Hi all! I’m not good at blogging so you probably won’t see me on here that much, but day 6 of the 21-day challenge is to update my profile and post a blog post, so here I am! I think the first thing I’ll write about is my micro-goals because I’m the most passionate about them right now.
A micro change is a tiny change that follows something you already do. For instance, if you already set your alarm at 6am every day and you want to start running before going to work, you would NOT set your goal to be going running at 6am every day. A micro-change is where your goal at 6am is to simply put your running shoes on. It doesn’t matter if you go running or not, because that’s not the goal. The goal is to simply put your shoes on. You’ll find that for those couple of weeks of doing this that you actually DID go running a few times because your shoes were already on.
So here’s some of my micro changes I might blog about again. For the new year, until maybe the 21st, 6 goals.
1) Set my alarm.
Note that the goal is simply to set the alarm, not to actually get out of bed or make coffee or go running. The goal is to set the alarm in the first place, since that’s not something that I actually do. I’ve been doing this since January 4 and I’ve found that most of the time I just snooze it and go back to bed, but there have been at least 2 times that I’ve actually gotten out of bed and gone downstairs to make breakfast!
2) Drink a glass of water for every cup of coffee.
Note that the goal is not to only drink water, or to even lessen the amount of coffee I drink. The goal is simply to add water into my drinking routine. The first few days were hardest as I would simply forget my goal and still drink 4 or 5 cups of coffee in a row instead of adding the water in. After that, though, I found that I actually preferred the water over the coffee!
3) Order a medium latte/mocha from Starbucks instead of a large.
Note that the goal is not to stop ordering mochas. The goal is simply to order the next smallest size. After the first several tripes of ordering mediums, I even found I ordered the smalls a couple of times!
4) Do 10 jumping jacks after every bathroom break.
Note that the goal is not to have an hour-long work out every day. The goal is just to do 10 jumping jacks at a time. And with all the coffee and water I’m drinking from goal 2, this happens a lot now! After the first few days, I started pushing myself to do 20 instead of 10!
5) Maintain a weight-loss binder.
This one’s been the hardest for me. I made a binder that has tabs for every day of the month, then sub-tabs for every day of the week, and sub-tabs for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and work out. Every week it has to be updated with the new meal plan and workout plan. HOWEVER, note that the goal is NOT to check and follow the binder. The goal is just to MAINTAIN it. Which means every week I change out the meal plans and the workouts, change out the dates for the week, etc. Most of the time I just ignore the binder but I’ve found that there have been several days that I’ve actually looked at it and followed the meal plan!
6) Buy a bottle of water at the grocery check-out line instead of a bottle of soda.
The goal is not to stop buying bottled drinks, it’s simply to change the drink I’m already buying. Usually I grab a Dr. Pepper or a Cherry Coke out of those refrigerators by the check-out lines when I’m thirsty, but with this micro change I’m buying a bottle of water instead. On a few of those trips, I’ve found that I actually don’t buy anything and wait to get home to drink my glass of water! Saves money and calories!
So there’s my micro goals from Jan 1-Jan 21. I’ve already started thinking about what my next micro changes will be since these have been so successful!
New year. New me.
Originally posted on SparkPeople.com at https://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=6296619
Brokenness in the Beauty 