A Year Of…

…okay, so are you sick of the “year of…” meme yet? (I asked back in November, but I’m asking again, okay?)

You know, all those blogs and books and people who do a year of strange experiments on themselves like a year living ‘Biblically’ or a year of local eating or a year with no plastic or no purchasing or whatever.

I’m not!

I kind of like these year-long experiments. It’s fun to see what antics people think up for themselves to try for a year.

And–you guessed it–I think I just may have a bit of an experiment that I’d like to try this year.

I want to try as many Christian faith-based diet and exercise programs as possible.

(But not for every day of this whole year–mercy, no!–I couldn’t do it. My family couldn’t take a year of Rachel eating joylessly. One day of that is potentially bad enough. And don’t worry–I don’t plan for this project to overtake the blog–I might post on this from time to time, but Eat With Joy.org will retain its distinctive eclecticism.)

Here’s where I need your help, though, with two things:

1. Help me make my list of diet and exercise programs!

I’m especially keen on finding residential programs/retreats that make some claim to Christian faith and that focus on diet or exercise.

I’ve already got the following DVDs:

Getting Fit With Faith (Walk at Home)

PraiseMoves

Stretch and Pray

Wholy Fit

and some books. I’d love to add some more titles to my list!

2. Help me find people!

One aspect of this project involves hearing the stories of people who’ve pursued faith-based diet and exercise programs in earnest (not merely as a part of an experiment, like I’m doing.) I want to hear these stories because I want to hear more about how people see faith-based dieting and exercising relating to their spiritual well-being–how they see flesh and spirit intersecting. Mostly I just want to hear what people who’ve done faith-based diet or exercise want to tell me!

Do you have a story? I’d love to hear it!

Leave a comment, or feel free to email me!