Guest Post from Brett Minor!

This week's post comes from the wonderful writer, Brett Minor, who is probably minor to none in his world. He's certainly important to me. Visit his blog at The Transformed NonConformist.

I was so excited when I heard that I had won the Pish Posh Challenge this time around. The last time Pish did this challenge, I was on the road during the time to write the follow up post and didn't get to submit on time. However, since I had failed miserably, I really didn't feel like showing my face yet.

When she offered the challenge up again, I was determined to suck less this time. This is specifically why I stayed away from any type of fitness goal. Don't get me wrong; I could stand to get in shape as much as anyone else, but I rarely meet my goals in this arena. In fact, I rarely made it to the arena at all until I got a miniature chocolate one to keep in my fridge. I start out strong, but soon plateau and then get frustrated. I get going just fast enough that it really hurts when I hit that wall. Plus, it's not like my goals are really that aggressive anyway. I'm not trying to get to the point that I would be comfortable with mirrors in my bedroom, but I would like to be able to disrobe without getting winded. I am tired of having to pre-plan my routine to best use gravity to my advantage.

Available on Amazon for $2.99

Since a fitness or even healthy eating goal would end in abject failure, I decided to keep those Girl Scout cookies goals to myself and work on them without the blogging world watching me crash and burn. After much thought and Twinkies, my mind wandered to my blog and the book Pish Posh published that myself and 15 other bloggers contributed to. I love blogging and really wanted to stretch myself as a writer. I love the fact that there is a book out there with my writings in it and want to see another one. Eventually, I would even like to write one myself. I decided to set a writing goal forcing me to write more often. I challenged myself to post at least five times a week for the eight weeks of the challenge.

It was tough, but I did it. I never missed a day. I owe part of my success to the fact that I could meet this challenge while sitting on my butt in front of the TV eating frozen pizza and Doritos. Despite those conveniences, writing that often still had it's challenges.

I typically write two or three times a week, so this was a step up. Writing almost every day poses the challenge of coming up with things to write about. While I do have an uncanny tendency to get myself into situations that are ripe for blog fodder, I do not have those experiences everyday. This means I have to write more opinion pieces, observational posts or pull stories from my past.

This often encountered dilemma is one of the reasons I envy certain bloggers like Pish Posh. She shares a quality with several other bloggers that I do not have. Nellie Vaughn of Buttons Are Not Currency, Red of Doesn't Speak Klingon, Misty of Misty's Laws, and Lily of Incoherent Ramblings of a Moose all have something in common besides boobs.

No one knows who these women are!

(Note: I am not trying to downplay these womens' boobs. I am sure they are lovely. I like boobs. I'm actually a big fan, but they're not really part of the point I am trying to make here. Maybe I'll come back to them later.) 

They get to tell their stories behind the curtain of anonymity. That is a luxury I do not have. I call it a luxury because it opens up so many more possibilities to a blogger that I had not considered when I first started. These women can say anything they want.

Yes, that's me.
LOOK AT ME!!!

I must admit that I enjoy being recognized for the things I do. I love seeing my face on TV. I jump at the chance to be on the radio. I enjoy hearing my name mentioned by other people. I get a high out of running into people on the street who comment on my latest blog post. I can easily admit that I am an attention whore. However, a year after I started, the vast majority of my readers were no longer people that I knew personally. As I started to explore what I could do with my writing, I had to continue to keep in mind that my mother reads what I write. My kids see it, as do many of the people at my church.

It's not that I want to write anything vastly inappropriate or dark, but sometimes I have thoughts that I choose not to share since I rub shoulders with some of the people who read my words. I have told many stories from my past, but I heavily edit them. I may mention that alcohol was involved with a decision, but I keep most of the juicier details to myself and pray that anyone who was there doesn't choose to tell the rest of the story in the comments.

Everyone understands that people have pasts, but I work in a homeless shelter, I actively volunteer with youth, and I am a substitute teacher. It would come back to bite me sooner or later if I started sharing about the time I was so drunk I woke up three states away or when I planted marijuana on the baseball field at school. Some of those stories will have to only whispered quietly behind closed doors.

In the meantime, I will tell my little stories. At least, the parts that I feel I can comfortably share without repercussions. Pish, thank you so much for this opportunity and enjoy your veil of secrecy while the rest of us expose ourselves on a daily basis.

Oh, I almost forgot...BOOBIES!

I can say that because I am not on my blog.

8 Week Challenge Winner

Well! Can you honestly say that in any other contest your host will flip out, fight for animal justice, and then accidentally post pics of nudists? I think not! Pish Posh is special! oh yeah...

As you probably know, this 8 Week Challenge has been a challenge for me. I did what I said I would - stopped drinking beer, worked out harder, and stopped eating cheese. I replaced the beer and cheese with wine and exercise because I'm a flawed, flawed woman. But guess what? In the past 8 weeks I've worked out harder, cut out fats, learned some new recipes, and been inspired.

Unfortunately, while struggling to take care of my mentally disabled mother, I've also lost my career, my partner, my home, my car, and, this past weekend, and worst of all by a million degrees, lost my best friend, my kitty Symba. It was a painful, awful, sad few weeks.

Those of you that were lucky to know Symba in real life know that he was an exceptional, special being. I'm not kidding. He was a three legged angel.

Always with a good nature, always willing to share some kisses, and no matter what he encountered and survived through - including abuse, neglect, tornadoes, german sheperds, amputation, and cross-country travel, in the end the cancer took him, but his tail was wagging when he went. So he's a winner to me.

It's been a rough few weeks. Thank you for bearing with me. I just thought we were going to give up some bad habits. I didn't know my life would completely change.

I challenged each of you to replace one bad habit with one good habit. And you did! Mostly! In a kind of sorta human and wonderful way!

We have a winner!!

Brett Minor at the Transformed Non Conformist.

Brett is such a good guy. To know him is to think fondly of him. He's a good at whatever he tries to do - a writer, a prankster, a father, a friend. He's even a preacher.  I highly recommend you check him out. And that says a lot, coming from an atheist.

Brett challenged himself to write every day, and he did. And these were funny posts people, funny posts. Brett's writing is always honest, reflective, and funny.

The rest of you touched my hearts too, all of you who joined in, and even those of you who quietly dropped away - whether you are a lunch-lady, a smoking skater, a tractor driving farmer, a single mom of a boy with special needs, a mom with a big heart but low self esteem, a kind Canadian, another kind Canadian, a kind Canadian with a hole in her butt, a champion vegan, a special flower, one who faces the sun, a writer with a new pup who has endured plenty of pain you wouldn't know from her friendly demeanor and funny hats, to so many more of you - please, if there is one thing you learned from this let it be this: be nicer to yourself.

Whether it means giving yourself better habits, talking more nicely to yourself, carving out time just for yourself, releasing your frustrating, or just allowing yourself to be human, just keep going. You can get there. You can do this.

Congratulations all of you - and thank you!

Happy Halloween! and Voting! on the 8 Week Challenge

I'm so grateful for all your friendship, kindness, and support. This past 8 weeks has been pretty hard for me, for reasons totally outside the challenge. And it still is. This week in particular. Thanks for caring and for putting up with me. I know better days will be ahead. They've got to be.
I originally started the challenge thinking about rust, and how things change over time, fall apart, and fade away. God knows I couldn't have foreseen what would happen. Or the loss I'm dealing with right now.

 

So my challenge was lighthearted - to give up cheese and beer, and with the exception of a microbrew or two in portland, I did!  But on some level it was deeper too: to try to change the way I dealt with grief. I guess the universe decided to make that challenge authentic.

I am SO proud of all of you, and so grateful too. You guys honestly kicked ass, through good times and bad. It doesn't matter what's on the scale. You made new connections, you tried, you learned new habits, and you focused on the best and the beautiful in yourselves and each other and that's what I really wanted :)

Last week I challenged you to go vegan for a day, hoping that you'd try something new. I'd love to hear about your attempts if you tried. There's too much cruelty to animals in the world, so much we close our eyes to, so much we joke about and take for granted, and so much we just care not to see. For the animals, for the environment, for our personal health, a little less meat or no meat, every little bit counts.

If you're interested in that sort of thing, you might check my Pinterest board, or even a few good Vegan and Vegetarian "apps" they have available on how to make the transition one step at a time.

Mostly I want you to take care of yourselves, inside and out. Whether its quitting smoking, finding time for writing, or tightening your body while being a writer. Whether its struggling with crops, being a single mother, dealing with change,loneliness,  an insane family, or just low self esteem. You guys are wonderful. You deserve the best. You need to be kinder to yourselves and take better care.

So now link up your final post - summarize the bad habits you gave up, and the good ones you replaced them with. What are you going to work on for the rest of the year?

Halloween is Here!
My favorite day of the year and the only holiday I like!

 

 This week's link up and voting will begin on Friday and end this Sunday and I'll announce the winner next Monday. Good luck!

Winners & More Winners
Winners receive a free copy of our new book All Cracked Up, a guest post on this blog, and a special item from my Pish Posh store.

Once again I'd like to thank Angie at Strosgirl Designs for making our button :) Check her out.

Copy and paste the code below to add my button to your blog.

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Thank you all!