Challenges

So this year instead of having a New Year's resolution I decided to have what I call challenges of 2011. Now most of you are probably thinking "Isn't that the same thing?". Well maybe, but the word resolution just screams, "You are going to FAIL at this!", to me. The word challenge is more encouraging like, "Let's see how far you can go with this." Do you guys get what I'm saying?

To tell the truth, this all came about quite accidentally about three days after New Year's. As you may or may not know I have been a smoker since I was 13. I have been a full time smoker since I was 16. I am now 31...you do the math. I LOVE to smoke. I love hanging out with friends and b.s.ing for hours smoking cigarette after cigarette. When I have been drawn as a cartoon or a caricature I always have a cigarette in my hand. On the third of January I ran out of cigarettes right before I went to bed. No big deal, I would just pick up some on the way to work. So I woke up the next morning, went to work, and around noon realized I hadn't had a cig yet. WTF!?!? "How am I not homicidal?", I thought. Well, I decided to roll with it. So as of today, I have had about 5 cigarettes since January 4th. Now I'm looking forward to no cigarettes next month.

My second challenge: Go vegetarian for a month or forever maybe. This isn't actually a big challenge for me as I was vegetarian for a while a few years back. I've been having moral and health issues with meat. Things like high cholesterol and recognizing that the meat in the cooler at Walmart used to have a face. Which is really unfortunate because I really like Taco Bell. I even got Paulie to jump on the bandwagon for a week. "I'll try your stupid hippy dippy food, but I'm not going to like it.", he said. I'm ecstatic that he's willing to try it for an hour let alone a week! My husband believes the four food groups are burgers, tacos, pizza, and ice cream. This next week I'm going to try my hardest to show him that meatless meals can be tasty, too.

For now these are my biggest challenges to deal with. I have some minor challenges which are more like things to learn that I think would help me grow as a person this year. Such as:
-learn how to use a sewing machine
-learn how to crochet(I got knitting down last year)
-canning some fruit preserves
-grow some vegetables with my dad
-spend more time with my husband not in front of the tv

I'll keep you posted on how everything goes.