Introducing... Happy Moments of the Day

In an attempt to bring more positive energy into my life (I've been feeling out of sorts lately... I totally blame winter for this), I have decided that from now on, each day, I will jot down what I oh-so-creatively refer to as "Happy Moments of the Day". I decided to write them down in a little notebook/journal as they occur, so if I start feeling negative or discontent, I can just whip out the notebook and remember all the good things that happened that day, and not the bad, and to appreciate all the little things that occur throughout the day. I tried it out today, and I must say, I think it helped- I was in a pretty upbeat mood all day today! Maybe all those psychologists and "joy experts" are onto something!

Without further adieu, I present you with today's happy moments of the day!

*I had a very tasty bowl of oatmeal this morning.

*My first day back at work from Thanksgiving vacation was not as painful as I thought it would be... I was busy enough to feel productive, but not so busy I felt bogged down or overwhelmed. I was not inundated with e-mails, and I had no voice mails waiting for me- believe me, I have learned from experience, that is a good thing... people usually only leave messages when there's a problem! Guess there were no "proofreading emergencies" in my absence! :-)

*I received several compliments from coworkers on the sweater I wore today.

*I had a great first cup of back-to-work coffee (we have a coffee club at work and we each bring in all kinds of yummy flavored coffees... my contribution this month is Gingerbread Cookie- we haven't opened it yet but I'm excited to try it)- Chocolate Truffle! I threw in some fat-free half-and-half and a Splenda packet (yes, Splenda, I know, I know, I'm working on it! I'm down to one packet per cup, and believe me, for someone who used to use SEVERAL packets of Equal PER cup of coffee, this is a huge improvement!!!), and it tasted just like a mocha!

*I had a GREAT workout at the gym today- 45 minutes on the epliptical + cooldown+ some leg weights... it was great! It felt so good to get in a good workout, because I really feel like my past few workouts have been a bit lackluster.

*I started Consuming Kids on my lunch break today, and it's GREAT so far! It's interesting and informative but not boring, you know? And it's really disturbing just HOW badly advertisers target children! I read today that children see 400,000 commercials every year. That's crazy!!!! And it's especially dangerous to target children at such a young age because then they grow up thinking that they need all these material possessions in order to be "cool" or "happy" or "popular", etc.... and because they are too young to have fully developed their information and judgment skills, they're especially vulnerable to these messages. Also, according to the book, 26% percent of children under the age of TWO had TVs in their room back when this book was written in 2004! Oh my God! Why does a two-year-old need a TV in their room??? And I'm sure that number has only increased within the past four years... that's so messed up. Anyway, the book has all sorts of interesting (and kind of sad) statistics like this. I'm only on page 13 and I'm already loving it!

*I had a very yummy- and simple- dinner- a Gardenburger Chik'n Patty with spinach and some crushed red pepper, turmeric, and chopped onion, and steamed broccoli and carrots on the side- I have completely given up with rolling up wraps the way that Chandra does- I just rolled this up, LOL. Whatevs- it tasted great! I wasn't very hungry for dinner, so this was perfect. I had planned on finishing up the meal with some grapes, but since I finished dinner so late (past 9), I figured I'd snack on them with some Apple Cinnamon soy chips for dessert.

All in all, a good day! Hope everyone else had a good day too! I'm off to watch Stylista and Top Chef- later, kids! :-)