Day 3 of the Challenge......

Okay -- I have eaten enough beans and fresh produce in the last few days, that I expect the public health department will be at my front door in the next couple days, to banish me to a deserted island in order to improve environmental air quality in this community..... if you get my drift (and you may want to remain upwind of me so that you don't get my drift.....).  HA!  But I know that one day in the very near future, I will be able to bend over and tie my shoes without cutting off my entire air supply. Yay!!!!

I am so much appreciating my fellow challengers' blogs -- I am actually burning a lot of calories just trying to keep up with the blogs!! I can really sympathize with those of you who are talking about emotional eating..... although I really don't have too much trouble adopting a diet and sticking to it, or starting to exercise more frequently. My big obstacle is to quit smoking!!! I am really in need of all the help and support I can possibly get on that account!!!

I know we all keep talking about the journey we are taking over these three months...... I am hoping that we all can start to gain some serious insight here! We are ALL attempting to go down a new path in life.....a path that we have not taken AND stayed on before in our lives. We are blazing a new trail, and I know there is a lot of undergrowth to cut through right now!! I hear some familiar sentiments coming through from my fellow challengers as we get into our travels here -- and that is trying to visualize life without things that we seem to be convinced make us very happy (lots of all the wrong kinds of food, for example). Do you believe it is possible that we could cut out a new path where we discover that different choices in life actually lead to much greater satisfaction than the current habits we persist in holding onto -- actually under some false belief that our life will seem like it has less quality if we let go of them????

I don't know about you, but I don't want to just go down a better path for three months -- I would like to know and experience what it is like to live at my maximum potential - to really know what it feels like to experience the best of physical, mental, and spiritual health. I fear that as a human race we all have veered so far off the path that we don't even give ourselves a chance to feel our bodies as they were meant to be (before processed foods -- full of chemicals, salt, refined sugar, refined flour). I think with this challenge -- it is dangling right in front of us -- to reach out and grab. LOOK at all of the support we are getting to do this!!!!

This journey is going to be a lot more than a physical/mental challenge. We are going to have to dig deeper than we ever imagined to get at the root of destructive habits -- and keep walking down a better path -- and never look back to go down the same old paths! The question is -- are we willing to do that??? I am slowly but surely feeling a growing faith and belief that this can be a reality -- not just a possibility. It's not about big drastic changes -- it's going to be a lot of letting go and burying some issues along this path we are traveling!!!

Don't you want to keep going down this path we are taking!!! There are a lot of us challengers to help each other, if we trip over something on the way.........!!! It is so very nice to know that I am not walking alone, in the dark on this one, because I want this to be one of the biggest journeys I have taken in life!!!! And it is so comforting to know there are others on this path!!

P.S. -- I have this most WONDERFUL article on why we eat what we eat -- I will give each of you a copy when I see you at our next meeting -- has a lot of ideas that you may never have considered -- and may really give you some much needed help in the days to come!!!

Let's keep moving forward, even if it's only an inch at a time!!!!!!   Laura