What If: A Shoe on the Other Foot Question

I heard today that some so-called pro-life folks are going to auction items for the defense of Scott Roeder, the man who is accused of murdering Dr. George Tiller by shooting him in the head at point blank range while Tiller sat in church.

Here’s the story. Here’s the lead from the story:

An Army of God manual. A prison cookbook compiled by a woman doing time for abortion clinic bombings and arsons. An autographed bullhorn.

These are among the items that abortion foes plan to auction on eBay and other Web sites in a fundraiser for Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man charged with killing Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.

I say so-called pro-life because these folks are giving support to a man who displayed the utmost disrespect for human life.

A quick side note: I have friend who are pro-life. They do not support the murder of abortion doctors to forward their cause. I have known people who are so-called pro-life, because they do support the murder of people.

I would like to propose a thought experiment. A hypothetical. A what if. I have thought for a long time about the exactly appropriate what if that would turn this exactly backwards. I had thought, originally, that the correct what if would be, “What if some radical pro-choice people went out and killed Randall Terry?” But, ultimately, that isn’t it. You could maybe justify it because Mr. Terry’s Operation Rescue has given aid and comfort and motivation to the people who terrorize abortion clinics, but I came up with a better hypothetical.

What if a radical anti-death penalty activist killed either executioners, a hanging judge, or a sitting governor like Rick Perry?

There you go. Perfect. Because it is the exact same argument as the one for terrorizing abortion clinics. If you do not believe in the death penalty, you consider it murder. Any of the folks I have suggested could sit in for an abortion doctor. The executioner is the most direct comparison, but a judge who sentenced a lot of folks to death row could pinch hit. Or a Rick Perry.

If such a thing happened, I do not believe that much of the anti-death penalty movement would move in support. I suspect that very few, if any, would. I do believe that the government would, rightly, ignore any justification defense (as it has in cases like Mr. Roeder’s). I believe this assassin would likely get the death penalty (ironic). I believe that the pro-death penalty forces would point to the anti forces as giving aid and comfort to murderers and should be ignored because of it (not exactly what happens in the abortion debate). But I suspect that the right wing talk radio would be all over the killer and the anti-death penalty movement. Which is not really what you’re seeing in Mr. Roeder’s case.

Ultimately, if you are pro-life, if you are consistent, you have to respect the life of the living as well as the unborn. And that ultimately means that the violence against providers of abortions needs to end. And the leaders of the movement need to say so in no uncertain terms so that the members can understand it clearly.

Brett Gardner & Joe Girardi

In the last two games, in a later inning, Joe Girardi has let a corner outfielder or DH hit, pulled him for Brett Gardner and put the steal on. Both times, Brett has been caught. Here’s last night’s 8th inning, pitch by pitch:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playbyplay?gameId=291020103&full=1&inning=8

New York – Top of 8th		SCORE
Ervin Santana pitching for Los Angeles		NYY	LAA
Nick Swisher	Strike (foul), Strike (foul), Ball, N Swisher hit by pitch, B Gardner ran for N Swisher	5	1
Melky Cabrera	Ball, Ball, Ball, B Gardner caught stealing second, catcher to shortstop, Strike (looking), Ball, M Cabrera walked, M Palmer relieved E Santana	5	1
Derek Jeter	Ball, Strike (swinging), Ball, D Jeter grounded out to shortstop, M Cabrera to second	5	1
Johnny Damon	Strike (swinging), J Damon homered to right, M Cabrera scored	7	1
Mark Teixeira	Ball, Ball, M Teixeira popped out to shortstop	7	1

Now, I understand that the caught stealing alters what happens after, even in the AB which it occurs on, so this isn’t 100% guaranteed, but:

Gardner comes in, everyone knows he’s going to steal (reducing his chance of stealing). The Yankees are already up by 4, which is not entirely safe, but not an excuse to play 1-run ball. Yankees score 2 in the inning with the failed small ball tactic. So, it worked out okay (and they won the game, handily, so it didn’t matter). But, what if Gardner is just in to run the bases faster/smarter than Swisher…

Instead, Gardner pinch runs for Swisher. Threatens to steal, distracting the pitcher and influencing the pitching strategy. Melky gets Ball, Ball, Ball, and for the sake of simplicity, Strike, Ball 4, walk. Men on first and second.

If Jeter has the same AB, with the high chopper, it’s a productive out, moving Gardner to third, Melky to second. One out.

Damon homers. 3 run dong. Texiera makes an out. And A-Rod steps in.

Again, they won the game, by 9 runs, so it didn’t make a difference to give away an out, ultimately a run, and impair lineup turnover*.

Here’s the play by play from the top of the 8th inning in Game 3:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playbyplay?gameId=291019103&full=0&inning=8

New York – Top of 8th	SCORE
Kevin Jepsen pitching for Los Angeles	NYY	LAA
J Mathis catching.	3	4
H Matsui walked.	3	4
B Gardner ran for H Matsui.	3	4
B Gardner caught stealing second, catcher to shortstop.	3	4
J Posada homered to center.	4	4
R Cano singled to center.	4	4
N Swisher walked, R Cano to second.	4	4
M Cabrera struck out swinging.	4	4
D Jeter grounded out to pitcher.	4	4

Imagine, Gardner doesn’t get caught stealing, and just stays on first, getting into Jepsen’s head. Posada then homers to center, 5-4 Yankees. Cano singles, Swisher walks, Melky K’s.  Jeter grounds out, either moving runners up or ending the inning with a double play. If he moves the runners up, you have Damon up with runners on second and third, against Jepsen who is 31 pitches deep and had already walked two in the inning. Not saying Damon does anything, but still, the result as it was, was a 4-4 tie (good, but ultimately not enough) and the result with Gardner dancing around first but not going is a 5-4 lead in the 8th. Hughes for the 8th, Mariano for the 9th, 3-0 lead for the series, chance to sweep on Tuesday.

Now, the game 2 occurrence may be weighing on Girardi’s mind. Gardner came in for Swisher, and Cano grounded into a double play, even with Gardner. But that’s bad math. Gardner, for the year was an 84% base stealer. So, you do want to steal him often. But as a pinch runner, against a team that runs a lot, doesn’t that just scream “He’s gonna steal.” And if he’s gonna steal, don’t you put in the counter measures to ensure that he doesn’t?

*sigh*

3-1 is pretty good, but I’d feel better about 4-0.

New York – Top of 8th		SCORE
Ervin Santana pitching for Los Angeles		NYY	LAA
Nick Swisher	Strike (foul), Strike (foul), Ball, N Swisher hit by pitch, B Gardner ran for N Swisher	5	1
Melky Cabrera	Ball, Ball, Ball, B Gardner caught stealing second, catcher to shortstop, Strike (looking), Ball, M Cabrera walked, M Palmer relieved E Santana	5	1
Derek Jeter	Ball, Strike (swinging), Ball, D Jeter grounded out to shortstop, M Cabrera to second	5	1
Johnny Damon	Strike (swinging), J Damon homered to right, M Cabrera scored	7	1
Mark Teixeira	Ball, Ball, M Teixeira popped out to shortstop	7	1

Sugar Free Gum

Dateline: Yesterday.

Was working on my project at work, finished writing the post about what made me fat (the shorter list… short sleep, bad sleep, thyroid, fried chicken, and genetics, were all things I didn’t feel like talking about. Maybe as a follow up), I had the sudden craving for something sweet. Weird. Totally not me anymore. Which goes to show you how your body and your mind work. From the link (sorry for the length, I’ve trimmed it up without messing the content up),

If you walk by a bakery and smell the fresh bread baking …  your brain … sends a quick message to the pancreas to start releasing insulin. Then when the sugar from the fresh baked bread …  hits your bloodstream, insulin is already there waiting for it so that sugar doesn’t go as high as it otherwise would. …

It’s easy to see what happens if you walk by the bakery and don’t eat the bread… Suddenly you’ve got a little squirt of insulin on board without the expected blood sugar increase. … (The insulin) acts on the blood sugar that’s already there, which may be at a normal level. … The insulin quickly reduces the blood sugar. And … a falling blood sugar makes you hungry almost faster than anything else. … You get hungry even if you weren’t hungry to begin with because your cephalic phase of insulin release drops your blood sugar. (You can even just sit and think about food and have the same thing happen.)

You can even copy edit someone else writing about food and have it happen (happening right now).

At any rate, so I got out of my chair and went down to Walgreen’s. I was going to get some sugar free candy. That was the plan. Get some coconut guys coated in splenda chocolate or something. Any rate, I got there, and was thinking about the counter productivity of sugar free candy (see: Low Carb Bread. Everything I said about LC bread holds true for LC candy).

But man, I needed the sweet. So, goodbye candy, hello gum. Yes, same problem as anything else, with the insulin spurt. But, satisfied my sweet craving without adding carbs, without adding much in the way of carbs (2g per piece for the gum I bought) or much in the way of gastric distress. A lot cheaper too. I got my gum for 2 packs of 14 pieces for $2 and got a $1 off my next purchase coupon to boot. SF candy goes $2-3 for 2-3 servings. Much higher carb load (though my coconut guys are net zero, if you deduct sugar alcohols) and, well, there is what I will call the distress (as in gastric distress… bloating, gas, discomfort, and well, they have a laxative effect).

SF gum. to the rescue.

What Up!

This post in honor of Michael Steele’s recently renamed blog. The man is the gift that keeps giving, no? I wish I could find the comment I made on some site last year where I picked him as the least likely, but best choice for the RNC head post. That would be amusing to look at.

Any rate, enough of that. On to what’s actually up:

I went to the gym yesterday to sign up, but did not bring all the appropriate paperwork. *sigh* Have it all together now. Will commence workouts on Monday (assuming I can put myself together this weekend).

Have failed to clean off a section of desk to date. Have been working on a major project that is due today. First project at work I’ve been excited about in a while, so that’s cool. Been alternatively amusing and depressing, but that’s what the black comedy known as “enforcement” often winds up being.

Have been pretty bad about Fitday. Well, today is another day.

In blog news, this is my fourth post this week. One on football, one on low carb tactics (low carb bread… the most read post to date), one on low carb strategy, and this one, a status update. Not bad. When I get into working out, I expect post frequency to increase. Exercise, for me, is kind of the lubricant that makes the whole machine run better. Or the fuel additive. Or the glue that holds it all together. I dunno. It’s a solvent, a binder and an energy additive. If I could bottle that, well, I’d probably reside somewhere on the Mediterranean and be done with worry.

In scale news: 210.5. Despite being sick and off plan over the weekend and a 4 day work week. Holding steady. Good thing. Not great, but good.

Guide the Future by the Past / Long Ago the Mold Was Cast

Thanks Neil Peart.

Okay, but what’s it really about. Well, I got to thinking. In my hit job on low carb bread, I said that low carb bread reinforces the habits that probably made the folks who eat low carb bread fat in the first place. Whenever I go off like that, it makes me go back to the things that made me fat in the first place. So, here’s a list. If you understand what got you to where you are, you can “Guide the future by the past.” Again, thanks Neil.

Item Number 1: Coca Cola. Sugar/HFCS versions, sometimes with vanilla or cherry.

Mitigation strategy: Diet Coke. Water. Sugar free beverages.

Ideal Mitigation: Water.

Progress: Working on it.

Back story: When I was in business school, I would get to school at about 7:30 AM. I would go straight to the Olin Cafe, and get myself a large fountain Coke. I would then go to the study hall, check email, prep my notes for the first class, and drink my 24 ounce Coke, light ice. Five minutes before my first class, I would refill my Coke, again minimal ice. At the end of class, refill for either study hall or another class. Would break for lunch, which would be accompanied by a refill, then fill it for afternoon class, afternoon study, and the other afternoon class. In all, I would spend about 7-9 hours at school, and I would refill my coke 6-10 times a day. By the end of the day, my cup would be starting to wear through from the acid or the weak seals on a waxed paper cup. That’s a ton of calories, and, at 40.5g of sugar / 12 ounce coke, well, that’s no less that 243g of sugar, from just the Cokes. Insulin rush!

Item  Number 2: Sweet and salty snack cycle

Mitigation Strategy: No sweets during the day (touch of chocolate at night), salty snacks limited to one serving, typically almonds, occasionally popcorn or chips, 1-1.5 ounce.

Ideal Mitigation: Nuts, pork rinds, in limited servings. No sweet during the day, limited chocolate at night.

Progress: Pretty good actually

Back Story: In b-school, while swilling all that Coke, I would snack. A lot. And it would work like this. Get some chips. Then, being overly salted, get some licorice. For balance. Then, some pretzels. Again to salt out the sweet. Then, some gum drops to sweet out the salt. I developed a mitigation strategy in B-school, which was to get a Hershey’s Take 5 bar. Salty, sugary. Not a great mitigation, but if you have ten Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking on your door, and you knock that down to two, you feel like you’re making progress. At 30g of carbs to a salty snack, and 45 – 60 to a sweet one, that’s 75-90 a cycle, and repeated two to three times gives a range of 150 to 270 grams of carbs (for the calorie counters, that’s 600 – 1080 empty calories a day, just from carbs, just from the snacks… no wonder I was 270 lbs). My initial mitigation strategy took it down to 24g of carbs, and 200 calories, which really, if you figure I was rocking an average of 200 grams of carbs from this, was the low hanging 20 that gets you 80. My current mitigation strategy breaks the cycle.

Item Number 3: Ice Cream

Mitigation: Special Occasions, < 10/year

Ideal Mitigation: Special Occasions, <5/year

Progress: A+

Back Story: I have been a major, major big time ice cream eater. Premium stuff. Buy 1-2 pints a week. 2-4 servings to a pint. Eaten out of the pint.

I have cut ice cream way way way down. I eat it on vacation, on holidays, and a couple of unplanned excursions from the straight and narrow. Recent two week trip to Europe, only had one serving. It was cold there, but still, Paris has some fantastic glace.

Item Number 4: Restaurant desserts*

Mitigation: Special events and unplanned excursions from the straight and narrow.

Ideal Mitigation: Special events.

Progress: B-

Back Story: When I was dating my wife, we went out a lot. Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday lunch, Saturday night, Sunday brunch, Sunday night. All the night games featured at least one dessert to split, and frequently one a piece. Obviously, this was an expansionary period. Coexisted with the B-school period. Now, it’s really special occasions, vacations, and occasional walks into the dark land of carbs. Ideally, I wouldn’t walk the dark land, but realistically, I’m pretty good.

Item Number 5: Boiled Carbs (boxed mac & cheese and rice… not together)

Mitigation: Dreamfields pasta, personal development as a foodie.

Ideal Mitigation: Until I learn otherwise, the mitigation I’m doing is the ideal one for me.

Progress: A+

Story: As a bachelor, I used to live on off-brand blue box mac and cheese (dressed up with real cheddar… massive improvement… also, rehydrating the powder with straight unsalted butter… I suspect heavy cream would work well too… a bit of animal protein also does wonders). I also used to live on rice, either turned brown with soy sauce, or turned into a white trash risotto with cheddar and some meats.

I do not live on that anymore. Have not for three or four years. Really, since I got married. I have my Dreamfields pasta no more than a couple times a week. Has worked very well. Might be something to look at if I struggle to go lower when I am trying in earnest.

Neopost invoice 45592777 Doc No. B09EF21839

Something Different: Bad Call by the Jets Last Night

The fourth quarter of last night’s Jets-Dolphins game, play by play.

I want to talk about one particular sequence here. The Jets get the ball back, with 6:55 left to play, trailing by 4. And this is the sequence of plays they run:

1. New York Jets at 06:55
2. 1-10-NYJ 37 (6:55) 6-M.Sanchez pass incomplete short right to 20-T.Jones.
3. 2-10-NYJ 37 (6:49) 20-T.Jones up the middle to NYJ 45 for 8 yards (51-A.Ayodele).
4. 3-2-NYJ 45 (6:06) 6-M.Sanchez pass short right to 17-B.Edwards to NYJ 48 for 3 yards (28-G.Wilson) [94-R.Starks].
5. 1-10-NYJ 48 (5:27) 6-M.Sanchez pass incomplete deep middle to 17-B.Edwards. PENALTY on MIA-25-W.Allen, Defensive Pass Interference, 49 yards, enforced at NYJ 48 – No Play.
6. Timeout #1 by NYJ at 05:19.
7. 1-3-MIA 3 (5:19) 75 – R. Turner reports eligible. 20-T.Jones up the middle for 3 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

Yes, they scored a TD. A go ahead TD at that. But really, the key is not just being ahead, it’s being ahead at the end.

On first and ten, from roughly midfield, with 5:27 remaining, they ran a pass play 49 yards down the field, for the score. It wasn’t completed, but it resulted in a phantom penalty that wound up with the ball on the 1, with 5:19 to play.

Uhm, here’s the thing. If you’re moving the ball well, runs, short passes, etc, you are eating clock. And if the offense you are playing is a run the ball, inconsistent long ball threat, getting them the ball back with <4 minutes is a worthwhile goal.

I was left wondering why we were throwing deep at that point in the game. It was aggressive, but it put the onus on our defense, who had already been on the field for more than half the game, who were already giving up about 6 yards a play, and who had already seen >55 snaps. At this point, you have to assume that they’ve broken the code a bit, and that your guys might need a longer break than the <2 minute drive that you put together. At least you’d hope you’d think like that.

Any rate, they are 3-2, leading the division, with a very soft schedule coming up. When they play in their heads, thoughtful ball control football, they can beat just about anyone. True for every team. I’m gonna write this loss off to an inexperienced head coach. I wrote the last one off to an inexperienced QB. I hope I don’t have to write off too many more.

Scary stat: Dolphins converted 9 of 14 third downs (64.3%). The Jets had previous allowed: 15 of 52 (28.8%). Hopefully, this is a “bad night” kind of thing.

New York Jets at 6:55		NYJ	MIA
1st and 10 at NYJ 37	M.Sanchez pass incomplete short right to T.Jones.
2nd and 10 at NYJ 37	T.Jones up the middle to NYJ 45 for 8 yards (A.Ayodele).
3rd and 2 at NYJ 45	M.Sanchez pass short right to B.Edwards to NYJ 48 for 3 yards (G.Wilson) [R.Starks].
1st and 10 at NYJ 48	M.Sanchez pass incomplete deep middle to B.Edwards. PENALTY on MIA-W.Allen, Defensive Pass Interference, 49 yards, enforced at NYJ 48 – No Play.
	Timeout #1 by NYJ at 05:19.
1st and 3 at MIA 3	75 – R. Turner reports eligible. T.Jones up the middle for 3 yards, TOUCHDOWN.	26	24
	J.Feely extra point is GOOD, Center-J.Dearth, Holder-S.Weatherford.	27	24

The Case Against Low Carb Bread

Recently, was talking to someone new to Low Carbing and made a recommendation against including low carb bread in their diet. Got some feedback, of course. To be fair, here is the feedback in entirety.

Me: 4- Why waste time with LC bread? Much better things to spend carbs on.

Respondent: Don’t know how to put this delicately, but I could do with the extra fibre from the flax seeds in the things that I am going to try. Since the third to a half bag of salad leaves that I get my carbs from at most meals is only about 2.5g of carb I think I can ‘afford’ some from a bread like substance. I also have the added incentive of getting my Type 1 son to eat lower carb foods.

I object to low carb bread not because of the opportunity cost, though I phrased my objection as such… it is a benefit, but not the underlying reason). The objection is due to the learned behavior that LC bread fails to teach.

A low carb life is a life well worth enjoying. Meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables. The very best food stuff. LC Breads fall into that category of ersatz products that attempt to keep your LC life as similar to your old life as possible. I have some news for you. If you are pursuing a low carb life, you are mostly likely overweight. Probably more than a little. And you got that way by living your old life the way you lived it. So, keeping your dietary life as similar to the old way as possible is a dubious goal, at best, and a counter productive one at worst.

I say all of this as someone who lost 55+ lbs, maintained that loss for coming up on three years. My way is not the only way and it is possible that people can learn to only eat low carb bread, or no bread at all. I dunno, because most of the people I talk to who make low carb baked goods, tend to fall off at their various real world functions, by eating traditional baked goods. They do not work for me, and really, they are not working for the large majority of people I have, unscientifically, observed.

Add on to that effects that grains have on the digestive tract. Note, the original poster wanted more fibre. Nice. From the link:

So, we have a situation where a product causes damage to the cells lining a tube, causing them to produce a lot of mucus in an attempt to protect themselves. In the process many of these cells die and are replaced by new cells. And this is perceived as a good thing.

That’s a worthwhile goal.

Another poster in the conversation shared this:

some people just find it easier (less cravings) to cut (low carb bread) out altogether. The other factor with bread is some people have gluten sensitivity/allergies and don’t even know it, so cutting it out can really help with digestive issues etc.

So, let me get this straight. I can have less stress on my digestive tract, fewer cravings, dodge the odds on having a gluten issue, spend my carbs on better things, AND develop the habits that will allow me to maintain any weight I lose over the long haul, or I can have a sandwich with some ersatz bread. Where do I sign up for the second half of that?

A Semi-Lost Weekend – A New Beginning

I am not going to go into the details of why the weekend was lost. There are a million excuses for what happened, but really, I am only doing harm to my self and my ill defined goals. But, suffice to say, I didn’t score well over the weekend. Not as bad as some weekends past, but not on the plan.

So, Monday was a new beginning. When you fall down, you get up. If you are committed to riding, or walking, or driving the lane, or whatever it is you were doing when you fell down, you will get back up (assuming you are able to). So, Monday, Tuesday, back on the plan. Low carbs, calories in my natural zone for such things (I will naturally gravitate to 1400-1700 calories, with occasional days up around 2300… I will remind you that I am a man, 6’2″, 212 lbs… so that’s lower than what the government suggests). Back on the horse.

This week, the goals, long version:

• Clean eating through Saturday. That means eating from this list:

THE FAT-BURNING TIME ZONE FOODS
High-Quality Protein	Low-Starch Vegetables*		Natural Fats
Beef	Artichokes	Mushrooms	Avocadoes
Cheese	Asparagus	Onions	Butter
Eggs	Broccoli	Peppers	Coconut
Fish	Brussels Sprouts	Spinach	Cream
Pork	Cauliflower	Tomatoes	Nuts** and Seeds
Poultry	Celery	Turnips	Olives, Olive oil, and Canola Oil
Whey and Casein Protein	Cucumbers	Zucchini	Sour Cream

*  These are just a few common examples of low-starch vegetables; the full list includes almost all vegetables except potatoes, carrots, and corn.

**  Limit to 2 servings a day.

From: Men’s Health TNT Diet – Fat Burning Time Zone

I am doing Plan A, because I am new to this. Sort of. But I need to take it back down to this, as a new beginning. I am modifying Plan A, because I am not working out at the moment, so it’s fully Fat Burning Time Zone, 24/7.

• I am going to sign up for the gym today. Yes, Today.

I am on day 3 of the week, sipping my protein shake, trying to put 7 consecutive days together. Start working out on Monday of next week, and go for 14. But 7 comes before 14.

• Clear off one of my desks.

Short Version:

1. 7 days of clean eating
2. sign up for the gym
3. Clean off one of my three desks

Done.

Filled with a Light Feeling – then Made Heavy Again

Went to see Van Morrison do Astral Weeks live at the Chicago Theater on Tuesday Night. Like Van the Man quite a bit, though not super familiar with his catalog or him as a person. Show was great. Very peaceful and easy. Very mellow. Could see a lot of 1968 era hippies getting very high and relaxing to Van the Man. Didn’t take a lot of thought energy in the way-back machine.

I left the concert with a very light and free feeling. Not the least of which was going out to dinner with the wife, and staying 100% on the diet plan. This is not always a problem, but I’m taking it one meal, one decision at a time. So, while I’ve done it in the past, I’ve kind of failed to do it on occasions where we go out or travel. So, it’s an accomplishment like that.

That was Tuesday night.

Wednesday night, home life takes a dark turn as money/job concerns rear their nasty head again. There went the light feeling.

As a last item, I got on scale today and scale said, “211.” On Monday, scale had said 215.5. Tuesday, 214.5. Wednesday 213.5. So, 211 represents an acceleration of an already fairly prompt drop. Yes, I know this is stored glycogen and other fluid that I was holding from my weekend of carb eating. Still, you like to see the scale trending down consistently.

Have to go do my fitday for yesterday (whoops) and start it for today. And make sure I got it done for Tuesday. I am a good fitday user, when I get into it. It’s just like anything else, the first day, week, month is the hardest. Once you set it as a pattern, it’s good to go.

Revisiting Goals

Some old stuff, from my last board:

Good goals, according to traditional wisdom, must be:

1. Written
2. Challenging
3. Believable
4. Specific
5. Measureable
6. Timely

Let’s expound and talk about contributions to value here.
1- If you write it, it’s a committment. There is no room for variance around a well written goal. Maybe a little wiggle room, but writing it gives you the committment to it. If it’s in your head, it’s got a lot more variability.

2- Challenging, I hope, should not be hard to see the value. There is no point in setting a goal that is easy or trivial. Like, Getting out of bed each morning, is not really a good goal, unless you are severely depressed or otherwise incapacitated. In business, we call this a “stretch goal,” because you have to stretch yourself to reach it. If your goal isn’t a stretch, you’re probably already there, and accomplishing it won’t mean much.

3- The experts say believable. I call it “based in reality.” I could set my weight loss target to 130 lbs. I’m 6’2″, which would make this likely unhealthily lean. I haven’t weighed 130 since I was 13. And I was a very skinny kid. While your goal should be beyond your current grasp, it should not be so far beyond that you will never get there. Or not get there in your time frame. I contend that, for our purposes, there’s another aspect of this. Not just what is possible, but what is likely. I might set 7 days of gym as a goal, but frankly, this isn’t very likely to happen. Takes me about an hour to workout and get ready for work. They pay me for three hours, I’m not really willing to spend an extra, unpaid, two hours a week at the office. Likewise, I dunno how likely it is that I will wake up early on the weekends and go to the gym at my apartment complex (it’s about a mile walk to get there, and that seems unlikely, specially in the 40 degree weather… living in So. California made me weak, I know). So, make goals fit both general reality and personal reality.

4- If your goal is not specific, you run into some big problems. Like you don’t know when you are there, and you don’t know how far you have left to go. So, “I’d like to lose some weight,” is not good. “I want to lose 30 lbs,” is a lot better (nevermind that PPLP is about body fat percentage, just work with me). Specific targets are crucial in setting goals for others, and no less so in setting personal goals.

5- Measureability goes hand in hand with specificity. This is part of why I don’t understand scale-phobia (I actually do understand it, but think there might be better adjustments, but that’s a discussion for another day, month, year, or post at least). If you are going to take the time to come up with something that is not in your grasp but not completely beyond it, write it down and be specific, you might as well have a way to measure your progress towards that goal or your achievement of it. Right?

6- Timeliness. This is simply setting a time frame so that you can have some urgency. It is about having a start and a finish and more about evaluation. Again, time frames should be “based in reality” and maybe stretchers.

Now, that’s tradition. My take on this is that it’s mostly right. I think writing goals is powerful. And any way you write it is good. If you write it in the minds of your peers by talking about it, that’s very good too. It’s about committment. One of the best books I have read on the subject is “Committment” by Pankaj Ghemawat. That’s about corporate strategy, not weight loss, but the lessons of companies are lessons we can all learn from. Likewise, I think ‘based in reality’ is important. Other places will say it has to be believable to you. I concur. And that’s where based in reality sets in.

Stretch goals I think are very useful but not the only thing in town. You cannot reach for all the stars at once, but you should be reaching for some. In compensation class, we talked about giving some bonus for doing what you are supposed to, some bonus for going beyond, and some bonus that might be out of reach entirely.

There will be some folks who suggest that measureability isn’t that important and specificity as well. I think that a good goal has enough of both where it’s useful. In business, Raising Market Share is pretty weak. Getting an additional 10% of market share is worthwhile.

Time can be hard. But, I think your goals should be mostly under your control. So, a goal for weight loss is good, because you can do the things to drop it. Sometimes it doesn’t drop quite right, but eventually, it does, assuming you are doing the right things. Likewise for workout goals.

The Conventional Wisdom also works with the SMART framework. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Same thing, only I add writing to my traditional framework, because of the commitment aspect.

I stand by what I wrote in critique. SMART + Writing is good. Ultimately, I still believe that commitment is the most key part, but you have to build your commitment on a firm foundation. And that’s where the SMART framework comes on.