wastebasket liners

I hate to spend money for liners in the household wastebaskets. Oh, it makes sense for the kitchen trash, but I like to use whatever bags are lying around for lining my littler waste bins in the rest of the house.

I am a bit of a bag lady, harboring a belief that the bag I throw away today will be the one that saves my life tomorrow. Hence, I slowly amassed little piles of bags here and there. Plastic grocery bags accumulated in the kitchen; other bags from clothing stores found their way into bedroom drawers and living room shelves.

One bright day I realized it would help to store these folded up plastic bags neatly near the place they would be most needed: the wastebasket.

So now, when I end up with a plastic store bag in my hands, I fold it up neatly and place it in the trash basket, slipped between the current liner I'm using and the basket itself. You can have several little folded up bags sitting at the bottom of your waste basket, all right there and ready to go when you remove the old waste bag.

Introducing Random Tips

Well, now that I have two other blogs going (xannaphotos and amsterzanne) this blog is just languishing here, taking up cyber space, so I've decided to make it my blog of random tips.

I love little tricks and tips that save time money and sanity and I like to share, so when I find out about something that's made my life easier I'll pass it on here.

I plan to start with Household Tips, but I may include Shopping, Grooming, Fashion, Travel or just whatever I stumble upon that I think might be useful. Perhaps a sanity tip of the day, or tips to keep up a good attitude, whatever. Ah, the joy of ruling one's own blog. I can do ANYTHING!!! Bwahahahahahahahahahaha.

Winter Fae at Wintermute

Winter Fae riding her faithful Toby (horse from AKK) through Wintermute, a fabulous winter wonderland I've just begun to explore. http://slurl.com/secondlife/ReZoNe/211/61/36

She's Alive!!!!

Hi there folks!!! Not much going on here at the moment.

In 2008 I'll be posting things about Amsterdam to www.AmsterZanne.blogspot.com

I will also start blogging about Second Life at www.xannaphotos.blogspot.com

Those two are going to keep me busy, but I can't bear to delete this blog, since it's my first blog ever (yes, sentimentality in cyberspace), and I may come back to it if I need a third creative outlet, or just to post thoughts about something that will not fit in either of my other blogs.

Also, what's really keeping me busy these days is my newfound fun at Flickr, catch my photos from Second Life there at www.flickr.com/photos/xannaziskey

Have a super 2008 everybody, let's bust a move and make those dreams come true!!

TW

from Camino Real by Tennessee Williams:

"Make voyages," he writes. "Attempt them. There's nothing else."

Think.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson


***

If you hate where you are, then stop walking the path that takes you there.

-Xanna Ziskey

SECOND LIFE meets CSI!!!

Okay kiddies just go here

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kfXb6zb6Upc

to get a preview of the CSI-NY episode that has Second Life twittering up a storm. This is THE hottest topic today among the wiredensia.

I can't wait to see the whole thing!!!!

Don't expect to see much here in November!

This is why you will not be seeing a lot of me in November, I'll be joining crazy writers around gthe world madly churning out a novel in one month, because November is

NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH

...check it out! www.nanowrimo.org

Avatar Surprise

Spring Fae, one of my favorite avatars, surprises me with a visitation.

I love www.flickr.com !!! One of the groups I was invited to (thanks Arteer!) challenges us to post a picture of the first life self behind the Second Life avatar. This was my contribution for October 2007.

Congratulations!!!!!!!

I saw the date from my last post and I just realized that as of today I have been cigarette-free for four months! Yay me! One of these days I'll write about it but for now I'm just loving all the extra energy and time I have. No WAY would I have joined a gym while I was smoking. Anyway, what did it for me was reading Stop Smoking the Easy Way by Alan Carr cover to cover. Cool thing about that book is that you are supposed to smoke while you read it, and I did.

While I'm at it, yesterday I reached a new low...in a good way...I'm down NINE pounds! Yay me!!

The Wheat Field, by www.heifer.org

Well a major distraction has been this fabulous Second Life field. I have not figured out the slurl linking apparatus but if you search for wheat field in classifieds or Far Away you will find it. It's a project put together by www.heifer.org, one of those rare beneficial organizations that gives ongoing real help to people all over the world by teaching communities to farm and to help themselves.

Lookin for BOOtiful places

Know of a good Halloween place or haunted spot in SL? I'm always looking for the best. Love this background. Yess, boyz and gurlz, this is Xanna's mostest favoritest time o the year. Have you been scared in SL? WHERE? I WANNA KNOW!!

Current Cool Fave Exhibit in SL

This innovative moving architecture display in Second Life will blow your inner builder and scripter's mind. Times like this I really wish I had already learned machinima, I believe there is some moving video of this installation on You Tube. Definitely one of my current top sites for creativity and originality using the unique environment of Second Life. TP from Keystone Bouchard's picks.

Photo and model: Xanna Ziskey. Skin: Gala. Dress: Spanky's Spots by Marly. Shoes: Adina at Minx. Jewelry: Exquisito. Hair: White Lies by Faith Midnyte, Panache. Glasses: SL Library. Seamed shaded pantyhose from 1800Betty.

Second life goes retro blue collar

Consistency in Workouts

Slowly but surely the weight is indeed leaving me and I am now seven pounds lighter than when I started my quest to be Fit By The First (of 2008). I've been vigilant about my diet and consistent in my workouts. That's what it takes. After six weeks, with seven pounds down I'm now almost a third of the way toward my weight goal, which was to lose 22 pounds. I think that one third of the way through a weightloss program is the most difficult period of the endeavour.


Let's face it, sticking with anything for six whole weeks without seeing dramatic results smacks in the face of our current now-or-forget-it popular culture. It takes milleniums to make mountains, and months (PLURAL) to properly lose a significant amount of weight, and no amount of bitching and moaning and manifesting and pilling and powdering will ever change either of those facts. So, suck it up and dig in for the long haul. Hey it's your life we're talking about here. That doesn't work for you. Okay, it's your sex life we're talking about here. Ha! Now I have your attention, eh? *blush* (-:

Anyway, the good news is that the more you live like a fit person the more you start to look and feel like a fit person, which makes you happy and loving life and who the heck can't use a little more of THAT?! So, if you are hitting the slump, don't focus on how far you have to go. Revisit your goals, whatever it was that made you jump on the fitness bandwagon to begin with. Remember how far you have come. Stay the course. The initial enthusiasm for it all will likely wane, especially if you have been practicing bad health habits for a while. But little steps, done consistently, are the key.

If your workout is getting too breezy then crank it up a notch. Add a weight, a level, five minutes, more reps. Keep getting better, don't just show up at the gym and fling your limbs around. Concentrating on your form can breathe new interest in a routine exercise movement. Don't forget to watch your breathing pattern. Breathe in through the nose, the air gets warmed before it hits your lungs. Breath out through your mouth; the direct exit ensures that more waste moves out with the exhale. Hang in there with me, and think how sexy you are going to look in that tight outfit on New Year's Eve 2007!

LOVE his writing

Check out this guy!

Exploring a fantasy forest in Second Life

Hanging out another shingle...

Now providing photography services for journalists, event organizers, realtors, models and photographers in Second Life. Need a photo of SL? Let me know. We'll work something out.

Images of Rotterdam, September 07

Photos: My images of Rotterdam, 16 september 07. (originally larger format, downsized for publication).

Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. --M. Scott Peck

Getting ready for autumn at XanMade. Predictably, sweater sales were slow over the summer, although I did get a steady trickle...folks in the Arctic regions I suppose.. Anyway, I just designed this new cropped version, not on the shelf yet, but I believe it will sell very well. It's even looser than my long-sleeved fisherman's sweater, and it looks dynamite with a long fit torso.

Next project: Setting up some of my shapes for sale. Oh yeah, it's time consuming and I'm gonna get some Big Bucks for XanMade shapes!! Stay tuned!

Zonked from a great workout.

Xanna was exhausted after flitting around the gymnasium for hours. She climbed atop her faerie flower house without saying "boo" to her neighbors, and tucked in for the night.

Back To The Gym

Time to get back to the gym! Have not been for two days, but I did walk around the entire city of Rotterdam yesterday, so that should count for something. Another Fit By The First post coming next week, probably about consistency in exercise! Ay, there's the rub.

A little pixie in all of us...

http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/how_to_tick_people_off.shtml



Now, I'm not a huge practical joker, but now and then...well, if you don't laugh while reading this, then you may need a humor transplant. (Originating site listed above pic.)

HOW TO TICK PEOPLE OFF

1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
3. Specify that your drive-through order is "TO-GO."
4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
5. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."
7. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."
8. Practice making fax and modem noises.
9. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc" them to your boss.
10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
11. Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophesy."
12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
13. Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.
14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you "like it that way."
16. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
18. Honk and wave to strangers.
19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
20. TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
21. type only in lowercase.
22. dont use any punctuation either
23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.

"DO YOU HEAR THAT?"

"What?"

"Never mind, it's gone now."
25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
26. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "No, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.
27. Ask people what gender they are.
28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
29. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
30. Sing along at the opera.

I would like to add pouring Prell shampoo (does that date me or what) into a water fountain at a shopping mall, to the list. Not that I would know anything about that from personal experience. Nor would my friend Bill. No, we would know nothing about that at all. Nosirree.

O.o.

a little something I found using http://www.stumbleupon.com/ .....

Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian

10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.
9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.
7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!
6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.
5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.
4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."
3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.
2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.
1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.

The Cannery Art Gallery, Second Life

Here I am at The Cannery, one of the most impressive and massive art sims I have seen. Different mediums. The seated figure in front of me is a sculpture, not an avatar. Wow.

Dots, Dangles, Wings

My fashion predictions include...

MORE: Dots, circles, mod retro circles in fabric designs.

MORE: Brown basics, such as jeans, jackets, boots, shoes and bags.

MORE: Things that hang and dangle. From shoes, belts, purses, zippers, cell phones. We want to rattle. Everywhere.

LESS: reflecting bling (although some misguided ones will never let it die)

NEW: Interest in all things fae. Faerie art, faerie characters, faerie decals, movies, you name it. I even think it will become part of fun fanciful dressy evenings. A delicate pair of color-coordinated wings with that evening dress, Miss? There is a reason for this, and it's not just my own interests talking. We are overwhelmed by technology and all things mechanized these days, just as people were during the Victorian Era and the dawn of the industrial age, when the first big faerie craze happened. The faerie creatures, with their delicate sensibilities and close relationship to Nature, give us a reassuring sense of comfort in the face of man made walls and circuit boards.

NEW: Interest in restraint and modesty after sex-on-demand-24-7. We will reach our sexual glut, and, again, things Victorian will take on a certain fondness. Now that everything is permitted, at least in some segment or another of cyberspace, we might find ourselves reaching back in time with nostalgia for a thrill that can only exist in the presence of the forbidden.

NEW: Perfectly in keeping with Victoriana Madness, gloves will explode in popularity, for all seasons, and all occasions. We will wonder how on earth how we ever lived our daily lives without them. It will be the polite, civilized way to keep one's hygienic distance. Not to mention a sudden windfall for glove makers.

just remember, you heard it at xanmade.blogspot.com first!

Friends Are Where You Find Them, Anyspace

As my blogging, Twittering and Second Life bring me into increasing contact with the Wiredensia, I notice I am connecting with a lot of ex-pats. It's logical, I suppose, that those far from their home community would try to find a social niche in cyberspace.

Being away from one's home is an odd experience. To travel is one thing: your bags packed with your necessities; your return plane ticket neatly tucked into the side pocket of your suitcase. Ah yes, you temporary visitor, you holiday-maker, you interloper. You are risking nothing. Consequently, many of you gain nothing on your five-day visits to Country B. But find yourself at the end of that brief holiday with no plane ticket back, no welcoming family nor regulars at the pub, no knowledge of where to get anything, well, that's a very different kind of look at Country B, indeed.

The quaintness and charm of new customs soon wears down to frustration and panic on days when the entire host country seems to be conspiring against any of your efforts to accomplish anything. At times like this, I used to say, I was "having a Bad Spain Day."

Bad Spain Days happened when my expat-ness was bludgeoning me at every turn. Never ask what a new ex-pat does all day. They are just trying to survive. They are trying to put gas in the car and buy bread and order half a kilo of sliced ham without looking ridiculous. This is stressful. So, they are drinking and sleeping a lot.

I can certainly draw parallel lines between my involvement with the internet and my time away from my home country, the USA.

Thanks my fellow Wiredensia, for making the expat life just a little more friendly. You know who you are. Ching ching.

(cartoon from weblogcartoons.com)

How to Lose Three Pounds in Three Days

After three weeks of watching what I eat and exercising at the gym, I had lost one pound, and I was miserable about this. What was the point of denying myself food and drinks that I loved? What was the point of traipsing to the gym and whirling like a gerbil on a wheel if I didn't get results?

After losing only one pound after weeks of fitness regimen, I thought, okay, I need to add or subtract something from this routine, or I need to go to a doctor and see what is wrong with my metabolism. At that moment I stumbled upon this

http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2007/08/riks-weight-los.html

and my weight loss began.
I just lost three pounds in three days, and I believe the key is to eat more vegetables than anything else. Here in the Netherlands, fortunately, it's very easy to eat healthy. When I'm feeling too busy to cut up a bunch of vegetables, I can buy them already cut-up and seasoned and simply pop them in my microwave using the same container I bought them in (I don't like to use the MW much, but that's another topic).

I realized that since I stopped smoking I had developed the candy habit. I had considered a simple jelly candy as No Big Deal, in the calorie department, but, those little sugar treats add up. Ditto for the endless cups of coffee I was drinking, usually accompanied by a heaping teaspoon of sugar.

Now, I still have milk in my coffee, but no sugar. I drink teas, like Chai, that have natural sweeteners. I have replaced the jelly candies with little bags of raw peas, carrots or snow peas. Yup. I munch on that stuff like it's candy and chips.

The interesting thing is, the more you eat like this, the easier it is to stay away from tempting goodies. Oh, I eat an egg in the morning (with a whole grain cracker) and I eat meat when I feel like my vegetables just aren't "hitting bottom," but the cakes, chips and candies are way outta there.

Bottom line: I think if you eliminate alcohol, sugar and white flour for even three days, and if most of your diet is vegetables, especially raw vegetables, you will drop a few pounds. Try it! All you have to lose is your weight!

Despair: Repair

Well, I have had a horrible couple of days, in terms of trying to get fit. The damn scale just wasn't budging. I was feeling like my Whirling Gerbil hours at the gym weren't getting me anywhere. I felt like I was never eating what I wanted. I was never satisfied, I was sliding into nobody-loves-me-everybody-hates-me mode, and it wasn't pretty.

I supposed another diet adjustment was in order. So, I cut coffee, since I can't seem to drink it without milk and sugar. Then, I stumbled upon a blog by Rikomatic, one of my friends at Twitter, and I think I may have a new answer. Vegetables.

Now, I am eating vegetables like a Psycho rabbit. After one day, I dropped a pound. Very encouraged.

Now with Happy Hair

Roots of Evil

these two photos from www

This morning I am starting anew. My crack whore days are over. Just like that. No lengthy treatment program. No intervention No gradual withdrawal. No cold turkey. All it took was the tenacity of a terrier and two hours with the woman who had turned me into a crack whore in the first place: my hairdresser.

I was never actually a crack whore, but for the last five weeks I have looked like one, thanks to my hair. When my hair doesn't look right, I feel off kilter. Once and a while I am forced to find a new hair professional. This always fills me with dread, and for good reason. Hair professionals nod sagely as you describe what you want. And when you end up with something that you did not want at all, they excel at the Blame-The-Victim routine, and with a word and a sneer they can destroy your self-confidence so that A) you start to think maybe you really are better off with this horrific style/color, or B) you think the unfortunate style/color is the result of your poor communication, not their poor comprehension.

So, you pay. You leave. You confront your significant other, who probably sees no change at all. You stand in front of the mirror flipping the hair this way and that, changing the part, holding it up. The Feeling begins to creep in. You have to face it. You look horrible. Sure, all nicely blown and primped and glazed, you felt rather glamorous, despite your misgivings, as you exited the salon. But now, it’s just you and your hair. And you are not happy. I know this feeling all too well.

Hair professionals have boosted my naturally dark blonde hair with highlights for many years,. Stylists have touched me up in Texas and streaked me in Spain. When I moved to Amsterdam and saw all the beautiful blondes, I was sure that I had arrived in Hair Heaven. Here I felt that the salon would listen when I spoke of natural blending and cool tones.

Indeed, the first hairstylist I approached made me feel completely understood . She described a highlighting process that was hers alone and surpassed all other methods. She spoke of clients that made special trips from Switzerland and France, such were her skills. I believed. I booked my appointment and imagined myself joining the throngs of pretty Dutch girls, swinging my perfectly lightened hair this way and that.

My hopes were soon to be dashed. The appointment did not go as planned. Halfway through working on me, the stylist decided to go upstairs for a nap, and turned me over to a young assistant who knew nothing of my desires. I repeated my careful instructions. I stressed that I wanted do avoid a brassy look and leave a lot of my original color. The assistant nodded, eager to understand., but I knew things had just turned for the worse.

Three hours later I emerged from the salon looking like a crack whore with a self dye job. For one fifth of the price, I could have picked up a few boxes at the supermarket and had the same result. My hair was one color, a sheet of brassy gold, and the dark roots were still visible.
I fretted and stewed and whined and ranted. I was miserable. My friends and family agreed: my 100-euro special highlights looked like a cheap bottle job.

After a bit more salon misadventure I am happy to report that I now have total control over my own hair color. Happy hair means happy Xanna. So, next I will write about this miracle product and maybe save some other Badly Drawn Blonde from Crack Whoredom.

Incompetent hairstylists beware: we have access to product, too, ya know. Product means power, hair power, and damn it, we’re taking it back!

Second Life wanderings

Oh, I love it when I wander into a new place in Second Life and I just happen to match the decor perfectly. Here I am August 2007 in the lobby of Pixel Pulse magazine.

Slump

Blargh. Insomnia. Guilty that I did not workout yesterday. It's 7 am. Technically, I could go to the gym, right now, I mean, it is open. Gee, there's a thought that will cure insomnia pretty quickly. Yep, just contemplating a workout right now definitely makes me feel like I could fall asleep immediately. Think I'll wash down a melatonin with the rest of my milk and take a little visit to the Land of Nod. I'll get back to ya on this Fitness thang.

Mental Attititude

( photo from www)

It helps to have a positive take on the whole gym thing.

Oh, I worked out yesterday, why bother. I need to (fill in the blank). I hate the gym. I don't feel like it. It's going to suck. I will be miserable, et cetera, et cetera.

Stop self-defeating thoughts. When you recognize them, switch them to something that works for you, something that keeps you on track. For me, I just keep my eye on the prize: I want to be Fit by the First, and spending time at the gym is one way to do that.

So, I like to think of it as Getting Gorgeous. I like to think of the gym as some sort of beauty salon. Like most beauty treatments, ugly and uncomfortable precedes beautiful and confident. But, it helps my motivation. Instead of, "Ugh, I need to go workout," I think, "Ooh, I'm gonna go get gorgeous."

By the end of September I will have been at this for six weeks. I'm thinking I will see results by then.

Anyone who wants to Join Xanna on Getting Fit By The First (of 08), just comment on any Fit By The First post. Still plenty of time to get ready for NEXT season's bikini!!!

Trip back to USA: Vermont

One of the strangest things about being an expat are the trips back to one's native land. Am I leaving home? Am I going home? What is home, exactly? A trip to the USA from Europe is always a big deal. It's expensive. Time-consuming. Full of emotional hellos and goodbyes. Seems like never enough time there, while simultaneously feeling like always too much time away from here.

This trip was no exception. How long have I been back in Amsterdam? A day? Eighteen hours? Two days? I'm still in a time-change fog. Sleeping all strange. Trying to fend off a sore throat. Mind reeling from all the comings and goings, flight delays, the hell that is air travel nowadays.

It's tough being an expat from a country as large as the USA. I have loved ones all over the country, and it's impossible to see everybody in the same trip. Mom, Bill and Brenda in Virginia, Dad in New York, Kristen in Dallas, David in DC, Grandmother in Pennsyvania, Jeanne in Austin. Just booking my USA destination can have me tearing my hair out with indecision.

I realized how huge the United States of America was when I lived in Europe for a while. Texas is the size of Spain. The Netherlands are roughly the size of Connecticut. Really, it's remarkable that the USA is still only one country. When I go back for a visit, I'm struck by the regional differences. California, Texas, New England...they all have their own cultures...almost like little countries.

This time I visited the lush green mountains of Vermont. I commend Vermont on their lack of billboards. Photographers be warned: allow double time to get around Vermont, because there is a must-have shot of breathtaking unspoiled scenery around every bend.

A shame, when the road crossed into upstate New York, how junky the same beautiful countryside looked with the sudden appearance of billboards. Vermont is similar to the Netherlands in this resistance to commercialism. Makes for a very pleasant, humane atmosphere. Another similarity: great dairy products. I think I overdosed on coffee just so I could keep drinking that amazing Vermont cream. Yum!

photo from www

One Pound Down!!!

SCALE SEZ ONE POUND LESS THAN WHEN I LEFT ON HOLIDAY! WOO HOO! Wicked trip home filled with weather delays, wrong ticketing and misplaced luggage, for starters, but ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. Sore throat, can't possibly workout out today, besides, my body clock is still on USA time. (photo from net)

Slimming on The Road

The Fitness Quest continues. This week: away from home.

There's nothing like spending a week away from home to derail your workout routine. Especially since, in my case, the practice of working out had barely begun. However, I was determined not to completely fall off the fitness wagon. I'm now sitting in the Albany airport awaiting my flight home, patting myself on the back for staying the course, well, pretty much.

Six nights of hotels, two workouts. Should have been three or four, but hey, two is not bad. Plus, I did in-room situps. Okay, just once, but, still. My alcohol consumption: one wine or beer a day. My God. Who am I? I used to live for the next drink. But man, does it pour on the calories.

I guess the most difficult thing was seeing people who had last seen me thinner. Since they did not see me at my heaviest, they don't realize I've lost weight. To their eye, I've gained. However, I just keep my eye on the prize. By God, I'm going to do everything in my power to be gorgeous by New Year's Eve. I think I did pretty well this week. Managed to make good choices at restaurants, sticking with broiled fishes and salads and veggies.

A little visual has helped me stick to the program. I was checking out the Simpleology principles, and one illustration really hit home. Imagine a drawing of a fat lady and an in-shape babe on the same page. A straight line is drawn from one to the other. Dotted along the straight line are pictures of lean meals and workout machines. Simple imagery, but effective. The straight line to fitness is exercising and lean eating.

By contrast, on another page was a picture of a fat lady, and another picture of a fat lady. A twisting turning line connects the two, and the path is dotted with images of fatty sweet foods and images of someone being sedentary. Yes. If you intend to lose weight but keep eating donuts and watching TV, you will remain fat.

Wanting to be thin while sitting for seven hours and snacking ain't gonna work. Want change? Then make changes.

For those just tuning in, I am embarking on a Fit By The First (of 08) campaign, and will be blogging about my efforts. Join me and share the ups and downs of slimming. Just comment on this blog to lose weight along with Xanna.