Apparently for me it’s important to take on challenges in little pieces; I don’t want to see a huge, gray, endless mountain of effort ahead of me (no, really?).  If I think of this as a one-week effort, then my brain will make a little contest of it, get psyched into trying to see how well I can eat, how much water I can drink, how many hours I can exercise.  If I consider it as a one-year-plus-forever project, then my brain tries to find ways to cheat and lie.  Because it seems like a prison sentence, and my brain is very sensibly trying to escape. 