Habits (Not Hobbits)

The gym we go to is doing a 28 Day Habit Stacking Challenge. The idea is to reset some good habits that might have gotten waylaid over the holidays. I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it, but I was “convinced” to go for it by one of the trainers. (It didn’t take much. I was thinking about doing it, anyway. But don’t tell him that! LOL) So, you get a packet with tracking sheets, one for each week plus the whole 28 day track. One habit added per week, and you keep doing the previous ones along with the newly added. So, stacking.

Week One (which ended yesterday) was to drink 64 ounces of water per day. Now, from what I have read, that 64 ounce number isn’t some magic bullet number. It’s a somewhat random number that has taken hold as the right amount of water for most people to drink. There isn’t much science to back up the 64 ounce part, but it is true that most people don’t drink enough water to stay well hydrated, so that number has held on because it gives you a specific target rather than just saying “Drink more water.” It makes sense. Most people, myself included, need a specific target for things like this.

How did I do? Well, I managed to get my 64 ounces in every day. It wasn’t easy. I have never been able to drink a lot of any sort of liquid without feeling bloated and uncomfortable. Plus, I really don’t like water. I don’t like the taste. (Yes, I know. Real water doesn’t have much taste, but there it is.) And I rarely actually feel thirsty. Sometimes, yes, but most of the time, I just don’t. So, there certainly were days where I struggled to get all that water into me. But I did. Will I be able to keep it up for 28 days? I don’t know. But I managed one week, and that’s a start.

Next week? 64 ounces of water + 3 servings of protein a day.

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My latest book is a collection of very short stories, half science fiction and half fantasy, called “Crossed Wires and Other Very Short Stories”. I have also written a few other short pieces, another collection, two novels, and an urban fantasy series. You can find most of them at Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and wherever e-books are sold. A few are also available from Amazon in paperback. My novel, “Circle Unbroken” is also on Kindle Unlimited, if that’s your reading preference. You can find out about all of them here.

There are also some stories you can read here on my site, mostly the yearly Halloween short I write, but there are a few others. You can read them from here