-
Day 315: Happy New Year!
We’ll be watching the fireworks tonight, New Year’s Eve, somewhere right near the above shot of the Hotel Negresco on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France.
Update: I haven’t blogged here for more than a month. But I think that brought me crazy good luck. After writing about my 3-4 weeks on the famed Dukan Diet, which I thought was a total bust since I only lost about three pounds, I flew off to New York.
I was in New York for another three weeks where I briefly fell off the wagon (M&Ms) for a couple days but then found it easy to go right back to no sweets. But I definitely didn’t stick with the Dukan diet. But somehow it must have stuck with me in spirit, because I’ve lost ten pounds in the past month, without really watching my weight.
I must admit to two slips: I was buying a friend some gorgeous, expensive chocolates for Christmas (if I can’t have them I want to buy them for someone else!) and I was offered a sample of some tiny dark chocolate at the cash register. I had two. Wow. Like instant black heroin shooting through my body. Delicious!
Then had a friend over who doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth but loves Haagen Dazs macadamia nut brittle ice cream. So I bought it for her. But then I had some! We had decided to start watching the first season of Mad Men and it was all so fun and festive.
And yes, I had two bowls! I have to report this as I had a witness.
I’m not proud that my Year Without Candy has not been 100% pure, but then again, I’ve been pretty damn good.
What will I do after February 28, 2011 when I will have completed my Year?
Hard to say. But I’m afraid to go back to eating candy whenever I want.
The revelation of these past ten months has been that – giving up my favorite sweets has not been that difficult.
However, I am always divided on this one issue:
One side says to me: There’s no upside to eating sweets. You’ve already eaten enough candy and dessert for one lifetime. Stay away!
The other side says: We’re all going to die one day anyway. Why deprive yourself of something you love?
Who will win? Devil or angel?
I have a couple New Year’s resolutions. One of them was inspired by my friend Antonia who has gone totally sugar-free for the last few weeks. I’d like to try to go totally sugar-free as a way of celebrating my remaining two months of this year and this blog. (Right now I still eat things that have sugar added to them, like peanut butter, ketchup, yogurt etc.)
The other is to get up at the same time every day: 7 a.m.
Will I succeed? Will you?
And how important is it?
I’m just grateful to have had such an amazing year – and so many wonderful people in my life. 2010 was supposed to be a golden year for people born under my sign, Pisces, and in many ways, it was.
But we’ve all had times when we felt: This can’t be my life.
My old friend, the singer-songwriter Ruth Gerson, who I profiled almost six years ago in The New York Times when we both lived in Manhattan, went through one of those periods in life when everything goes south, sideways and downhill. It began when her marriage began to unravel a couple of years ago and she eventually got divorced.
She was in a lot of pain and channeled it by writing new songs, sitting alone in a deserted office in Chelsea every morning.
When she was done, she took off – and so did her life.
She’s now living in San Francisco with her two daughters and is engaged to be married to a wonderful man.
Ruth has always managed her career on her own terms, which has meant turning down big record labels who wanted to sign her. I think she’s one of the most talented people out there.
Last week, she brought down the house on Craig Ferguson’s late-night show with the title track of her new album that she wrote when she was sad and in despair: This Can’t Be My Life.
Who can’t relate?
And what’s better than when you get to celebrate your new life?
Happy New Year!
