Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Steve Pavlina has written a great entry about the difference between End Goals and Means Goals. It’s a great read and really applicable to weight loss.

• Steve Pavlina – End Goals vs. Means Goals

If you feel like you’ve failed, take another look. What did you fail at? Did you stop exercising every day? Did you overeat at the buffet? Did you lose your battle with bingeing? Did you buy another weight loss product at a high price only to find out that it’s useless? Whatever you think you’ve failed at isn’t the End Goal. All of those things are just a means to get to your End Goal.

The End Goal is to be at a healthy weight and fitness level. If you stopped exercising, that is just information for you. Whatever you were doing wasn’t your thing. You need to find something else that you truly love that will bring activity into your life. If you binged at the buffet last night, you didn’t blow it. You just overate one day. Today is a new day and a new chance to live healthy. Next time, you’ll know that going for more than one trip up to the buffet is not a good idea.

All those things that make you feel like a failure are nothing. Cull what information you can from them but keep your eye on the End Goal, not on those Mean Goals. There are a myriad of ways to get to a healthy weight and fitness level.