This hilarious video was sent to me by my Uncle Barney – I have no idea why he’d think I’d find it funny [grin]! Have an awesome weekend everyone!

YOUR TURN! What are you up to, this fine wintery weekend?

Hey kids! How’s your new year going so far? The first part of January has been pretty good to me, but I want to ramp it up a notch or two. Increasing my writing frequency on this, my personal blog, as well as the professional wealth blog that I contribute to (and am chief editor of), are a big part of that. More on my professional blog in another post…

And, what’s the best way to succeed at something you want? Why, setting achievable goals of course!

So, I am putting together editorial calendars for both blogs, and I thought I’d share what to look forward to here, for content:

MONDAYS: My personal weight loss journey updates — How did I do last week on the scale? What roadblocks did I run into? What successes did I see this week?

TUESDAYS: Each Tuesday I’ll be highlighting a blog(ger) I read, and what brings me to their site.

WEDNESDAYS: Don’t miss the weekly mid-week socializing game! It’s great fun and a great way to meet new people… All in a house-party-type setting online. Now, available each week here at “This Chick’s Life”! The game is also a great way to get new visitors to your own blog or twitter feed, too, as link-love is a big part of the commenting fun!

THURSDAYS: General content if there’s something noteworthy to blog about!

FRIDAYS: I’m bringing back Friday Silliness! And, of course, I’m open to suggestions! If you see something funny during the week, drop me a comment and let me know about it!

SATURDAYS: A day off blogging unless there’s something to report on in the life of Tanya… I might eventually bring back the Weekend Meet n’ Greet Commenting Game if there’s enough interest for it? Drop me a comment and let me know!

SUNDAYS: A day off blogging unless something earth shattering happens… I might fill this day from time-to-time with a meme-type post, if there’s interest!

So, what do you think? Although I do write this blog first for me, I also write for you, my most awesome visitors… Would you like to see other content here?

Here’s hoping you and yours have an amazing, and adventure-filled 2011!

Love,
Tanya

My short answer is YES! I am, and so can you, if you really want it bad enough.

In the first eight days of managing my nutrition and exercise a LOT differently, I’ve lost seven and a half pounds. Sure, the first week of changing your lifestyle is sure to garner good results on the scale, but, doing it during the holidays to me means I’m dedicated to making a real, and lasting change in how I eat, and how much I move.

During Christmas seasons past, I paid very little attention to my diet, (I don’t eat alot, anyhow, so I didn’t think I needed to be concerned with what I was putting in my mouth), and exercise? Who has time for that, when there’s visiting to do, and parties to attend. This year, I’m looking at things a lot differently… I’ve become very concious of the types of food I’m eating, as well as the portion sizes. And, with a new spin bike sitting beside me in my office, I have no excuses that it’s too cold outside to move (which is the whole reason why I chose to replace my mountain bike that was stolen last year with something I can use year-round).

Why am I making this change now? Easy answer? I wanted to show myself that if I can do this now, I’ll avoid the inevitable weight gain during the holidays, and teach myself that food isn’t the answer to enjoyment of the season. Besides, I have a very firm goal date in mind to get to my ideal weight, and that day means a lot to me — By May 1st of next year, I’ll be where I want to be… 35 pounds lighter, losing an average of 2 pounds a week.

How do I motivate myself each day? That’s simple… I have photos of myself at my ideal weight, and a few clothes still hovering in my closet that I fit into at that weight. They’ve mocked me for the past few years, but no longer! Everytime I feel myself wavering, I think of those size 6 jeans that I’d love to get into again, and I ask myself if that food choice is really worth putting off my weight loss. Five seconds of enjoyment, to put off feeling and looking fabulous? It’s not worth it.

All this doesn’t mean that I avoid absolutely every indulgence — Once a week, I will be allowing myself a small treat, so I don’t feel completely cut off from the foods I love. Thankfully, I don’t have a big sweet tooth, and I don’t crave really salty treats. I feel doing this will allow me to sustain this lifestyle change, and not fall off the wagon a few weeks in.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the next few weeks brings on my scale! Good riddance, fatty thighs

…I sure can’t.

Thankfully, Christmas is going to be very simple for Barry and I this year — as Barry has just started a new job with a new company a week ago, and me still on the job hunt in Calgary, we’ve elected to share a very inexpensive holiday season this time around. Let’s face it, Christmas shouldn’t be about crazy money expenditures, anyhow.

What will make this Christmas special will be sharing it with each other in our new home, as a newly married couple. I still can’t believe it’s only been six and a half months since we tied the knot. I can’t even remember life without my guy… I have a lot to be thankful for, this holiday season.

Christmas dinner this year will be at our awesome neighbours’ house, next door. I love those guys! That was so sweet of them to include us.

And, the next day of course, is our first annual holiday party — with the much-anticipated re-gifting exchange. This should be a ton of fun, and everyone is looking forward to unloading those crazy gifts of holidays past! I can’t wait to see what our friends come up with! If you are in town on the 26th, and didn’t, for some reason, get our invitation, please do let me know; the more the merrier!

We’ll likely be heading up to Edmonton for a couple days after that to visit with family, and then my brother and Diane are driving in for New Years — I can’t wait!!! We still haven’t figured out what we’re doing to bring in the new year, so if you have suggestions for inexpensive ways to enjoy the night’s festivities, let me know!

YOUR TURN! What Christmas/New Years fun is coming up for you and yours?

Hey Calgary! Tomorrow, there’s a great event being held to help those most in need during this holiday season… Won’t you join us for some fun and giving?

Here’s the deets!

Twitmas is back! Celebrate a Social Media Christmas sponsored by Big Rock Brewery and The Blind Monk Pub on 12th. All are welcome!

This fun filled evening is also a wind up for the December 2-9th Red White and Food Charity Drive to increase blood donations and awareness for Canadian Blood services and donations for the Calgary Interfaith Foodbank. There will be a Calgary Interfaith Foodbank cash donation box that night.

Join your fellow #YYC tweeps for fun, food, bevvies and giveaways. We will be limiting seating as the wristbands are handed out, so be sure to RSVP soon at http://twtvite.com/Twitmasgiving

PARKING: there is street parking in front of the pub as well as down the west side and behind in the alley.

See you there?

Dammit. I wish I had known about all the changes to the negative that evite has made to their “new and improved” invitation site before I hand-typed all my new (60+) Calgary contacts into their system, and sent out a new evite to everyone for our upcoming RE-gifting party on Boxing Day.

It wasn’t until after I sent out the evite that I realized what a piece of crap their new site is.

And, with no great alternatives in sight, I’m frustrated. Here’s what I immediately noticed was missing:

• there’s no way to see if someone has opened (and therefore actually received the invitation in their inbox)
• no viewed date for the recipients (again, I can’t tell if it went out correctly)
• no customizable email sent to recipients (I didn’t even see a copy of what did go out… I had to add another email account to see what was sent!)
• no more evite avatar photos (although it looks like they’re working on this)
• the comments don’t show up half the time… I had to go into edit attendee list to see some of them!
• no way to EXPORT all the contacts I just spent two hours inputting (asshats)
• no opportunity to customize my invitation with my own photo

So, let me get this straight… Evite can spam my invitees with advertising and make a ton of money off of my events, but I can’t have the most basic of features I’ve come to rely on with their service? Yuck.

I hate using Facebook to send out event invites, because the system doesn’t remind people ahead of time… And, if I manually send out a reminder, many people (me included) don’t often look at their Facebook messages. I don’t blame them — I always forget to view my messages, and I rarely get a heads up that I’ve received a message there. It’s a stupid system, and not worth counting on.

So… What’s the alternative? I have no idea. Evite doesn’t appear to be working very hard on their now-frustrating “updates”, so I’m left with hoping everyone got the invite. Because, if they didn’t, I’d have no idea.

I DID IT! I blogged every day for a whole month… I didn’t think I’d be able to sustain it, especially after my sporatic blog entries for the past few months! But, YAY! Thanks for the inspiration, NaBloPoMo!

Let’s get interactive, with this last entry!

Hey guys! It’s that time of the week, again… Time to socialize on the fly! (And, I’ll have one of those shots in the photo, please!)

Here’s how it works:
I’ll start with a question, and the first person answers my question, and then asks a different question for the next person in the same comment.

I’ll start!

What do you want for Christmas?