I’m feeling pretty lazy at the moment, and to the guilt that slowly creeps in every 10 minutes or so, I say “I’m not gonna take it anymore!” This is the point of holidays – setting aside days without a to-do list ruling every moment, days that can mean wonderful conversations with loved ones, or just sitting on the couch, lazily checking emails, E!online, King of Queens in the background.

You know I had to go there. We all need a little reminder here and there about how to take care of ourselves during this jolly, giving season which is truly about…consuming as much alcohol, sugar, and refined goodies as possible. Ow, my pancreas hurts just thinking about it. Don’t worry, I’ll make this short and sweet so that you can head off to your Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa/Pagan rum-laced and fruitcake-filled party. Hey, HEY – wait! At least take this probiotic before you head out the door, and maybe a shot of some liver-protecting herbs, like Herb Pharm Healthy Liver Tonic, a personal fav. Don’t forget to take some more (most people put it in water, I’m a straight out of the bottle kinda gal) before you go to bed. If you are still listening, here are some other health tips so that January 1 doesn’t feel like a toilet seat imprint on your cheek from sleeping on it ’til six in the morning.

Need some belly lovin’? How about a little swish swish of those insides (oh, especially come January 1?).

We find ourselves at that point of the year. You know, the busy, insane part that ends up looking like sitting in traffic to get the presents bought and dragging ourselves to every last holiday party even though we hit our breaking point on December 2nd. Funniest thing about all these shenanigans is that it’s actually just about the best time of the year to sit and reflect. I believe, even as I book my tickets for 85 X-mas themed events over the next five days, that this is the true point of December/Winter/New Years. But somewhere along the way, we lost that innate tendency to reflect as our lives, and desires, took over. Some of us (my generation, ahem) have never known it any other way. Which is why, when I received two little gifts of stimulating questions on Friday, couple with a piece I wrote at BNT several weeks ago about developing a personal manifesto, I looked up at the sky and said, “ok, I get it.” Time to ponder 2009, and slowly and gently bring it to a close.

All anyone ever seems to be talking about these days (and really all days) is how much we need to change. Change our hair color. Change our bodies. Change our attitude. Change our nose, eyes, chin, eyebrows, the space between the eyebrows, jiggly thighs, untoned (is that a word?) ass. What is so wrong with all of us that we feel we need to change everything physically, emotionally, and mentally about ourselves? Is what comes at the end of these “changes” really better? Look at Joan Rivers, for pete’s sake. Well, I guess one reason that change is a part of all of our vocabularies is that it’s the only constant in life. Change comes whether we like it or not. And so maybe to a certain extent, we see deciding to make changes as a way of getting ahead of the forces that will eventually force the changes we don’t want on us.

Despite the hoopla over Climategate, don’t go out and buy four Hummers yet. There’s some purty depressing realities out there, including the fact that global warming has outpaced predictions. Yep, that means things are already worse than experts thought they would be at this point. Looks like by the end of this century, sea levels are gonna rise by two meters, or around six feet. And guess what? We’ve already passed the tipping point. According to Stefan Rahmstorf, a scientist at Germany’s Potsdam Institute and a widely recognized sea level expert, it’s officially unstoppable: “There is no way I can see to stop this rise, even if we have gone to zero emissions.”

I’ve been creating and doing these weird life experiments with myself for decades and this one is the most powerful so far. I’m re-upping for another week and am inviting you to join me. It was way different than what I expected. This is not at all about being perky or fake, just letting those automatic judgments pass on through instead of knitting them into a sweater to wear – or if you are a geek like me, it means giving them a neutral value instead of a negative one. The BIG difference is the almost complete lack of the word “should” in my vocabulary or my head. Before trying the Whine-Free Week, I had much resistance to certain kinds of action. I see now that enormous amounts of my energy were going into coaxing, cajoling, badgering and scaring myself into doing what I “should” do. No wonder I was both weary and rebellious.