Living up to expectations

During the past month, despite trying to get back on track, I’ve lost only two pounds — not the pound a week I’d planned for.

Even though I had a stated goal of one pound a week for the diet, in the back of my mind I really thought I’d blow that out of the water. I envisioned dropping by several pounds a week and actually “officially” switched my goal to two pounds a week a couple of months ago. Didn’t happen.

I have lost 25 pounds since I started on January 4, 2010 and while that averages a meager .83 pounds a week, I’ve gotten below 200 pounds for the first time in many years and I’ve managed to stay there for 7 weeks solid. Not a failure, although Weight Watchers sure won’t be calling me to act as their spokeswoman!

My blogging hasn’t lived up to my expectations either. This post makes the third in July (although obviously I’m cutting it VERY close!). That’s a far cry from my two or three a week posts I’d planned to do. Actually, when I started, I’d considered posting my progress every day (a la the blogger in the “Julie and Julia” movie) but journaling on a daily basis about what I was eating bored even me — it would have turned my readers into zombies.

I also had the unspoken expectation that the blog would “go viral” and that I would quickly have thousands of hits every day with an entire page of comments on my deathless prose. I looked into various programs to screen my messages without having to sit and moderate all of them — a task I felt would be far too time consuming for one person.  The blog was supposed to make me accountable for my diet and give me a powerful incentive to do well. After all, I couldn’t disappoint my legion of fans!

I also had great expectations for my blog because I know what needs to be done to have a successful blog or website. I’ve helped clients develop sites that routinely get on the top of Google’s search engine “hit parade.” I’m familiar with social networking and blog marketing and have 40+ years experience of running my own business.

One thing I hadn’t counted on was my lack of time to handle anything but projects for my clients. When I’m not working on their sites, I like doing something totally fun and relaxing — preferably away from the computer! Marketing yet another site just isn’t fun, even though it’s my own. I originally thought I might add a few affiliate links to the site and generate a bit of income but I never really looked at this blog as a big money maker, so the financial incentive wasn’t there for me either.

I’ve always been something of an over achiever and love the sense of accomplishment I get when I do much better than expected. Conversely, I hate it when I “fail” to meet even my minimal goals. But I’m at a mature enough age to realize that we don’t get an A+ in every one of life’s subjects and there are times when getting a B- or even a C has to suffice. It means, at least, that we accomplished something, even if we fall short of the lofty heights we aimed for.

I’m getting a good solid C+ for my diet and my blog. I can live with that. I’m doing this for ME after all, and as long as I’m getting what I want out of the experience, I’ll keep going. If it ever gets to be more bother than it’s worth, I’ll stop. Hopefully, by then, I’ll have reached a reasonable weight, and my blog readers won’t be TOO disappointed to see me go!

See you next week … or so.