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?
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2 comments:
Way to go Sally. You are inspiring me already! I love to cheer for people who challenge themselves, and I love it when I have cheerleaders for me during a challenge I have chosen. Kind of like what we did for each other at the triathlon!
I guess you don't need another fitness challenge; you've certainly done that sort of thing already. Your ideas sound a little lent-ish, 'giving something up'. I like how you turned the tables on the first one by calling it "going vegetarian" instead of "giving up meat" - feels more upbeat.
As far as I am concerned, you are a completely authentic grown-up whether or not you consume alcohol :)
Did I tell you I challenged myself a few years back to write one haiku a day for a year? That was pretty cool. I now have a book with almost 500 haikus in it! I got that idea from a friend who heard that some celebs did it.
Now I'm wondering what my next challenge could be... I'm a little worried about the half-marathon I've got coming up in one month - I haven't been training for 2 weeks since my bike crash!
xoxoxoxo
Hey Sally - I have some more thoughts about this challenge. Would you be able to do a musical challenge? You wrote a while back about picking up the guitar. Are your hands definitely too small? You could challenge yourself to learning one song per month, and then you'll have 3 great songs perfected by the end of your challenge!
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