Out of the bad, into the good

Sweets have always been a huge temptation for me. Social events make turning down the temptation even harder. I went to a new friends' bridal shower yesterday, and my good eating went out the window for the day. The meal itself, I did ok. While I did eat 2 servings of starch (au gratin potatoes and egg noodles), I also ate 2 servings of vegetables, and 1 serving of lean protein. I made the mistake of taking a small piece of dark chocolate, and the flood hit me. I went looking for more sweets, and had a chocolate chip cookie bar and a piece of fudge. Then, they brought out the ice cream cake, and put a piece directly in front of me.
I need to cut this shit out! I need to concentrate on getting back on track; out of the bad mindset that comes with green-lighting bad-for-you foods, and into the good mindset that says "no thanks" and DOESN'T feel guilty about it.
Every goal needs a plan, so I planned my meals - all of them - breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks - for this week. I'm going to the gym at work tomorrow night, and will do a workout on my stability ball tonight. If this insane mid-60 degree weather lasts the week, I'll hit the park for a walk on Saturday. If it doesn't, I'll do one of my aerobics tapes, or go to the cardio room at my apartment complex.
Matt is being his usual helpful, supportive self. We got into a stupid spat last night, and made up this morning. He made me breakfast, and packed my lunch for me. He's even making dinner tomorrow night so it's ready when I get home from the gym. Him helping out with meals is a huge way to help me stay on track. My excuse for not going to the gym at work more is that my snack doesn't hold me over long enough to get home and make dinner - I end up snacking so much waiting for dinner to be ready that I shouldn't eat the meal once it's done! And I hate the idea of eating another meal at work, regardless of whether I brought lunch or not. I eat lunch by myself almost every day; I find it much easier to eat alone at home than I do at work. So, with Matt making dinner for me and having it ready when I get home from the gym, there'll be no snacking - just eating the meal I'm supposed to. :)

Wedding Planning, part 1 of infinity...

I am sure to be doing a great deal of talking about my wedding plans over the next year and a half. Matt thinks I'm going to have the whole thing planned in 3 months at the rate I'm going. So far, we've decided on:
our bridal party, composed of a mix of family and good friends
our colors - red and black
bridesmaids dresses - I've told my bridesmaids to pick out their own dress, so long as it is black, floor-length, and elegant.
and a time of year - summer 2009

I'd begun looking for non-church venues at which to have our ceremony, when it occurred to me that Matt and I haven't talked about the where portion of our wedding in a long time. We talked about it, and he said that it seemed odd for us to be married outside of a church when everyone in both of our families has been married inside a church. A week or so later, Matt said that he'd been thinking about it, and with how large his family is compared to mine, he felt like we should do something else to make sure my family had some sort of equal representation - that we should look into getting married at a Methodist church. I'm thrilled. I have no problems with having a priest helping to officiate at my wedding; I think it's a great way to make sure that we honor both of the faiths in which we were raised. My problem with getting married in a Catholic church is the number of promises I'll have to make that I am not necessarily comfortable making. I'm not sure which faith I want our children baptized in; what I would really like to see happen is for our children to have equal exposure to both the Methodist and Catholic churches, and when they're old enough, let them decide which, if either, church they want to become associated with. I have a hard time with the fact that the Catholic church does not allow women to serve as priests, or in a priest's capacity. I want children; I don't want to promise a priest that I "understand my Catholic husband's responsibility regarding the children." I attended services at a Methodist church close to my apartment this morning to check it out for my wedding. It's a beautiful church, the style is very English - lots of dark, warm, rich wood detail in the sanctuary, a large altar area - simple, but elegant. The cover of the wedding brochure they gave me has a quote from The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, (1992), which I really identify with: "We affirm the sanctity of the marriage covenant which is expressed in love, mutual support, personal commitment, and shared fidelity between a man and a woman. We believe that God's blessing rests upon such marriage, whether or not there are children of the union. We reject social norms that assume different standards for women than for men in marriage."
Amen.
The church I went to this morning is very flexible and reasonable when it comes to not only price, but how you want your wedding ceremony to be. They had no problems with me wanting to bring in not only a priest, but also my own minister. If Matt and I don't use a minister from their church, we also don't need to attend their pre-wedding counseling (it's the responsibility of the clergy performing the ceremony to cover this with us).
I appreciate that kind of flexibility. The Methodist Church downtown I was looking into initially is absolutely beautiful - much more gothic cathedral than protestant church. But you must use their clergy, anyone else involved in officiating must be approved, all music must be reviewed and approved, you can't use an aisle runner, etc. Now, granted, most of this isn't a big deal, it's just that I feel very welcomed by the freedom afforded by the church close to home. And, an extra $1000 for the ceremony isn't exactly welcoming, either!
I'm very hopeful that Matt doesn't change his mind and that we will be married in a Methodist church. A church is far less expensive, and much more personal, than anywhere else I've looked.