You know how there are some things that you just can’t imagine living without? Maybe it’s an appliance, or your phone, or a favorite food? I was thinking about a few of these things today and I thought it would be fun to list some of my favorites – in no particular order. I would love to have you join in and provide your favorites – but since my blog gets way too much spam if I open it up for comments, I think I’m going to suggest that you add your favorites on Facebook (www.facebook.com/GardenGirlSkinCare). If you aren’t already a fan (or whatever they call it now) – please do click on the “like” button so you can be a part of the community.

Anyway -  here is my random mix of favorite things. Clearly it is not comprehensive or exhaustive, but it was fun to create!

• My family (I know that’s obvious but this list wouldn’t be complete without it)
• My friends (see above)
• Garden Girl products (of course!), my personal “must have’s”: You’re Fresh, Even Stephen, Break Free, Nature Nurture, Super Hero serum, Eye Can’t Believe It, Chill Out lotion, Alive body wash,  Simmer Down bath salts, Hand it to You hand cream and Zippity Do Dah peppermint foot cream
• My new VitaMix!
• Our SodaStream soda/seltzer machine
• White vinegar (for cleaning and laundry)
• My tumble composter from Costco (so easy!)
• My husband’s old (2003) Prius – such a great car
• My BlackBerry
• My laptop
• Facebook
• Mineral makeup
• Greek yogurt
• Chocolate
• Banana Bread
• Smoothies
• Gooey brownies
• Hot fudge
• Ice cream (Brigham’s Mocha Chip or Chocolate Chip are 2 all-time favorites)
• Broccoli (seriously)
• Spinach (again, seriously)
• Juicy tomatoes in the summer – especially with fresh mozzarella and basil! (and crusty bread)
• speaking of bread….CARBS (but I try to squeeze in whole grains whenever possible) – especially chewy, crusty bread and pasta
• A big salad with tons of stuff in there – especially if someone else did all the chopping
• Shortcut dinners like all natural frozen potstickers from Costco, Mama Rosie’s spinach ravioli, Bell & Evan’s chicken, Trader Joe’s mandarin orange chicken, Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice, quesadillas, omelettes
• My rice cooker
• My Kitchen Aid mixer
• My favorite cookbooks: America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, Gourmet cookbook, and King Arthur Flour Cookie Book
• Cooking Light magazine
• Epicurious.com and other online recipe databases
• Food Network
• Any good workout I can find that’s 20 minutes or less and that I can do at home
• Our Weber Grill
• My latex mattress
• Central air conditioning (i know – VERY un-eco-friendly but we do keep it on the warm side)
• Caribbean Sol sunblock
• Caribbean Sol all natural self tanner (nice!)
• Trader Joe’s Powerberries (DO NOT BUY these if you are not already addicted – they are so yummy that they are pure evil…)
• Our pizza stone
• Pizza dough from Russo’s
• Actually – Russo’s in general, along with Trader Joe’s (can’t imagine life without it), Costco, and Whole Foods
• Reusable grocery bags (just seems like an obviously good idea, doesn’t it? and now I have finally gotten the hang of always having them in the car…)

I could do an entire list of my favorite food from Trader Joe’s – actually I think I have in the past? And I know I’ve done a “favorite finds at Costco” Facebook posting. Those are always fun!

Anyway – that’s my random list, for better or for worse. It makes me laugh that it is mostly food – apparently I have a one-track mind…

I’m looking forward to hearing what some of your favorites are!

Perseverance. That’s how I would sum up today. I actually refused all of the sweet and savory temptations that came my way. Yummy Udon noodles (another weakness), potato chips and HUGE incredibly tasty looking cookies at a lunch meeting. Birthday cake, chips and salsa, guacamole dip at a birthday party. I couldn’t even believe it. This is NOT my thing – I basically don’t possess willpower. I can’t figure out where it came from.

I literally sat in a big lunch meeting today like a total dork and brought out my carefully packed salad with salmon (which tasted good but not nearly as good as those Udon noodles would have), and my cantaloupe (which by this time is starting to be only a tiny bit appealing after having eaten it for the past 4 meals).

Later, I announced to co-workers that I was off to enjoy my snack of turkey, nuts and apple. The looks I got were not of interest or admiration, but more of general puzzlement. And tonight at my friend’s birthday party, I had to leave when they brought out gooey chocolate cake. It pretty much doesn’t get more tempting for me than that. But I did it!

Dinner and the evening snack were not easy, but I persevered. Just one more day to go!

And I’m so proud of my husband who went along with this until he realized he blew it by drinking coffee (a big no-no) – and eating pretzels while making dinner. But he’s done pretty well, especially since he was bamboozled into this whole thing.

I’m sure for those of you who have dieted before, you’re thinking I’m a big whiner. That is true. I know. For Pete’s sake it’s only 3 days! We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. The thought of grilled salmon for 2 more meals is not doing it for me at this point…