My SWOTs for Achieving a Healthy Weight

Here is my SWOT list for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. A strategic plan will follow.

STRENGTHS
Past success. I have lost a significant amount of weight before (60+ lbs) using a healthy plan (WW) and kept it off for a long period (6 years).

Food tastes. I like healthy foods a lot and know how to cook them—most vegetables, fish, skim milk, etc. So does my husband. I can afford to buy healthy foods.

Exercise experience and gear. I am no longer afraid of gyms or exercise. I’ve worked successfully with trainers in the past and know about strength training; I belong to 2 gyms—one near home; one near work; one with a pool; I own a pedometer, a treadmill, a stability ball, Zoomer swim fins, some weights, and a step. My husband wants to walk and go to the gym and pool with me.

Motivated by Winning. I like the being the best and being all I can be.

Knowledgeable and Problem-Solver. I know a lot about nutrition and starting and growing fitness plans. I am good at strategizing and working through options to stay on track and improve.

I ask for help. I’m not shy about asking people for help and not embarrassed to ask for what I want, and I take criticism I’ve asked for pretty constructively. My husband, counselor, and even my boss are prepared to help me find time and motivation to get and stay on track.

Fellow bloggers. I am following stories of people who are successfully losing and maintaining and they are also following and encouraging me.

WEAKNESSES

Current size & mindset. I’m bigger than I’ve ever been and It’s hard to move and push the thoughts of defeat aside.

Inertia. I make a lot of plans but don’t follow through on them for more than a few days or a week. It’s easier to watch TV than to walk.

I let work take priority. It’s hard to feel like I can get away from work to exercise or to get home before 7:30 or 8 so I have the energy to cook healthfully and pack lunches.

I let fear of potential problems keep me from trying. Like my feet hurt and I’m afraid of hurting them more. And I have a fear of being hungry.

I feel like a failure to have to keep starting. I’m embarrassed and humiliated that I keep starting and stopping.

I get caught up in other people’s problems. This drags up my own problems and negative thinking and breeds the blues and distracts me from own direction and solutions. (Hubby made me add this one. . . hmmmm)

OPPORTUNITIES

To take charge of my life. Be a new person who is energetic, self-loving, positive, inspirational, fit, creative, ever-learning, and generously loving.

Avoid or delay obesity associated health problems, most of which run in my family. Stay free from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, heart attack, stroke, breast & endometrial cancers.

Improve my lifestyle to help manage depression & osteoarthritis. Use exercise to help manage depression and strengthen muscles to ease pain and increased damage of OA. Use success to help breed increased self-confidence and positive future focused thoughts.

Feel proud. Feel more positive about myself and life each day. Feel more confident and like a positive representative in my job. Be a better healthy role model to the grandkids. Change my story so I can talk about and dwell on something else besides my fat.

Wardrobe in the wings. I have lots of clothes to at least last me the next 70 lbs.

THREATS

Lack of belief. I have never lived in a healthy weight range and am not sure I believe I can get there or live there.

Depression. I am prone to depression and am struggling now. It tends to paralyze me and make me very negative about my ability to succeed and to recognize my successes.

Cynicism about my future. I tend to have an inability to stay focused and confident that I can have positive future that has purpose and growth and fun with stimulating and loving people.

Self-pity, isolation, fuck-it defeated attitude.

Family history and patterns. Parents and sister are overweight and none of them have sustained weight loss with a healthy, maintainable plan.

Diabetes and HBP waiting to happen. Plus, both my parents have mobility issues from progressive arthritis and spinal deterioration.