Monday, August 22, 2011

Pennies and Choices

I started writing (yes, with a pen and paper) in a journal a little over a week ago. I had no idea that it would be this therapeutic. In the process of writing in this journal I have realized that I do great at making good eating decisions most of the time, but there are still a lot of times when I let myself slide in my eating decisions. Actually writing down my feelings about my weight and my weight loss journey has been inspiring for me. I have learned a lot about myself and it has actually helped me to make better decisions more often.

Because I am noticing a difference in my eating choices I got to thinking about ways I could really show myself how these choices add up. Each choice by itself seems so miniscule and really won't have a huge impact on the scale, but all of those choices combined will. The concept reminded me of collecting pennies to save toward something that you really want. Depending on what you are saving for it could take a long time to save up enough money to buy the item if you are only doing it a penny at a time. Really losing weight is the same way. If you don't have a lot to lose then you will have to make healthy choices, but maybe not as many and not as long as someone who has a significant amount of weight to lose.

Going on that theory I have started a penny challenge for myself. I went to the bank today and got $10 in pennies. For every healthy choice I make in a day I get to add a penny. For every unhealthy choice I have to take away 2 pennies. I am hoping that actually having a physical reminder about making healthy choices will help me to stay on track. I am also thinking of this as a bit of an experiment, because I really do wonder how many pennies it will take for me to lose a pound, 5 pounds, 10 pounds, and beyond.