A miracle has happened to me. Yes, a flat out miracle. I’ve found a diet that WORKS for me. Believe me, no one is more shocked. I’ve been on lots of different diets, most of them somewhat half-hearted. Mostly, my theory has been exercise to death and then eat what you want. That worked for a while until body parts started breaking. Knees, wrist, hip, feet. You name it, I’ve had pain there. And medication.

But the moment I started empty nesting, I began shifting my eating habits. Not out of intention but laziness. Yup. LAZY. That’s me. I hate cooking. Let me restate that. I HATE, DESPISE, DETEST and LOATHE cooking. So, I began eating fruits and vegetables because they required no cooking. My husband is a gem in that he will make a sandwich for himself or happily pick up semi-fast food on his way home. So, if I don’t want to cook, I don’t have to. And guess what? I didn’t want to.

So I began eating what I later learned was called a RAW DIET. All live food. Fruits, nuts, and veggies. And it turns out, it’s one of California’s newest diet crazes. Who knew I was being trendy? I thought I was lazy.

Well, this January I ended up going 100% raw. The reasons for this change are myriad, but it comes down to the energy work I do in my spare time. Everything has a vibrational rate. The higher the rate, the easier energy healing goes. Living foods have the highest rate. Dead foods have low rates. Ergo, eat living/raw food. Plus (added benefit), live foods tend to be alkaline (basic) as opposed to acidic. Diseases including cancer have a hard time living in alkaline environments. Since raw food reduces body acidity, it can have enormous health benefits.

In any event, I went raw. I bought a blender and have a smoothie for breakfast, huge salad at lunch, and whatever I feel like in the evening. Oh, and nuts all day long. (I LOVE NUTS!) I can eat all I want, whenever I want. But I’m not nearly as hungry, and the weight has been coming off. About 2 lbs a week which is a steady, safe pace. Plus, my energy work is better than ever. By a huge margin! Caffeine and dairy were the hardest to give up, but I really haven’t missed them that much.

Here’s my problem. This is supposed to be a LIFE STYLE choice, not a temporary diet. I’m doing fine because I’m sitting at home, writing my newest novel and going no where. Easy to not eat pasta and cheesecake because no one is offering it to me. What do I do when I travel? What about when a friend asks me out to lunch? My good writing reward was usually a lunch out with Elizabeth Hoyt at the end of the week. That’s gone now too. Do I really want to eat salad every day? That’s no fun when there’s chocolate mousse in the offering.

So…my question to you is what have you done when dieting AND dining out? Does the diet go out the window? Or do you typically find a compromise? And what about conferences? A week away on rubber chicken? Forget the diet, that gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it!

I want to live at the North Pole with Santa Claus. I have this idea that everything is perfect there. They most definitely have a white Christmas. There’s always enough hot chocolate to go around, and there are lots of elves to help with everything from toy making to house cleaning.

I could use a few good elves. I need an elf to help me promote my upcoming Blaze, “Take Me If You Dare.” I need an elf to finish my annotated bibliography for a school project. I need an elf to do my holiday shopping and write those holiday cards. I need an elf to write these three proposals for new book projects that I promised before the first of the year. One of those pointy-shoe folks to do the cooking and the cleaning. One to write all my TV and movie columns over the holiday would be nice. And those are only the first few things on my list for December.

My children will tell you I’m short enough to make a perfectly good elf, and quite honestly if I could clone myself I would. What I’ve learned over the years is that when it comes to holidays, you do what you can. I try to get done the things that make me and my family happy, and the ones that pay the bills.

That means I may not send out those holiday cards, but I will provide a lovely buffet meal on Christmas Eve for family and friends. I will most likely do the majority of my shopping online, though at least one day I’ll stop by the mall to enjoy the decorations and to get that feeling of the holiday bustle.

I’m determined that I will make time to do the things I enjoy. That might mean working some late nights the first part of the season, but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make. I will DVR my favorite holiday programming, Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, A Charlie Brown Christmas, to watch while I’m wrapping presents. Ugh. I’m so bad at wrapping presents. I can’t tell you how many times someone has said, “Oh, how sweet, you let your kids do the wrapping.” I’m not kidding. I know they make those beautiful bags you can just slide stuff in, but I like watching people rip open that paper. We’ve already decorated for the most part. By we’ve, I mean my husband set up the tree, and I did everything else.

This year we are traveling for Christmas Day, which means even more to do. But it’s okay. We’ll have Christmas Eve here, as we have since the kids were tiny. None of it matters as long as we are together. My kids are older and I know there will come a time in the future when I will have to share them, but for now I’m holding on as tight as I can. The best part of the holiday for me is when we are sitting around on Christmas Eve singing carols. The kids grump and complain, but the one year we didn’t get to do it because of a family illness, they were depressed.

Normally, Christmas isn’t about the gifts for me, but I’ve been very lucky in that department the last couple of years. This year all I want is for us to be happy, healthy and together. Though, um, I will be purchasing all those December Blazes for myself.

So I want to hear about your plans for the holidays. I’d love to hear about some of your holiday traditions, food or fun stories from the past. Is there a gift you want for this Christmas? Don’t be shy! If you don’t celebrate Christmas, tell us about your holiday traditions too. I’m always curious.

Santa, if you’re reading this. I’ve been very good this year, except for that one time, and um… You know what? Never mind.

Happy Holidays Ya’ll

I love Thanksgiving. I know those of you in other parts of the world may not understand, but in America it’s big holiday that is focused on two things – eating and sleeping. I don’t know about you, but those happen to be two of my favorite things. Oh, I know, it’s also supposed to be about giving thanks. And I am thankful for so many things my family, my friends and my career. Oh, my dog Gizmo just jumped in my lap. Yes, I’m grateful for my dogs too. (He’s so pushy.) In fact, I feel so blessed that it’s hard for me to sleep sometimes, which is why I need those naps on Thanksgiving day.

Seriously, how can you not nap on Thanksgiving Day? The food, from those carbs in the yams to the Tryptophan in the turkey is tailor made for snoozing. And it forces one of those drooling-on-the -pillows-zombie kind of zonks. You know what I’m talking about. If you wake up and you don’t have serious pillow case lines on your face, it wasn’t a real nap. It’s the only time I’m rude when there are guests in the house. If they aren’t gone an hour and half after Thanksgiving lunch, I have to excuse myself with a headache (all that stress of preparing the meal, ya know), curl up with a good book and then get my nap on. (It’s important to get as much rest as possible on Thanksgiving Day, because the next day is all about shopping. I’ll talk more about that in another post.)

So here’s how it usually goes down here in the Havens house:

If we’re having the meal here, and we usually are, I’m up early to make sure the turkey and the roast are on. Then I start preparing all the side dishes. I don’t have to do many of those, because it’s pot luck and the rest of the family brings sides and desserts. There are HAVENS STAPLES for every holiday. These include Cheezy Green Beans, cranberry sauce (I’ll share the recipe for my favorite in a bit) and some kind of sweet potato/yam dish. The food is put out in a banquet style, because at the minimum we’ll have 20 peeps to feed, and it’s usually more. We have family spread out all over the downstairs at various tables and it’s a blast. The more people eat, the sillier they get. My face usually hurts I laugh so much. And then everyone leaves and it’s nap time. It’s a really wonderful day.

I want to hear about how you spend your Thanksgiving Day. Do you help out at a soup kitchen? Do you have favorite foods? What traditions do you have?

To show my thanks for you guys hanging out on the Blaze Blog here’s one of my favorite recipes for Cranberry Sauce. I found it in the November 2007 issue of Domino Magazine.

Cranberry-Clementine Sauce
Serves 8-10
2 clementines
2 packages (12 oz) fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
Slice clementines thin (with skin on) and then place in a sauce pan with the cranberries, sugar and 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer and cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool before serving.

It’s so easy, and so tasty! People will think it took you forever to make.

Happy Thanksgiving, Ya’ll