Magnolia’s 47 Day Challenge

I watched this great movie the other day, Julie & Julia with Meryl Streep (only the greatest living actress of our time) and Amy Adams.

Like many of Meryl Streep’s movies, she portrayed a real person, Julia Child.  Amy Adams also portrayed a real person, Julie Powell (whose actual blog was the basis for the movie) who decided to do a 365-day Julie Child challenge by cooking one of the recipes out of Julia Child’s cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 , every day for 1 year and then blog about it.  I loved the movie and would highly recommend that you either purchase it, rent it or find it in your library.  I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Here’s another reason why I’m telling you about the movie: While in the second day of my new exercise program with my 16 year old daughter – spinning class -  I thought about my blogs.  Particularly, The Magnolia Diaries and what I would like to begin posting about since I’ve moved my perimenopause stuff to The Perimenopause Blog.

In between the sprints and hill climbing I realized that I must, absolutely must blog about this.  Much like Julie Powell.  To keep myself accountable, however, I have to put my dignity and self-respect on the line.  That’s where you all come in.  If I make a public commitment, well then, it’s highly likely that I will keep my word and follow through. So, Magnolia’s 47 Day Challenge was born.

Here’s The Plan

I will blog about my exercise classes for the next 47 days.  Why the odd number?  Because I backed it up to yesterday (when the exercising actually began) and I plan to do this challenge until January 31st.  That is, by my calculations, 47 days. Not only do I plan to blog about my exercise classes, but I also plan to blog about what will be a concurrent time of sobriety. I’ve already done a 6 week sobriety challenge from October 15 until November 30 (which I kept quietly to myself ) and did just fine.  That is, until I decided to drink wine again.

As you all know by now, if you’ve read my blogs for any period of time, I love my red wine.  I mean, I really love it.  I’ve even toyed with the notion that I might be an alcoholic.  But, after much thought and soul searching, I’ve determined I am not.  What I am though, at least according to Patrick at The Spiritual River, is a problem drinker. He should know.  He was a problem drinker for so long he became an actual alcoholic.

Anyway

All of that over-analysis stuff aside, if I drink it red wine, I will drink it every day. This much I know.  And if I drink it every day, I won’t do much else outside of  keeping up with the house and kids, except of course, drink more red wine.  This just will not do. So, as much as I love it, if I want to get anything else done, I need to abstain.

Ready, Set, Go!

I plan to begin this challenge retroactively, (the excercise part, not the sobriety, that starts today) since the actual excercising began yesterday, December 15, 2009 if any of you are taking notes.  I’ll be back later to start with my first post.  Right now I’m going to hobble upstairs and shower.

See you soon.