Lifestyle and fasting ideas for My Best 30 Ever

The Usuals:

1. Give up candy/sweets.
2. Give up television time.
3. Give up eating snacks between meals.
4. Give up or limit soda or coffee.
5. Give up or limit video games.
6. Spend more time with family.
7. Give to the poor. (Haiti would be a good one)
8. Do an extra chore each day.
9. Perform a random act of kindness.
10. Spend more time in prayer.

Prayer

1. Make a special prayer notebook and list all the people in your life who need prayers; pray for them each day. Add someone new every day.

For Those Addicted to Popular Culture

1. Switch from regular radio to Christian music radio.
2. Avoid shows with gratuitous sex or violence.
3. Give up or limit watching sports on television.
4. Listen to only classical music for the next 30 days.
5. Drive to work in silence each day.
6. Read a work of classic literature.
7. Read a story to a child.
8. Sit in fifteen minutes of silence each day.
9. Write a letter to God each day.

For Internet Users/Bloggers

1. Set time limits on overall online time.
2. Limit Facebook time.
3. Limit Myspace time.
4. Resist making or adding to lists that rank people.
5. Share one spiritual video with your online network once a week.
6. Blog about the poor once a week.
7. Add a spiritual blog to your blog reader.
8. Leave an encouraging or positive comment on a different blog each day.
9. Help a new blogger by sending traffic their way.

For Those Who Need to Be More Grateful

1. Each week write a thank-you note to your parents.
2. Write a poem of praise for each person in your family.
3. Get a stack of sticky-notes and write one sentence of thanks each day and stick it to the bedroom door of each person in your family.
4. Find the psalms of thanksgiving or praise in the Bible and pray them.
5. Write a list of the ways God has blessed you and add to it each day. This could be done in a notebook or on a big poster hanging on your wall.
6. At dinner each evening ask your family to share one thing for which they are grateful.
7. Make a CD or iPod playlist of praise and worship music and listen to it each day.
8. Make a point of saying “Thank You” a certain number of times per day.
9. Help your children write thank you letters to their teachers.

For Those With Lives Out of Balance

1. Go for a walk each day with a loved one and talk about life and faith.
2. Take the kids to the park each week for some carefree time.
3. Give up fast food and give the money to charity.
4. Exercise each day.
5. Spend at least half an hour each day in meaningful conversation with your spouse.
6. Give up your most unhealthy habit

Extras

1. Give up foul language.
2. Give up gossiping.
3. Cook dinner each night for your family if someone else normally does.
4. Carry extra food in your car, purse or backpack to give to street corner beggars.
5. Spend a week meditating on each of part of the “Lord’s Prayer”
6. Make breakfast each morning for your family.

This list was adapted from the Catholic School Chronicle website.

+Robin