New Year, New You

I have set up a series of challenges for the New Year.  The way it works is that each month I will take on a challenge for that month.  At this point I have selected the challenges for the first six months.  They are as follows:

January:  2 hours a day/maximum recreational computer use
February: No coffee
March: Daily cleanup (15 minutes/minimum)
April: No meat
May: New recipe each day
June: Daily random act of kindness

I will post updates along the way.  I encourage you to try similar challenges even for just 30 days.  I welcome your comments on the challenge and also if you have simple recipes for May or ideas for random acts of kindness.  I put these down the list so that I would have time to gather recipes and ideas.

Here is the video where I lay it all out:

I'd also encourage you to view the video that inspired me to this challenge.  It is a 3 minute TED talk by Google's Matt Cutts on the 30 day challenge concept.

Best wishes for a great New Year!

The 4 Hour Chef?

Author Tim Ferriss announced today on his blog that his next book is coming out soon and it will be called "The 4 Hour Chef".  His first book shows you how to establish a carefully constructed business that can be run on only 4 hours of your time per week. Ferriss' next book "The Four Hour Body" shows you how to achieve and maintain optimal health in only 4 hours per month.  If I extrapolate based on the existing pattern this book will show you how to cook in only 4 hours per year!!! I don't know about this...  I know my Dad and many other people who don't even cook 4 hours per year yet consider themselves chefs.  I have personally been trying to spend more time in the kitchen, not less.  I am trying to do more stuff from scratch and relying less on restaurants and prepared foods.  That being said, I have read and enjoyed Tim Ferriss' other two books and will be sure to check out the new one as his books always have great tips that I can put to use right away.  On reflection, the model of this blog is somewhat similar to Tim Ferriss' approach of providing a wide range of useful ideas.  Much like TED Talks.  I should also note that I first discovered the author through his excellent TED Talk - How to Feel like the Incredible Hulk.

As far as the new book, I will provide an update after it comes out, but until then have a look at it on Amazon or at the author's website.  I'd be curious in the comments what you thought the 4 hours means - 4 hours a day, week, month or year?  I would love if I only worked 4 hours a week to spend 4 hours a day working out and 4 hours a day cooking and gardening...  One can dream.

As a special bonus if you promote the book you could win an Amazon Fire tablet - details on the author's website.