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How I Lost 13 Pounds In 29 Days Without Starving (DUMB SMART Goals Example)

by Tor Refsland 5 Comments

smart goals examples

In this post I will tell you about some smart goals examples, which are real life case studies with me as the guinea pig.

How it all started….

Lately I had been realizing that the round thing above my waist, called a belly, didn`t get any smaller.

I had been in a relationship for about two years, and the relationship had given me joy, love and comfort, and last, but not least, a 23,5 pound large “front-pack”.

To be quite honest, I knew about the ever-growing problem.

The case was that I just wanted to ignore it.

Unfortunately, as with most things ignored…

they don`t go away.

The belly was like a little kid begging for daddy`s attention: “Hey, daddy, I am here. I am HERE!!”

And when I didn`t give it any attention, it did the only reasonable thing; it grew larger, so it couldn`t be ignored.

Why I Decided To Do Something About The Problem

That summer I was invited to my dad`s wedding, and while standing in my bedroom trying on my suit pants, I realized I had two choices:

1. To buy a new suit pants in a LARGER size

2. To accept that fact that I was overweight and decide to do something about it!

So for the first time in two years, I finally went for the latter choice.

How should I start?

I started to write down my ultimate goal, deadline and the activities (methods) I wanted to use to reach my goal.

Goal: to lose 10 pounds
Date: 15th of June (1 month and 15 days)
Activities/methods:
– change what I eat
– change how much I eat (especially dinner, I had a bad habit of eating more even though, I was full)
– start to exercise

I made it clear that I didn`t want to lose weight doing certain kind of strict diets and I didn`t want to go hungry, since it makes me very cranky. The most important thing, was that I wanted to do it in a natural way, so I would be able to keep on doing the activities for a long time.

Many people who want to lose weight start out with very strict diets. Some of the diets will work if you follow them systematically. However, when you later decide to go back to your normal way of eating, the fat will come flying back, like mosquitoes to a torch.

I decided to use the DUMB SMART System to reach my big hairy goal.

Then I broke the big goal(DUMB) down into three smaller goals (SMART).
smart goals examples 2
Photo by freedigitalphotos.net (nokhoog_buchachon)


SMART Goal 1 – Change What I Eat

Specific: Stop eating sugar, salt and candy. Stop consuming all drinks containing sugar.

Measureable: Yes (either I consume the ingredients above, or I don`t.)

Attainable: Yes.

Relevant: Yes – this is a relevant goal towards me losing 10 pounds in 45 days.

Time-based: Yes – 15th of June (1 month and 15 days.)

 

smart goals examples 3
Photo by freedigitalphotos.net (nixxphotography)


SMART Goal 2 – Eat Less

Specific: Stop overeating (especially dinner). When I am full, I will stop eating.

Measureable: Yes.

Attainable: Yes.

Relevant: Yes – this is a relevant goal towards me losing 10 pounds in 45 days.

Time-based: Yes – 15th of June (1 month and 15 days.)

smart goals examples 4
Photo by freedigitalphotos.net(Sura Nualpradid)


SMART Goal 3 – Start To Exercise

Specific: Start running 3 times a week (40 minutes each time.)

Measureable: Yes.

Attainable: Yes.

Relevant: Yes – this is a relevant goal towards me losing 10 pounds in 45 days.

Time-based: Yes – 15th of June (1 month and 15 days.)

The End Result

Due to the revealing title of this post, you don`t need to be Sherlock Holmes in order to find out what the end result was.

Yes, I lost 13 pounds in 29 days. What I really liked about my approach, was that it was an easy and natural way of losing weight. I wasn`t starving myself to death, nor was I following some psycho Nazi-diet, which meant that I had to be a robot in order to complete it.

Then over to the one million dollar question…

How Did I Make Myself Exercise When I didn`t feel like it?

When I set this goal, I didn`t wish, hope or just plan to reach this goal (to see if I perhaps would achieve it). I actually DECIDED. That word means to actually cut off all other alternatives. To fail was not an option (yes, that sounds like a movie cliché, but it`s still true.)

My burning desire towards reaching the goal was HUGE. In addition, I had two other motivational factors:
– The avoidance of pain by not reaching my goal was unacceptable for me
– The pursuit of pleasure by achieving the goal was VERY inspiring

For more information on the motivational factors read the following blog post: These Actions Will Murder Your Personal Goal Setting.

In order to reach your goal, you should have one of those factors. The stronger your feelings are about reaching your goal, or fail, the stronger your persistence will be, which will increase your chance of succeeding.

If your big goal triggers very strong emotions towards both reaching and failing your goal, you will have doubled your chance to succeed.

To wrap it up; I basically told myself the following: “I am a machine. I am programming myself to reach my goal. I will perform the necessary tasks no matter what, whether I feel like it or not.”

[Tweet “I will perform the necessary tasks no matter what, whether I feel like it or not. #success”]

Do you want to make changes in your life?

Use the same approach as I did. Write down your big goal, and then break it down to smaller SMART goals.

Good luck, you can do it!

What changes do you want to make in your life?

About Tor Refsland
I help online entrepreneurs NETWORK with influencers and position their BRAND so they can attract the right CLIENTS fast. Award-winning blogger.

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Filed Under: Goal Setting, Health Tagged With: smart goals

Comments

  1. Sue Anne Dunlevie says

    January 9, 2015 at 9:05 pm

    Enjoyed this article, Tor! The exercise part helped me – I’ve been “trying” to develop the exercise habit.

    Thanks,
    Sue

    Reply
    • Tor Refsland says

      January 10, 2015 at 11:11 am

      Hi Sue,

      thanks a lot for stopping by to comment.

      I`m so glad that you enjoyed this article and got some value 🙂

      Tor

      Reply
  2. Tawanya Wilson says

    September 26, 2016 at 6:22 pm

    Thanks for the article. You let me know the only thing stopping me from meeting my goal of weight loss was myself. I am on my way to exercise and eating smarter.

    Tawanya

    Reply
    • Tor Refsland says

      September 30, 2016 at 8:27 am

      Thanks for commenting, Tawanya.

      Having a great exercise and eating plan, and then follow the plan will do the trick 😉

      Have a super day!

      Tor

      Reply
  3. Riya Sharma says

    February 1, 2017 at 4:49 am

    HY!
    Very nice article….thanks for the motivation and all the ideas a to stay fit and smart…..thanks for this…

    Reply

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About Tor Refsland

I help healthy businesses get tons of customers with traffic from Google.

I´m a multi award-winning blogger, SEO strategist & business coach. I´m featured in a book with some of the best marketers in the world; Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, Brian Clark & Grant Cardone. Read More…

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