When it comes to Lap Band in Jacksonville, your goals are often just as important as losing weight—so focus on them to stay motivated!

How much weight do you hope to lose with Lap Band in Jacksonville? This is an important question and was likely addressed during your initial consultation with Dr. Cywes. Your goal weight is the finish line, the final destination that every step of your weight loss journey is leading towards.

However, the benefits of Lap Band go far beyond changing the number on the scale. As you lose weight, you will also be drastically improving your health, developing a more active and engaging lifestyle and, perhaps most importantly, feeling better every day.

These perks may at first seem insignificant when compared to that overarching weight loss goal, but the scale is seldom an accurate indicator of your progress. The scale can only tell you what you weigh, not how much healthier and stronger your body is becoming. Focusing exclusively on your far-off weight loss goal can get frustrating when your weight doesn’t change much (or at all) from week to week, and this can make it difficult to stay motivated.

Instead, you need to consider all the other important things you’re doing for your health and develop goals that highlight those pursuits. By creating goals that emphasize your incremental progress to better health, you can bolster your will to succeed and encourage yourself to keep running for that finish line.

So, how do we go about creating our own weight loss goals? Start by making them SMART:

• Specific. A vague goal won’t get you very far. Think not only about what you want to achieve, but why you want to achieve it and how you’ll turn your goals into reality. Instead of merely making a goal to work out more, think about the specifics—what activity will you be doing, when will you be do it, how many times will you do it and what will you need?
• Measurable. The only way to see if you’ve reached a goal is to track your progress. Make sure that your goals can be objectively measured and find a way to write down the steps you take to reach them. Instead of making a goal to eat healthier, make a goal to make five healthy dinners this week and write down everything from calorie counts to ingredients used.
• Attainable. Just like your final weight loss goal, striving towards a too-difficult objective will likely only lead to frustration. If you set the bar too high, your self-motivating goals may have the opposite effect.
• Relevant. The goals you make should be at least somewhat related to your weight loss efforts. Though you don’t have to (and usually shouldn’t) use the number of excess pounds lost as a goal, you should be striving towards things that involve improving your health and wellness.
• Timely. You’ll need to complete your goals in a specific timeframe or risk pursuing them indefinitely. Be sure you have a set end date for each goal—if you don’t reach an important goal in the time allotted, you can always give yourself more time later.

Your ultimate weight loss goal is important, but it isn’t the only reason to stay focused on success after Lap Band surgery. Have you created any personal goals to motivate your progress with Lap Band in Jacksonville? Share them in the comments below!