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Friday, January 7, 2011

Day 3 - The Game Plan - "Keepin' It Simple"





I am keeping my game plan simple. Just like the name "52 Club" reflects, I am breaking it down to small and attainable goals, one day, one week and one pound at time. I want to build on small successes, knowing that the long term goal will be achieved at the end.

They say to get different results, you have to make changes, right? Well, I plan on introducing the needed changes to my life, slowly to help me improve my stickability with those changes. I think if I try to make too many changes, I could end up being overwhelmed, more likely to fail and then give up. Can anyone relate out there? ;-) Determined that I will not fail this time, I am trying to work with a game plan that implements a philosophy of "working smarter not harder" and "smaller vs. larger" so to speak.

Today, I thought I'd share with you one of my first and "smaller" changes that I believe will be "huge" in helping me achieve my long term goal of getting my body back. My first change is to start drinking more water. May seem too simple, but I am convinced that it is going to be a foundational step in my success.

I don't know about you, but I don't remember being encouraged to drink water growing up. As most Texas girls, I grew up liking kool-aid, cokes and sweet tea. Then as I got a little older, I fell in love with coffee. (Don't even get me started about the pleasures of Starbucks!) I have since learned in my adult years that those preferred drinks are full of sugar and empty calories that can add up slowly to unwanted pounds of fat as they accumulate. YUCK! So, rather than going just "cold turkey" and giving up those sugar filled yummy drinks all at once, I am going to make it a smaller, more achievable goal to start with...Try drinking 4 bottles of water every day. (It is the recommended amount of daily water intake.)

Because I am not a huge fan of water by preference, I have come up with a simple system to encourage and help me keep track of my water intake (remember, keep it simple). I get up in the morning and with a permanent marker, I number 4 bottles of water with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and set them out on my kitchen counter. It helps me stay aware of where I am in the day and encourages me to choose the water over the other preferred drinks, so I can meet my quota. Make sense? I also put the empty bottle back on the counter as kind of a gold star and a small reminder of my achievement of my small goal. (It is truly the little things!) I'll keep you posted on my success with this.

One added extra detail that should help is that my husband and I drink this amazing bottled water called, "Rain Fresh Water" that's purified and processed in Garland, Texas and sold at WholeFoods. It actually has a sweet flavor due to the oxygen that they put in it and that helps me want to drink it more because it taste so good.

Speaking of....it is almost 9PM and I still have one more bottle of water to drink! ;-)

Until tomorrow, sweet and slender dreams!



5 comments:

  1. Fantastic idea!!!!!!!! When you see the bottles it is a visual of your success! Small things are GREAT! God says so!!!!!!

    I'm going to do the same thing. I like visual confirmation! Very encouraging!

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  2. Thanks! I can't tell you how much it helps me! I can forget how many bottles I have had and this takes care of that. Also, the reward of seeing my empty bottles is amazingly motivating for me.

    Glad you are going to give it a try as well. Please let me know how it goes.

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  3. I think drinking the water has helped tremendously! I have a 22 ounce insulated cup that I use and I get 5# bags of crushed ice from Sonic to make the "water ride" much more enjoyable! I try to drink 3 or 4 a day. Water has so many benefits that we can't go wrong!

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  4. You are right Tonya! The data on water and our body is amazing! Good for you and I am a big lover of crushed ice myself! ;-)

    Thanks for the comment honey!

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