#WorkWeekWins

Making a big change in your life is as much about the small victories as the big ones.

If my weekly goal is to write down everything I eat for a week, but I slip up for a day I’m likely to feel a little down about it. That’s when it’s time to celebrate the small victories. The more I can stay in a positive mood about all of this the more likely I am to keep going.

I know this because it’s my frame of mind that’s gotten me off the healthy track before:

About two years ago, I decided it was time to make a change and I went after it 100 percent. I was counting every calorie and I was in the gym everyday. I became obsessive about it, particularly the calorie counting. If the restaurant didn’t have the calorie count posted online, I was unlikely to visit. If I went over by a little, I made sure to work them off at the gym. If I went over by a lot, I dwelled on it.

Rather than enjoying the success I was having, I was constantly worried about maintaining it. The problem is that I don’t want to be obsessing about health and fitness at all. I don’t want to be obsessing about being overweight, like I am now, and I don’t want to be doing it over maintaining a certain weight, like I was back then.

My goal is to incorporate health and fitness in a way where it becomes second nature to order a side salad with my one slice of pizza, or to head to the gym after work. I’ll feel like I’ve reached my goals when I’m not actively thinking about it, I’m just doing it.

I realize that getting to that point is going to take a while, and in order to keep myself on track I’m going to be sure to celebrate my small victories. I’m going to do so every week with five “Work Week Wins” on Twitter.

A “Work Week Win” or #WorkWeekWin is something small that makes me feel good about choices I made on my busiest days – Monday through Friday. This could be anything from ordering a side salad and a slice of pizza, instead of multiple slices of pizza, or skipping the donuts in the break room.

The point is to remember to celebrate the small victories just in case I have a setback. On weeks I don’t have a setback, I’ll have twice as much to celebrate.