The Chart

I have the mother of long term goals looming in my brain all day, every day.  Lose 200 pounds.  That's huge!  (Pun intended.)   It seems too overwhelming to comprehend, much less accomplish. 

On February 1, I sat down at my computer and made a "success" chart.  Across the top, I labeled the dates of 100 Tuesdays.  I numbered the left side from 1 to 200.  Then I wrote my official January 31, 2012 weight at the very tip top left corner.  This took a mammoth chunk of time to build, print, and tape.  It made me realize that if the project of building the chart to track my successes took this long, imagine how long the actual work to make these successes happen was going to take.  But, I didn't stop there. 

I made little hash marks at each 5 pound mark along the side.  These are hash marks for celebration.  I also labeled bench marks along the "pounds lost" side that are important to me.  For example....I haven't weighed less than 270 pounds in 10 years, since Troy and I were married.  I got really, really close in 2007/2008 when I finally starved myself down to 273, but I never broke through that elusive barrier.  So, that bench mark will be celebrated with much fan fare! 

Basically, I've broken down my huge long term goal into many, many smaller ones.  Some obvious, others only to me.  But, I didn't stop there.

I made a diagonal pink line from the tip top left side of the chart all the way across to the very bottom point of the right side, indicating the progression of weight loss if I were to lose two pounds a week over the course of 100 weeks.  I just needed to see the path.  I honestly don't plan to stick to the path, I plan to meander around it.  Enjoying myself along the way, stopping to smell the roses.  Running ahead so that I can look back and admire it.  Even though I don't plan to stay on it, I imagine my path and the pink straight path will cross every now and again.  Maybe I'll even walk along it during this journey.  I don't know.  I do know that it's there making solid, smooth progression and that's comforting. 

The Mega-Chart

I'm currently ahead of the pink path by six pounds.  I've lost 12.4 pounds in three weeks.  Allow me to pause here so I can turn around and look at the pink path, and stick my tongue out.  :)  I know she will catch up with me at some point and possibly even pass me at times, but right now, at this moment, I'm totally swept up in my victory. 

188 pounds and 97 weeks to go!