I'm not procrastinating.

I'm just putting off starting.

Soon.

Soon.

Maybe Wednesday???

Gwyneth Paltrow wants me to quit coffee.

Gwyneth Paltrow can suck it.

G.P. also did Dr. Junger's cleanse and wrote about it on her Goop website.

In her meal plan, not only is she up at  7am (show off), but at 7am she is drinking nothing but hot water. With lemon.

Well, maybe Miss Paltrow can start her day like that and still function as a gorgeous, fabulous, international movie star, but some of us need a little help.

I need a signal that I am awake and that signal is that my coffee cup is empty.

Dr. Junger you can take my grains with gluten, meat, shellfish, anything processed (including all soy products), fatty nuts, nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant), condiments, sugar, alcohol and soda, but please....please let me keep my coffee.

Yeah, he mentions something about taxing your adrenal system and blah, blah, blah, but really...its just one itty, bitty cup of coffee.

Right?

Right?

Gwyneth??

It's not just about the jeans...

Historically, fasting and cleansing have been used as symbolic spiritual gestures to the Universe.  They have been used as a way of clearing out one's physical clutter that then, in turn, helps one to clear out mental and emotional clutter as well.

It's about weeding out the unnecessary.

It's about making space for what is important.

For the next 30 days, I will be: 

1. Following a program based on the book Clean by Alejandro Junger.  

    (More on him and his program later...)

2. Feng shui-ing the heck out of my house.

     If I don't love it, need it or use it...it is GOING.

3. Making my friends detox, too.  I'm putting Traci and Sid, both who have 

     chronic digestion issues, on programs similar to the one I'm doing.  

As 2009 enters its twilight, it is time to make room.  

Room for possibility.  

Room for new beginnings.

And, yes, hopefully, room in my jeans.

A Letter to My Jeans...

Dear My Jeans,

It has recently come to my attention that you, My Jeans, no longer fit.

This in unacceptable.

Apparently while I was away participating in a 

cheese-cupcake-wine diet and wearing nothing but stretchy leggings you have taken it upon yourselves to conduct some sort of Voodoo which has rendered all of you one size smaller.

Again...unacceptable.

Now, being that I am a forgiving (and financially conservative) individual, I will NOT be replacing you with a new team of jeans.  I will give you one month to get your act together.

While I am away eating fruit, veggies and exercising an hour a day, I expect all of you to do whatever it takes to remedy this unfortunate situation.

You have 30 days.

Use them wisely.

Sincerely,

Jen D.

Gone Veggin'

"In between goals is a thing called life that has to be lived and enjoyed."

-Sid Caesar

Time for a break.  

Be back soon! 

Day 30

"Today was good.  Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one."

-Dr Seuss

Well, here it is. 

Day 30.

30 days of having fun.

I received a fair amount of heckling from this challenge. 

When you say you are going to set out to make yourself have fun, all of a sudden people want you doing body shots off of strangers in Tijuana.

But to me this challenge wasn't about doing things that are supposed to be fun.

It was about discovering what I think is fun and trying to bring more of that into my life.

So often, we categorize things as "fun" based on our habits or on other peoples opinions.

We pre-judge whether or not we like something based on our past experience of it, rather than on our actual present moment experience of it.

I remember a couple of years ago I was waiting tables at a cafe and the owner's daughter, who was about 7 at the time, came in to visit.

She took a liking to me and started following me around while I was working. 

She started asking if she could take the orders, if she could punch them into the computer, if she could bring bread to the table.

I was like, "Uh...sure, kid.  Knock yourself out."

As I watched her running around full of joy and light, I was about to set her straight.

I was going to tell her, even though it seemed like she was having fun, she was most certainly NOT having fun because waiting tables was categorically an UN-FUN activity.

Then that struck me as a ridiculous thing to do.  

I was going to tell this little girl to stop having fun because I had decided, many years ago, it was NOT fun and therefore that decision overrode her actual life experience.

I think in life, for organizational purposes,  we decide ahead of time what we think will be fun or not fun.

But, often, this not the case.  

I've been on splendid vacations and been miserable, and I've been food shopping and had the time of my life.

The experience of whether or not things are fun seldom has to do with the activity itself.

So, here on Day 30, this is what I've learned from my fun challenge....

Ready???

You cannot make yourself have fun.

You can only make yourself be fun.

And if you make yourself be fun, you will attract fun.

Because we do not attract what we want....

We attract who we are.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Yoda.

May your days be filled with Fun.

-♥ Jen D.

Day 29

Fun...a Haiku

part 2

Summer almost done

Day off today for one

So I shop for shoes