Many people fail to realize that they prevent themselves from accomplishing what they want to achieve. Whether it's losing weight, being a better parent, or learning a new skill, there is so much you can do to make it easier to succeed in your new endeavor. It's easy to set goals; but when push comes to shove and you have to refuse that super-delicious icecream sandwich, those goals are quickly forgotten.
I have found that accessibility is the most important factor in succeeding at my personal goals. I have to make it easy to succeed. Otherwise, I will probably fail. I have limited will power. If I abuse it, I will eventually crash and binge. I already devote so much energy and effort to my job, so I need to maximize the effectiveness of my remaining will power to accomplish my personal goals.
This is first in a series of posts on the Power of Accessibility. Each post will feature an example in my life where accessibility was the primary cause of success where I was otherwise bound to fail.
About 7-8 weeks ago, I weighed 228 pounds. This morning, I weighed in at 216. I can see and can feel a big difference. Damn it feels good. My goal is 200, which should take 3-4 more months at my current progression. The more weight you lose, the harder it is to lose weight, so I've still got a long road ahead of me. I know that it's going to get harder to lose weight, not easier. So that means I need to come up with simple new ways to encourage myself to burn calories, without exhausting my limited will.
One thing I've known for a long time is that drinking water can help you lose weight simply because your body has to heat up the water, which translates into easily burned calories. And to make it better, the colder the water, the more you burn. It's oxymoronically awesome.
Right now, I carry my blender bottle to work, which is pretty big - it holds 28 ounces of water. That means I need to drink 4.5 blender bottles per day to drink 1 gallon (128 ounces). Although it's not that hard to do, I commonly forget to refill my water throughout the day as I bounce between projects. When I forget to refill my water, I can't drink any at my desk, and I quickly fall into a position where it's impossible to drink a gallon in a day.
Yesterday, it occurred to me that I should have a single gallon jug at work, and that I have to finish it before I leave the office everyday. The only problem of course is a temperature problem - how am I going to bring a gallon of water to 35 degrees everyday?
I can fill half of it up every night and freeze it solid. I can fill the other half up with water when I get to work. And I'll be set. I can experiment with different amounts of ice to find the optimal balance of availability and maintaining a low temperature all day.
200, here I come.