The Deets

My 30-day challenge this month is to unsubscribe from as many catalogs as possible that arrive at the house.

This is a case where making the environmentally friendly choice provides an immediate positive return.

It’s Sunday, so there has only been one day of mail so far. That was enough to knock off 8 glossy catalogs.

Unsubscribed catalogs:

- Eastbay
- Performance Bike
- William Sonoma
- REI
- Surdyk’s
- Pottery Barn
- Pottery Barn Bed & Bath
- LL Bean

I imagine our postman Pat’s spine is thanking us.

While we risk being uninformed consumers without monthly reminders of all the crap we should be buying, I think that’s a risk worth taking. We’ll help avoid printing hundreds of pounds of paper every year and conserve the fossil fuels used to print & deliver the catalogs.

Last month’s 30-day challenge was initially scheduled to be, “Don’t eat any packaged food.” Well, that didn’t happen, but we did pull off a somewhat less ambitious challenge: “don’t go out to eat alone, or just with eat other.” Not exactly difficult. Mission accomplished. Bring the troops home.

This month’s plan is to: “Go for a walk outside every day” and “take at least 3 pictures a day.” The pictures are flowing in, but Carly and I haven’t seen each other to go for a walk yet this month. And walking alone is kind of like drinking alone.

I’ve also thrown in, “No high fructose corn syrup.” This was kind of tough on the road trip back from Fort Wayne since we had a stash of Mike & Ike’s and Hot Tamales within arm’s reach at all times. If I find myself in need of a Coke, I may be able to find Mexican Coke at Costco or at many of the stores along E Lake Street.

via Kottke & Serious Eats

It’s just after 10pm on Jan 30th, which means I have 26 hours to go on my January challenge of no alcohol. Not that I’m counting or anything.

Frankly, giving up drinking alcohol has been a lot easier than soda. Convenient access to caffeine is apparently tougher for me to overcome than the effects of beer, wine, and Boone’s.

This is probably the longest I’ve gone without drinking since I started drinking, so I think it will be interesting to see what effect one beer will have on my system.

Which brings me to this questions: Which beer should I have first in February? I like to think globally and drink locally, so I’m leaning toward something from the area. Maybe a trip up to Barley John’s to try their Extra Special Lager?

What would you do?

I mentioned previously that Carly and I are going to do 30-day challenges in 2007. It turns out that was no BS. Here’s a breakdown of the first 6 months goals:

The early morning wake-ups will coincide with early morning trips to the gym. It will be good to see the folks back at the gym again. Is Jan 1st the busiest gym day of the year? If not, is it the 2nd of Jan?

I face two big challenges with the no-alcohol month in January: a trip to Las Vegas and Broomball season. It’s not clear which one’s more enabling. Friday’s our season opener for broomball, so that will be the first big test. Oh, and Carly wants to take a wine tasting course around the 25th.

Carly thinks I’m going to lose a lot of weight by booze out of my diet for a month. Maybe I should have picked up these Nichole Ritchie style sunglasses in Miami?

Carly and I are planning a series of 30-day challenges in 2007. It seems like a long enough time to challenge oneself to some form of life-changing habit, but tolerably long for those that turn out to suck. For example, Carly and I just wrapped up 30 days without soda, which was surprisingly easy. Chances are pretty good that I won’t go back to drinking anywhere near the soda I drank before (~6 cans a day).

We haven’t decided what 30-day challenges we’re going to try yet, but have some ideas. Somehow, I don’t think this one will make the list for Carly:

Serious Eats: 30 Days of Pork

Amanda Kelso was a 12-year veteran of vegetarianism when she went AWOL. She blames pork. “Bacon was a temptress to me,” she says in her 30 Days of Pork series on photo-sharing site Flickr.

Bacon is a temptress for me too. Just last Friday I enjoyed bacon wrapped little wieners. What a delicacy of pork-on-pork goodness those are.

What would you recommend for 30-day challenges? The theme is to do lifestyle improving things, so things like dining choices, exercise goals, friendship related, etc., are what we have in mind. Any thoughts?