Goalposts

Let's talk about goals. I'm okay with not even thinking about where I want to stop, yet. The journey's too long to contemplate. So I'm not looking at the destination nearly as much as the journey. I'm taking it in 10% increments.

Goal #1 is to lose 10% of my starting body weight, or 27 pounds. I'm hoping to manage that by the end of January. That will put me at just a bit less than I weighed the first time I joined Weight Watchers. (When weight comes back, it brings friends.)

Goal #2 will be to lose another 10% of my body weight, or 24 pounds, which I'm hoping to manage by the end of May. That'll put me right about where I was when I quit WW the last time. Will anyone have noticed by then? 10% and then 10% again is where I actually started noticing the changes in all my friends who are on diets.

Goal #3 will be to lose - you guessed it - another 10%, or 22 pounds, pushing into (probably) September. That will put me right at 200 pounds, or just a smidge under.

And so forth, but that's about as far ahead as I really want to look. The last time I weighed 200 pounds was right about the time I started dating my husband, which is about thirteen years, now.

Even those goals seem pretty huge, right now. I'm focusing on micro-goals. My next micro-goal is to make the 10-pound mark -- I might be able to make that next week, if I don't let the Hallowe'en candy run away with me.

Baby steps. It's about the baby steps.