"The Power Of being Anonymous" and "Goal Setting"

Thanks to the "Anonymous" post of two days ago I got back to eating well yesterday. Sometimes I need a good kick in the butt to snap myself back into shape.

"Anonymous" can work in many positive ways. If you ever read my blog and want to tell me to smarten up, or send other well meaning but "hard to hear' message don't hesitate to use the "anonymous" option at the bottom of the blog post. Even if you usually use your own name, if you don't want to be tied to a comment, or challenged on it, use "Anonymous". I love anonymous.

I have found another great use for "anonymous" for Weight Watchers. If you are a member have you ever skipped a meeting, or been too embarrassed to go to one because your weight is up? I have found a great solution.

Go to a meeting at a different location. You can simply take your coupon, or payment card, and tell them you are unable to make it to your own centre. Don't bring your book in with you because then they will see your last weigh-in weight. They will weigh you, and give you a sticky paper with your weight on it to put in your book, but they don't know what you used to weigh so there is no "embarrassment" factor.

Get back on track right away. This way, when you show up at your own meeting the following week, they will see by your sticky paper, that you had indeed gained weight, but they will hardly even notice that. They will only comment on you NOW being "down" from the week before. It works like a charm! YOU JUST HAVE TO ENSURE YOU SMARTEN UP SO YOU ARE DOWN THE NEXT WEEK. You just gave yourself a good reason for smartening up though. You have challenged yourself.

It doesn't prevent you from going to your own, regular, WW meeting the week you weighed-in somewhere else. You have already weighed in for the week so you don't even have to go to the weigh-in counter. Just sit in on the meeting. The important thing is that you do weigh in somewhere!

I wanted to talk about two things today though. The first was "anonymous" and the second is "goal setting". Before starting this blog I really only ever set one goal and that was to reach goal. There was no other goal.

The blog has really taught me about the importance of setting short term goals. I am still learning.

Short term goals have been critical to me this time around. They do come with pluses and minuses though.

When I set a goal to be a certain weight by a certain date, I thought that perhaps making a specific "weight" a target was an unwise thing. You can do a lot of unhealthy things to get where you want to get. So success may not be entirely good for you, from a health perspective. I'm still thinking about that one.

The last goal I set was to fit into a specific shirt on November 3rd. I fully intend to keep that goal. The thing that occurred to me though was that I think I set my goal date out too far. At the time (the beginning of September) I thought a date like November 3rd would allow me to reach the goal without too much time pressure, which is probably the healthiest way to do it.

That hasn't been the reality though. The reality has been that I have had so much time to reach this goal that it gave me permission to waffle around for three weeks and not worry too much about it. Now November 3rd is a realistic date, so the goal date stays, but it has taught me that one can set their goal dates too far out. If they don't seem real they don't exist. I guess a short term goal has to be short term. Go figure! LOL

So, I am setting a new, interim, goal. Starting tomorrow I am going to do a short term cleanse. It will not be a fast, but a cleanse. I will be eating raw fruits and vegetables, drinking clay water (good for detox) and taking supplements to ensure I stay healthy. I will do it for one week.

I will also go for some colonic treatments. This is for two reasons. One is that I believe they are necessary to truly "cleanse" your body, and the second is that I can't cheat when I do those. You see, I did colonics before and told the lady who does them what my goal was. If I eat anything other than fresh fruits and veggies it will come out of a tube and I will be caught!. OK...enough of that...I have grossed you out enough.

My point is that short term goals aren't just important on this journey, they are critical. I challenge everyone out there to come up with their own short term goal. Starting tomorrow. Mine will end next Wednesday night but your doesn't have to.

I am not going to be able to make it to Weight Watcher's tonight (I have to do my assignment for my nutrition course), but I will be there in spirit though. The good news is it is NOT because I am avoiding weighing-in. I am going to find a meeting to weigh-in at tomorrow. I know I am "up" so I will probably us my "anonymous" trick. :-)

Be healthy!

Alan