Today I begin the third and final week of my 9 foods experiment, inspired by Jen Hatmaker's book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess.

Since I'm two-thirds of the way to the finish line, I should be thinking, "Oh, I got this." But I'm not.

The first week was tough, but not nearly as tough as I thought it would be, once my sugar withdrawal headaches subsided. Then I foolishly stepped inside a Chick Fil-A.

It was the Saturday of week one of the experiment. I attended a storytelling night at one of my favorite local coffee shops Urban Standard. There I managed to resist ordering hot chocolate and didn't even glance at the shop's famous cupcakes.

But after the event my cousin and I were hungry. I suggested Chick Fil-A because I knew I could have a char-grilled chicken sandwich without breaking my fast, as long as I removed the tomato and pickles. But I hadn't considered how weak my willpower would become as the scent of waffle fries began wafting toward my nose. So I ordered the char-grilled chicken sandwich combo (not just the sandwich) with a lemonade (which was also a violation of my fast).

I can't blame this on Chick Fil-A for tempting me with their tasty tubers. This was all my fault.

But something strange happened: I nearly ate my entire sandwich without touching the fries. And I realized I didn't really want them anymore. I ate about five fries anyway only to justify spending the money on them and I didn't enjoy them at all. Nor was I tempted by the ice cream cones being enjoyed by the kids at the table across from mine.

In just one week, my appetite had changed.

And with just five waffle fries I ruined my progress.

My slip-up on Saturday set a bad tone for week two. I felt frustrated and kept referring to my experiment as "THIS STUPID FAST!" My pal Erin kept telling me, "It's not stupid," but I just wasn't convinced.

The purpose of a fast is to give up something so you can focus more on God. And I haven't done this as much as I had hoped because I've been so busy. This experiment has shown me that the thing I probably need to streamline most of all is not my diet, but my day. I need to streamline my schedule.

This experiment has also taught me the value of forming healthy habits. My appetite began to change in just one week. Think of how our lives could change if we applied that to other areas. If you begin to exercise regularly, suddenly your body just won't tolerate being sedentary. If you begin to write regularly your mind just won't put up with writer's block. And if you begin to do something loving and kind for yourself and for someone else every day, your heart just won't have room for jealousy and hate.

I don't know what the third week of this experiment will bring, but if I can hold on to these thoughts after my fast ends then I will know it was worth it. I will know it wasn't stupid after all.


Cross-posted at Streamlined Birmingham

Next month See Jane Write will host its second big event of the year -- Tweets & Sweets: A See Jane Write Tweet-Up. This event will be held Friday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. at The Wine Loft, 2200 1st Ave. North in Birmingham. The evening will feature drink specials and sweet treats from Birmingham-area shops and bakeries.

This event is also a birthday for me! So even if you're not a writer or blogger, come on out and help an old lady celebrate her special day. 

In lieu of birthday gifts, please consider bringing a cash donation to See Jane Write. 

If you think you can make, please click here to RSVP or if you're not on Facebook just let me know in the comments section of this post that you'll be there.

And here are three reason you should be there:

1. You love networking. Well, maybe you don't love networking, but you're smart enough to know it's an important thing to do. If you're a writer Tweets & Sweets will give you the chance to meet and mingle with other writers in Birmingham, some of whom you may have only previously chatted with on Twitter. Maybe you'll meet your future writing partner -- someone you can meet occasionally for writing sessions, someone to hold you accountable for writing regularly, and someone to critique your work. If you're not a writer, here's your chance to introduce yourself to people who are. Tell them about the big project you're working on and maybe you'll be the topic of their next blog post or news feature story. In other words, don't forget to bring your business cards!
2. You love cake. It's the beginning of the year, so you're probably on a diet. You're trying to lose weight and get in shape. I am too. But it's my party, I'll eat cake if I want to. And I give you permission to do the same. We can go running together the next day to burn off those calories. 
3. You love me! Okay, there's a chance you have no idea who I am and this is your first time ever visiting this blog, but hear me out. As I mentioned before, this event is also my birthday party and I'd love to celebrate my special day with anyone who takes the time to read my rants.  

Hope to see you on Feb. 8!

xo,

javacia a.k.a. writeous babe

PS -- If you're not in Birmingham, consider hosting an event like this in your own town. Remember, today's task for 31 Days to a Better Blog is to "Organize an event for bloggers in your area." So get to it, and let me know how it turns out. 

When it comes to Twitter I am not a member of #TeamFollowBack. For those of you not hip to Twitter lingo, let me explain. If a person follows me on Twitter I am not going to automatically follow him or her in return. 

I hope that doesn't make me sound like a snob, but I take my Twitter timeline seriously. If you don't have a picture or a bio I will not follow you, unless I know you personally. I need a picture to show me you're not a robot and I need a biography to get an idea of what your tweets will most likely be about. I want to see that we have something in common. 

And I suggest you be just as picky. 

Today's task for 31 Days to a Better Blog is to "cut ties with some of your tweeps to streamline your Twitter experience."

Try to maintain a 1:1 ratio on Twitter, meaning you should follow approximately the same number of people who follow you. This shows you're actually thoughtful about the people you follow. Streamlining your Twitter experience will make room for new connections and keep you from missing great content. 

Here are three things you can do: 

• Stop following folks who haven't posted in over two months. (Try UnTweeps for help.) 
• Stop following people who never followed you back (unless they're a big shot whose tweets you love to read). 
• If you can't remember why you followed someone in the first place and their tweets cause you to strain your eye-rolling muscles, it's probably time to unfollow. 

Bonus: Follow me at @writeousbabe. :) 

Happy tweeting!

Image by Erin Kohlenberg via Flickr/Creative Commons

Yesterday my pal Tanya shared a very interesting article with the members of the See Jane Write Facebook group. In this article found on Study Hacks, a website about "decoding the patterns of success," the author argues that "Write every day" is bad advice and uses psychology to support his argument. He suggests that when you resolve to write every day you're setting yourself up for failure. Unless you're a full-time writer, life will get in the way and you will inevitably slip up. And once your plan to write every day fails your motivation for your work-in-progress will be negatively affected and the project you're working on will never get finished. 

While the argument presented in this article is quite impressive and sound, I still want to write daily. Ironically, it was my exercise regimen that taught me the value of writing daily. 

On Dec. 19 I resolved to try to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day every day. I kept this up for about three weeks, but last week I slipped up because I got busy with preparing for a See Jane Write event. So this Study Hacks guy is certainly right about that. When we resolve to do something daily we will almost always slip up. But something else happened. By working out daily those few weeks, exercise became an essential part of my everyday life. Those days I didn't exercise my body felt weird, something felt wrong. It was as if I hadn't brushed my teeth or forgot to put on deodorant. 

And so the slip up did not make me give up on my goal to lose weight and get more fit, it made me more determined. That weird icky feeling I had when I skipped my workout made me want to jump back on the bandwagon, which I did this week. 

I want to write daily because I want to have the same attitude about my craft, my art. I want writing to be as essential to my day as brushing my teeth. 

Furthermore, it was actually easier and more fun to work out daily instead of going to the gym 3 or 4 times a week. And I think this is because I did something that was actually advised in the Study Hacks article. The author of the post explains:

When I’m working on a book, I instead approach each week as its own scheduling challenge. I work with the reality of my life that week to squeeze in as much writing as I can get away with, in the most practical manner. 

This is what I did with my workouts. Instead of telling myself I would go to this aerobics class on Wednesdays, that weightlifting class on Saturdays, and run 5 miles every other day, I looked at my week and figured out what I could realistically squeeze into each day. Sometimes I played Just Dance on my Wii. Sometimes I lifted free weights at home. Sometimes I ran. And sometimes I went to the gym to a group fitness class. 

And I think I can use this same method in my quest to write daily, instead of resolving to write for an hour every morning before work (because that ain't happening). 

And so I still believe "Write every day" is good advice. What about you? 

Recently my sweet friends Jennifer, Sherri, and Tanya gave me the Inspiring Blog award. This really meant a lot to me because they all write blogs that inspire me to be fit, to be happy, and to live my best life. They are also members of See Jane Write and thus a part of something in my life that started out as a project but over time has become my purpose. 

To give back to the blogging community, receipt of this award comes with the following tasks:

• Display the award image on your blog.
• Link back to the person who nominated you.
• State 7 things about yourself.
• Nominate 15 other bloggers and link to their sites.
• Notify the bloggers that they have been nominated and link to the post.

So here we go...

7 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me...Until Now

1. As a child I was afraid of Bruce Springsteen's voice, the gorilla at Showbiz, and the Michael Jackson Thriller poster my parents bought for me but had to stash in a bottom drawer until I conquered my fear.  

2. Thanks to my husband, I could probably win first place in a wrestling trivia game. 

3. I have the telephone number of 90s R&B star Ginuwine in my cell phone. 

4. In 2009 I had a 30-minute phone conversation with Jamie Foxx. To this day it's the best interview I've ever done and I still have it saved on my voice recorder. 

5. When I want my hair straightened and/or cut I drive all the way to Montgomery to the only person I trust with my curly coif. 

6. And speaking of my hair, it's most likely because of my tresses that I get asked every other week what island I'm from. Sigh.

7. My name has been legally changed four times. Seriously. 

And now...

15 Inspirational Blogs

1. The Very Worst Missionary
2. Stellar Fashion and Fitness 
3. All In Stride 
4. You Got Rossed 
5. E is for Erin 
6. Goins Writer
7. Britni Danielle
8. Redbone Afropuff
9. Writability
10. Jamie's Rabbits
11. Pink of Perfection
12. A Place to Dwell 
13. Sometimes Sweet
14. Write, Clair, write!
15. Evette Dionne

Today’s task for 31 Days to a Better Blog is to recommit to being more engaging on Facebook and Twitter.
 

Treat Twitter and Facebook like a cocktail party – that’s the best advice I’ve ever read about the proper way to engage your audience and build your brand via social media.

Remember that you’re trying to have a conversation with people and that you want those people to find you interesting.

Post regularly (several times a day), but don’t ramble. Be intentional about what you post. Obviously, you should use Facebook and Twitter to share your blog posts. Also post tweets and status updates that are informative, inspiring, helpful or humorous. Don’t bore your readers with every detail of your life and don’t use social media as a place to rant about how much you hate your job, your neighbor, or your husband. Save that for your therapist.

Get personal. While you shouldn’t use social media as free therapy, don’t be afraid to show your personality. Share posts about fun, funny, or exciting things going on in your day. You don’t want to be all business all the time.

Stay on topic. The people who follow you on Twitter do so for a reason, so make sure you deliver. For example,  people tend to follow me because they’re interested in writing or blogging, feminism, fitness, or faith. There are also several fellow Birmingham residents who follow me. So I try to tweet about those topics and about things going on in my city. 

Remember you’re not the center of the twitterverse. Make sure your tweets and Facebook posts aren’t all about you all the time. This is like having a friend who only wants to talk about herself. Use your social media channels to promote other bloggers and writers as well. Retweet and share intriguing posts by others. Compliment and thank people for sharing something insightful.

Ask questions. You don’t want to spend your time on Twitter and Facebook talking to yourself, do you?  Social media outlets are meant to spark a conversation, so ask questions to show your readers you care what they think too.

And to lead by example…

What are your Facebook and Twitter rules of engagement?

BlogHer '08 Conference
Photo by Wendy Piersall via Flickr/Creative Commons

Today's task for 31 Days to a Better Blog is to sign up for a blogging class or conference. 

If you live in Birmingham, I have just the thing for you. Tomorrow evening See Jane Write will host the panel discussion Blogging and the Future of Community Journalism. 

At this free event you can learn how to use your blog to cover communities and topics you feel don't get adequate attention from mainstream media. You'll also learn how to make your blog stand out from other local websites and find out how you can work with journalists and even get respected as a journalist yourself. 

Our panelists include: 

• Staci Brown Brooks, Community News Director for the Birmingham Hub of  Alabama Media Group
• Emily Lowrey, founder of Magic City Post, a web publication that offers a daily posts on the Birmingham metro area and shows off the best the region has to offer.
• Andre Natta, founder of The Terminal, a critically acclaimed web publication about Birmingham.
• Erin Shaw Street, travel editor for Southern Living magazine and editorial content manager for the magazine's social media including its blog, The Daily South 

The panel discussion will be moderated by Edward T. Bowser, who is a community engagement specialist for the Birmingham Hub of Alabama Media Group, author of the blog Soul In Stereo, and my hubster!

Click here for information on time, location, and how to register. 

But that's enough shameless self-promotion. Here are a few blogging conferences you should check out: 

FoodBlogSouth

Independent Fashion Bloggers Conference

BlissDom

Blogging While Brown

BlogHer '13

What conferences are you going to this year?