Setting goals
Today I conveniently enough had a doctors appointment, which is pretty random since I also happen to be setting my goals for my 6 week Healthy. Happy. Sober. challenge. Yes I have a scale at home, but I think getting weighed at a doctors office makes it extra official, so let the challenge begin.
My main two goals of this challenge are obvious enough:
- work on being more healthy.
- work on being more happy.
Where I’m at
For the first the most obvious measure of success is weight. I know this is not always the best measure for success since there are so many factors that go into what a healthy weight for each person should be, but I think we can also agree that 205lbs for a 5’9″ guy probably isn’t ideal. In the next couple days I am sure I will get my blood panel back and it will also show me a plethora of other things I can work on. However, unless I can convince my doctor that in 6 weeks I need my blood panel ran again this is going to be of little use.
The physical effects of drinking are real… and reversible
on a positive note my blood pressure was 120/82. That is the best blood pressure I have had in years and I can completely attribute that to me quitting drinking. I do take 20mgs of Lisinopril, but during my 28 days at Hazelden they were only able to get my blood pressure under control with 80mgs. With just the elimination of alcohol I have gone from 4 pills to 1. It also is not out of the question that I could eliminate it all together with increased exercise and decreased weight.
What makes you happy?
Becoming a more happy person isn’t as easy to measure. I can tell if I am happy each day, but there really isn’t a hard set number to measure. For this I’m going to use the old tried and true measure of a scale of 1-10. for me the goal of putting a number to it so I can look back over time and identify the good days and bad in an effort to pin point things that effect my mood positively or negatively. For me I would guess my base line is pretty much a solid 8.
What’s the goal?
Now that I know were I am at I’m going to set some goals. I’d love to clock in at 180lbs when this is all over, but I also need to throw a little reality at the situation. I think it is best to make an achievable goal, but one that is still going to take some work. 195 it is. As for happiness a one point increase to 9 would be great, but I’ll actually take sticking at an 8 as a win. I’m very happy where I am, but my real fear is a back slide into a 6 or a 7. Maybe it’s a fear of the pink cloud fading away, but I’m considering sticking at an 8 a win.
There, goals are set, now it’s up to me to put in the work to achieve them.