Inspired to challenge myself

I saw the movie Julie and Julia this week. It's a great movie, I highly recommend it to anyone, it's not a chick flick at all, very humerous and lots of innuendo! Meryl Streep once again blew me away with her performance, she may just be my new favourite actress.
If you have not seen the movie here is the gist of it:
It chronicles the lives of 2 women living in different eras, Julia Child in the 40's as she learns to cook and goes on a quest to write and publish a cookbook designed to make french cooking easy for Americans who have no idea and no home help to assist. The other woman is Julie Powell who is approaching 30 in the early 2000's and is uninspired by her job, doesn't like her new apartment she just moved into with her husband (it has a tiny kitchen) and desperately wants to be writer but has failed thus far. Julie decides to take on the mammoth challenge of cooking all the recipes (500 plus) in Julia Childs' cookbook over the course of 1 year and commits to blog about it. The challenge affects her job, marriage and sanity but ultimately leads to fame and recognition resulting in...you guessed it...a book and movie!
It's very funny and besides making my mouth water repeatedly during the movie at all the yummy food and indulging my foodie side, it got me thinking about my own neglected blog and also towards thoughts of setting myself a challenge.
Now as much as I love to cook, I do not wish to cook every single day and think I would go mad and probably hate food forever afterwards so that won't work.
Whatever challenge I take on, it has to be a) somewhat difficult b) rewarding c) healthy d)achieveable.
So far I have come up with 2 potential challenges and both involve removing something from my life for the duration of the challenge.
The first is giving up meat, or I guess you could flip it around to a positive and say "go vegetarian". The challenge here is that I already don't eat dairy or eggs due to allergies so my diet would be reduced significantly. For this reason, I have decided that I would still eat fish for some variety and a protein boost. This would be a hard challenge for me, I have tried it before and failed but I think I'm ready to commit...I think? The payoff of this challenge would be that I would be healthier and would have to plan my meals better which, in turn, means I eat a better diet and probably will spend less money on food.
The second challenge I am considering is giving up alcohol. I'm not a big drinker but I do really love a cold beer or glass of wine. I don't drink every day but I'll normally have a bottle of wine split over Fri and Saturday night. I also usually end up having 1-2 more drinks during the week if I go out with a friend or if there is a spare beer floating around the house. When we go on vacation (about 2x per year) I will drink a couple of glasses of wine or beer most nights. The main challenge here will be that I really enjoy my wine/beer and usually look at it as a well earned reward for getting through the week or for completing a 6 hour hike or triathlon (see previous post!). I don't get drunk but I do enjoy the social aspect, plus something about it makes me feel really grown up! And of course, it tastes yummy.
Well, I'll keep mulling over it, I just got home from dinner out at Memphis Blues BBQ house and had ribs and a beer...whatever I choose, it's gonna be hard! My plan is to commit to 3 months of whatever challenge I decide and then to blog about it...that should keep me honest, I hope.
Got any other suggestions for things to challenge myself to?

I am a Triathlete!

I competed in and completed my first real triathlon yesterday! I had done an adventure race before but it was a team event (I had to do the whole thing with a partner) and we didn't have to swim, we kayaked instead. I entered the race only a month before the event and so was not totally prepared but was confident that I had enough base fitness and previous race running experience to finish and survive. The race was quite low key and casually organised with only about 75 competitors. It was a "My First Tri" which means everyone in it was a newbie and there was huge range of ages, fitness levels, bodies, bikes and outfits.
We had to swim 400 m in a lake...I get nervous in any "Wild" water...i.e. not a pool so this was a big challenge for me and although I am an ok swimmer, this was a whole different experience that I was not prepared for!
First off, the lake was COLD! So that in itself was new and I found I just had trouble with regular breathing. Secondly, swimming with loads of other people was crazy! People were doing all kinds of new strokes and random ones and swimming on their backs going diagonally etc..it was a fight for your life out there! Factor in the waves and the fact I somehow swallowed a lot of water(helped with the hydration I guess) and some bordeline choking/almost vomiting mid-swim, I must have looked like I'd never been in water before. I settled a bit though and switched between strokes regularly and just tried to focus on my technique. I didn't think I'd make it out forever and felt like I was in the water for an eternity but really it was less than 15 mins and I came out in the top 1/3 of the pack. walking out of the water in bare feet across stony sandy lake bottom was not graceful to say the least but I was so glad that bit was over. Next was the bike, I had set up my transition zone well so I had a smooth turnover there but had to run with my bike up to the road as there was a zone of gravel road inbetween. No worries, though as once on the road I cranked up the gears and sped off. The ride was 20k out and back which I really enjoyed as I got to see the other competitiors ahead of me as they were on the 2nd leg, including my hubby and my friend who were also partaking. There were no mile markers so it was anyones guess as to how far the turnaround was.
Finally there was the run which I thought would be okay as I have done lots of running the past and have a slow but very steady pace. The first 5 mins were tough as I adjusted from the bike and of course it was slight but long uphill climb. I settled in though and kept a good pace using a guy about 50 m ahead of me as a target. I couldn't catch him until the last 1/2km and then I just focused and ramped it up and went for it...I passed him and left him in the dust to cross the finish line in just under 1.5 hours.
What a fun day and to do it with other people was really the icing on the cake, it was so fun to yell and wave as we passed en route and then at the end to see familiar faces was encouraging.
I think I might be hooked on Tri's now! Ask me next year!