Weight Loss Journey – Beck’s Progress
Imagine that, another Beck post and it hasn’t been years in between. Yay me! Sticking to something for more than a day. Progress? Maybe. Who knows? Let’s just jump into all of this shall we?
June 1st was my birthday. Another trip around the sun for me. I figured I would use it the way most people use the New Year. I’d make myself some achievable goals to stick to. So that’s what I did. I sat down with my phone notes app and I wrote out some goals.
A trick I learned from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is to speak goals into existence. So how do I speak them into existence? I post them on my social media. It is a psychological trick that convinces your brain that someone else has expectations of you.
Do they really? No. Honestly you are the only person accountable for yourself. But saying these things to someone else or into the void of the internet makes your mind believe someone else might actually care about your goals.
Does this actually work? I don’t know? I do it anyway. It works for me. It makes me feel like my accountability partners increase and I keep moving. Or at least right now, it’s working for me. I will continue to do it and here we go. My goals as they are right now.
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New Goals
Goal #1 – Healthy Schedule – I have been working more at my actual job and I have a side hustle cleaning house for others. This has really put a damper on my life as a whole.
So, my first goal is to create a schedule that is not only profitable in money but profitable in spirit.
This past month with the added extra hours of work and side hustle I have felt very strung out and exhausted. This is not healthy for my mind or my body.
I have to create and stick to a schedule that will increase my finances while giving me time to self-care.
Goal #2 – Home Work – Depression has led to bad habits at home.
I have not been keeping my house up the way I would like. Nor have I been working towards making my old house a home I can be proud of.
Work on my home. Not only cleaning and getting my home in the shape that I want it to be but also start working on the millions of DIY projects that I have put off for a million and a half years due to my depression and my world as a whole.
I know I can’t overwhelm myself with this goal but I also need to understand that giving up those things did nothing to help my mental health.
I need to apply the cognitive behavioral therapy techniques towards this goal as well and mindfully take on the tasks instead of making overwhelming to do lists that make me want to go to bed instead of accomplishing the tasks at hand.
Goal #3 – Personal Time – Make ME time every day.
Whether it is used to work out, craft something, take a fake bubble bath…
Seriously, this might be my insanity but I only have a shower in my home. So, what I did this weekend was buy a blow up kiddie pool and a bathing suit. The plan is to fill it with bubble bath or a nice bath bomb and chill in it for like an hour at least twice a week all by myself.
I will listen to my murder books or podcasts and just lay back and soak in water. I think this is a genius idea. But hey! or work on something that brings me joy.
Goal #4 – Share My Journey – Get back to work on Forgetskinny.com.
I gave this up in February of 2019 when I slipped into the Rabbit Hole of Depression and have not really picked it back up. There is something that is keeping me from that, my computer doesn’t work correctly.
But YES, this is important to me and I need to get back to work on that. It brought me joy even though working on it made me feel productive on a project that was just about Me and Ki and our personal wellbeing and journeys.
It was therapeutic and motivating and my want to get back to that home and build it is back. Here I am working on that.
I have the goal of making this at least a weekly task that I do. Eventually, I want to work up to a daily post.
Goal #5 – Dance – This is one that is important to me. I have no desire or illusions that I will be a Belly Dance Superstar. Far from it. I just love it.
Learning choreography or improv and moving my body as a living sculpture makes me happy.
I was taking the classes on line. Which was great but I had no accountability for it. If I didn’t feel like it, which was OFTEN I could sit and just watch. No work was actually put into it.
Add onto the pandemic schedules I had increased my work load. Then I hurt my elbow and shoulder. Work schedules and pain kept me from working on that and I am sad.
I feel like I have forgotten everything I have ever learned and that’s scary to me.
I can’t take a lot of classes this month because of time and money. My goal is to at least attend one in person class a month and build in time for work in the Wild Garden Belly Dance library.
Goal #6 – My Health – This is slightly a two-part goal. I have done very well with the actual weight loss but I have not done as well in other areas. So here we go. Some of this is disappointing AF, but let’s discuss it anyway.
Part A: No excuse for it, but I started smoking again at the end of 2020. Needless to say I am highly disappointed in myself for doing so. So yeah, we need to stop that. I have no doubt that when I am actually ready and make the decision, I will quit again and celebrate it every day.
Part B: My weight. I am doing pretty good at the actual loss of weight and I am proud of that but I have not worked on toning, strength and flexibility as planned.
I want to live a long time. And I would like to do that in the best maintained body that I can. That is going to take work and dedication that is hard for me to devote but to accomplish my goals I have to put the work into it.
I think of it this way, if I can’t love me to devote some time to accomplishing my health goals why should I expect anything to change? I can’t. I have to focus on me.
Goal #7 – Love Myself – Be kinder to myself. I am great at telling other people how wonderful they are. I am great at telling other people to be kind to themselves and love themselves but so often I hate me.
My brain says things to me that I would feel the need to hug someone if I heard it being said to them. And I am not a hugger.
So changing my thought process towards myself is something that I am working on and will continue to work on throughout this year and the rest of my life.
I am a Queen. I am a bad Bish. I know this but that inner voice needs to be tamed and convinced that she isn’t so bad. Shine her up and straighten her crown and learn to live with her.
Goal #8 – Explore My World – Make time to experience the world around me.
That could be a weekend where I explore my backyard or an actual vacation that I travel far and see something new.
I’m on the down slope of my life, if not now then when? I want to create as many memories as possible while I am young enough to enjoy them when I can no longer do and see.
Lets Go!
That’s it. My 8 goals for the next year. I might add or subtract as time goes on.
I think at this point I have to stay flexible in wants and needs. I am currently looking forward to another year of my life.
I look forward to growth and accomplishments. I look forward towards every experience that I might have.
With lots of love and hope to you,
~Beck
a.k.a. Sloth
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For challenge worksheets and the Forget Skinny planner, see our Planners & Worksheets page!