S&C Intro

Ggirl here.

I recently read the book, “Julie and Julia” by Julie Powell. It was much better than I thought it would be. Despite what I assume was a brilliant performance by Meryl Streep portraying Julia, I had no desire to see the movie, because the character, Julie, came off as annoying, arrogant and somewhat selfish in the movie trailer I saw. I figured the book would reflect that same sentiment. What I didn’t expect was to stumble upon a well-written, humorous and interesting memoir about a young woman on a mission to cook her way through one of the most authoritative cookbooks on French cuisine out there, Julia Child’s “Mastering The Art of French Cooking.” Even more inspiring than the natural way Powell puts words together in fancy sentences was how she cooked and blogged about her experiences conquering all 524 recipes in one year.

Sometimes things come together in weird and unexpected ways. Reading this book seemed at first to be a simple distraction from my chaotic summer. In the end, it sparked the idea to do my own version of a challenge to be completed within the time frame of a year.

Welcome to 365 days of sex and chocolate!

The history:

About 10 years ago, I started doing some local radio. It was unrehearsed, uncensored and very unprofessional. Somehow I persuaded a guy I was dating to join me as my co-host, or maybe he persuaded me. Enter The Man. Either way, the Sex and Chocolate Show was born, a show that ran for several years in various forms. Basically, my co-host and I talked about anything and everything -- from the news of the weird to politics -- sampled and reviewed chocolate, and discussed sex toys and relationships. We even did a few impromptu live reviews of the toys, which ended up being more funny than informative, but it kept people listening. Then we took a longer than expected break from it all.

Let’s face it, MOST people (those who don’t fascinate and confuse me) love sex and chocolate or at least one or the other. Many people who are into either are VERY into it. For example, chocoholics are notorious for being more than a little bit obsessed with the delicious confection and have no problem admitting it. Their senses become heightened at the mere mention of the word CHOCOLATE.

These days, I’m inspired by anyone who can do anything for a whole year. Most people can’t even last a whole month, let alone a year in any kind of commitment or challenge. For example, I sometimes tell myself I could take the 30-day vegan challenge, until I remind myself that it means no cheese for a whole month, A WHOLE MONTH! I’d like to think I could give up that creamy, fat-filled dairy goodness, even though I don’t actually attempt it. Who am I kidding , though? On the other hand, I once gave up chocolate for THREE months. Insane. I know. I won’t do that again.

Since I eat chocolate every day, it wouldn't be much of a challenge to continue that pattern for a year. What would be a challenge for me would be to integrate daily sex into my lifestyle. In reality, I’m a bit of a loner. I may love sex, but I don’t often get the opportunity to engage in playful contact with someone else all that often. Even if I had a partner with an equally high sex drive, having sex every day seems like it would be a struggle at times. I mean, I’m not as into sex if I’m feeling crummy or become preoccupied with my own frequently fluctuating emotions. I do think it would be an interesting experiment to engage in some sort of physical contact every single day for a year.

Some time ago, two couples did take the sex challenge, one couple for a whole year and the other for over one hundred days. From the Huffington Post article, 365 Days Of Sex: The Secret To Marital Success?, here's what the couples discovered:

Charla Muller and Annie Brown both talk about how mandated physical intimacy created more emotional intimacy. "It required a daily kindness and forgiveness, and not being cranky or snarky, that I don't think either of us had experienced before," Charla said.

Since the man and I no longer live in the same town, we had to come up with a different kind of challenge, one we think our readers will enjoy. Basically, instead of doing one post a day for a year, we will be writing 51+ posts in a year or about one post a week in the 365 day time frame. That’s not too much of a challenge, but here’s where it gets tricky. In each and every post, we will be reviewing the following: One chocolate bar company, one sex toy and one sex position. We will also discuss one random topic and post one sensual image for your hungry eyes. I will probably be unable to resist tossing in some good music choices to stick in your ears and tickle your ear drums, too.

Our podcast will highlight some of our weekly adventures. The nice thing about the podcast is that we will occasionally have special guests join us, and we can take callers with questions, suggestions or advice.

That’s our plan for now. The Man and I start this weekend, so stay tuned!