I found a really fun favor gift online the other day. Heart-shaped measuring spoons. They’re cute, and super practical. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve unsuccessfully searched for my set of spoons and ended up just using the normal ones from the silverware drawer. Not always the greatest end result with baking. I thought Parker and I might be able to come up with our own special recipe and tie the recipe card to the boxes as a thank you to all the guests. We still need to talk about it though. It’s an idea at least. And we’d get to bake. mmm… I could go for a brownie right now. Can I fit in baking time this weekend?

“So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.” - Willy Wonka

Mr. Wonka, I know the feeling.  It’s almost Valentine’s Day!

Can a girl get some room to breathe, please? Sometimes, you know, I just need a day off from dieting and exercise. Especially when it’s my best friend’s birthday. I’m announcing my intentions to the world rather than keeping it on the “DL” because I don’t want to feel like a cheater. “Dude, I saw Delylah eating a huge piece of cake the other day, isn’t she on a diet?!” It’s like the food police is everywhere.

I can hear my mom now, “Delylah, honey, that’s not going to help you lose any weight now, is it?” I don’t care. Today I will go out with my girl and indulge in Mexican and end the day with a disgustingly delicious dessert. mmm… I can taste it already. In light of my future indulgences I have eaten a salad for lunch and made an attempt to walk around as much as possible - so really it all evens out in the end, right? Right.

That’s why I never like the idea of diets - because you feel like you’re cheating every time you eat some freakin good food. But really, I’m not cheating at all. Good food exists for one reason and one reason only - to be eaten, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve only got one life and I’m not going to waste it on salads day in and day out. Besides, that’s boring. So I want you all to raise your forkful of double chocolate with chocolate chips cake with me and say “cheers to living the good life.”

So, my apologies, Frank, I was wrong, people do make tax resolutions. Which inspired me to make a pseudo tax resolution! This weekend I started research and downloaded tax software so I can get mine done early too! And here’s what I have to say about all of that. First off, the IRS Website couldn’t have been a worse place to start my search. It’s ugly, complicated, and made no sense. So instead, I ended up asking Google about better places to find my information and ended up reading helpful do-it-yourself tax articles because with a wedding coming up, I don’t want to pay anybody else any more money to do things for me. I’m a grown woman, surely I can handle silly little taxes! And then with all that talk about H&R Block (did you know that stands for Henry and Richard?! I just learned that!) and TurboTax I went looking for more information on those and ended up at a place where I could buy online tax return software and found even more helpful articles. Maybe next weekend I’ll actually sit down and do them. Maybe.

“What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin” - Mark Twain

P.S. Dress fitting in 2 weeks and I am a work-out machine!

I’m sorry I’ve been such a neglectful blogger the past few days; I’ve just been so busy. At the end of the day though, excuses are still only excuses so I apologize and I promise to write more often. It’s just like a New Year’s Resolution. You have to keep at it; you can make excuses, but the only place those are going to get you is right back where you started, fat and unhappy. I’m not making any more excuses about being unhealthy, I may as well be honest with myself.

So I’ve put my nose to the grindstone lately, I need to lose enough weight by the end of the month to be at a good place for some serious wedding dress fittings. It’s not like the wedding isn’t right around the corner! I’ve come to terms with the realistic thought that I should have started way before January 1st trying to lose 25lbs. But you know I read this article about how when people get married they put on weight like the “Freshman 15″ because they get comfortable. That’s gross, the Freshman 15 is what got me in this mess in the first place seeing as how I never took it back off for good. Ugh. Anyway, I’ve dropped about 6lbs, not as much as I’d like, but I look a less flabbier and that’s good, right?

So…. wedding planning stress and thoughts kept me up last night and I wrote a little poem to clear my mind and think of happier thoughts. You get that instead of a quote today. Way better if you ask me!

I hate working so hard to lose weight
But in the end I’m gonna look great
When I think of all the grease I’ve eaten
I can’t believe my heart’s still beating
Aerobics, treadmills and body bars
I love the beautiful body you’ll carve
Thank you, Alexa, my fitness guru!
I don’t know how I’d do this without you.
Parker, dearest, my love and pride
I can’t wait to be your beautiful bride!

Oh, and over the weekend I went with Alexa to her gym to try an aerobics class, it was so much fun I think I might get a membership! It’s awesome, that way I’d know exactly when I need to be at the gym so I’ll be there and work out for sure. They even have a place where you can get fresh fruit and yogurt smoothies. I’ve never been a huge fan, but these were decently yummy. (still not as good as Burger King though… sigh) Oh well, Happy Monday everyone!

So… I was doing a little site admin and found a great post/comment by new user, NewYearsResolutions2, that I wanted to incorporate. She’s joining the resolution discussion as she does daily blogging about her New Years Resolutions (kudos to you, I can’t seem to write here as often as I’d like!). Here’s what she had to say:

“Writing about what you’ve decided to do definitely reinforces it and discussions with others can add momentum. I ran across this blog here and want to thank the creator Tracy for opening it to additional authors. It looks like Tracy began it a year ago, is that right? with the goal of running a marathon which she did in July?? Way to go Tracy! So what new goals are on your horizon now?”

I agree with NewYearsResolutions2, Tracy did a pretty awesome job with this site, as well as with the marathon. Soon enough I’ll look as good as her… I love that this blog is a place to meet and share resolutions and encourage one another to keep going and I’m glad she trusted me enough to let me take over the site! Don’t be shy, join in on the conversation. I promise, I don’t bite! I may be long winded, especially in the blogosphere, but otherwise, I’m pretty harmless.

As for the quote of the day… “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You, too? Thought I was the only one.’” -C.S. Lewis

Strength in numbers… It’s a good feeling to know I’m not the only one who hasn’t given up on my resolution yet! My personal update: I am kicking some major booty at the gym! Life’s been pretty hectic lately, I’ve got flowers ordered (pictures coming soon!) and I’m getting wedding RSVP’s in the mail every day! So I don’t have a ton of time to work out, but I’m eating healthy and doing what I can. 4lbs down…21 to go!

p.s. As for Tracy’s goals this year, in the most basic sense it’s “to stay in shape and try new things.” She told me how thankful and grateful she was to have been able to pursue and experience a marathon and would love to feel that kind of exhilaration and success more often. Maybe I can get her to contribute a post or two to update the world on the life and times of “Tracy, a marathon success story”.

The product, called Nicogel, is the invention of biochemist Dr. John Walters of Great Britain.

Unlike traditional nicotine replacement therapies such as gums and patches, the gel gives an instant hit, going straight into the blood stream within 10 seconds, mimicking the smoking experience, and can stave off cravings for four hours.

It’s intended use was to help stave off cravings in the increasing number of places that ban smoking, such as planes, movie theaters and other public areas. It is now being considered as a stop smoking aid. It gives you a tenth of the tobacco you use in a cigarette. The clear gel, which will soon turn up in other stores, has all the components of tobacco but lacks many carcinogens that are formed as cigarettes burn. After a couple of pumps of its dispenser, just rub the Nicogel into your skin, and get your nicotine fix fast. It’s manufacturer, Nicogel Ltd., claims it can get a dose of nicotine into your system about as fast as smoking a cigarette.

So, is this an acceptable alternative to smoking? Are we going to start pulling out our hands and rubbing them together instead of pulling out a cigarette and lighting it? I don’t know, that puts kind of a creepy picture in my head, not unlike watching someone smacking their lips when eating. I don’t think I’m ready to go that route, but I can see how this may help people who are really trying to quit, and similar to the use of the nicotine patch.

As an interesting sidenote, Nicogel is also being studied for use of foot ulcers in diabetic patients! Apparently, application of the gel is being studied to see if it increases healing time in those diabetics who suffer from the foot ulcers. Clinical Trials.gov

It will be interesting to see if this really is a breakthrough in beating this awful habit as the news media seems to think, or if it is all hype. If you are really struggling, anything is worth a try, right? I’d like to hear from anyone who has tried this.

#2 - Call my sister more often. She’s in Italy. Skype, here I come!

#3 - Sleep more. This 6 hours-a-night business is bull.

Any more than 3 and I’ll never do any of them. I’m stopping before this becomes an impossible to-do list. Wish me luck!

“The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.” -Thomas Jefferson

So I was looking at quotes and I got to thinking… how do I know these people really said these things? I’ve always loved inspirational quotes, but who decided to write down all these words? Which smart person had a fountain pen or whatever people used back then, and paper and knew to write it down every time someone like T.J. opened their mouth. Makes me want to carry a pen and pencil. Or learn how to write notes on my cell faster.

Spell-check tells me “invigorator” isn’t a word in the dictionary, so would Jefferson use that word? I don’t know, never met the guy. So I like the quote because I’ve been doing a lot more walking lately and would love to think it is the best of all exercises, but I don’t know if I can believe Jefferson is backing me up. That’s just a little disappointing. With the advent of such great technology I love that I can type in a word or two and Google tells me everything it thinks I need to know, but I don’t even know if I can trust Google. Sometimes I feel like Google is a personal friend. Unanswered question comes up in conversation -> easy solution: “Let’s ask Google!” but who is to say Google is going to give me the right answer. Google gives me some answers and I take on good faith what I feel to be fitting and move on.

Pardon my tangent. Walking is good exercise. I have made a great effort to do it more often to help me lose weight. That and trying to only drink diet sodapop, even though all the good flavors aren’t diet. I was going to try to take the stairs to the office yesterday but 5 flights in… I don’t know if it’s just me, but I don’t find sweaty office attire professional or the least bit sexy, so… yeah, I took the elevator. After work I can walk down though , easy as fresh-baked apple pie. It’s all about trying new things, putting forth effort, putting faith in words that may or may not have come out of the mouths of famous people, and thinking positively about everything. TGIalmostF!

And today there was this amazing, drool-worthy chocolate cake in the conference room at lunchtime for Craig’s birthday… and you know what, I had myself one big, bad mamma jamma sized piece with a side of frozen yogurt. And every single calorie was glorious. I consider it a pat on the back for surviving last night. And it made up for missing breakfast. Wow, I am such a bad dieter. There’s just something about great tasting food. If it’s there, I want it. Anyway, I’ve already lost 2lbs, so I’m doing something right.

Guilt aside… Wedding planning is going great. I spent a fair amount of time this weekend watching wedding shows on Style Network and TLC and such while stuffing envelopes with my fun wedding invitations. I even forced Parker to join in for an hour. So, if I can remember to pack them in my bag tomorrow, I can get them sent out! I’m so anxious, this is exciting. But, there’s so much less time in the day when you have to fit in cooking and exercising. I’m feeling a bit frazzled, but on the upside, I’m starting to feel like I have more energy. Which is exactly what I need to find the perfect flowers and arrangements.

BTW - I’ve decided to put up a new inspirational, exercise-related quote every time I post. Drum roll, please.

“It’s very important to have the right clothing to exercise in. If you throw on an old T-shirt or sweats, it’s not inspiring for your workout.” - Cheryl Tiegs

So true. I feel like such a frump in what I’m using now. Do you hear an excuse for shopping? Oh, I think I do . Not that one is ever really needed…

Starting today, I’m going to spend at least 5 minutes a day doing this, so that every time I try to talk myself out of a workout or cringe at eating healthy food I’ll stop and know it’s all for a good reason. This weekend I did pretty well. I kept busy shopping, and wedding planning. I am so proud of myself. Parker and I were talking about wedding stuff, and it occurred to me that instead of just lying on the couch chatting, we could take a nice walk. So we did! It felt so good to be active together. And afterwards we looked up healthy recipes to try. Ever put the words Mexican food and healthy in the same sentence? Turns out you can!

We made our own fajitas with fresh chicken, tons of spices and veggies, salsa, light sour cream, and just a sprinkle of cheese. I’ve always had that restaurant stuff drowning in grease, cheese, and everything else, so I never really thought of making it myself and paying attention to what I put in. It turned out great and I’m fortunate that Parker knows his way around a kitchen. My life has been so centered around going out to eat, that I never really considered how enjoyable it could be to make a nice, quiet meal at home.

And today, I made it through lunchtime without even considering a trip to Burger King. I brought in a homemade chicken salad (with dressing on the side). Boy would it have tasted even better with a side of fries, but I’m trying to stay focused and I’ve got all the girls in the office helping me out. Alexa even offered to work out with me in case I wanted any pointers. So she’s joining me tonight after work. Who knew a case of the Mondays could be a good thing?! It’s Monday and I’m Motivated !