Battling With "Overpromising/Overextending"

Hello friends,

Sadly, this will be a short blog as my week has been manic but I wanted to write a quick blog about "overpromsing/overextending".

I don't know if anyone else has struggled with this problem as well but being a Type 2 "The Helper"...(based on a cool personality test I took) I tend to try to please everyone and take on new things which means often you get into situations of overextending yourself which usually means you miss deadlines, don't finish everything, or in the case of weight loss you set the standard way to high to follow. One thing that I have learned from my almost sickeningly over-optimistic personality is that reality doesn't play as much of a factor. I very often will have times when I am so optimistic about achieving a goal that I actually sabotage myself in setting the bar way too high!

Sometimes I can actually do it but for example I decided last week that I was going to run 3 miles every day this week and lower my calories to 1200. Well needless to say that just wasn't obtainable at this point. I was sore from my killer Saturday....I'll blog about that later but I did a 3 mile walk/jog, a butt and gut class, and then hiked 5 miles all before 3pm....I was so sore I could barely move until Monday afternoon. :0) And so for me, not being a natural runner having to wake up the next morning and log in another 3 miles was WAY too optimistic. Then by not hitting my goal I was down and depressed and had thoughts of giving up all week. So lesson learned is: by overextending or setting the bar too high I get upset about not meeting the goal.

So some of my thoughts on this is I'm going to tone it down and realize that "slow and steady wins the race" and try not to overpromise but instead when I'm trying to reach an actually obtainable goal if I do even better great! it'll be a mood enhancer instead of a downer for not meeting the goal.

It's kind of like when a store has to order something for you, lets say it's shoes and they say they'll have them in in two weeks. Initially you're like wow, two weeks that stinks but then you get a call one week later and they are in earlier than you expected. You are usually really happy. Instead of them promising you they will be in the next day and finding out it is really going to be a week which makes you mad...or well I get mad when they do that.

So I'm taking a new approach that instead of planning long runs (well long runs for not being a runner) of 3 miles I'm going to plan 1 mile or just plan on getting outside for the run with no length set. That way when I get back and realize I did 2 miles or just got out there at all I'll be happy instead of upset that I didn't hit a difficult mark. It is celebrating what I am doing to be healthier instead of getting mad at myself for not hitting my usually unrealistic goals.

I am also going to set little goals that I can actually obtain and cross off a list like most recently.....I'm going cold turkey with booze. Bye-bye booze, at this point in time it's empty calories that I don't need. I will have a glass of wine if I'm out for a special occasion but otherwise it's history. So this week my goal is to not have wine at all this week. Once I hit that goal....which I have almost made, I'm going to feel great which will help me set a new goal. Next week it is using my small bowls to eat from and using chopsticks to eat my food (a slower eating technique).

With these little changes I'll feel better about accomplishing small goals and not overextend myself to goals that aren't obtainable.

Thoughts??? Suggestions???