Planning for Summer Weight Loss & Maintenance

This is part of a series of tips and suggestions I've learned from the Weight Watchers program. I lost 35 pounds and have maintained that loss for three years (see my before and after pics) and am a Weight Watchers Lifetime Member.

Today I weighed in at my Weight Watchers meeting and happy to report that I'm back at my goal weight. As a Lifetime Member, I can't be more than two pounds above my goal weight at the first weigh-in of the month, or I'll have to start paying a fee. Since I last wrote that I was above my goal weight range and would need to start paying if I didn't lose, I've lost 4.4 pounds using the "breaking through a plateau" strategies I wrote about. Another reason I love Weight Watchers is the accountability. A two-pound gain can easily turn into four, then eight, then ten. But knowing that I had to weight in today helped get me back on track.

Today our leader gave us paper and pen and asked us to list everything going on in June, July, and August--holidays, vacations, graduation parties, birthday parties, conferences for work, etc. Then she asked us to write our fitness and weight goals for where we'd like to be at the beginning of September.

There were two main points to this exercise.

1. Make your goals realistic. If you are taking a 15-day vacation of a lifetime to Italy along with all the other holidays and parties, losing 30 pounds may not be realistic. I thought more about fitness: Is fitting in half marathon training realistic for my summer schedule (I concluded yes)?
2. Plan ahead for success. Maybe you go off plan for those 15 days in Italy, but you focus on being on plan the rest of the summer. Successful, sustainable weight loss is all about balance--you can splurge on what you really want some of the time, but you can't splurge on everything you want all the time.

I loved this exercise and immediately pinned my goals above my desk at work. In line with my post yesterday, my summer running goals are not related to speed or PRs. They are realistic with my abilities and summer schedule:

1. Successfully complete the Runner's World Run Streak.
2. Be on track with half marathon training.

How do your goals fit in with your summer schedule? Do you plan your summer schedule around your running goals instead of the other way around (I know many people plan vacations around races)?