Why, goals, and plans for fat loss

    Whether you are trying to lose weight, succeed in business, or win a war there are three things you need to be successful. They are; a reason why, a desired goal or outcome, and a plan. Of the three, a reason why is the most important. Without a powerful “why” the other two aspects will fail. After you have discovered your compelling reason “why” you need to achieve the “goal”. That is the part most people miss. Goals are meaningless without a reason “why”. So although you think of a goal first the reason why you need to achieve the goal is more important. Plans need to be very detailed for you to be successful. Vague plans have little chance of being successful. You can’t just aim in the general direction and plan on hitting your goal. This article is going to be mostly about fat loss, but the principles will apply to any goal.

    It has been said that, “You can achieve any what (goal), if you have a strong even why (reason)”. Vanity goals tend to be weak “whys”. Sure you want to look good naked. You want to show up at an event looking like a million bucks. It could be a high school reunion, a vacation, or any event but without a really strong “why”, you will probably not be successful. What are some strong enough reasons to get you to lose body fat and keep it off? Here’s one, “I want to live a long healthy life”, is that strong enough? Its probably not specific enough. If you are already fighting a disease that is related to excess body fat, that might be a strong enough. Here’s another one, “I don’t want to lose my toes, foot, leg, or go blind dues to diabetes in my 50‘s”. Here’s one, “I don’t want to have a triple by-pass in my 40‘s due to plaque in my circulatory system”. Think about all the really horrible diseases that are going to ravage your body from carrying excess body fat. Do you really want to be blind or in a wheel chair? Think of reasons that really scare the heck out of you and let those be your reasons to lose body fat. Fear is a great motivator, use it. Write some strong reasons out and post them on your refrigerator, bathroom mirror, and any where else you can see they often.

     What are your goals. Notice I said goals, not just goal. I think you need a big goal, but you also need small goals that are on the path to your big goal. Big goals can get overwhelming and they can be too vague. If losing 100lbs of body fat that can be too big and take too long for you to stay on target. I like the goal of 2lbs a week. It is realistic and measurable. If you have a digital scale the measures in tenths it will be about 3/10ths or .3 per day. So every day you should be .3lbs less than you were the day before. I think you need to measure daily if you want to meet your goals. Be responsible and accountable daily for your results. If you go weekly it isn’t enough accountability. Wake up every morning and see the results of your diet from yesterday. Set a big long range goal and set small daily goals to achieve the big long range goal.
     What is your plan? To be more specific, what is your diet plan? Exercise is an inefficient way to lose fat. You lose fat and get healthy at the table. You get fit in the gym or with an exercise program. So what is your diet plan to achieve your fat loss goals? Your plan needs to be very specific. You need to plan every meal. WHAT!!! Yes you need to plan every meal. Because if you don’t you won’t. Its the unplanned meals that get us. It is when we are hungry and we haven’t planned that we reach for the food that is going to spoil our plan. If your goal is going to take 8 weeks, then plan for 8 weeks worth of meals. Hint; simple meals make this easier to do. Every day you should have your meals planned out. You should know what you are going to eat the first time you get hungry. We will call that breakfast. Breakfast is not the meal you have the first thing when you roll out of bed in the morning. It is the first meal of the day that you eat when you get hungry. Its when you break your overnight fast. Plan on eating only 2 or 3 times a day. You can call them whatever you want. They could be lunch, dinner, supper, or snack, but you need to set a limit and space them out. What should I eat? Vegetables, roots, tubers, fruits, seeds, nuts, and meats. I laid all of this out in my True Primal Way of Eating. Don’t eat anything that isn’t on your plan.

     First come up with a fat loss goal. It might be to get your BMI down to under 25. The second and most important thing is to develop a strong enough reason why you need to achieve this goal. It will help if you develop several reasons. Have 4 or 5 really scary reasons why you need to lose the fat. I’m talking reasons that make you break out into a cold sweat if you dwell on them too long. Throw in a few pleasure goals too. Then develop a very specific plan for how you are going to achieve your goals. The more specific your plan the greater your success rate will be. Plan out all the healthy food you are going to be eating, meal by meal.