Crazy Sexy Vitality

It's high time I write that "New Year, New Beginnings" post that I have been shamefully avoiding for the past four or five days. I usually avoid this topic of writing/conversation because up until this past year, I didn't believe in resolutions.
I still don't, really, but I do believe in change, and that's what I'm writing about today.

I'm starting a new life tradition (and we all know how much I love tradition) for 2011, a theme.
2011 is a brand new start for some of us, a chance to heal and grow and change our own lives for the better. Well, in order to carry these aspirations out to our fullest potential, we need an anthem, don't we?
A theme, a banner, a constant reminder of what it is we're searching for in the new year.
This year, this blessing of 2011, I have newly christened "The Year of Vitality". That is what I'm looking for out of the next 12 months. My journey to vibrant, healthy, exciting, gratifying wellbeing. Vitality. This new year is all about living life the way it should be lived.

These are a few of the accomplishments I'd like to make in 2011:

• I will read my devotional Bible every morning.
• I will read leisurely for an hour every single day.
• I will take walks as often as I possibly can, no matter the weather.
• I will stop relying on coffee, black tea, caffeine and other unhealthy vices to get me through the day.
• I will stop taking my sleeping pills.
• I will run at least one 5K.
• I will stick as prominently as I can to my new diet regime: The Crazy Sexy Diet.
• I will do yoga 5 times a week, instead of 2-3 times.
• I will take a bellydancing class.
• I will write a little bit every day.
• I will spend more time balancing my checkbook.
• I will spend more time caring for my environment.
• I will, to the best of my ability and resources, buy organic.
• I will laugh more.
• I will embark on a 3 week body cleanse.
• I will carry with me more childlike innocence, and see everyday occurances as if they were once in a lifetime miracles.
• I will do what I can when I can to help others.
• I will give thanks every day for all that has been given to me.
• I will sparkle.

Goodness knows I will fail on some of these and give up on others, that's basic human nature, but I am determined to do what I can to pursue and attain most of these changes.
I've also decided to blog my way through most of these activities. What better way to stick with something than to have countability to it? What better way to stick to eating 60% veggies and 40% animal products than to blog my woes, failures, successes and excitements? Julie Powell did it as she cooked her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and I can do it as I dance, run, laugh, eat and write my way through 2011.

So.
Here it is, the blessing of 2011. The year of Vitality.

I've already kicked it off into high gear with a new health book I picked up yesterday called "The Crazy Sexy Diet".
Written by an ex-pill-popping-wine-guzzling- actress- turned-cancer-patient-turned-health-guru, it's a simple and glorious entryway into a healthier wellbeing.
Technically it's a vegetarian diet (even vegan if you're super diehard) but fear not, fellow meat ingestors! I couldn't ever actually live a life without bacon. Instead, I'm going the "not actually vegetarian" route. The diet is designed for people who are looking for a new alternative to life as opposed to the constant, standardized American diet drudgery, or for people who are fighting off chronic illnesses and this is their last chance to give their bodies a reason to heal.

The ultimate goal is to consume 80% vegetable products, and 20% animal products in your everyday diet.
But the suggested starting point is 60/40. I kind of like meat and cheese and milk to much to drastically reduce my intake of them to 20%, but I'm going to give it a shot for 40%. Maybe even someday, down to 30%. I have to be careful though, because my blood type needs meat to function at its best.

I'm halfway through reading the book already, and I absolutely love it. I can't wait to start drinking my green smoothies, and trying exciting new flavors like hemp milk, kale, stevia and agave juice. The recipes in the back of the book look super delicious, and the names are fabulous. The fresh salad I made to day was called, "Woodstock Peace Salad". It kind of makes sacrificing most simple carbs, fatty meats and dairy products worth it, in my opinion!

This is going to be a great year. The opportunities are going to be endless, and on this journey to self-rejuvenation and finding ultimate vitality, I think I'm going to learn valuable life lessons. Life lessons which I will invariably share with you, of course.
Here's to the new year!

Cheers.