I guess you could say I enjoy things that stimulate my senses; when shopping, I'm always touching things, loving the textures of fabrics and materials. I love eating good food…it's hard to stop because I enjoy the flavor so much. I like looking at shiny, colorful, or bright things that catch and hold my eye. I almost always have scented candles or incense burning because I love the different aromas.

All this makes it easy to overindulge when I should be thinking about the bigger picture. I want a second helping of pasta because it turned out so well. I want to order another box full of beads because they're new and shiny or have such pretty colors. It's not that I need to stop enjoying these things; I just need to know when to stop.

I have more than enough materials to make countless bits of jewelry…all I have to do is sit down and commit some of my ideas to the materials I have on-hand. I don't need to cook less-tasty food…I need to learn to listen to my stomach when it tells me I'm sated rather than listen to my tongue and get another helping.

There's more to be said, but that's for another post at another time. Suffice to say that this year will be a year of moderation!

I ding 30 this month, and I have a lot to work on in the coming year. My first priority is to lose weight. Yeah, I have the body of a goddess…unfortunately, at this point in my life, we're talking more Venus of Willendorf than Venus de Milo.

I promised this last year, but I really mean it this time: I'm going to stay on top of my commitments to other people. I have a bad habit of slipping into "poor me" mode when I'm not feeling well and blowing things off until the last possible minute. My personal and professional acquaintances deserve more than that of me.

Although speaking of not feeling well, I have a serious cold at the moment. I think I picked it up on the plane back from visiting my parents last week, and I'm feeling spectacularly crappy. Fever, mucus, cough, aches…the whole nine yards. Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

As part of my commitment to keep things moving — both physically and mentally — I've got an Events Calendar widget and the Hacker's Diet widget installed on this here blog. My lovely readers (um, when I actually have some) can help keep me on track by visiting these tools and giving me a gentle nudge (or a big thwap with a stick) when I start slacking. And I just know I'll slack, but I'm sending this out to the universe in the hopes that it will send something back.