Happy New Year!

It's a new year, which means crash diets, frantic sessions at the gym, and eventual complacency and giving up of goals. It's funny how much people depend on the new year to get into shape/be more confident/be nicer/start saving more money etc and continue to set ambitious goals for themselves year after year even after many failed attempts to change (or maybe they're successful, which is really great and makes them alot stronger than me).

I've set many resolutions in the past, from eating healthier to exercising more to being nicer to my parents to taking self defense lessons....and i don't think i've kept a single one of them. But, because i am a slightly delusional, unreasonably optimistic creature of habit, here is my list of ways to improve myself in 2011 (it's an extremely abridged version...i am so incredibly flawed there are an infinite number of ways i could better myself):

1) Eat healthier. This one always makes it on my list. I hate dieting. I think it's completely unreasonable and unhealthy. In my opinion (because i am an expert on diet and nutrition obviously and everyone should listen to me), it's more realistic to just eat more fruits and veggies and eat less processed foods. I know, much much much easier said than done. For me, the trick is to have a bunch of healthy snacks around that i can munch on because i know that when i get to a certain stage of hunger, all bets are off. I will eat babies if i have to. I just lose all control. My faves are dried cherries, almonds, olives, and carrots with hummus. I'm much too lazy to count calories and fat grams and whatever so I just try to eat fresh foods with not too many ingredients.

2) Get in shape. I am an extremely lazy person. BUT i've found that if i don't work out for a prolonged period of time, i become an uber bitch. Seriously. I NEED endorphins to be a fully functioning human being with the ability to not be an asshat. Unfortunately, i'm too cheap to join a gym (4 years of free gym membership to my university's gym really spoiled me) and it's much too cold to run outside SO i think i'm going to try out P90x, which i hear is a really good way to get in shape. I also hear that it's super intense and people actually throw up when they do it for the first time, but i really want to try it. Unfortunately, it's a bit pricey and requires some extra equipment (a chin up bar, weights/resistance bands, a yoga mat) but i've decided that i am too weak and fat so this is a necessary evil.

3) Bake a super fancy cake. I offered to make a wedding cake for my sister and she foolishly agreed to let me. One little problem: i've never actually made a wedding cake. Unfortunately, she's already told all of her friends that i will do this. And they expressed doubt and disbelief. Which means i CANNOT back out of this because if i do, i will not be able to prove all of the naysayers wrong. So i must make the most beautiful, breathtaking cake in the history of all weddings...or at least one that tastes good and doesn't look like crap. Right now I'm aiming for something like this

(Image from weddingsimple.net)

4) Be more money savvy. I'm going to start law school in the fall, so i need to be smart about saving money to pay for tuition, books, apartments, FOOD, etc. Money matters really stress me out (maybe because i don't have any) but i need to stop being such an avoider and start looking into savings accounts, investing, etc. to maximize my finances. This probably also means i need to stop obsessively browsing the J Crew website the second i wake up each morning.

And i think that's about all my simple little brain can handle. Good luck with all of your resolutions and i will keep you updated with how mine are going (if i don't say anything about them, it probably means that i failed and am too ashamed to admit it)