December Sanity Challenge

‘Twas the night after Thanksgiving…and I realized that I had already bought more than I needed, committed more than I intended, and slept less than I wanted.  And it wasn’t even December yet!  So it dawned on me—how about a December Sanity Challenge?  Surely I wasn’t the only one who easily gets swept away in the craziness.

Here’s my confession: I love making candy.  Always have.  I mean, really love it.  Fudge, pralines, chocolate covered orange slices, brittle…you name it.  Yes, I’m a Registered Dietitian, most of it I can’t even eat because of my allergies and intolerances, but that hasn’t stop me from making batch after batch!   Perhaps I owned a bakery in a past life and was used to making food for an army?  I totally get carried away with it and take a fun activity and push it to excess, and that takes so much of the joy out of it, even if it’s just once a year.  I fully believe I can balance my desire (and love) of giving with my need for self-care, even if that means a little moderation.  I’ll be posting more on how I plan to reign in my inner over-baker.

Pictured to the left is the great Zen Master Houdini and Mr. Dude.  Happy Hou, clearly, does not need a sanity challenge.  However, we humans usually do.

So here’s the scoop on the December Sanity Challenge.  It can be on whatever YOU need to work on to stay sane during the holiday season:

1. Balancing commitments to others with commitments to yourself
2. Getting in physical activity
3. Creating a happy balance around food
4. Getting enough sleep!
5. Making wise financial choices
6. Focusing more on living beings than material “stuff”
7. Whatever else speaks to you along these lines

The challenge—post on what you plan to do to make your holidays sane, happy and healthy.  Make it specific!  Not just “I’ll get more sleep”, but “I’ll get at least 7 hours of sleep, 5 days a week”.  Not just “I won’t go crazy making desserts”, but “I’ll make a maximum of XX desserts, and space them out over XX time”.  You know what you need to do to keep this doable, and writing it down will help you get there!

As a little added incentive, for each post on your intentions and your progress you link back here or one of the other co-hosts, you’ll be entered to receive a $50 gift certificate to Nutsonline.com  (they are not sponsoring, I just wanted something with healthy gluten-free, vegan, sugar-free, etc. options)

And so I asked some of my favorite peeps around the web to join me in hosting a December Sanity Challenge, and here’s our line up:

• Dec 1st Cheryl of Gluten Free Goodness (me)
• Dec 8th Iris of the Daily Dietribe
• Dec 15th Valerie of City Life Eats
• Dec 22nd Carrie of Ginger Lemon Girl

I hope you choose to join us, too.  Grab a badge (many thanks to Valerie!)and we’re good to go!

• My Sanity goals
• Week 1 update
• Week 2 update