Revisiting Reasonableness

When the month of September began, I decided it was time to kickstart healthier habits. Thanks to a little nudging from my big sister, I rejoined Weight Watchers, and along with tracking my food I committed to closing the circle on my Apple Watch every day the entire month. This required that I stand for at least 12 hours, exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, and burn a minimum of 450 calories during my waking hours. In my mind, this seemed like a great way to challenge myself. I vowed to stay the course.

As you can see, from first glance it appears I reached my goal. However, if you zoom in a little closer, you'll notice one ring is not fully closed. Near the end of the month, I crashed early on a Friday night after an exhausting week at work, and with only 13 calories left to burn, I missed my target for the day. When I woke up on Saturday morning and realized I'd fumbled, I felt crushing disappointment. I mean, I was almost to finish line. How could I have been so careless?

The thing about long term goals is they should be reasonable. Had I unintentionally set myself up for failure from the beginning? Did I leave any room for my humanness to breathe? I am a fan of goal setting, but sometimes my all-or-nothing tendencies manifest in self-defeating behaviors. After screwing up on Friday, I considered throwing in the towel and quitting completely. However, this reaction would be as unreasonable as the goal I had originally set. I am a pendulum swinger, and sometimes rigid goals are what help kickstart a journey. However, they also cripple me.

Reasonableness feels elusive to me in so many areas of my life. I am prone to extreme thinking, and if I ever hope to find balance in my world, I must unwind a little. When you look up the word reasonable in a thesaurus, the words moderate and tolerable are the first synonyms you'll find. In October, I will continue on this journey of health, but I will not berate or belittle myself when I am imperfect. Perhaps a more realistic goal would be to close my rings 5 out of 7 days a week. I'm also hoping to blog a little more regularly, but instead of forcing myself to produce a piece of writing every single day, I will aim for three entries a week. Seems more manageable. Progress not perfection will be my mantra in October. Wish me luck!