Behold the Fitbook! The weekly goal section helps me reflect and focus on my goal of dropping 19.5 lbs. by year’s end.

I’m loving my FitBook.  Yes, in the age of the app, I’m finding that pen and paper still has its advantages when dealing with weight loss.

Why? With the apps, it’s really about clicking something (and getting annoyed with my nemesis – Auto Correct!) and forgetting about it – pure tracking (but they are awesome trackers!)

With Fitbook, I actually have to think about goals for the week and the plan to hit those goals. Something the app trackers lack.

So this morning I rose early to take stock of my 2013 health and fitness goals. Other than my 5K goal, I haven’t looked at these in ages.  I wise I could say I’ve hit my targets. But the truth is they are terribly vague.

Wanna Lose Weight? Set Specific Goals
My next weight target is to lose 25% of my starting body weight. By when? How much is 25%? What will I do to lose 25%?

Ugh! How stupid. Is it little wonder I struggled with two plateaus this year.

If the goal isn’t specific, you won’t hit it.  If I can’t track or measure my goal, I’ll fail. My next weight loss goal must be specific with a target date.  So here we go:

Goal: I want to lose 30% of my starting weight (19.5 more pounds) by December 31st by sticking to 25g of carbs/day and working out 5 days a week.

With my 3 month goal set, I now need to break it down into smaller weekly goals to get me there.  Again, I need to think about what I’m doing.

Now that I’m tracking my food, it is really easy to see how my weight loss went off the rails.  I’ve reflected more on the negative – how I screwed up rather than my successes.  But most importantly, I completely forgot to take stock of where I’m at now on my weight loss journey and where do I want to go from here. Without refocusing my goals, how can I push myself to do better?

Reflect. Refocus. Repeat.

I’ve got 3 months to drop those 19.5 lbs. So after breakfast, I’m taking pen and paper in hand to spell out this week’s goals.

Note: In my haste this morning, I accidentally posted this under my husband’s name. Rest assured, this is a Dot2Trot post.