Eat the Alphabet and Geocache Exploring

Sometimes the best way to make lasting change in our lives is by trying something completely new. Not just a single task, but rather a healthy mission that takes a few weeks or even months to complete. If you've been trying to lose weight and live healthier, here are a couple of my favorite missions to try. The alphabet mission. Every week eat a vegetable that starts with a different letter of the alphabet. For the letter "A" you could try arugula or asparagus. "B" might be beets or broccoli.

How many of the fruits and vegetables Leigh is holding have you eaten...or can even identify?

Take a picture of each one in it's raw state and then again after it's cooked. Make an album that includes all the recipes and what you liked or didn't like about them. Then get some support by posting your experiences online and sharing them with your friends.

If you do only one letter a week, you'll finish all 26 in six months. At the end of the alphabet mission, you'll have discovered a whole list of new healthy foods to eat and ways to prepare them. Following is an alphabetical list if you're having trouble coming up with ideas.

A	Arugula	Asparagus
B	Beets	Broccoli
C	Cabbage	Cauliflower
D	Daikon (White Radish)	Dandelion
E	Eggplant	Endive
F	Fennel	Fiddlehead Fern
G	Green Beans	Garlic
H	Haricot (White Navy Bean)	Huauzontle
I	Iceberg Lettuce	Ivy Gourd
J	Jalapeno Peppers	Jerusalem Artichoke
K	Kale	Kidney Beans
L	Leek	Lima Bean
M	Maca Root	Mushrooms
N	Napa Cabbage	Nori
O	Olive	Okra
P	Peas	Parsnips
Q	Quinoa
R	Radish	Rutabaga
S	Spinach	Squash
T	Turnip	Tomato
U	Ulluco	Urad Bean
V	Vidalia Onion	Velvetleaf
W	Watercress	Winter Purselane
X	Xigua	(Technically a fruit because we couldn't find any vegetables that start with the letter X.)
Y	Yams	Yucca Plant
Z	Zucchini

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The geocache mission. Geocaching is like a treasure hunting game. Someone starts by hiding a "treasure" and then they post clues online, including the approximate coordinates in latitude and longitude telling people how to find it. You use a phone that has a GPS (Global Positioning System) in it to find the "treasure."

The challenge isn't finding the location you're going to, since you start out knowing your final destination. The difficulty may be that you have to hike off road, take a bike path, climb a hill or use a boat. Then there's the challenge of finding the cache or "treasure" once you arrive.

There are all sorts of caches. It might be a piece of paper to sign, a playing card to make the best poker hand or a spot you have to stand to re-create a particular picture posted online. There are even caches where you race against other teams anywhere in the world to capture a virtual "flag."

Your mission is to find and identify all the geocaches within a specific geographic location. To get the most out of each hunt, try setting a radius of 5 or 10 miles around your home or workplace and resolve to get to each location without the use of motorized vehicles.

When you're looking at the list of caches, most sites will give them a difficulty rating of 1 (for the easiest) to 5 (for the most difficult). Start out with some of the easier ones to understand how the GPS functions and work your way up to the 5 star options. Remember that the difficulty level is only limited by the treasure hider's imagination.

It's easy to find caches in your neighborhood, just type in your zip code. To give you an example, there are over 250 caches in Key West at the southernmost tip of Florida. At the opposite end of the country, there are over 100 caches hidden in and around North Pole, Alaska. The bigger the city, the greater your options. There are bound to be plenty of caches to find wherever you may live.

The more popular sites you can use to start your geocaching mission are earthcache.org, geochaching.com, gpsgames.org and navicache.com. Click the links below to visit their websites.

EarthCache	Geocache	GPSgames	Navicache

Now you've got two missions. One exposes you to new foods and the other helps you discover the world around you. Which will you choose?

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12/18/2011