Or, in my case, stress rides in on a giant brown stallion with a huge lance, chopping off the heads of the villagers. Wearing a kilt. The kind of stress where all you can really do is duck and cover and hope that it just passes through without really noticing you.

Just try not to duck and cover in the cookie jar.

Keeping my health goals on track is really hard when I'm experiencing stress. I'll stand with the fridge open as I search for cheese and bread that I never actually bought at the store. This is how I combat it. The whole "Keep control of your spaces" soapbox that all diet/lifestyle plans tout. If there aren't cheeses, cookies, and chips in my house then I can't eat them. Plain and simple.

Today work is a different story. Our cafe sells these giant sugar cookies with pink frosting. I can't stop thinking about them! Their sugary goodness would take the edge off just enough for me to sneak out of the scary village described above. But not for long. I'm pretty sure that's how the kilt-wearing stress monster finds me even faster. Because I tried to run! I envision that I'm running down the main street (which is a dirt street, by the way), eating my pink cookie. The stress monster sniffs the air. He, too, can smell the delightful pink sugar crumbs. And then he pounces on me. And not in the good way that my husband does. (Oops! TMI!)

Overall, I think it's better to not have the cookie. It would cause more stress because I'd more than likely beat myself up over it. As it turns out, you don't earn any activity points by beating yourself up so it's just not worth it.

Struggle

I've been struggling with this blog. Not because I'm struggling with my weight; that's just fine. I'm struggling with what to post because I had some crazy idea in my head that I could only post something if there was a picture to go along with it.

Where did that notion come from? I honestly don't know other than the fact that I, personally, like pictures!

I decided today to give anyone that finds this blog a little more credit. It's possible you might find some inspiration here regardless of an absence of pictures in every post! So here goes...

I hereby resolve to post more often, even if there is no picture!

Update on my weight loss journey: I had some set backs in December. A lot of parties and not a lot of self control. I'm still 2 lbs higher than my best weight so far. I know that I'll get those lbs off and I'll get right back on track to finally hitting my goal. I'm eating a nice, healthy lunch as I type this!