I spent my weekend coughing, wheezing and sleeping. The bug that has been going around finally bit me. But as I lay in bed, I decided that rather than being angry, frustrated and whiney about being sick I would take it as an opportunity to slow down and really look at why my body couldn't fight off this illness.

   I considered the What-A-Burger/McDonald's diet that has left my body feeling hungry. I remembered the hours I spent lounging in front of the television instead of outside or at the gym, and the nights I preferred to stay up reading instead of listening to my body's need for sleep. I realized that my sickness was my body's way of telling me that it wasn't happy with many of the decisions I've made and that it wanted me to make some lifestyle changes.

 Then I remembered Steve Pavlina's blog posting called 30 Days to Success. In it he said that anyone can do something for 30 days - provided that they are not stuck with the decision or change she has made for a lifetime. 

"Let's say you want to start a new habit like an exercise program or quit a bad habit like sucking on cancer sticks," he writes. "We all know that getting started and sticking with the new habit for a few weeks is the hard part. Once you've overcome inertia, it's much easier to keep going. Yet we often psyche ourselves out of getting started by mentally thinking about the change as something permanent - before we've even begun. It seems too overwhelming to think about making a big change and sticking with it every day for the rest of your life when you're still habituated to doing the opposite. The more you think about the change as something permanent, the more you stay put."

 His blog resonated with me. I am awesome at starting new things - diets, exercise programs, house cleaning, you name it. I am not so great at sticking with them; for me there is always a fear that I will be stuck with this new behavior for the rest of my life and that I won't be able to keep it up or will somehow fail. I think, though, that I can keep with some new changes in my life for 30 days and hopefully that will build momentum to see me through the next 30 days and then the next.

So for the next 30 days, I decided I will do an hour of exercise a day, and replace two meals with anti-oxidant rich homemade green smoothies.  My intention is that by the end of the "trial" period I will feel more energetic more fit, and more in tune with my body. Hopefully, my efforts will also decrease the likelihood of spending another weekend in bed.

I encourage other people to take their own 30 day challenge. I would love to hear what you are able to achieve in that time period. Please e-mail me with you goal for the next 30 days- and tell me in a few weeks how you achieved them.  I will happily put people's goals and their achievements online so they can inspire others to complete a 30 day challenge.

Paige Lauren Deiner covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4425.