Day 825: New Strategy For Sustaining Weight Loss?

G’day,

Another 12-week Mission is complete! It’s kinda hard to believe I’ve now done nine Missions back to back (with a week’s rest in between each one). When I rebooted this blog I couldn’t have asked for a higher level of follow-through than this!

Is The Term “Mission” Still Valid?

However, I do feel like I am going through the motions a little bit recently. It feels like “Mission” is not the correct terminology for each 84-day accountability block. 

When I first came up with this term back in Mission 1 2006 it implied a sense of urgency for a specific period of time. Because I have now been sustaining a large weight loss for a couple of years it feels more like a “process” than a “mission.”

While these 12 week periods are still a valuable accountability tool for me they are not exactly “backs to the wall, digging myself out of a hole” type Missions. So, I gave it some thought this week…how about I categorise these Missions going forward?

My New Strategy For Categorising “Missions”

In other words…sustaining a weight loss is different to embarking on a full-blooded physique transformation. Not less important, just different. In a sense, maybe even more important, because what is the point of a transformation that cannot be sustained? Very little (especially when I see my before picture from 2021).

So, moving forward (at least until Day 1000) I will categorise my Missions using the following criteria: 

• 1) Transformation Mission: dropping more than 10% body weight, eg:  M1 2021
• 2) Maintenance Mission: sustaining weight loss to 2% up or down, eg: M3 2022.
• 3) Incremental Mission: slow but definitive improvement, eg: M9 2023.

Now I Can Get Fair Dinkum!

This new framing forces me to get fair dinkum about my effort and expected results from a Mission. The last couple I have fallen short of what my stated goals were at the start. 

Like, I keep saying to myself I want to get under 80kgs but deep down I know I don’t have the burning desire to get there that quickly. It would be nice, but I have been content to incrementally improve.

Mission 9 Results

For example, over Mission 9 I dropped another 1.8 kg and lowered my body fat by 0.8%. This is progress, but it is most certainly not a Transformation Mission! It was an Incremental Mission, I just have to be real about it from the start.

I’ll give this idea some more thought over the next week before I start Mission 10. It will either be option 2 or 3, it most certainly will not be option 1! Hopefully this post may have given you some food for thought if you have a similar dilemma.

Until next week

Eat Clean,
Shred Hard,
Think BIG!

Adam Waters

P.S. I’ve also added a 17 year “Time Machine” post to the 2-year ones I have been doing (see below). Seeing these posts from 2006 makes me feel nostalgic…and old!