“If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten.”

I've always quite liked this quote by the life coach Tony Robbins, a) because it makes me feel inspired to do something differently, and b) because it's true.  It's been a while since I last heard it mentioned until I was lucky enough to spot it as a status update by a friend last week (you know who you are, thanks v much) and it really got me thinking.  So much so that I woke up thinking about it at four o'clock this morning! 

Being on holiday from work last week meant that I had quite a lot of time to reflect on the things that I really wanted to change about myself, and why I hadn't managed to reach any of the goals I had set myself. There are only a few, and they are things that I would consider to be realistic things to achieve, but I haven't got anywhere near any of them:

• Health and fitness; achieve and maintain a sensible weight and establish a regular and varied fitness regime that I can stick to
• Achieve total organization; this is about the home/work/social life balance and ensuring that I give each area the attention it needs to run smoothly
• Win the lottery, (ahem)...

Ok, that last one probably won't happen. But, as they say "you've gotta be in it to win it" and that means buying a ticket, something I very rarely do.  So that needs to change in order to increase my chance of getting what I want, and it illustrates that Tony Robbins quote perfectly doesn't it?

When I think about the reasons why I haven't achieved goals in the past it's usually been because I've set out an ideal for myself but have failed to act properly on it. I often try to make a great big sweeping change and then find out that it's too big to be maintained.  I've tried every diet plan on the market and stuck to none of them for any length of time, and when I look at why I can see that it's because I have tried to totally turn my lifestyle on its head and for me this is completely unsustainable in the long term . 

I  When I had my lighbulb moment at four o'clock this morning I decided that actually, making one small change at a time has got to be way easier than changing everything at once, hasn't it?  So, writing this blog is my commitment to the small changes I believe will help me achieve my goals, and I'm tackling the health and fitness issue first.  You'll notice that I haven't called it a "diet" and that's because I have the perception of a "diet" being something that you embark upon until you hit a certain weight and then it all goes out the window and you revert to type until you get back on the "diet", let the yo-yoing commence!  For me this is not about dieting, it's about tweaking what I do and making it healthier in order to achieve long term health and longevity. 

Each week I am planning on introducing one small change and sticking to it.  Change number one is water, here's the Sciencey bit:

"If you have ever eaten everything in sight, yet didn't feel satisfied afterward, you might have experienced receiving mixed brain signals. The hypothalamus controls both hunger and thirst, so it sends the same signal whether you are hungry or thirsty. To understand which signal your brain is sending, you must learn to understand your body better. Pay close attention to the last time you had a meal compared with the last time you had something to drink. It might be that empty feeling in your stomach only needs some water for satiety."

(taken from www.livestrong.com article on the difference between feeling hungry and thirsty)

Instead of reaching for the biscuits in my desk drawer, or the Snickers bars stashed in strategic places at the first sign of a hunger pang, I'm going to try drinking a glass of water and see if that makes a difference.  Ok, I know that this is hardly groundbreaking stuff, however I can cope far easily with drinking more water than I can with following a diet that either makes me feel ill, or is unsustainable in the long term.  At most, I might lose a few pounds, and at the very least it might just give me the lovely glowing skin I want that doesn't mean spending a fortune on cosmetics :)

I'm a realistic kinda gal and I know that you never always get everything that you want in life, but I'm also a positive person who believes far more in "can do" than "never gonna happen".   As a of social experiment of sorts, I would really like other people to share in this with me, to see if they can also change one small thing at a time and make a big difference to their lives, so this is my invitation to you to join me.  If you have a goal that you want to achieve, simply commit to making one small change this week which might help you to get there.    Tell me what you are changing, and I will update you next week on how my change has gone and what the outcome has been.

I don't want what I've always had, I want something better and I'm the only person that can make that happen.

Thanks for reading