The Bariatric Foodie Pledge (Part Four)

(If you're looking at this post title going, "What the HELL is the Bariatric Foodie Pledge??? Click here. Thanks!)

For those of you keeping track - YES - I went out of order with the posts. But I had to in order to get you guys to help me test the pledge submission form. A word about that.

I don't want you guys to worry about whether you'll be able to submit your pledges. The reason I did the test is to find out what doesn't work so I can either fix it or make a way around it. The point is NOT to disqualify you from this thing but to make it possible to participate. I'm already asking you to do a lot in making a goal, pledging it, working on it AND staying accountable by reporting back. I don't want to give you any technological headaches.

So just remember that the  Pledge begins February 2 and I will work extra, extra, EXTRA hard to make sure everyone who truly wants to participate can, k?

Moving along...

At the heart of the Pledge is the concept of a goal. While you can pledge any goal you want, I should tell you that S.M.A.R.T. goals work the best, especially come check-in time. So many times when I see Foodies report they didn’t make their goal, it seems to be because it was not a S.M.A.R.T. goal.

So what is a S.M.A.R.T. goal?

It’s a goal that is Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. Here’s the break-down:

• Specific: I’ve seen a lot of goals that go like this “My goal is to be happier…” Ok…so how exactly do you tell when that’s happened? Or when you’ve crossed the finish line. While being happier is a good “macro-goal” (large scale) it can be supported by smaller S.M.A.R.T. goals. Like if you have determined one reason you are unhappy is because you don’t get enough “me time” then a specific goal could be to set aside 30 minutes a day to do something you like to do.
•  Measureable: Notice something about the goal I posted there. 30 minutes/once a week. You can measure that. If you spent 10 minutes every other week, you know you’ve not yet reached your goal. If you spend 60 minutes twice a week you know you’ve exceeded it. The ability to measure your goal gives you irrefutable evidence that you did, in fact, achieve something!
•  Achievable: While it is admirable to pledge to not eat any carbs in a week, are you capable of doing that? (Not really…some carbs are unavoidable! And you shouldn’t avoid carbs!) Make sure your goal is something you are actually capable of doing.
•  Realistic: This may seem the same as achievable but it’s not. For instance if you’ve been on a walking program for a while and you pledge to run a half-marathon, that may be possible (given enough time and the will to do it) but is it realistic? Is it realistic to pledge to go to the gym three hours a day? Unrealistic goals are possible to achieve but highly unlikely. And all they end up doing is making you feel like a failure. So be honest with yourself and set realistic goals!
• Timely (time-sensitive): By virtue of the Pledge your weekly goals will be time-sensitive, but in general S.M.A.R.T. goals do have expiration dates. For example, if your goal is to be improve your mile time by 1 full minute by six months from now, you are setting a target for yourself. The point is NOT to pressure yourself into anything. But how much motivation would you have if you said “I want to increase my mile time by one minute…whenever…” That’s not very motivating. But this ties in to the realistic nature of a S.M.A.R.T. goal. Make your goal challenging, but do-able…then go for it!

Having said all that, you won’t be disqualified from The Pledge for not having a S.M.A.R.T. goal. How you decide your goal is completely up to you! But insofar as achieving goals begets achieving goals, you might want to consider setting up a goal you can smash! Then next time you can set a bigger, more challenging one and smash that too. See how that works?