Day Twenty: Realistic Goals

For years, I wanted to look like Gwyneth Paltrow. I loved the waify look of her body type, the long, lean, willowy frame. But Gwyneth has an ectomorphic body type, and I've got way too much natural muscle tone to look like her.

Isn't it that we always seem to want what we cannot have?

Setting realistic and reasonable goals is crucial. Your first two weeks of ANY weight loss program will most likely show you losing anywhere between 5-10 pounds. This is water weight. Water is retained in the body when we have a poor diet full of soda, chips, fast food, and anything else that is high in sodium. When we stop consuming those items, water naturally is shed by the tissues in our body and we see an immediate drop in the scale.

Then...nothing.

Our weight loss may slow to 1-2 pounds a week, or even seem to stall completely for a few weeks. Why? Muscle weighs more than fat, and if we're working out, we are probably exchanging muscle for fat. This gives us an unrealistic perception of how we're actually doing.

That's one reason why we take pictures.

Thinking that you're going to lose 40 pounds in the course of a month or two is not only unrealistic, it can be damaging. If we diet too heavily or take our caloric intake too low, the body's natural response is to slow our metabolism to retain fat. It thinks that it's starving, and so it does everything it can to slow the weight loss process.

Instead, what we do is that we replace poor choices with healthier ones, developing new habits that we retain for the long haul.

We don't stop snacking....we change what we're snacking on and how much snacking we do. Instead of reaching for the chips, we reach for an apple with a spoon of natural peanut butter. Instead of searching out the soda, we reach for a glass of ice water.

It will take months...it may take years. But, each month will be better than the month before. Along the way, you'll reach amazing benchmarks.

Now...what to do about that self-perception when you have a different body type than what you want?

It doesn't matter if you're waify or muscular, pear-shaped, or look like a string-bean. If you're at the right weight for your frame and living a healthy lifestyle, you glow. Your body looks fantastic regardless of the shape. Your skin radiates, and your eyes whiten and brighten. You stand up a little straighter and feel a little better about yourself.

Don't worry about that which you cannot change, instead work with what you have.

I challenge you to be patient. I challenge you to examine the body type that you naturally have, and find celebrity role models with that type of body who look amazing... i.e. Jennifer Lopez (pear), Kelly Ripa (muscular), Gwyneth Paltrow (willowy).