Spark Spotlight: Tom (TANGOJAVA43068)

At SparkPeople, we love helping people accomplish big goals—but we believe it's equally important to celebrate the small successes along the way. Each week in the Spark Spotlight, we'll check in with a featured member about his or her proudest moments, biggest challenges and advice for others on living, thinking and feeling healthier. We hope these quick snapshots will help motivate you to keep moving steadily toward your own goals, week by week.
 
This Week's Spotlight: Tom (TANGOJAVA43068)
Age: 49
Location: Columbus, Ohio
 
Small Success of the Week
 
Tom shared a monumental success on the Community Goal Feed a couple of weeks ago. "So excited today!" he says. "This is my first day under 200 pounds since around 2001." 
 
What's your overall goal?
 
My overall goal is actually a non-scale goal: I would like to be off all of my prescription medications. A healthy weight is a bonus that I will enjoy. Nevertheless, overall health and [living] prescription-free is my true goal.
 
How is SparkPeople helping you get there?
 
The SparkPeople community is helping by keeping me accountable and encouraged. Hearing everyone else’s stories and seeing the successes and struggles helps ensure we are not in this alone.
 
What's your biggest challenge right now?
 
My biggest challenge now is keeping the focus on the overall goal and trusting the process. I, like many, want results immediately and tend to focus too much on my current weight and not on the whole of the journey. Keeping in mind that I have come a long way and still have a lifetime ahead, and allowing myself to relax and take it day-by-day is often hard to remember.
 
What advice do you have for someone who just joined SparkPeople today?
 
The best advice I can give is to see each day as a new opportunity. Never focus on minor setbacks and don’t spend too much time on the scale. Find ways to seek non-scale wins. Aim for a healthy lifestyle not so much a diet to live by. Set smaller goals and change them frequently. Maybe a good goal is to lose four pounds in a month or to drop a clothes size in a specific amount of time—just be reasonable and don’t think it will happen overnight. 

Want to be the next small success we spotlight? Share your successes on the goal feed or in the comments below, and you might be the next person we contact!