Obesity - Strategic Goal Planning, Not Dieting For Permanent Health Changes!

Whatever we do in life, we immediately plan towards an action. It's not written out; we just get up and do it! That is basically how we operate in life. Now think of what you want to do, that will improve on your health. What you need is a goal. It is a direction, or a purpose for improvement.

The goal needs to be realistic and achievable. If it is not realistic, then you are doomed to failure. If I say my goal is to participate in the Tour de France next year; this is totally unrealistic; because I am a woman, too old and certainly not fit enough to embark this type of cycling!

Now if you say that I want to lose weight, become fitter and feel better. Those are healthy goals, but they are not measurable. How much weight do you want to lose; or how fit do you want to be? All goals must have a measurement, such as your body weight, a dress size, your waist measurement, or the measurement of your body fat content pinched under your arms.

You need that vital measurement; so you can see the improvement you are making, towards that goal. Your goal is at the top of the ladder and called your long term goal. It is what you ultimately want to achieve. Now you and your partner, friend of family have to plan how you are going to achieve this goal.

I like to use the analogy of a flight of stairs or steps towards your long-term goal at the top. Each step has short-term goals that you need to work, on for climbing higher to reach the next step of the mid-term goal. You can have multiple short-term goals to help you move up to the next step. You need to remain at that step until the change becomes accepted as part of your routine.

Try them out first, to see if you can accept working on the changes first; because once you get use to them, you will wonder what the problem was all about. The key ingredients are support and the motivation to explore better options, that improve on your health status.

Again, all your short term goals should all be positive, measurable and achievable, for getting up to the next level. These steps are important, because if you fall down, you don't slide down to the bottom; you just fall down to the next step. Now you can just pick yourself up and start from where you left off!

I will give you a few ideas to try and practice. Try removing sugar from drinks like tea and coffee, but do not add sugar substitutes! You have to get use to doing without the sweetness! I took myself off 3 spoon fulls of sugars in tea and coffee, when I was 16 with my school friends and it successfully worked; by using collaborative support of us drinking tea together without sugar!

The key is learn to accept change;it will save you so many wasted calories that you do not need in your body. It is just a matter of getting use to drinking the tea or coffee without sugar and liking it! You must continue to keep drinking without sugar, until you accept the change; I assure you it will happen.

Another option is to try is to substitute carbonated drinks with ice-cold filtered tap water. Tap water is free to drink and is exactly what your internal body needs, rather than acidic drinks that just pass through your body, leaving negative dangers lurking inside your internal body. (My water article explains about the harmful effect of acidic water). Motivate yourself to drink more neutral more water; but don't make the size of the glass too big, or you will fail again. Your thirst needs to be directed to fresh neutral water, instead of sugary drinks. Once you have eliminate the craving for sugar, then half your battle is over for, losing weight; because your craving for sugar will subside, as you introduce more natural sugar, like fruit into your diet.

Other ideas are to start are learning to become more active. Try walking to the library, or the grocery store; if they are not too far away or think about taking activity classes, such as yoga or swimming lessons. Better still walk to the library and find out what other forms of activity classes are available in your local area.

You may even find other people also looking to change their lifestyle like yourself. There is no reason not to work with them. The more help you gain from other people; the greater will be your support and the healthier your life will become! Your determination will increase, as you start developing new ideas that make healthy changes to your lifestyle.

Learning a new class like Yoga class is an excellent form of movement to attend; because not only will you learn how to stretch your muscles and your joints, you will also learn to sit on your pelvic bones. To do this you will be sitting on the floor, which means you will be learning where your balance is located in your pelvic region. Have no fear if you cannot do anything well at first. It is like anything that is new, you just need time and practice; then it will grow on you, as you will start to get better!

I am so excited, just writing this article about goal setting. My master's thesis studied this methodology for health research. I am optimistic that you will all be successful in using this procedure. I have used this procedure to help many people over the years and for myself; who had no insight into what my own physical problems, after my severe illness. I am thankful for my family that supported me, during my physical rehabilitation and kept me on the right track.

Goal setting is a behavioral methodology for helping you make permanent changes in your behavior patterns that will improve your on health status. The changes have to be radical changes, because once you get use doing with or without them in your regular routine; you will wonder why you didn't do it earlier! Learning anything new takes motivation and perseverance; but with the help of a buddy,family or partner, it will become much easier to accomplish..