Setting a Goal Weight Range

    During my weight-loss phase, I participated in a diet forum of people who posted daily weights. Observing the behavior of the others provided me with extremely helpful information. When I neared my goal weight, I decided that it was important for me to set specific Goal weights, and to make them extremely VISUAL.

So I created this Weight Maintenance Chart,

which turned out to be a very successful way to BURN specific goal-weight-range numbers into my mind and heart.

Many people have asked me how and why I chose these particular numbers, for these specific categories.  My "creative" thought process went this way....

Over time, I’d learned that my body weight tends to bounce around quite a bit due to salt/water/waste issues. Three pound gains and losses are frequent. Five pound deviations are not unusual. After a 3 day vacation I can have an 8 to 10 lb up-bounce, most of which recedes after a week of eating carefully. Due to this, I decided to set myself a 10-lb maintenance weight range.

At a height of 5’0”, the "Expert" Charts said my "Healthy Weight Range" was between 95 and 128 lbs, and specifically gave 110 lbs as the most "Healthy" weight for my height and bone-structure. I chose the specific numbers from within that range which were meaningful to me.

I set my permanent Goal weight number as 115 lbs. and decided that more than 5 lbs above that number was unacceptable. Therefore I set the 4 lbs above 115 as a “lose weight” area.

I knew that, due to my love of food, dropping too far beneath my goal weight would never be a problem, however, I watched one of my 5'0" forum members, who was maintaining between 110 and 100 lbs, be continually hassled by her family and by other forum members who were worried she was going to “develop Anexoria” and allow her weight to drop too low.
My own family also began making occasional remarks like: “when will you decide to stop dieting?” So I decided to clarify my entire position by setting limits for my bottom weight,as well as limits for my top weight.

The Charts singled 110 out as the ideal number for me,and my lifetime secret fantasy was to weigh 105 lbs. So I decided to set my 10 lb maintenance range between 115 and 105 lbs,.  which placed 110 lbs at the mid-point of my range.

Even the positioning of my numbers have Meaning.  English is read from left to right, which means thatleft is where one has been, and right is where one is going.  I put my high numbers on the left and my low numbers on the right. because the high weight is my past, and the low weight is my future,

The bottom numbers of the "Healthy" Chart were 99-95 lbs so I set this 4 lb range as a "gain weight" area.

Any weight below my "gain weight area" (less than 95 lbs) is a weight that is Totally Unacceptable to me.

Any weight above my "lose weight area" (more than 119 lbs) is a weight that is Totally Unacceptable to me.

The colors I chose also have meaning for me.

Blue for the Maintenance area, because it's my favorite color.
Green for the Acceptably lower area... like Go, it's okay.
Red for the Lose and Gain Weight areas...like Danger or Stop.
Black for outside the high and low Boundaries...like Outer Darkness.

I put all of that information into a small Chart to make it Highly Visual. I did this primarily to firmly fix my goals in my mind,  but found that this also made it easy to share the details of my plan with others. During the past 5 years, this chart has proven to be a very effective tool.

My goal is to make DietHobby an interesting and informative place, rather than a boring monologue about myself. 

That said......
Here's a picture of my cat, Boodie.