Joe’s Goals

I’m an all-or-nothing kind of person. The year that I went on a diet (in an effort to cure breast cancer naturally), I didn’t eat any sugar, meat, dairy, or artificial preservatives, flavors, or colors for fifteen or sixteen months. Then, after surgeries, chemo, and radiation obliterated my cancer, I went back to eating whatever. I keep telling myself that I’m going to eat better. And I’m doing better than I was at first. I stay away from candy and soda for the most part, but I can do better still. It’s not like I don’t know what I should be eating, so I really have no excuses. My problem is, I think, “I’ll just have a little bit today” – every day. I don’t know how to do anything in moderation.

The other day, I Googled “goal website” or something like that, and I stumbled on something I’ve been using since then. The name of the site is Joe’s Goals, and there’s a little goal schedule embedded into the page to help you keep track of your goal every day. Initially, you set up each goal and assign it a positive or negative point value. Then, you just keep track of each thing you accomplish or slip up on. It couldn’t be simpler! And since it tallies your points at the end of every day, I am not falling into the pitfall of “well, I missed a day exercising, so I guess I won’t exercise for another month.” Or “I ate sugar today, so I guess I’ll keep eating it until I can’t stand myself.” I literally get a few points every single day, and I’m just aiming for higher and higher scores, or longer streaks.