As 2019 was coming to an end, I saw myself pushing over the 300 lbs mark, and I realized that I needed to take advantage of the concept of a New Year Resolution. Normally my annual resolution is “Don’t die,” which has given me quite a bit of an undefeated streak. Weight loss is considerably more difficult than staying alive, so I was going to need a plan. I needed small, achievable, and measurable goals if I was going to succeed.

The last three months of the year are chock full of eating opportunities and a lot of candy. So, I came up with a very specific eating pattern for my diet for all three months. I began with my previously successful strategy of not counting calories the first week of the month, then counting in the following weeks. I also made sure that during the final week (or two) of each month, I was to completely avoid candy and all sweets.

As October came around, I found my strength waning. Although I was strong and avoided sweets for the final week of October, I definitely did NOT stay firm with my goal to count calories. Exercise, thankfully, was a lot easier for me to adhere to. I made my workouts simple. I completed two yoga workouts and one cardio workout each week, with two cardio workouts during the final week of the month.

I discovered the hard way how important it can be to stick to a dietary plan. Instead of losing two pounds this month, I gained four. Now I was officially six pounds behind on my weight goal for the year.

Diet-wise, my November was scheduled to be exactly like October, with the exception that I would avoid sweets during the last two weeks of the month. With my weight gain from October, I had a lot more motivation to stick to this plan. Although I ended up deviating during the final week of November, this month was still an improvement from the previous month.

My November workout goals were the same as October, with the exception of the week of Thanksgiving. Knowing that week would be a week with plenty of food, as well as plenty of time off from work, I modified my goal to complete five cardio workouts throughout Thanksgiving week. Adhering to my stricter dietary and workout plans paid off. I lost 4.4 lbs this month, now being only slightly under three pounds behind my scheduled goal.

The home stretch. In theory, I should have been motivated to kick it all into high gear… "should" being the operative word. Alas, I fell victim to the end-of-year slump. With the holidays approaching, my birthday, colder weather, and a litany of other excuses, I failed to follow my dietary regimen, which was of the same design as October and November.

Thankfully, working out was something I was still able to commit to. I successfully completed my yoga workouts and one cardio workout (usually a 3 km run) every week. With all the free time I had, I planned to have four cardio workouts each week during the final two weeks of the month.

Just as October showed me that diet and eating habits are important, December did the same. I gained just over five pounds this month. Ultimately, I ended the year having lost about ten out of the twenty pounds I aimed to lose.

2020 in Review

Well, I ended 2020 with a mix of emotions and lessons to learn. I backtracked a lot in the last quarter of the year, which is something I will know to watch and plan for in the future. I knew that time of year would be difficult, but I also lost a lot of my momentum when it came to food and diet.

Perhaps for 2021, I will need to do something drastically different; in hindsight, I didn’t do anything super special in my diet for this last bit of the year, and maybe the lack of variety caused me to get lazy. I also discovered that I am committed to working out, and absolutely refuse to let that commitment and those habits go away. Even when I suffered an injury earlier in the year, I took time off, but then caught up on missing workouts. Once again, there wasn’t much contrast in my activity schedule these last three months either. Although that didn’t hinder me at all, it might be something I want to play with and adjust this year.

And so, I made it halfway to my goal for 2020. I wanted to lose weight, and I still managed to lose weight—a decent amount, too. I look back and see that a year ago, I was so out of shape that my goal for the first week of the year was to run for two minutes straight. At my peak last year, I was running a full 5k, and lately, I’ve been averaging between thirty and forty minutes per run.

As for 2021, I've planned to make a more realistic set of weight loss goals and trying new techniques. I also aim to improve my mental and emotional health, goals which I’ve compiled into a whole new checklist for me to follow. I’m sure I’ll document it all for you to read. In the meantime, I wish you all good health and a happier year than the last one may have been.

What goals were you successful in accomplishing last year?
What adjustments can you make to achieve your goals this year?
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