Goal Setting
Happy Saturday – it’s finally here! I’m almost always excited for Saturdays – the start of the weekend, wandering the Farmer’s Market, and lots of lots of time to get things done.
But that wasn’t why I was excited for Saturday this week. Today marked the conclusion of my – go one week without artificial sweeteners – challenge.
It was really hard! I have been craving a diet pop all week. Never having artificial sweeteners – ever – is just not going to work for me. However, I do think I should, and can, consume less. How?
- Drink coffee with just milk. No splenda necessary! This will be the single biggest reduction of artificial sweeteners for me – I used to have some with my coffee every morning.
- Once I finish the protein powder I have, I’m going to look for an artificial sweetener-free version.
- No baking with artificial sweeteners. I haven’t done this in a long time, but it’s still worth mentioning!
I am however, going to have a diet pop every once in awhile. And I’m not going to worry about it.
But the fact that I’ve been craving a pop all week, when I told myself I wasn’t allowed it, really made me think. I set one other goal for myself this week: run three times. I did, and I can’t wait to run again.
There is a huge difference in positive and negative goal setting!
It’s definitely a mind trick, but setting a negative goal, ie: I can’t have ______ made me want it more. Setting a positive goal, ie: I will _____ made me feel so accomplished when I completed it!
From now on, I am going to set positive goals for myself! 
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Eats today included a bowl of granola with yogurt:
A sample of hemp seeds at the Farmer’s Market (delicious, tasted like toasted pumpkin seeds!)
My favorite non-coffee Starbucks drink: a nonfat vanilla Awake tea misto. As a bonus, it’s way cheaper than a latte! 
My Starbucks cup also had my favourite quote on it (it finishes with ‘lock you in forever’). I have the quote hanging on my bulletin board to remind me why I went to grad school!
Lunch was fabulous – I decided to combine sweet (blueberry) with savory (hummus) on a pita, based on Brandi’s wrap the other day! I also added spinach + onion + goat cheese (I’m halfway through the Costco brick!)
Dinner was not fabulous. It was some leftover pasta in the freezer, topped with (what else?) some goat cheese. The pasta was all mushy – gross. 
So I settled on some PB+J toast. Much better! 
I’m off to watch my favorite movie ever: BACK TO THE FUTURE!!!
How do you phrase goals you set for yourself?
There’s no way I could go a whole week without diet soda. I can’t even go a day. I think that takes a lot of will to do that!
Great job on your challenge! I don’t ever eat artificial sweeteners. Good thing I’m not a soda drinker. I used to take sweet n low in my coffee, but after a while, it did weird thigns to my stomach. Now I use cane sugar or Stevia.
That’s an awesome challenge and I’m glad you got through it. I’ve been using stevia for the past couple months. I like it better than spenda and it’s better for you.
That’s a good point about setting positive goals. I usually don’t “give things up” but I make goals to do something everyday, and even that sometimes sets me up for failure. But I think it’s good to always be striving for new goals.
Nothing wrong with a diet pop every now and then