How to set better goals to achieve your weight loss

I first wrote this post in May 2016, and have updated it for you. It is still as relevant today as it was then. This is a subject that does not change and I help my clients with this all the time!

How do you eat an elephant?   
                                                         
One bite at a time…

An elephant is a very large animal. If you set out a goal to eat an elephant it would take a long time, and you’d probably need help! You would need to have a very detailed plan of action which would require many steps. You would need a lot of different resources and professional expertise (after all do you know anything about elephant hunting?)

So your plan may look like this:

• Set a date for cook
• Research elephant hunters
• Research cooking methods
• Hire chef
• Book venue for kitchen and storage of leftovers   
• Hire staff
• Book hunt
• Do hunt
• Cut up elephant
• Cook elephant
• Start eating elephant
• Pack away leftovers and clean up
• Slowly consume elephant over the next few months
• Vow never to eat elephant meat ever again as you are now sick of it!

 
So you can see that even though your original goal was to eat the elephant, it was a huge goal and quite ambiguous and probably made you think I could never do that!
 
Let’s put this into a health goal perspective:
 
I want you to close your eyes and think of that big goal you have in your mind. Is it to lose body fat? Or run a certain distance? Or even just get up the hill without puffing? Remember it’s your goal and is big to you. Now with your eyes closed think about what that makes you feel? Is it scary? Is it exciting? Does it feel too hard? Unachievable? Be really honest with yourself…. close your eyes and get in touch with your gut reaction to the idea of going for that goal.
 
Okay, let’s take one of the examples above and make it less scary. We’ll use the marathon in this instance. Firstly, the reason it feels scary is this is something new, uncharted territory, and it all seems too big, too HUGE to achieve. “I could never do that” “I’ll never be fit enough” “I can’t even run 5 meters” “I may as well forget that as a goal” Sound familiar? You see the problem is we get fixated on the end goal and it ends up in the too hard basket because in reality it is too hard and too much. Your brain can't handle thinking about it and it causes a stress reaction, so you toss the idea.
 
What you have to do is break it down into smaller “bites”, steps that ARE achievable. It may look something like this:
 

1. Choose a marathon to enter in a year’s time
2. Research running gear
3. Buy running gear and shoes
4. Start a couch to 5km training programme
5. Enter 5km race
6. Hire a personal trainer
7. Join a running group
8. Enter a 10km race
9. Take up yoga for runners
10. Learn about nutrition for runners
11. Enter a half marathon
12. Set up training schedule
13. Learn about fueling for marathons
14. Enter full marathon
15. Set up training schedule
16. Run Marathon!
17. GOAL ACHIEVED!!

 
So now with the above in mind, can you take YOUR goal and break it down into smaller “bites”? Take out a piece of paper, put your goal at the top and start mapping out the steps you need to achieve the goal. Now close your eyes again and imagine just the first step. Can you do that? How do you feel now in comparison to trying to imagine the end result. On a scale of 1 to 10 how doable does the first step feel?

If you are still feeling overwhelmed, maybe I can help you. Each week I set aside a few times for Discovery Calls. If you'd like to find out whether coaching is the the best next step for you, click here to book a time for us to have a chat.

Oh, and by the way, no elephants were harmed in the making of this blog post 😉

Now go out there and get planning! And let me know how it goes! ​