My Revolutions for 2014. (Or, everything I need for a great new year can be found by consuming chocolate.)

Ok, it’s January 5th and I supposed I should come up with some inspired New Year’s resolutions. I know what you’re thinking. New Year’s resolutions are:   A. Supposed to be made on January 1; and B. Are made…to be broken.

What do you suppose the average stick-to-it number of days is? Well, three or four if it’s something like “give up chocolate” (and no, I’m not about to make that resolution), and maybe 30 or so for something like “exercise more,” and that’s generally because that one usually involves the one month trial membership at the health club, or the treadmill purchase. Did you know treadmills are also great places to hang laundry to dry?

But this year, if not on time, I am at least determined to make some valid promises to myself and stick to them. Therefore I revoke the term “resolutions” and replace it with the more proactive term, “revolutions.” Yes, I am hereby declaring my very own, personal 2014 Revolutions.

Ok. Let’s start that list.

Ok. Here goes. Ummm.

Well, the one revolution I did actually commit to on January first was to drink more water. I know this does not sound incredibly profound, but I honestly don’t like plain water. I don’t.

Now, before you “unfriend me” or something equally socially horrifying, please applaud me for my honesty. In an era when everyone seems to be running around with a personal water purification bottle, sipping nature’s hydrating gift willy-nilly through the day, I have been surviving on Diet Dr. Pepper.

Ok. I know. Lab rats have not fared well on large doses of the stuff. I am poisoning my body…or preserving it…or pickling it. Not sure what the latest doomsday prediction about the perils of drinking too much diet carbonated yumminess is these days. For at least 34 of my 52 years, I have survived on a healthy daily dose of DDP and I’m really feeling pretty darn good, but I KNOW. It’s not good for me. (Rolling my eyes and muttering “whatever.”)

So I have started drinking water. Good old, been around as long as time itself water. Life-giving, life-sustaining water. Five days in on this revolution and I just pretty much feel like I’m drowning. You know what water needs? It needs some fizz. It needs some flavor. It needs a little color. It NEEDS to taste like DDP. Sigh. But I will stick with this one.

Just took a sip of water. Really did. I promise.

From there, I must admit I found my inspiration for the remainder of my 2014 Revolutions  from chocolate. Yes, thank-goodness-I-didn’t-give-it-up-for-New-Year’s chocolate.

In my stocking from Santa (YES, from Santa), I received some delicious Dove candies. Lovely, waistline-be-damned-for-a-few-more-days, milk chocolate (obviously NOT giving up the use of the “dash” for 2014). As I unwrapped each delicious morsel, I discovered wonderful, uplifting messages of encouragement inside the wrappers. AND each was signed, “Love, Dove.”

So not only do the Dove people love me, they rhyme. Chocolate…inspirational words…poetry. How can that not be a good thing?

I have now officially incorporated the Dove wrapper messages into my 2014 Revolutions. They are the fortune cookies of the candy world.

Be good to yourself today. (I’m going to make this one mean drink the damn water, keep exercising, take time to just breathe, and don’t let inner-Nancy get too nutso over little stuff. She can be one crazy, mountain-out-of-a-molehill  bitch.)

Make every day a holiday. (Celebrate every single day! Do nice things for myself and others daily. I can do this one.)

Create a happy place. (Create a special space in my home that’s just for me and carve out time to nurture creative Nancy. Now that I’m painting again, and loving it, this one will be easy and fun.)

Take time for yourself today. (Ahhh…me time. Dove, what a wonderful idea. Make a “me time” Revolution so I can pay attention to my Ta-da list, and not just focus on my to-do list. This one will also mean make more “we” time in 2014 so I will also focus on special time with Jim. Today I will hike in the new fallen snow with him. Yeah for us-time!)

There. Perfect list of New Year’s Revolutions. Thank you friends at Dove, who clearly love me. You totally get me and further prove my theory that good things do come hand-in-hand with chocolate.

You say YOU want a Revolution, dear reader? Easy! Go buy a bag of Dove chocolate and dig right into the New Year. Cheers! (Taps water bottle to screen.)