Leveling up on life

I read Nerd Fitness a lot. I love the website and all the tips and motivation he gives. On Monday there is a new six week challenge starting geared towards leveling up your life. What is my big six week goal? After that is identified then I'll need to set my mini-goals (or quests) that will help me achieve it.

For me, blogging consistently to obtain my goals is hard, meeting my mini-goals is harder but I'm finding that setting the 6 week goal is hardest. Of course I want to lose weight, to focus on clean eating, to stick within my budget - which of these should I tackle for my first 6 week challenge? Of course eating clean can be a mini goal that leads me towards weight loss. My other conundrum is self sabotage.  I'm notorious for throwing in the towel after a bad day. My mini-goals have to be pointing me in the direction I want to go without being overwhelming.

My first thoughts are to automatically go to the 10 pound weight loss goal with mini-goals of exercising three times a week, eating right and blogging regularly to let out my feelings. My pessimistic side says, why go there? I've failed at all that before, what is different this time?

What I do know about myself, consistency and habit are key. Why do I eat lunch at noon - I'm not necessarily hungry everyday at noon. Especially considering my varied work hours. But I do it because it's a habit to look at the clock and feel it's time to take a break. I've always known that if I can make working out in the morning a habit then it will stick and the weight will come off. But I'm already in the habit of hitting snooze. A lot and repeatedly. I know I can break that pattern after I establish other goals that make me less tired (the age old paradox of exercise= energy). Which brings me to my mini-goals.

My mini-goals will be:
1. attend Zumba class every Monday morning (5 points)
  1a. other Zumba classes during the week are bonus points (5 each class)
2. bring a healthy lunch every day instead of fast food (5 points, one for each day)
  2a. bonus points for NO fast food all week (minus one point for each outing)
3. take my vitamins every morning (7 points, one for each day)
  3a. bonus points for remembering the evening ones too (additional point for each met)
4. Start body weight exercises. A quick 15 minutes every other morning. (Five points per workout)
5. Continue my weekend hikes outdoors, at least one per week (5 points per hike)
6. Blog a recap each week ( 1 point)
Total possible points = 60

If we add up all my mini-goals, what is the resulting 6 Week Challenge Goal? The obvious answer is weight loss. But what I'm really looking for is Consistency!

My real goal is The Habit of Healthy Choices