The Secret in Guilty Pleasures and My Guilty Pleasure #1

My Guilty Pleasure #1 hidden in my bathroom

I confess. I read People magazine. It is a great bathroom, dentist waiting room and hair salon reading material. Its a great rag to read when you are having to hang out. My husband has always given me a hard time about my love of People. I think he is actually a bit shocked that I enjoy it so much since it is not like anything else I read. Basically he thinks of it as gossip porn. There is some truth to that.

My thinking is that People is an easy way to read the world's happenings and trends. History is made by the actions of its people. People just makes it palatable to find out what is going on. I also happen to enjoy the style tips and recipes. It has a little bit of everything to satisfy my need to be in the know.

Remember the movie Working Girl? I always use it as an example of the value of People magazine. A key part of the story is that Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) uses information from a tabloid newspaper to come up with a great business deal idea. I rest my case.

Why am I confessing this to you after all these years? I have come to realize we all need guilty pleasures in our lives. They are a way to release stress, allow ourselves some indulgence and also give us the means to "get away with" something not ordinarily considered acceptable in our lives. There is something really satisfying about a guilty pleasure. It heightens our enjoyment in a moment in time. It can even make the drudgery of life seem more bearable. This can be good for our health.

The key to guilty pleasures is to find ones that can enhance your health and healthy living rather than being counter to them. The goal is to make a guilty pleasure one that makes you sigh with satisfaction while putting a rye smile on your face without the consequences of overindulgence. With that in mind I have started thinking about things I do in my life that could qualify as guilty pleasures. What do I love to do that allows me to feel secretly indulgent, carves out a moment of pleasure and ends with me sighing with satisfaction, ready to take on my daily life again? I was surprised how many I could come up with. It kind of made me smile with satisfaction.

For now I confess to my first guilty pleasure:

Guilty Pleasure #1: Reading People Magazine with a Cup of Green Tea 


Stay tuned. There are more to follow.


Enjoy! And Live Vibrant!