Week 4 Challenge- Drink Up!

If you’re wondering what happened to the wrap up for this week’s challenge don’t worry, you didn’t miss it.  I’m hoping to post it tomorrow.  Or maybe Monday.  I ended up with plans for the day and I can either work on the wrap up, OR I can do my last power hour of cleaning.  Or I suppose I could attempt to do it tonight when I get home but since I don’t know for sure when that will be I’m not taking any chances.  Plus, this week was a little philosophical and I want to make sure I devote an appropriate amount of time to the wrap up.

So anyway, look for that wrap up in the next day or two (yay Monday is a holiday!  Woot!).

For the week 4 challenge it’s all about hydrating.  I live in Florida.  And in Florida it is still really freakin’ hot.  While the last couple of weeks have been tolerable we go back and forth between tolerable and oh-my-god-I-might-burn-alive-just-walking-to-my-car.  Now, normally hydrating is not a problem for me.  I carry a bottle of water wherever I go.  But lately I feel like I am just carrying it around and not drinking enough of it.  Add to that that I have an event at work this week and I know that I need to keep up with it.  More in the week’s wrap up about how I know this is the thing I need right now.

So we all know that the recommended amount of water is at least 8 glasses a day.  That is 8 eight ounce glasses so 64 ounces.  But I live in Florida.  And it’s hot.  And I’m running around a lot.  So I’m going to aim for 100 ounces a day every day all week long.

Drink up!

Week 3 Challenge- Dirty Week? Clean It Up!



(Week 2 wrap-up is in the previous post.  Here is the Week 3 Challenge for those playing along.)

It’s been a rough week and everything in my life just feels a little…  Messy.  Not tragic, not falling apart, not even bad…  Just messy.  My brain feels cluttered.  My heart feels disorderly.  My life just feels a little grubby at the moment.

I am not a cleaner by nature.  I hate it actually.  But I always feel better once I’ve done it.  I’ll get into this more in my wrap-up at the end of this week.  But let’s just say that while I’m not the messiest person in the world, I could certainly stand to do better.

And this week, I just really feel the need to cleanse literally and metaphorically.  So for an hour everyday this week that is what I am doing.  At least one whole hour every day will be devoted to cleaning, organizing, generally scouring my world.  An hour a day…  That is beyond a lot for me to devote to this.  I was going to do a half hour every day but my good friend Sarah suggested I push it.  And she is right, I mean, why else am I doing this?  And hopefully I will come out on the other side cleaner, more organized, and feeling less like my (head)space is in chaos.

Week 2 Challenge- Goodbye Coca-Cola



For those looking for the week 1 wrap up please see the previous post.  I wanted to separate the 2 for anyone who is playing along at home and needs to know what the next challenge is but who doesn't have time to read last week's wrap-up yet.

Next week, starting tomorrow, Sunday, August 21st, will be NO SODA week.  Soda for me is like alcohol to an alcoholic.  I have given up soda for extended periods of time before so I know its plenty possible, but right now I am off the wagon.  And I can't have just one.  This is one of those things where it is all or nothing for me.  Because...  Well, it's like crack.  I love a good cold Coca-Cola.  But I know it is terrible for me.  And I know it makes me feel like crap.

So goodbye Coke!  And hello headache.

It Came To Me In A Dream- And Challenge #1

Last night I had a dream.  In this dream I was with a bunch of friends and there was this old abandoned motel we decided to rummage through and salvage anything that might be useful to us for future shows we might do, for our own use, just anything that was going to waste sitting in this forgotten building.  We went from room to room; checking out what was left, looking for treasure.  The problem was, the building had clearly been forgotten for awhile.  The curtains were covered in mold, the furniture was rickety and unstable, the carpet was worn through and dirty. 

It seemed like the more we looked the less we found.  And to make matters worse, the dust and the mold were killing me.  No, I mean literally killing me, suffocating me every time I stepped into one of the rooms.  (Even in my dreams I am allergic to the air!)  I would spend a few minutes trying to see what we could salvage but my eyes would start to burn, my throat would close, everyone would urge me to just go outside, insisting that whatever we were trying to hold on to wasn’t worth what it was doing to me.

Holy crap metaphor.

“…whatever we were trying to hold on to wasn’t worth what it was doing to me.”

I have felt all week like the universe is trying to point me down a path.  And it’s not being subtle.  At all.  I’m not talking about getting signs that I’m supposed to sell all my belongings and move to Iceland and become a nun or something.  To be quite clear, on many many levels I am incredibly happy with my life.  I have a great deal to be thankful for and I know that.  I not only know it, I appreciate it.  But I can be better.  I can do better, feel better, know better.  Just better.  And part of that being better is letting go of so many of the habits, beliefs, excuses, etc etc etc I have been holding on to for so long.  There are a lot of things that I thought I wanted, things I believed about who I was at the core, things I didn’t really think about that this week the universe said, you know what?  You might want this, but it’s not what you need.  And just because that is who you’ve been doesn’t mean that is who you are, and by the way those things you aren’t thinking about?  BAM!  How’s that working out for you?

“…whatever we were trying to hold on to wasn’t worth what it was doing to me.”

Ok Universe.  I am listening.

So anyway, it seems to just be the right time to start my little experiment for sure.  In thinking about what I wanted my first challenge to be I went through a number of options and kept changing my mind.  But I kept coming back to the idea of giving up TV for a week.  And every time I changed my mind something kept bringing me back.  Finally, yesterday the universe made the decision for me when I came home to discover that due to some weird power glitch in my building my cable and internet were out.  They were still out today and at some point I posted on facebook that I was cool without the cable so long as the internet was working.  My friend Sarah posted a reply, “Wait....you can deal without cable?!?!?! i'm. so. confused.”

And just like that Sarah sealed the deal.  Lol. 

OK UNIVERSE!!!  FOR THE LOVE I AM LISTENING!

And as soon as I settled 100% on the decision?  The cable and internet came back.  Sheesh.

So there you have it.  Some people have asked if they can try this along with me and the answer to that is of course!  Misery loves company right?  J  Follow along if you want to or challenge yourself in your own way.

For me, starting this Sunday, August 14^th, No TV.  Now I will tell you right now that my DVR will be running and when the week is over I will be catching up.  And I don’t feel bad about it.  Nor do I feel like it is cheating.  But no TV during this week and no TV shows from the internet either.  What happens after this week is moot, because again…  I can do anything for a week.  And this one will be a challenge for me, which I will write about more in my snappy wrap up blog at the end of the coming week. 

So there you have it friends.  Experiment 1 of 52 ready to commence.