We’ve all done it – made the most extraordinary New Year’s resolutions, only to feel deflated within weeks, days, or even hours.

Very often, New Year’s resolutions involve losing weight or improving fitness. We buy health equipment, gym memberships (actual or virtual), and diet books, only to have our hopes fizzle with the first cupcake.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

How about taking a gradient approach, doing things a little bit better every day, adding something new every week, and making a healthy lifestyle a way of life? Kind of a zero pain, all gain approach?

Genius.

So here’s the first of four healthy habits to focus on for the 4 weeks in January. And I guarantee you can do these regardless of your fitness level, budget, or anything else that could possibly get in the way.

Week 1 – Drink More Water

Simple enough, right?

If you’ve read my anti-diet book, Creating the French Metabolism, you know I’m kind of fanatical about water. But even I have to remind myself to get more water every now and then.

Here’s are just some of the awesome things getting enough water is going to do for you:

• Your skin is going to improve as you moisturize yourself from within.
• It’s going to improve your energy and brain function.
• You’ll get rid of waste in the body, improving kidney and bowel function.
• It will improve blood pressure and circulation by preventing your blood from getting thick and ooey-gooey.
• It will deliver oxygen throughout all parts of your body (we need that stuff).
• And this I know both from personal experience and from coaching others – if you’re stalled on weight loss, upping your water intake a lot, getting as close to a gallon a day as you can, will kick your weight loss back into gear.

So how much water do you need?

I’m sure you’ve heard the rule of 8 glasses a day, which is about 2 liters of water. And it’s not a bad start.

But I think a better approach, since we’re not all the same size, is half your body weight in ounces. For example, a 130 pound person would drink 65 ounces per day of water, which, okay yeah, in this example it’s about 2 liters – bad example. But it takes personal size into consideration which makes sense.

Set up a system to remember to get in at least your full quota of water. Start your day with a couple of big glasses of water. Fend off the afternoon slump with a big glass of water. I like having a 1-liter glass water bottle that I try to finish and refill 4 times a day. I don’t always manage to fill it four times, but I at least get my minimum and then some. You may like to set an alarm on your phone that goes off every hour or two to remind you.

I recommend sticking to real H2O for your water intake, with maybe just a squeeze of lemon. I don’t trust those water “additives” – you don’t know where they’ve been. You can drink other beverages too, of course, just don’t include those in your quota, since some of those beverages actually have a diuretic effect. And besides, nothing exceeds like excess.

So grab your bottle, set your timer, and check your inbox next week for Week 2!

 Happy New Year!