Meatless May!

It's almost a new month (May), which means it's time for a new challenge!

I believe in challenging myself as often as possible, often for extended periods of time. Today, for example, I did not blow dry my hair in the morning. I recently gave up chocolate for 40 days and 40 nights (this happened to coincide with Lent, but was not specifically for Lent). Last summer I tried to wear a dress every single day that it was feasible (not raining, warm weather outside, you know).

I think you can see from these three photos that I successfully accomplished that challenge.

I believe my latest personal challenge will be to give up meat for the month of May. I'm not a big meat eater and I already take vegetarian options quite often so it won't be incredibly hard. I'm also considering POSSIBLY giving up dairy for May, which would be quite likely the hardest thing I could imagine. As you know, I'm an avid cereal consumer, and I also love yogurt, frozen yogurt, cheese, etc. I know there are non-dairy options for all of these things, but relaxing with a glass of almond milk just isn't the same as skim. I recently saw the documentary Food Inc. which has definitely influenced this challenge idea. We'll see if I have the willpower for it.

My other challenge for May is to learn how to do a kip-up. After closely observing Buffy's fighting techniques in my nightly character studies, I noticed that she often does a move where she is on her back on the ground and propels her body upwards by swinging her legs forward. Sounds confusing, huh? I didn't think it would be so hard to discover the name for this move until my gfs and I tried to research it online.

We combined vague key words in attempts to describe the move and received equally vague Google image results. Check out some of the more helpful results we found:

"Buffy swing up move"

"Buffy fighting ground kick"

*Note--I'm totally naming my next dog/cat Buffy.

"Lie on ground and flip up move"

*Note: this will hopefully be the only time Sarah Palin will be featured on my blog.

Finally we wised up and discovered that this particular move is called a "kip-up." If you're still confused, watch this video to see how to do a kip-up.

You can find other kip-up videos, but I liked this guy the best.
I admire his ambition, especially when attempting the no-handed kip-up, which he hasn't quite mastered yet. I will look to him for inspiration this month.

While researching "Buffy kip-up" videos on YouTube, we also discovered this fun gem. This British guy does kip-ups too, but he calls them "the Buffy flip." I might like him more.

My favorite part is when he reenacts Buffy being stabbed and falling to the ground.
And then he stands up and does it one more time for good measure. If I met this guy, I would instantly offer him whatever role he wanted in my Buffy episode, no audition needed.

So there you have it: my challenges for May. I'll keep you updated on the meat (and possibly dairy) free month.

If I master the kip-up, I will post a video of me doing one at the end of the month. If I don't, I will pretend I never said anything about it.

Is anyone else up for a fun challenge in May, like giving up smoking, opening your own business or learning Ancient Greek? I invite you all, at the very least, to join me on my kip-up challenge. What better way to start summer than by lying on our backs and using our feet and core strength to propel us upwards to a standing position and surprise our enemies!