Inspired by James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, I have adopted a new identity: I am HEALTHY AND FIT. Now I am accumulating small victories to reinforce my new identity. To accumulate these victories, I am slowly adopting new habits. For my first new habit, I am drinking 100 ounces of water every day.

I have known for months that I needed to drink more water, less soda. Conventional wisdom dictates drinking 64 ounces of water every day, but I have read in a lot of places that a person should actually drink (at least) half their body weight in ounces of water. I currently weight 201 pounds, so I’m aiming for 100 ounces of water.

To track my water, I whipped up a simple chart in my Bullet Journal. It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done.

Each water droplet represents 10 ounces. It seems so simple, but I love filling in the water droplets as I drink my water. I love to see my progress throughout the day. It motivates me to start drinking my water as early as possible, instead of loading up on soda and coffee in the morning and early afternoon (hello, caffeine!) and only getting a little water at day’s end.

As you can see, I drank 100 ounces of water seven days in a row. Woot woot! I “only” drank 80 ounces of water on July 24, but hey, I’m human. Mistakes are not disasters. They are learning opportunities!

Also, I love seeing the streak grow on my chart, but I’m glad my first streak broke after seven days. If I had managed to keep my first streak going for months, and then broke the streak, that could have been demoralizing. (I’m a recovering perfectionist, and yes, things like “broken water streaks” can seem demoralizing if I don’t watch my mindset.)

I know the current streak will get broken sooner or later. Maybe I won’t get enough water during a ride trip because I have to manage my bladder. Maybe I won’t get enough water when I have a stomach bug and need to drink Gatorade and Ginger Ale. And maybe I won’t get enough water someday because damnit, I’m just not in the mood for water. But that’s okay!

I think I would eventually like to create a binder to track all my health habits, but for now, the Bullet Journal is fun and easy. In fact, I might do my daily tracking in the Bullet Journal and then transfer the information to a binder for long-term tracking. Who knows? I am on a journey to be healthy and fit. I do not want to get overwhelmed by trying to do too much in the beginning. After all, being healthy and fit is my new long-term, until-the-day-I-die identity.