I did a piece a week or so ago about all my plans to try to stay healthy over the holidays. Well, the best laid plans. I am doing most of them but never did get registered for the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge. Then, I came across a post on Lindsay’s site about a new challenge – Elf for Health. This program fits with everything I love about this time of year: health, helping and holidays. I immediately filled out the form and signed up.

Yesterday’s challenge was easy for me. It was meatless Monday. This particular challenge has been going around the internet for some time but I have been meatless (I did have a very small piece of turkey on Thanksgiving) since February and this is my second stint at vegetarianism in my life (college was try one – the union disliked my asking for a cheese, lettuce and tomato as opposed to a BLT). I planned on using a spaghetti squash I had bought the week before and loved the dinner.

Tuesday’s – that’s today – challenge is to send a card or handwritten note to a friend. While I will be sending out holiday cards, I am not quite ready for that yet. I will be getting a note out in the mail today, though. I love to write and handwritten is extra special.

Wednesday’s challenge will probably be hardest for me. It is try a new workout. I have a meeting at 4:15 on Wednesday. I am participating the Runner’s World Run Streak – at least a mile a day between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. I need to find a workout to try. Yoga maybe?

Thursday’s challenge is to get up 15 minutes early and meditate. I have been not setting an alarm since my youngest left for college. I will set an alarm and get up and meditate on Thursday. This will be a good thing for me prior to the start of Advent as I have an Advent book to read and it has daily readings.

Friday’s challenge is to see how many colors you can eat. I am going to look, this week, for a photo combining program other than GIMP – what I currently use to do editing. Hopefully, I will be able to stitch together a photo of all the colors I eat Friday.

The weekend challenge is to clean out the closet. As a family, we have been doing this as major events hit – leaving for college, starting job, new season. Unfortunately, I have bags sitting around waiting to go to Goodwill. This weekend we will double check the closets and we will get them to the store.

On top of these challenges, each person has an elf. My elf and I have been emailing back and forth. We have talked about health, eating, running. I am loving having a chatty email in the inbox. I am also loving how to share the different daily challenges with my elf.