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It’s easy to fall into bad habits. Coffee, shopping, men, late-night TV, nail biting, smoking, impulsive spending, littering and general laziness. I’m sure we could build a huge list together if we tried. We’ve all got our bad habits and our vices, and falling into that rabbit hole seems to take no effort whatsoever.

My bad habits? I have had a daily Starbucks habit of one grande americano and one muffin. It dinged my bank account of $4.57 each morning, which to me seemed like pocket change.

Photo: KnownColour on Flickr

So I added it up…

$4.57 x 5 days/week = $22.85/week

$22.85/week x 4 weeks/month = $91.40/month

I was spending almost $100 every month on java beans, water and (fattening) muffins. Not only that, most days out of the week I was buying my lunch, so at about $6 per day and 3 days per week, that’s close to another $100 a month.

Laziness is an all-consuming slippery slope. Why get up 10 minutes early in the morning to make my lunch when I can sleep for those extra 10 minutes?

I made a choice to make an effort to change that pattern. If bad habits are so easy to fall into, shouldn’t good habits be just as simple?

Bringing lunches to work, getting to the gym on a regular schedule, drinking tea at the office instead of hitting up Starbucks, making concious decisions about what I need to buy and being honest with myself about what I don’t really need… shouldn’t I be able to implement these habits with just as much simplicity? Shouldn’t what’s smart be just as easy to make routine?

I’ve cut back to one Starbucks trip per week (plus my trainer told me that cutting out caffeine will help me lean out even more) and limit myself to buying my lunch only on Fridays. The best part? I don’t sweat about the number in my bank account anymore because it’s not getting dinged on a daily basis.

After a tough, teary week of work for Jen and a potential “Mexicoma” lurking in my future, Jenny and I decided that a day dedicated solely to making ourselves feel good was absolutely key. Kicking off the day with peppermint mochas and cranberry bliss bars from Starbucks was non-negotiable.

Mission No. 1: SPCA‘s Toy Drive for the Animals at the Vancouver shelter. Particularly at Christmas, every charity under the sun is in exceptional need of help. While all charities are worthwhile and important, it should be known that the SPCA receives zero funding from any level of government, including municipal. Local shelters are 100% reliant on the generosity of you and me. Jenny and I Skytrain’d it out to Superstore in an attempt to stretch our dollars.

We walked away with four boxes of milk bones, dog toys, cat toys, cat treats, bunny food, rodent food, hamster food, gerbil fluff and a few other items that our shelter desperately needs.

After leaving our donation with administration, I took Jenny to the kennel area for a quick tour. There, I met and fell in love with Buddy. His family moved and couldn’t take him with them, and it was apparent by his instant liking to me that he craved attention and affection.

We also met Max, a black lab who got the boot when baby no. 1 came along. Pardon my self-righteous rant, but when you have a dog, he or she is family and that’s not up for debate. When the going gets tough, the tough don’t get rid of their dog. Dogs are a lifelong commitment, and one that should not be taken lightly.

Of course we couldn’t leave without having our photo taken with Santa. He was a pervy Santa. “So have you girls been good this year or naughty?” After trying endlessly to convince us to sit on his lap, he threw in a “Wow…I can’t decide which of you girls smells better” for good measure.

We ran into John and Rebecca at the Broadway Skytrain station.

Following our SPCA adventure, we may have found ourselves at Holt Renfrew. Also, we may have taken advantage of their 40% off designer sale. That said, we may have walked away with some new Marc Jacobs goods. And a sale like that calls for celebratory manicures.

I opted for OPI’s “Siberian Nights.”

Jenny said “You Make Me Vroom.” I think she was talking to Mick Dundee.

Pretty nails!

The end to a fabulous day calls for delicious pinot noir. My red wine of choice? Firesteed from Oregon. Yum.

Oh and we also had Indian food. It was pretty much the worst frickin’ butter chicken I’ve had in my life. I hope to rectify that disappointment next weekend.

That’s it for now, folks. And now, back to Crocodile Dundee 2.

P.S. I just received an e-mail from the SPCA’s Vancouver shelter and found out that over $10,000 in cash and item donations was received this afternoon. I want to send out a huge thank you to all who helped out and contributed to this worthwhile cause. Buddy and all his friends are grateful!

“In a world where celebrity equals talent, and where make-believe is called reality, it is most important to have real love, truth and stability in your life.”

- Bernie Brillstein, Film and television producer

How differently would our day-to-day world look if more people held on to this belief and truly understood the meaning of what love is?

Photo courtesy of mojoey on Flickr