Happiness Project: May – Diet

Yesterday, I declared the start of my Happiness Project.

For May’s topic, I chose “Diet” as that has been an area I’ve been concentrating on recently anyway. Since I’ve already started working on it and I’m getting anxious to get going on my project, “Diet” is going to start right now. At the moment, my “Diet” list includes:

• Drinks: No drinks with calories. No “artificially sweetened” drinks. Reduce caffeine, increase water. Clear out and replace water bottles as necessary.
• Nutrition: Increase fruit and veggies. No sugar/bread/rice/potatoes/pasta. Eat more yogurt.
• Weight loss: Start keeping track of calories.
• Knowledge: Read a couple of books about healthy eating.
• Planning: Work on menu planning. Be sure to pack snacks/water for all outings.

Each week, I’ll start to tackle one of these sub-topics, adding it to the ones I’ve already been working on. Hopefully as each becomes a habit, it won’t need as much focused energy.

As I gave up soda last week, I’m focusing on the caffeine and water this week. Cutting out the Diet Coke has already been a huge step in the right direction, but I do drink too much coffee each morning. I don’t expect to cut it out entirely, but simply to get myself down to two mugs. Yes, I often drink more than that!

And the water, I don’t drink nearly enough. I’m going to get a half-gallon container to keep in the fridge and make sure I drink at least that much each day. Having it there in front of me is hopefully going to be enough of a reminder to help me increase my water intake.

During the week, I’m also going to roundup our water bottles, get rid of any that don’t work for whatever reason and determine if I need to buy any additional bottles in order to keep us all properly hydrated.