After all, you’ve been looking forward to an occasion to show off your sparkly new holiday dress. And the shoes, tights, belt and accessories you picked up to go with it. But remember that New Year’s Eve is notorious, no matter where you are, for record breaking injury, crime and carelessness. Take some time a few days in advance to prepare and ensure you have a blast.

After all, who wants to start off 2010 in detox, jail or the hospital?

1) Make a plan. NYE is not the night to bar-hop. With ridiculous cover charges, overpriced drinks and drunk drivers on the roads, it’s best to pick a place, get all of your buds to head there and rock the night away.

This also decreases the chance of getting split up. With the disorienting effects of alcohol you want to keep your crew intact to minimize the odds of anyone stumbling into a sticky situation solo.

2) Transportation is HUGE: no drinking and driving. If you all must drink you all must stay put. Period. Do some research: many cities offer free buses and cab rides on NYE. There are also services that will pick you up and drive your car home for you. Find those companies now and store their numbers in your phone just in case you need them. Or, load some pillows and blankets into your trunk and crash with a local friend.

3) To avoid ringing in the New Year with the toilet bowl, remember to eat something. Some munchies will help to line your stomach and decrease the risk of vomiting come morning. Also, stick to the drinks you know. Don’t go slamming jell-o shots or champagne if you’re not used to the effects. And remember: a) carbonation in your mixed drinks speeds absorption and b) sugary mixers like soda or juice can make it difficult to gauge how strong your drink is.

4) Bring condoms. Even if you’re not the “one night stand” type of girl, it’s better to be safe than a momma in 2010. And if you don’t need them, someone else will, and they’ll be ever so grateful they found you fixing your hair in the bathroom at 12:15.

Most importantly, look out for one another. This is the time to celebrate, so enjoy the quality time with your crew. Happy New Year!

Taking 20 credits, working two jobs, and writing your thesis doesn’t leave for a whole lot of free time, and that’s a pretty hard thing to adjust to. I usually like to procrastinate – I work better with a gun to my head, it seems. But now I have to work in advance, because I don’t have time to do things the way I normally do.

This weekend, I don’t even have time to drink. What is my world coming to?

As for lessons learned these past two weeks or so, I realized the value of backing your sh*t up like your life depends on it. My thesis chapter was due on Monday. I didn’t finish it until Tuesday. Now, because I have an older version of OpenOffice (a free version of Microsoft Office, essentially), when my computer decided to spazz out, I lost 11 out of 12 pages.

Cue comfort food binging.

I binge eat when I’m upset. It’s a problem I’ve been working on for a while now, but I’m worried that this year might drive me back to it – especially when I’m this upset at the very beginning of the semester.

I started work this week essentially calling old alumni and asking them to donate to the college. Some of them ask me what I’m doing when I get out of school, and my uncertain answer usually consists of some variation of “I don’t know.” I’ve always want to work with animals, but I want to continue writing. There doesn’t seem to middle choice that I can find right now…and I don’t really feel like entirely looking for it. I don’t like thinking about the future as it is – planning the next couple years of my life nearly on my own has be a little upset.

Okay, who am I kidding? I’m flipping out.

For now, though, I’m just going to plow through the next couple of days. And maybe on Monday – because I don’t have time to do it on Sunday – I’ll get my drink on. God knows I need it.

I think my senior year might turn me into an alcoholic, you guys.

[Picture courtesy gettyimages.com]

And I’m f*&cking incensed over it.

All I want to do today is be elbow deep in butter cream frosting and rub it all over my face like war paint, while making Indian battle cries over my victory of gluttony.

And I’m so irate over it, that I cursed my salad for tasting like a f*&cking salad, instead of a cupcake.

No, I’m not about to start my period. I’m just being reminded that my eating has to be conscious in order to not fall back into a period of my life that was unhealthy and dark. A period where I let my mind, stress, and brutal standards for myself take over.

I used to have an eating disorder.

Back then, I would never acknowledge that’s what it was, the words too difficult to even think in my head. I never CALLED what I had a disorder. Instead I used words like hardcore dieting, choosing healthy options, and on the bad days I was having a “Free day“- though most people’s free days didn’t include 4 stops to 4 different fast food chains, followed by 2 boxes of cereal, followed by candy bars, followed by liquor, followed by pastries, followed by immobility. And often followed by vomiting.

I went through a period of living solely off of Atkins Bars and Starbucks “replacement meals”, and took up “forgetting to eat”… then would indulge my ex when he brought me Starbursts and devoured the whole thing since all I’d eaten that day was a diet coke and a scoop of peanut butter. I only let him take me to dinner twice in the two years we were together. Twice.

I was in the midst of a culture (Los Angeles…of course) that would prefer my body to look like a prepubescent 12 year old girl, rather than that of a woman’s body–unless the curves were properly placed, i.e. Boobs, ASS, and tiny waist. This body is as rare as finding a wolf sauntering down the highway, though I figured if I couldn’t have THAT, I would look thin.

My thin 3/4 dress size was the biggest size at every audition. Every. Audition. I was always cast as a “character”, or “friend of” the leading lady.

The double zeros warped my mind so much that a desire to be thin (which started off as vanity) ended up a mind battle that had nothing to do with ME but with my thinking. The constant calorie checking on my cell phone calculator, people calling you “crazy” and not understanding whatsoever the inner battle, the intense two-a-days at the gym, the popcorn and hot coffee as a meal starting to burn my stomach, the thinking obsessively about what I COULD eat next….and then a day, or a week, or two would hit– and I’d feel so deprived I’d turn into a ravenous animal with absolutely no control over my desire to eat everything I saw.

It was an out of body experience, a loss of control so intense I can’t even IMAGINE behaving in this way now. I was feeling lack, self destruction, the need for perfection, and the need for control.

I have been healthy and completely safe from my previous behavior for a little over a year.

I have been kind to myself, patient and accepting of my body. Of food. I’ve allowed myself ice cream even if it meant I ate it 4 times a week. I’ve started cooking and baking and learning to appreciate the art of food.

And finally; I’ve accepted the curves of my stomach, the roundness of my face, the strength and contour of my legs, the length and grace in my arms and that little extra I carry in my ass.

But there are days, when I’m still reminded of the mindfulness that I have had to acquire to maintain balance and a healthy lifestyle.

I almost always want a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast, I almost always want to say yes to dessert, I almost always want to live off of thick macaroni and cheese and garlic bread and there are days when I almost look in the mirror and get angry for being less than an unrealistic standard of beauty. I realize, on those days, I have to change the standard and BE beauty, see it in myself–be my own Dove campaign.

On those days, I have to remind myself of how far I’ve come and how strong I’ve become. How I made it through a situation and a lifestyle that didn’t even seem abnormal to me in Hollywood. I have to remind myself that food is to be celebrated and enjoyed, that macaroni and cheese can be amazing if it isn’t “the enemy” and that red velvet cake shouldn’t be forbidden breakfast, but an indulgence that is a pleasure.

I have to remind myself that a lot of people don’t understand, but a lot of people do….and I have overcome this gracefully and will continue to accept and live in the body and mind I’ve been given.

And if you’ve been there–you can too.

Then came Weight Watchers, and I realized that dieting doesn’t have to be absolutely miserable.

I’m not going to lie to you and say it’s all sunshine and daisies. Changing your eating habits is not fun. It takes me a good 2 weeks to get in the dieting mentality, and I bitch and moan during all of it.

I want to eat all the time. I don’t want to look at nutrition facts or give up bagels or happy hour. I just want to feel better and get some sort of instant gratification, which is just not the way the game is played. If you want anything good, you’ve got to be willing to work toward it. And so, you suck it up and deal.

With WW you’re looking at three key nutrition facts: fat grams, calories, and dietary fiber. You’re allowed a certain number of points per day, depending on your weight at present, and you spend them however you want. If you really want that bagel, go for it. It’s 6 points without shmear. Budget ‘em wisely. You also earn more points for yourself to eat by working out, AND you get a weekly budget of 35 Flex Points with the Flex plan, which can be spent however you want in addition to your daily allotment.

The great thing is that veggies save you, because they’re practically no points. Green vegetables (all types of salad greens, green beans, asparagus, green pepper, broccoli, etc.) are zero points, so eat up! Fruits aren’t too bad, apples and oranges are 1 point each and bananas are 2 a piece. You can have a cup of grapes, a cup and a third of strawberries or a cup of blueberries for one point each as well.

Basically, you’re trying to learn how to fill yourself up with food that’s actually good for you. Maybe it’s easier to eat a protein bar for 5 points than sit down and have three scrambled eggwhites (1 point) with green pepper and onion (no points) and 2 slices of dry wheat toast (2 points), but you’d be surprised how full you’ll feel after that extra ten minutes of effort.

There are great WW resources online, including their own website. Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone, www.dwlz.com, has a list of restaurants and point values for items on their menu so the math is done for you. You can also Google generic Points values for foods and double-check that a chicken breast is 3 and a cup of skim milk is 1.

I’m not advocating that everyone needs to be on a diet, or that this is ideal for everyone, but it did work for me and helps me maintain my weight without feeling as though I’m starving. Also, I don’t weigh myself because I find that numbers depress me or stress me out. I gauge my dieting success by how my clothes fit and how I’m looking and feeling. Feel free to ask any questions if it’s something you might be interested in!