The Year of "30 Day" Challenges

It's rather pathetic that it's been nearly five months since our last blog post. I had started my "management" of the blog with such promise and then just fell out of the habit as quickly as I had fallen into it. Oh well, maybe I should make a "New Year's Resolution" to blog more.

Not.

That seems to be a nice intro to the point of this blog post, actually...resolutions. I've always struggled with the idea of the resolution. We live our lives each day, with choices all around us. We typically make the most unhealthy, unhelpful, and unwise decisions (which also tend to fall around the holidays - perhaps its the mix of festivities, family, friends, alcohol, and unmet expectations) and then don party hats, sing some songs, bang some pans, and decide that the next year will be different. Sadly, as quickly as we made the decision to wear the tacky 2011 glasses on New Year's, our resolutions fall to the wayside and we spend another 11 months re-establishing the habits that we wanted to avoid in the first place on that fateful New Year's Eve.

That's not to say that the purpose of a resolution isn't a good thing. Elisa and I just decided to take a different approach. And I thought it would be fun to make it an entire year's experience. Then we'll have at least made a valiant effort of "change" prior to giving in and building resolutions for 2012.

That's where the "30-Day Challenge" comes in. I figure that we, as human beings, can do anything for 30 days. It's the basis of made (and failed) resolutions, after all. But rather than trying something for 30 days and then giving up, why not do it for 30 days, re-evaluate, try something slightly different, etc., etc., etc.? Perhaps, by the end of 12 months, you really have made a change. With that idea in the books, it turned to a more difficult decision - what to do for 30 days?

Well, it was difficult until we rented a movie from Netflix. There was a documentary that I had wanted to watch, staring me in the face as I linked our Apple TV to a new Netflix account. 'Super Size Me.' For those of you unaware, the documentary follows one man's decision to eat nothing but McDonald's for 30 days (see the connection of our own challenge?). The effects were startling - liver problems (blood tests showed it was the same reaction to binge drinking alcoholic), depression when not eating the food, vomitting when trying to eat it all (at least early on), and about 30 lbs. of weight. Granted, documentaries are created with a certain point of view. I understand that. But once the closing credits were rolling, I didn't want to see another "Golden Arches" for awhile. So Elisa and I talked about trying to not eat fast food for 30 days. Start easy. See where it takes us.

Of course, giving up fast food isn't easy. It's designed to be addictive. And boy, is it addictive. And amazingly, it had just become part of our lives. I remember planning out meals for the week and always leaving one or two days empty - we'd figure something out on those days, which almost always turned into fast food choices. Lukas is probably the poster child for fast food companies targetting kids. His meals are made all the better if made by Ronald, Wendy, or Arctic - okay the last one didn't fit. But the playlands, the happy meals, the toys...they make Lukas beg to "eat out for dinner". So it seemed like a pretty good idea to have our first 30-day challenge be to stop fast food altogether. And look at 3 things:

1. How do we feel?
2. How much money did we save?
3. Are we establishing a more real "change" in habit?

As it stands right now, we are 13 days into our test. And I thought it would be fun to live through our year of "30-Day Challenges" on our blog. After all, it's one thing to have a private challenge. It's another to share it with the world, so that they hold you accountable to it as well.

So enjoy the first of many challenges. Officially, we are not eating fast food for 30 days. No McDonald's. No Wendy's. No Subway. Nothing. Well, except coffee. Elisa might hurt someone if she's deprived of her weekly Starbucks. And 7+ years of marriage has taught me to not do something crazy like that. With that, I better run to the store now, since I find us emptying our cupboards at a rapid pace. I guess that's what happens when you actually eat at home every meal. Who knew?

Next time - a trip down Fast Food Memory Lane.