Resolving for New Years- That sounds like something I'd do, right?

I have a problem with setting goals.  In my life up to this point, goals tend to feel a bit more like barriers, points or levels I can never hope to reach or surpass.  I had a MedHelp tracker goal to hit 140 by the end of 2010.  In that I'm still very near 160, that obviously didn't happen.  I later set a personal goal to hit 155 by the end of the year.  That goal really consisted of losing 1-2 pounds in about a week.  Reasonable? yes.  Unachievable? Apparently.  

It is for this reason that I fear setting goals.  I don't want to hear the tiny demon in my head convince me I'll never meet it.  However, I also know that no great thing is accomplished by accident.  (Except, say, the invention of penicillin.)  So I WILL set some goals for the year, I WILL wipe my slate clean of previous failure, and I WILL learn to achieve my goals through behavioral change.  Also, I think I will attach a weight tracker to this blog for regular updates.

So here we are, goals for 2011.  My first goal, is to work out every day this week.  When that's accomplished, I want to work out every day this month.  So far, this goal is within my sights, as I have already worked out today.  I want to be 155 or less (this number is recurring and important to me, as it puts me at a BMI of less than 25.  Translate?  I would officially be a healthy-weighted person again) by the end of this week.  Then, I want to continue to average 5-7 (currently, I'm at 7) pounds of weight loss each month until my weight goal is achieved.

Now that brings me to that big goal, the WEIGHT I'M ACTUALLY TRYING TO ACHIEVE.  The problem with this is that I change it more frequently than I do my socks (hey-o!!)  At points near the beginning, I just wanted to be a healthy weight.  At others, I say 145, or at least "under 150", because history dictates this is the time when people start to really notice the change.  I think that's where I go from looking "a little chubby" to looking "normal".  I carried 135 in college for a couple years, and it would feel really good to be back there again.  Also, that's a BMI of 22, which Wii fit also suggest for me.  And that's what I'm really talking about when I think of my goals.  But secretly, I also want to be down to the 120's, somewhere I've only been during my summer in Japan (at least at this height).  At that point, I would be thin, I could firm up, and look pretty stinkin not bad in a bikini.  At my goal rate, 125 would be achieved by the end of June.  Since I started this journey in August, that would made this an 11 month journey from "obese" to "pretty stinkin not bad in a bikini".  Then, of course, we can start trying to have another kid and start the 9 month climb back up. ;-)

Anyway, there it is.  In writing.  With the accountability of knowing that there's a good 20-30 people who read this relatively regularly, and will know if I get lazy and coast through this year.  So let's raise our glasses (of vitamin water)  and toast the new year, and how much less of us we'd like to see in it!!