Goal setting for success.

This one is strictly speaking off topic for this blog but as it is quite relevant I thought I'd share it anyway.

What ever you plan to achieve increase your chances to succeed, by setting yourself goals with targets that involve actions that you can control.

"Score more next season than this season" is not a goal that is entirely within your control. You may not get enough good passes. You may be up against a goalie that knows your shoting habbits really well. You may be injured for a really long time. There are all sorts of reasons why this may not happen. And that can negatively impact your motivation to really go for it.

"Improve shooting accuracy by September 15th" is not a S.M.A.R.T target. It is not measurable. It is also not entirely within your control.

But you can combine the targets and the goals in "I want to score more goals next season than I did this season by making my shots more accurate"

Next you have to take a little more time and look at what it would take to be more accurate. Technique, strength, muscle memory. Technique has to be monitored and possibly corrected by a coach. They have to give you feedback on your execution of your shot.

Which leaves strength and muscle memory. And there is only one way to improve both of these: Repetitions! And the number of repetitions you execute are 100 per cent within your control.

If you practice strength training for 2.5 hours a week and set yourself a goal to shoot 50 slaps, snaps backhands and wristshots every day, your accuracy will improve.

THAT! IS! HOW! YOU! SET! GOALS! TO! SUCCEED!!

It doesn't matter exactly what the goals are, but I think that if you give yourself or your players specific actions to work on they can't help it - they will improve.

You could for instance put a card board box at one end of the driveway and ask your kid (or yourself) to pass 10 tennis balls into the box every day, and then give them a little treat as a reward (reading time, 5 minutes extra before bed time, a magazine when they have done 100 passes. etc etc)

Now how to put this into practice for my weightloss? hmmm.

I'm still here

And I've not gone up or down in weight - just resting on my laurels after getting into the 19 stone area. And there's so much other stress going on that needs resolving soon so dieting has gone out the window. Trying to compensate with more exercises this week though so we'll see on Sunday what the scales say.

At the moment though I am more interested in learning where my get up and go has gone. Since I came off the Antibiotics 2 weeks or so ago now all I want to do come 9 o'clock is go to sleep. Which isn't good when hockey practice is at 10:45 at night!


Jon

Sometimes it just doesn't matter.

I went to Portchester today for my weigh in and it came back 19.13st or 126.5 kilos.

woppiedooda.

A few weeks ago it would have been a big deal, but today I just don't care. So I have removed 15 lbs from my body. 6.8k kilos of lard has gone. That incidentally was slightly less than twice my sons weight when he was born.

I was pleased to see 19 on the slip, but I was even more relieved because I wasn't actually sure I had done enough to lose the weight. What with no exercise and a massive cake sale at work on Friday.

But today I really don't care. I had a closer look at the slip and noticed that at the bottom it shows my BMI (41.3) and also what my weight should be in order to be considered within the "normal" range.

Anything over 12st 1 (76 kilos roughly) and I am overweight apparently. Just to put that into perspective, there is someone I know who is rather petite. I would say she's around 7 -8 stone. If you are 5ft 8 and weigh 12 stone, you could carry her on your back, and together you would still weigh less than what I weigh at the moment! I weigh enough for two people!

and at this rate it will take about 3 and a half years before I can get naked, put her on my back, go to a fancy dress party and introduce her as Michelle. And still only weigh 19stone 13.

Following that mental image, this is going to sound like parading around with a naked woman on my back is a desperate ambition of mine - it's not - but I would much rather I lost the 7 stone quicker than 3 and a half years.

I might even skate quicker by then!

One of the things that also made me care less about the weight loss result was that I have noticed that muscles are toning up and getting smaller. Like my legs. and waist. And I do feel fitter than I have felt in a long time.

But even still. I have only ever lost one pound a week, except ONCE when I lost more, I would love to lose 3-4 pounds this week. Because then I would have broken through the 125kg barrier.

Anyone willing to bet with me or are you all going to bet against me? Cause I think betting against me would be a fairly safe bet!

Happy St Patricks Day.

Unlike most of you I have a legitimate reason to celebrate today. By the way I'm not celebrating because I am now under 20 stone. I don't know if I am. I was ill due to Tonsilitis this weekend so never ventured out to weigh myself. But every year 2 days after my wife's birthday, I make my excuses, go to the pub and have a pint of stout and lift it to honour the patron saint of Ireland.

Because I used to live and work there and I still consider it to be home. Even though I'm Norwegian. Sounds strange I know, but it's easy to idolise a place where you spent most of your time drunk, in great company and with lots and lots of great friends.

So to the rest of you, Happy St Patricks day!

It Beggars Belief

It is staggering how easy it is to say one thing and then do another. Just think how many times you've said "Oh I must phone so and so". What about how easy it is to set a goal with good intentions, but then forgetting to do the work needed to achieve it? It's not like you deliberately set out to fail... it just happened that way. "Life got in the way". Heard that one before? Yeah. Me too.

Right now I am thinking really hard of a way to work "Pales in comparison to" into a sentence in this post. It's not exactly "Life" getting in the way of me finishing this post, but more a distraction. The mundane and frankly mind numbingly unimportant things get in my way. Like when it's time to do the tax return, sure as eggs is eggs, the housework gets done! Or like just now when I spent 10 minutes searching for an idiom to use in that last sentence!

And I am like that when it comes to exercise too. The little things get in the way. Which is kinda funny to me seeing how big I am! (Simple pleasures I know...)

It's not like life gets in the way when I don't manage to get out at lunch time to do a mad dash for 20 minutes of my 30 minute break. It's the facebook! Or I get so distracted by a TV program in the morning, that I forget to make a decent packed lunch! That's not life. That's me being an idiot.

Someone once told me in a Kleeneze training session, that some people spend more time looking for their car keys than reading bank statements. Not sure what that was suppose to mean, but to me it sounds like if I want to succeed I need to be organised. I'm not really good at making sense of idioms.

However, the one thing it appears I AM really good at is losing ONE lb a week. I think 95 % of the time that's what I do - lose one pound a week. It beggars belief how easy it is to lose just one pound a week. You should try it. Piss easy. Walk a bit more, eat a bit less and drink water when you want the kitkat.

So that means this week I am spot on 20 stone, which is a 7lbs weight loss since the 16th of January. (That's the week I went for my epic walk) Or 8 lbs or roughly 4kg since the 9th of January when I started writing here.

But I refuse to join a gym. I can see the point though. Just look at the Biggest Loser TV program. They would not be able to lose all that weight on diet alone. It's just not at all possible!

If you're supposed to eat 2000 calories a day (as an example), that's the maximum number of calories you can cut out of your daily diet. Not a sustainable solution at all and it puts a lid on how much weight you can lose from dieting alone.

But if you do some exercise then it is quite easy to burn 2000 calories. It might take a few hours on the Elliptical Trainer but it can be done. In fact you can burn a whole lot more than just 2000 in a day at the gym. Which makes it infinitely easier to lose weight by exercising than by dieting. And you would be healthier too. Sorry I would be healthier too.

So why am I not joining a Gym? They cost money. I have a gym across the road from where I work, and I can get in there to swim for free because of the company I work for. I have a bike. I have some decent walking shoes and I have my ice hockey.

And provided I can keep the little things at bay and stop them distracting me I should be alright. And Provided I can stick to the restricted eating plan, I should be alright.

But you know that slight hunger pain you get when you're on a diet? Well it pales in comparison to the starving sensation I get for up to two days after hockey practice! I burn so many calories in that one session that my body craves for me to replace the nutrients. This week I will try and see if a protein shake afterward helps me with this problem.

Because with Easter egg season being just around the corner, I need to speed up my weight loss!

Weigth loss is one thing... but then there is something far bigger

I'm not talking about my waistline this time even though it is pretty big, but something that is beginning to annoy me a little more than it should.

Yeah this week I am getting very close to breaking through the 20 stone barrier and into the "teens" as I was 20st 1lb when I weighed myself on Sunday. So what? It's 127.6kg and 6kg lighter than what I was the first time I weight myself at Superdrug in Portchester back in July. Or a stone if I go by the imperial stones and pounds. So what?

Because it is beginning to bug me that some people that frankly should know better just dismiss any sports or fitness expertise I give them. Yeah I've not been involved in hockey for very long, but I played youth sports on a very successful Handball team from I was 8 or 9 until I was 16. I did Cross country skiing competitions (although I was crap at that!), and I spent a couple of years doing gymnastics (!) and I went through some pretty hardcore training when I joined the Norwegian Army. Although the army thing isn't that important because most Norwegians my age had to go through the same training.

I did some running when I lived in Dublin (although reportedly I mainly got lost in the park) and during a particular time in my life I lived, ate, drank and trained my buff body in accordance to the gospel that is MensFitness. I lost 2 stone and a bit in a little under 2 months. But then I found a partner that I wanted to marry, settled down with kids and got lazy. And THAT, my dears is how I ended up at 21 stone.

NOT because I sat on my arse all through my childhood. I can still stand with my feet together, straighten my knees bend over and put my PALM on the floor, not because I never moved a muscle and have no muscle tone, but because I was taught how to stay flexible when I did gymnastics, and our handball club was fanatical about avoiding injuries from pulled muscles. So we bloody stretched, bent, jumped, leapt and SWUNG for flaming HOURS a week to stay flexible.

I know how important it is to warm up and STRETCH before practice starts. And I still very rarely wake up stiff the morning after a hard practice because I STRETCH and have a cool down routine that involves me loosening up the muscles and removing the stiffness before it gets sore.

But because I'm fat people don't see that. And to be honest I can't blame them. I can't blame them for not listening to me when I try to tell members of the ladies ice hockey team that when their star forward goes on a breakaway their job is not to stand on the home blueline or in the neutral zone and grumble over the fact that she doesn't pass. She's busy trying to outrun the oppositions D. Your job is to chase the bloody rebound if your star player misses!

I can't blame people if they don't believe me if I tell them that they need to move into open ice or into a position where they can receive a pass. I can't blame others if they think I'm a moron if I say that it is OK for star players to get frustrated and shout if they repeatedly have to tell other less experienced players that they are in the wrong position. It's not a smart thing to do but it's a bloody game and nothing personal! When you play in a team sport for a long time and with many different people, you get to understand that some people will always play to win, and blame everyone else for a loss. Same thing in life. Some people have great individual skill, but maybe lack a bit of confidence. A lot of times some team mates make mistakes. They cock up big time. How the team as a whole DEAL with that individuals cock-up makes the WHOLE difference when the NEXT game comes along. Disagreement and arguments are not in themselves bad provided they get resolved. Unresolved arguments fester on the whole team spirit and can ruin a good run.

Resolving issues that usually have been festering because someone couldn't let a hurtful comment go, can suddenly bring the team together again and turn a bad run around. Usually the fastest way to do this is to let the comment go - it wasn't personal. It was about the game, and it was simply a clumsy way to show you something you can improve upon.

A team is better than the total individual skill of the players when all the players want to make each other better - when you want your team mates to succeed. In fact your not a team until that happens. You're a group of individuals. And until everyone ELSE in the team is more important than YOU, there is no TEAM.

In order to play in a team sport you have to play to your mates strengths. So someone is good at breakaways - keep the D nearest her preoccupied with what you're doing. Then rush to the rebound. PLAN your Fking plays in advance and practice them in the frikking car park! 3 of the 4 goals that the ladies team let in last week came on what I would guess were pre rehearsed, planned plays (set pieces). 2 of them split the D by two forwards crossing over from left to right, one crossing in front of the goal and the other then returning with the puck behind the goal, easy slot pass - BANG in the net. And the slap shot goal? The scored had 7 - SEVEN - shots from the exact same spot. Don't tell me that wasn't rehearsed.

But I can't blame people for not believing I speak with authority. When it comes to ice hockey I don't. But when it comes to teamwork, and teamsports - I do.

But that authority is hard to spot under 20 stone of fat.

And that is MY fault and MY responsibility to fix.

Small goals help big time!

If you can't read that, it basically says 128.1 kilos or 20stone 2 pounds or a weightloss of 6 pounds since I started this blog. In the last two weeks I lost 4 pounds and I am pretty pleased with that!

And I think the biggest reason why I suddenly managed to double my weekly weightloss (and two weeks running too!) was that I broke through the 130kg barrier. I was pretty pleased to see the back of 130 and the thought of going back there scared me into sticking better to my diet.

This week I am desperate to lose 3 pounds or more because I want to get under 20 stone! And I know that went I have achieved that I will be looking towards 125, then towards the 19 stone mark etc.

Having such small targets means I should be able to hit one every month or so and I am finding that VERY motivating. I'm sorry but I find "lose 3lbs a week" about as motivating as watching bankers pissing away everyone elses money so these tiny goals help give me a sense of progress.

Another thing I started doing is using my phone to track my exercising and bore every one of my facebook friends by telling them how far I have walked, how fast, how high and where.

So keep an eye out for my exercise posts on facebook - I'm finding them very addictive!