Lose 20 pounds in 10 weeks, fast 16 hours every day and eat for 8, attend CrossFit 5 days a week. Do any of these goals sound familiar? Did you reach even one of them? Probably not. As we look at why consider this:

Generic Goals Only Work for Generic People.

20 pounds in 10 weeks? Nice round, simple numbers.

Generic numbers.

For generic people.

That may work for some friends who can make one small change, say drink water instead of a six-pack of Coke a day, and watch weight drip off of themselves. With minimal mathematical and scientific thought, we can guess why.

A 280 person who loses 20 pounds has only lost approximately 7% of their total body weight.

If you, on the other hand, are a 150-pound person you need to lose almost twice that percentage of your overall weight, just under 14%, to meet that nice round number goal of 20 pounds. And since you only weigh 150 pounds, you don’t have as many easily definable changes to your diet to attain that weight loss goal.

For example, you already may drink water instead of Coke. And many obese people drink water already too, instead of Coke. 20 pounds in 10 weeks is generic, doable, and easy, for only a few people.

To meet your goals, you need to put more time into making them.

Why 20 pounds? Because it was easy, generic. Instead, ask yourself why not 27 pounds, or 13 pounds, or none?

Maybe you need to reduce your blood pressure. Yes, losing weight is a proven way to do that, but maybe set a blood pressure goal and make losing weight part of that complete picture.

It fits into my life, not yours.

The goal is a blood pressure of 120/80 attained in three months with moving towards a whole-food, plant-based diet as one of the spokes pointing to that centric objective. Exercise, breathing activities, and education, may be other spokes. Specific, measurable, personal, doable.

A generic round number?

Hardly.

To meet your goals, you need to put more time into making them. Making them unique, for a unique you.

Let’s look at another example, one that I exemplify. Approximately eighteen months ago, I started to intermittent fast. Other articles will expound for you on the popular formulas. A 24-hour fast, or 16 hours of fasting, and an 8-hour eating window is a standard, generic one, 16/8 every day.

Make certain that this new goal doesn’t impinge upon a habit or a tradition that to most generic people would sound mundane or silly, but to you, is truly important.

As I am married, and my wife takes longer to cotton to my cockamamie ideas than I do, not that fasting is cockamamie but at first blush, it does appear so, I chose not to fast every day. My wife and I love our private Happy Hour every day at 4 pm.

Sometimes alcohol-free,

we savor vegan delights together,

hummus and crackers,

homemade vegan cheese,

olive tapenade,

and play a board game while sitting on our balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Not only would she feel hurt if I didn’t join her in the tradition, I would be tempted to cave in, and partake. Additionally, we enjoy cookies together on most Sunday mornings, and an early afternoon beer after surfing. 16 hours every day wouldn’t be sustainable in my unique life.

It might work for some people, but not for the one that matters to my health goals: me.

So, instead of the proverbial 16/8 fasting plan, or a 24-hour fast, for eighteen months I fasted 21 hours a day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. After being done with dinner the night before no later than 7:00 pm, by Happy Hour at 4:00, I was ready to eat again. Thus, it is a 21-hour fast, not a 24-hour fast. And one added benefit is that my wife Ingrid, after seeing me even happier, even more, energetic, and even skinnier, joined me.

Now, though, I am ready for the next step, and Ingrid is not. So I chose to tweak my intermittent fasting plan to two days a week of the 21-hour fast and one 45-hour fast a week.

Really, why not a 48-hour fast? Again, because we are individuals, we are all iconoclasts in a way. 45 hours work for me, not 48.

It fits into my life, not yours.

Allow Yourself To Be YourselfLeave the generic goals to generic people. Look intently at your life, your schedule, your needs.

Allow yourself to be yourself.

Nothing you do regularly is baseless or frivolous without first giving it regard. Like cookies on Sunday, like Happy Hour with your partner. Make certain that this new goal doesn’t impinge upon a habit or a tradition that to most generic people would sound mundane or silly, but to you, is truly important. Now, newly armed, set goals that YOU can achieve and maintain.

So what is the number one reason you haven’t been achieving your health goals? Because they weren’t yours. They were trite simplified goals of someone else. Follow these tips above, and start winning, for you and your complicated unique life.

If you like what you read here, please consider buying me a “ko-fi” by clicking here: https://ko-fi.com/melindamileslindberg. Aaah, thanks!