I’ve come to realize that one important aspect of losing weight is making goals. And not necessarily just a big “end” goal like losing 50 pounds or dropping 3 sizes. It’s important to create smaller goals and milestones that are attainable and can keep you motivated to reach that big goal at the end. I found this out the hard way when I first decided I wanted to lose 20 pounds before summer.

Since I didn’t see results EVERY DAY when I started my new diet and exercise routine, I lost interest after a short while. If I had to wait for months to lose all the weight, what was the point? I wanted to see immediate results. Well, that wasn’t practical at all, but after a while I started making weekly goals and these goals kept me much more interested in my weight loss progress.

First, I wrote down specific exercise goals I had for the week, and when they were completed I marked them off my list. This was a good visual reminder of all the hard work I was putting in. Second, on the same list I wrote down my daily weight and a goal weight for the end of the week. Even though I wasn’t making huge losses it was encouraging to see that I was losing weight and that if I kept going I would eventually meet my final goal. And sure enough I did!