Goals, we all have them but how many actually get accomplished?

 

What I Learned from my Goal Marker to drop some weight.

The "cottage cheese" on the back of the legs has been growing to extra large curds recently, if you know what I mean. Before my legs look like one giant cauliflower, I need to take action!  My plan to lose weight began, quite innocently from a trip to the library. My two growing boys were lamenting how they needed food RIGHT NOW and could not bear to wait even 20 more minutes. They were seriously uncomfortable with hunger pangs and were appalled at my insensitivity of this "hunger emergency". I explained that being hungry, while uncomfortable, is not going to hurt them. As I was saying this,  I was convicted of my own lack of hunger pangs! How often did I even experience physically hungry?
 I remembered once reading literature from a Christian weight loss program that had a very simple philosophy. God gave our bodies a mechanism to tell us when to eat, when we are hungry! Now that's profound...eating only when you are hungry?!?!!? It sounds good and all but the problem is that in our modern, overindulgent society,  we have redefined the word "hungry". Hungry could mean, it's 12:00 o;clock or that cherry cheesecake sure looks good! That is not the definition of hunger according to our bodies! Real hunger is when the "alarm" goes off telling you "it's time to eat!". If you haven't had the chance to experience this alarm much (like me!) it sounds something like this...listen closely..."Grrrrooowwwlllll! Rrrruuummmmbblee!"

 

After that re-revelation (since I knew it before and somehow forgot), I knew what my weight loss goal was...NOT to eat until I was hungry! Knowing that Goals are much likely to be achieved in baby steps, I decided that I could probably achieve 9 hunger pangs in a week. I got my goal marker out which consisted of a glass mason jar and glass beads.

 

      Here is how it works:

1. I was much more inclined to eat less when I did eat. I think it was because I wanted to get another growl before the day was up. This was surprising as I was afraid that I might pig out after being hungry.

2. I didn't want to put more of a focus (an idol) on food than it already was. When I started, I thought that I might be thinking about food  all the time, waiting for the growl. This would have been counterproductive as I want to "eat to live not live to eat". Surprisingly, this was NOT the case, in fact just the opposite. I think the reason  can be illustrated with a timer. If you know that you have to do something but there is no set time, you may be thinking about it constantly. However if you set the buzzer (the alarm in your stomach), you can go about your work, knowing that you will be signaled when that time has come.

3. I learned how many times during the day (like when I feed my dc) that I was eating when I wasn't hungry!

4. Hunger pangs don't hurt THAT much.

5. Dropping a glass bead in a jar for no apparent reason (like in front of visitors) can provoke questions from bystanders.

6. Your pants can get that loose after only 9 growls....next week I'm going for 14 growls!! 

 

Here is an example of Goal Markers that two of my children are using:

 

For my aspiring night time potty trainer, I use hanging cones over his bed. Each night he wakes up dry, he gets another one to hang, when there are 5 hanging (five dry nights, not necessarily in a row), he gets a special trip to the ice-cream shop.. Each night he goes to sleep, he has a reminder of his goal hanging right above him.

 

My other son decided to use cut out words for his goal markers. His goal is to do 10 minutes of some exercise each day (basketball season is over!). He will give himself a letter each time he accomplishes his 10 minutes. When it spells, "I DID IT" he accomplished his goal.

 

Here are some other Goal Marker Ideas.

 

Water Drinking: Set out 6 beads each day to drink 6 glasses of water.

Exercising: Using 2 jars, throw a handful of buttons in a jar. Just commit to exercising enough times to move the buttons from one jar to the other. You'll probably want to start over again!

Complimentary Words: Set out 5 beads in a day to say that many complimentary  words.
Children's Books Read: Have your children decide how many books they want to have read by a certain time...let them create a goal marker for themselves!
Random Acts of Kindness: Have your children decide how many GRACE DEEDs  ( non-deserving) they would like to try to accomplish for a week and make a Goal Marker for that....how about flowers cut out and taped on a window when completed!