Less is More

Less is more, except when more is more.

The past few weeks, I have been building up my feet, ankles and calves.  I then went away for a few days and hit 20,000+ steps three days in a row. It was fabulous. The calorie burn was high, usually over 3000--that's weight loss numbers for me!

Yesterday, my first full day home, I had hit 12,000+ steps with a 2600 calorie burn.  That's much more doable.

I had planned in my brain to hit 20,000 from now on.  The reality is that I can't. That hurts.  I can't for several reasons, but mostly time.  As a student, I commute, I sit in class, I commute, I study.  That's all sitting. I take my studies seriously and give it my all, which takes time.  It takes me hours to hit 20,000 steps since I'm not a runner.  It just won't work.  My ankles, calves and feet thank me for that.

So, it's OKAY to not get what we want.  It's okay to go for less, because less is more. More is more when we realize this.  I'm thinking of the Rolling Stones singing we can't always get what we want, but we get what we need.

Goals are awesome, and I'm okay that I had a big goal and had to reduce it.  It will still work.

Adapt and overcome.

So, my goal is 10,000 steps a day.  Anything over that is calorie-free gravy.

Goals

For me, goal setting is very important.  When starting out at 282.5 pounds, losing ALL that weight was overwhelming and seemingly impossible.  So I made a bunch of goals.  There is a page somewhere on my blog with my former goals.

When I sat down to plan my re-start, I made new goals.  This morning I hit my first mini-goal.  Feeling pretty awesome.

I have also made a completion date.  I never gave myself an "I will be done by" date.  I think that was a missing element.  So the date is set, and I have a countdown ticker on my phone and I know how many days I have got to kick some fat.

Within that allotted time, I plan to lose 70 pounds to finally hit goal weight.  I have never been firm about my goal weight, but now I am.   When I did the math to figure out how much I have to lose each month until I get to that date, I was surprised.  It's not the 10 pounds per month that this perfectionist always tried to get. It's half that.

When I realized my goal is to lose 5-6 pounds a month, a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.  That just seems easier to obtain.  It gives room for life.  I like it.

Time to kick some fat!!