So now it’s February, and we’re all coming down off of our “It’s a new year, so let’s start fresh!” motivation high and settling back into the routine of daily life. Now is the time when we start slacking, right?
WRONG!
This year, we are NOT going to start slacking now that our New Years motivation is all dried up, NO! We are going to kick it into high gear and bust some major tushie!
Our focus this month is going to be consistence. We cannot let ourselves get lazy and slide back into old, unhealthy habits.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—the truth is that we all KNOW what we need to do, how to do it, and why we need to do it. So why haven’t we, as the intelligent, capable women we are, conquered our weight problems already? Simple: we are not following through, and we are not being consistent.
So the challenge this month is to set a goal of consistency. You don’t have to be perfect and do every single thing every single day. (I think we all know too much about the nature of life to believe that every day will go perfectly.) The idea is to do your best and stay on plan MOST of the time. Your goal can be to work out 5 days per week, or limit your eating out to only once a week, or staying within your calorie range for 6 days per week, or whatever. You can even add goals that don’t really relate to dieting, but are instead general lifestyle consistency goals, like getting to sleep earlier on weeknights. Whatever.
With consistency being the main focus, the big goal is to stick to your target for the entire 4 weeks of February. 28 days. Just think, 28 days is long enough for a habit to form, so when we all come through this challenge with flying colors we’ll have new healthy habits to keep our weight loss rolling!
And here’s the good part: rewards. Set up some rewards for yourself, perhaps a small weekly reward for meeting your weekly goals and then a big monthly reward for staying consistent all month. These rewards need to be something you ONLY get once you’ve met your goals. Write them down (or find some pictures) and post them where you can see them every day to remind you of what you’re working towards.
One caveat: don’t overextend yourselves. Don’t try to fix everything you want to fix about your life within the next 28 days. Set maybe 1 or 2 goals to work towards, and really strive for consistency in those areas. If you try to do too much at once, you may end up accomplishing nothing at all, and that’s not what we want!
So pick a reasonable goal, write down your rewards, and get to it!
But here it is anyway: weekly rewards should only be for meeting ALL of your goals (if you have more than one), but you can set different end-of-the-month rewards for each of your goals. You don’t have to, but it’s an option.
Have a good one.
And 
good job on no binge after seeing Mom. 
And thanks for setting up the new challenge. Hmm, reward for your water goal... maybe something wedding related that's a little more expensive than what you had planned? Like a nice cake topper or some extra flowers.
I wish I had that kind of thinking...seriously! I would be much closer to my goal weight if I could think like you! Have you weighed yet? I didn't hear the final "last challenge" count... Glad you are enjoying the islands! Any beach time lately? Please go check out Diamond Head Beach for me...it's where all the wind surfers hang out...right near Diamond Head (DUH!) It was my favorite beach...especially this time of year! So....beautiful! Ahhhhh! I can hear the waves and feel the salt in my face! OK...I need to go to bed and dream about it! 
It's almost 11pm so I'm off to bed.
Hmm, no beach time last week... right now is crunch time for the bar. 
