Goals need some form of accountability. We all know that. Let’s look back to my holidays and discuss my overaccounting.

Like most people, I hate to think it is a given I’ll gain a few pounds over the holidays. As a runner, I have many times planned my next year’s race schedule to keep me training through the period from Thanksgiving to New Year’s to help prevent that added weight and general loss of fitness. 2014 was going to be tough. I was on a no running until January 1 due to a muscle tear. To help myself, I decided to sign up for some accountability programs. Two were no cost and the third had a low cost associated with it. Yes, that is three and that is where I went horribly wrong.

My six week holiday period involved #fitandfestive, #holidaysweat and #elf4health. Add to that the stress that comes with a new relationship during the holidays and I was in way over my head before I even started. Good news is I only joined these programs to have accountability. Bad news is the attempts to hold myself accountable added to my already overwhelming holiday stress.

Were my holidays a total bust? Absolutely not. Did I fret about not upholding my end of my accountability programs? Absolutely. Did I manage to keep off holiday weight gain? Not exactly but I only put on three pounds as opposed to what some people may put on during the same time period. I will admit this is the first year since 2010 I have not lost a pound during the holidays. Did I learn anything? You bet!

First lesson is there is too much of a good thing, whether we are talking food or accountability. I did not have the time to keep up with all the challenges of the different groups. I am also not a huge Facebook fan and a lot of the accountability went on there.

Second, I am not a week by week person.I need my plan, set out for the full six weeks in advance, to be able to schedule the rest of my life around it. Training for a spring marathon or half marathon has done that for me in the past. These programs, while amazing, did not do that for me. To receive an email Sunday night with what is up for the week is okay but during a time that is busier than normal, it didn’t work for me. Surprisingly, neither did putting the #elf4health challenges all on my phone calendar in advance.

Third, the workouts and other items provided by all three programs are very worthwhile. I have saved these as I work towards balancing my running with other training to prevent injury again.

How do you hold yourself accountable? Do you think there is such a thing as overaccountability? Did you stick with whatever goals you made for yourself during the holidays?