Healthy Habits Challenge

Pretend I posted this yesterday because it was supposed to be.

So my family is doing a 9-week "Healthy Habits" challenge. We're participating as teams and there's hopefully going to be some kind of prize at the end for the person and/or team who gets the most points. I'm pretty excited about it.

The healthy habits are
  • Exercising for 30 minutes
  • Having "self-control" (sweets, junk food, fried foods, etc.)
  • Drinking 64 oz. of water daily
  • Eating 5 daily servings of fruits and veggies
  • Eating 3 servings of grains (preferably whole grains)
  • Avoiding eating after 8 p.m.
 You get points for each "habit" you complete every day. You get one freebie in each category a week. At the end of the 9 weeks, you get bonus points for each 1% of body weight you've lost.

What I like about this is it focuses on a positive goal instead of a negative goal. That is, instead of focusing on losing weight, it focuses on being healthy. Which means you could "win" and still be successful even if you don't lose much weight. The point of this is all of those are habits that will increase a person's health. It's a lot easier to check off "yes I exercise" or "yes I drank water" then to continually weigh yourself in and get frustrated when you don't see the scale moving. Of course I'm hoping this will help me lose weight over the course of the 9 weeks. But mostly I'd be happy to make all of those daily habits regardless of how much weight I lose. It'd be much better than the way I was doing before.

In the near future I'm going to write a post on health and weight and my lifelong struggle with my size. It's going to be good, so don't miss it.

How are you doing on incorporating healthy habits in your life? Are there things you could do better?

Comments

Unknown said…
That's awesome. Those are some really great goals. We've been a little healthier around here, too. I did Weight Watchers for a while, which helped me work on smaller portions and also like regulating how many treats I ate. I could still have them, just not all the time. It helped a lot. Now James is on like a low-carb, high protein diet and he's actually losing some weight and feeling better. I think he's proud of his self control more than anything. He has not eaten out for an entire month (I have not been so strict with myself), and he plans to keep that up until Christmas. Of course, that means I eat out much less often as well, since I would normally go with him. I still treat myself from time to time though. :) Good luck with your goals. I know you'll do awesome.
11/3/10, 12:24 PM
Austin said…
I am also doing the Healthy Habits challenge. I am enjoying it, so far my favorite part was going on a walk with you and Morgan yesterday.
11/3/10, 1:24 PM
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