I will report updates every ten days as to what I am doing. I am not going on some radical 40 day diet. My plan is to spend the next 40 days focusing on improvement of my health. How? By doing the following:

• I have recently read about the benefits of a raw food diet. It makes a lot of sense. I will be reading up on the recommended foods and recipes. Starting today, I will focus on increasing my daily intake of fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Lowering my intake of carbs. I actually did this by following a modified Atkins diet a few years ago and had great results. I also felt great. This means saying no more often to pasta, bread, BEER, etc. Notice I said more often — which is to say I will not completely eliminate them.
• Continue saying no to sodas. I have been doing this for quite some time and feel it has been of benefit.
• Taking daily supplements to include a multi vitamin and other things that are said to be important for me such as flaxseed, fish oil, garlic, and others. I have never in my life been consistent with this so during this time I am going to really commit to these.
• Making juices with a VitaMix. When I feel like snacking (potato chips or candy bar) I am going to make fruit smoothies. I love these and I absolutely feel much better after drinking them than after having the other.
• Daily glasses of water and Bragg’s Apple Cider vinegar. If you listen to the hype on this stuff, I might live to be well over 100. While I don’t believe even half of it, I can tell you that I have experienced some positive results from it.
• Lastly, for the first time in my life I am going to try a colon blow —- I MEAN a colon cleanse. hahaha. Actually, I will be taking a product that promotes a healthy colon, naturally and promises that you do not have to have a commode within a few feet of you all day. I think I read that Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said that good health begins in the gut, all disease too. Based on the testimonials of this stuff could guarantee you coming back for an update. I promise this will be one area I will use constraint, no pun intended!

I’ll let you know how everything is coming out in my first report, ten days from now.

Today, April 8th, marks the first 40 days of this blog. I began on February 29th, titled Day One. I made a goal to begin with the commitment to post at least one entry every day for the first 40 days. This became the first 40 Day Challenge. I almost made it as I did miss one day.

Consistent posting is considered a must in blogging and I feel that starting in this manner has set a good precedent for the future. While there may be days that I go without posting, I am committed to consistency as well as developed topics. Posting in itself establishes the blog as a priority for me.

Some things of note. I am amazed that in just this short amount of time I have seen visitors from 18 countries covering 6 continents. Blogging is about developing relationship and conversation with readers and this medium’s reach is amazing. While not all are going to become readers, I hope that the blog will appeal to those from all points of the globe. I am looking forward to those future communications.

As to the theme and the nature of my posts, this continues to be an open question. I do want to share more stories of personal achievement and have some of those coming together. In looking over my categories, I’ve covered a gambit of things that I consider relevant in my world. I’ve been slow to write about my thoughts about turning 50 but this is an area I have many things to share. I have been encouraged with the interest in the reports of area attractions and will probably do more of those. I also want to develop the video stuff and that will be a work in progress — lots to learn there about editing etc.

40 days ago, I had come to a point where I just felt I needed to start. I needed to accept that there would not be a perfect time nor would everything be just right. I began. Next up, what I’ve learned regarding optimization, developing the participation, and going forward.

I am at 32 days since starting the blog and was trying to create the discipline and commitment of the blog by posting the first 40 days from its start. I’ll report later as to why I missed it last Friday.

I’ve been enjoying the apples. Fuji and Red Delicious are by far my favorites.

I even thought of not posting today as I have been very busy. There is no doubt that missing just that one day has made me start rationalizing excuses. So something is better than nothing and I will finish right. I had been meaning to update these anyway.

Since hiking Camelback Mountain I have also found myself cutting back with getting out to walk. I figure THAT hike was worth a months of walks. Not really. Less than a week later I went up Shaw Butte and cut over 10 minutes off my previous best time. By the way, I lost over 10 pounds that day hiking Camelback. Talk about dehydration!

A future 40 Day Challenge is going to be to exercise each day for 40. Never done it and it should be a good one.

A New Contest

I challenge you to try something beneficial to you for 40 days! Post your challenge here in the comments. Anything counts. You will have 80 days to start and complete your challenge. Here’s the good part. Everyone that participates and posts the results will be entered into a drawing for some fun prizes. I am thinking those up now.

Are you up to it?

The challenges themselves have a goal in mind with positive personal results in mind. For example, 40 Day challenge No. 1, to write one post a day and publish it for the first 40 days of this blog, is in its 13th day and so far so good. Yet I have caught myself numerous times ready to compromise, make an excuse, and skip just one day. I even have caught myself not only making the excuse, but thinking of the post I would publish with a reason I missed a day!!

This second challenge is about better nutrition. Diet, the stuff we eat not the act of losing weight, has been a topic and concern of mine for years. I’ve TALKED about it and TALKED more about it. This challenge is about focusing on real change. Thus, the eating of an apple a day!

I grew up hearing the adage, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. For that reason alone would make this a good reason to eat one. I found that the saying was attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Amazing that back then, there was little medical or nutritional knowledge to base that on, yet today’s research has confirmed that indeed, the apple has many healthy benefits. (I have always had an immediate good feeling after eating an apple! Especially the seeds. Anyone else confirm this?)

Consider the following:

1. Apples are a good source of Vitamin C. Vitamin C helps greatly helps your immune system.
2. Are rich in flavonoids. Flavonoids are also known for their antioxidant effects.
3. Low in calories. A regular size apple has between 70-100 calories. Eating an apple when wanting candy or chocolate can help make that desire lesson or disappear — this may seem like a serious detriment for some of you.
4. Another thing I’ve noticed is that my teeth and mouth seemed cleaner after eating one. I read that juice from the apple can kill up to 80% of the harmful bacteria that causes tooth decay. Meaning, an apple a day may also keep the DENTIST away. (smile)
5. Apples are rich in phytonutrients, and phytonutrients have been found to prevent neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
6. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
7. Oh, I remember what I was going to say, there was a university study showing that people who ate 5 apples or more per week had lower respiratory problems.

Like any goal, the challenge is structured to hold me accountable. They are written down, time sensitive, shared and meaningful. Today begins Challenge No. 2. As I have been working on this post, I have eaten my first apple. It was a Granny Smith. Pretty good! Proof?

According to BestApples.com, there are a number of different apples to choose from. Here’s some info with the year the type was introduced and from where:

• Red Delicious — 1874, Iowa. (Traditionally my favorite.)
• Golden Delicious — 1914, West Virginia
• Gala — 1965, New Zealand
• Fuji — 1962, Japan (Made in Japan)
• Granny Smith– 1868, Australia
• Braeburn — 1952, New Zealand

April 21st, 40 days, 40 apples later, and feelin’ good.

One of my goals for the blog is to help me seek and instill measures of discipline in daily routines that in some cases have never been done by me before. Achievement of anything worthwhile takes time, persistence, effort consistently over a period of time. I can look back and see where I have excelled when I have committed myself to various goals, endeavors, interests. I can also see past failures resulted from the complete lack of discipline, attention, effort, desire.

40 Day Challenges are going to be my way of setting some goals, some that might seem trivial to you, but in some ways are going to be things in the past I have never successfully completed to my satisfaction! And by successfully I mean consistently. Examples:

• Exercising – I have never shown a commitment past a few weeks before.
• Reading the Bible
• Learning a second language
• Eating right
• blogging
• remembering or relying on God is good times, not just bad
• there’s plenty more

In each of the above examples, I seemed to have had a surprising lack of focus, commitment, and concentration. Yet, I could work and did work 16+ hours a day for more than 18 months without a day off building a business. That continued for another 12 months with limited breaks before I had had all I could take.

Why is it that I have been unable to demonstrate discipline in something as easy as taking vitamins for more than a week or so? A year later I am throwing the bottle out, with the vitamins in it!

The 40 day challenges are going to be my mini-challenges to see if they will help break this spirit of giving up so easily. They are going to focus areas needing improvement in my life. My first challenge is to post one entry each day for the next 40 days straight. I started February 29th, so my 40th post will be on April 8th.

Alan, who writes the blog Affiliate Confessions, recently invited bloggers to take a 30 day challenge. He wrote, “So I’m challenging you right now to make a commitment to blog every day, no matter what it takes, for 30 days straight.”

He found the exercise had great results and benefits for the blog as well as him personally. He wrote, “One of the things that has helped me blog every day for this 30 day time is that I’m NOT thinking of posts as an essay or writing assignment, but rather I’m trying to have a conversation with you ...” That’s a perfect goal for any blogger, and I will keep this in mind as I write for the next six weeks and beyond.
I have chosen 40 to be my standard for these goals. Why 40? Significance. Think about this:

• Forty days and forty nights describes the period that rain fell during the flood
• Forty days was the length of the period that the twelve spies explored the Promised Land
• Forty years was the length of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness. This period of years represents a generation, the time it takes for a new generation to rise
• Moses’ life is divided into three 40-year segments
• Several Israelite leaders and kings are said to have ruled for “forty years”, that is, a generation … Eli, Saul, David, Solomon
• Forty days and forty nights was the period Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness before beginning his ministry

And maybe on a lighter note: (from Wikipedia)

• Life begins at 40!
• American football uses the 40 yard dash to measure speed
• most Americans’ work week is based on 40 hours
• Kasey Kasem had radio’s Top 40
• Interstate 40 is just north of me
• Food Network’s show $40-A-Day
• -40°F = -40°C — REALLY!

Seriously, I can not explain this number’s significance, but it evidently does indeed have importance or relevance. And on April 8th, 40 will be associated with my first 40 days of what I hope will be the start of a blog of future significance.