Day 1 - The Challenge

I've been working on goals with my children lately and got excited when an idea came to me for some important goals of my own. Recently my husband and I went to see "Eat, Pray, Love" at the movie theater. My husband had read the book and absolutely loved it. I had not read it yet, but he still allowed me to join him on his journey to see the movie. According to him the movie just didn't do the scenes in the book justice. "You will like it. You should read it," he said to me. I haven't read the book yet, but in the movie Julia Roberts portrays a real-life author, Elizabeth Gilbert, on what she calls "One Woman's Search for Everything." In her book Eat, Pray, Love she sets her goal: For one year pursue pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and balance in Indonesia. She actually breaks her year up into three segments, one in each country. During that year she learned some amazing lessons about herself and life. Her victory of self was wondrous. Her story became a movie. Her story has inspired me.

Take that and the movie we just watched for Thanksgiving: Julie and Julia, which is about a challenge Julie Powell gave herself to cook all of Julia Child's recipes from her Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook in one year. Julie was looking for something more to her life. Her passion was cooking. Her goal was huge, 524 recipes in 365 days. Her dedication was admirable. Her anguish was real. Her challenges conquerable when they seemed unbearable. And like Elizabeth Gilbert, she learned some amazing lessons about herself and life. Julia Child's story in and of itself is really incredible. She succeeded when the odds seemed against her. Both Julia Child's story as portrayed through her autobiography My Life in France and Julie Powell's story as given in Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously have also inspired me.  Julie actually documented her progress on a blog that her husband helped her create just for that purpose called The Julie/Julia Project, which she finished in 2004.

Now to me. As I was pondering my life today, I realized that I could combine the techniques of these three women, Elizabeth Gilbert, Julia Child and Julie Powell, and develop something that would challenge me as well. Following through on Elizabeth's theme, I am yearning to Eat, Pray and Love.

My Goal: In one year I will have pursued eating (being healthy), praying (being peaceful) and loving (caring for my EC), documenting my progress as I go along on my blog, and reaching success by our 5th Wedding Anniversary on January 2, 2012.

I will not however travel the world alone to find these goals. I will pursue them right here at home in Mesa, Arizona. I am rarely alone. I have seven children of my own and my new husband has three. Five of our children are married, and we have four grandchildren. Our home is a busy one. And, my goals are not as yet so easily defined as Julie's were (524 recipes in 365 days), but my objective is to be ready for our 5th wedding anniversary. As a note: I will be referring to my husband as my EC (Eternal Companion) throughout my blog. For reasons that aren't necessary to explain, suffice it to say it will just be easier for me.

I have lots of work and planning to do to pull this off!

My goal defined:

Eat Healthy.

1. Detox my body (doctor's orders)
2. Learn what I can eat (I have lost 30 pounds in six weeks and the doctors don't know why.)
3. Learn about nutrition and weight
4. Maintain a weight of 160 pounds (which is where I have ended up, so that's good)
5. Have regular meals for myself
6. Have regular family dinners
7. Help the children learn about healthy eating habits
8. Learn to cook healthy meals for my family
9. Learn to cook satisfying and tasty meals for my family

Pray, Be Peaceful.

1. Learn to be peaceful
2. Study Yoga and Practice it Daily
3. Involve my family in Yoga and relaxation
4. Study other relaxation techniques and philosophies (Determine which ones)
5. Have a daily meditation time which includes devotion and scripture study
6. Go to bed each night relaxed and teach my children how to
7. Learn more about Zen and Feng Shui
8. Create a Zen garden
9. Create a Feng Shui home?

Love and Care for my EC.

1. Study the five love languages
2. Learn my EC's love language and use it
3. Study massage and practice it with my EC
4. Read and implement The Proper Care and Feeding of a Husband by Dr. Laura
5. Learn how to council with my husband regarding our family
6. Have weekly Couple Interviews
7. Have weekly dates
8. Balance my emotions, energy and intensity
9. Trust my EC's love for me and value his opinions

How to do this? Well, as I teach my children: Anything is possible if you use baby steps to get there. The most important part is knowing where you are headed. I am headed for Health, Peace, and Love. Thanks ladies for being examples to me of perseverance and goals. I want to be like you. I hope you are not offended at my decision to use you as role models. As my mom always said, "Copying is the highest form of flattery." I don't want to steal your ideas. I want to use them as tools to be successful. Even blogging provides me with a daily accountability. We all need accountability at one time or another.

I am thankful for you three ladies. I am thankful for the support of my EC who totally is backing this project. I am thankful for my children. My 14- and 18-year-old daughters have already helped me today to come up with a game plan on how to accomplish so many sub-goals. I'm sure the rest of the kids will be enthused about Mom's goals as they reap some of the benefits too.

My hope is that I not only learn to feed them, but that I can be an inspiration to them also. 

Well, as Yoda said on Star Wars, "Do or do not. There is no try."

I have a little bit of a head start, with 398 days left. So here I go!