Weight loss goals: Should I keep setting them?

I haven't posted much about my weight loss, mainly because I didn't want that to be the focus of my journey towards being the best me I can be.  I still weigh myself every morning (I know, I know, may people say that's not a good idea, but it's what I do. Don't judge!), but I don't stress when it goes up a lb or so from one day to the next, because it does that all the time and I know that it's normal.  I just watch to make sure it doesn't stay on an upward trend more than two days or so.   So far, so good, and I haven't had to make any adjustments in diet or exercise to see that number continue to go down, albeit slowly.

I'm tackling things the right way, very slow and easy. No goal to lose 20 lbs a month for me! Again, while of course I DO want to lose weight, that hasn't been my primary mission.  I'm concentrating on eating good, healthy, real foods and staying away from anything processed, and the bonus is the resulting weight loss.  Go figure.  

I've met two goals so far, so need to set a new one.  At various points in recent years I weighed a little over 200 lbs, but when I started this particular journey towards a better me in June 2020, I weighed 190.5.  My first goal was to get under 160 and see 5 as that middle number, and when I made that, I decided to shoot for being within the Marine Corps current height/weight standards, which I believe for my height is 151 lbs (that's if I'm still 5'4").  Wanting to get below that, I set the second, smaller goal to get out of the 150s.  

Last week I reached that goal.  I'm now officially at the lowest weight I've been since probably 1998, a year or so after retiring from the Marine Corps (has it really been 24 years?).  

While of course I'm excited about the lower number on the scale, I'm more excited about the way I perceive myself.  I feel better physically, but just as important, my emotional health has skyrocketed.  I don't struggle with viewing myself as overweight anymore. I used to wonder who that person was, because even though I was looking at the mirror, it wasn't me I was seeing.  I don't know who that fat person was, but she disgusted me.  She doesn't anymore.

So having met those two goals, what's next?  At 148.5, a loss of 42 lbs so far this go'round, I wouldn't mind losing a few more, but I'm not unhappy where I am.  Should I set another goal or just see what happens?   

I haven't wanted the goal number to be something that I had to work hard for every day, something to stress about and get anxious over if the number went up a bit or plateaued, and that's worked out ok.  Concentrating on maintaining my nutritional goals and seeing the number go down as a result has been good for me, physically and emotionally, so I don't think that picking another lower number is a bad idea in my case.  I think sometimes setting too lofty a goal can set us up for failure, but I think my head is in the right place with it.  Again, if I stay close to where I'm at now, I'm good.  

Having said that, the new non-goal goal is to see that middle number a 3. If I get down to 139.5, that would be a loss of 51 lbs from when I started this particular journey, and over 60 from my highest in recent years.  Don't know if I'll ever get there, but I won't be disappointed if I don't.

Nine lbs to go ... or not.

~ Marie Anne