As I mentioned the other day, while talking about getting a life, I have a few challenges for my first 30 day challenge set, and I have various reasons for attempting each. I figure that 30 days, beyond being a neat and clean measurement of a month, is also a good amount of time for habit formation. While I don’t plan on making all of the changes I try for a month permanent (some that I have planned I don’t think could be reasonably or healthily maintained permanently), I believe that they can be useful for setting myself onto a better path in general. So, here is some reasoning for each, or as much as I figured before blindly steamrolling forward:
 

1. Going vegan for the month

I have been vegetarian for near a year already, and was never a humongous meat eater to begin with, so it’s not too far of a stretch for me. I haven’t held it as a perfect standard; I still enjoy sushi every once in a while, and if nothing else is readily available that interests me, can have chicken or a turkey burger with my meal. With the loss of meat though, I replaced it mainly with cheese, which isn’t really much healthier. I still try to keep moderation, but spending a month actively avoiding both I figure will help me to get a handle on what foods do what to my body. I’m still not going to be super-duper picky (like my coffee creamer, which has “less than 1% sodium caseinate, a milk derivative not from lactose”). I’m thinking that the hardest thing here will be my love for pizza and having to give that up for a month.

2. Drawing a new sketch every day

I have always held out a bit of hope of being able to incorporate illustration into my work in some way. Blogs like Hyperbole & a Half and Books of Adam are hilarious, and I only wish that I could get in on some of the fun. I keep a sketchbook at my desk, and use it once a week at best, so there is certainly room for improvement there. I figure if I can commit to just drawing something every day and not thinking about it too hard, I’ll improve a bit, or at least have a habit set up. I’ll post results every few days if I ever get the scanner hooked up.

3. Find something to be thankful for every day

This one is simultaneously the easiest, and hardest. Easiest of course because it requires no extra commitment of time or efforts, just thinking and writing something down. Hardest though, because I can get kind of cynical, and trust me, there are plenty of things in life and in this town that aggravate me. If I think on the positives, at least I’ll have some reason to feel a bit better each day and not want to throttle everyone I come across. I’ll tweet these when I think of them each day, and will compile them here as well when I make posts.

That’s it, anyone think I can accomplish any or all of these?

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