Valentines Day is just  a few  days away – are you  ready for it? Have you made a conscious choice to make it a super fun time for yourself without drowning in chocolate and sugar? In other words, are you choosing to focus on the fun, love, and joy in the day instead of the food?

Well whether you are paired up or single, I have a few ideas for you on how to celebrate Valentine’s Day without making it all about the food. Yep, holidays and special occasions can really be  tons of  fun and they don’t have to  be excuses to get a sugar high, if you choose to make it about the people instead.

Ok, now let’s look at three fun, non-chocolate  ideas for Valentine’s Day:

1. Message in a Bottle: This is a really neat idea, and there’s no chocolate involved. 😉 It’s a company who puts your message to your loved one in a bottle but instead of tossing it out to sea, they send it for you UPS…without your return address on the box! So, when it’s received, your loved one won’t know who it’s from until they take the message out of the bottle, unscroll it, and read it!

You choose the bottle and you can either choose a previously written message, write the message yourself, or have one of their writers write it for you. This is the first I’d heard of this even though they say it was voted the #1 most romantic gift on Oprah. It was  especially interesting to me since I watched Love in the Time of Cholera over the weekend, which was about a man who had a gift for writing love letters.

2. Cuddle up with a Romantic Movie: Speaking of romantic movies like  Love in the Time of Cholera, this is a great way to spend a low-key Valentines Day, perhaps after cooking a healthy yet  tasty dinner  for two (or one!) at home. So  here are  a few more romantic flicks you could check out:

1. The Painted Veil – Oddly enough this film also  includes the topic of cholera (no, I’m not on a cholera kick, lol). It’s quite good, starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. He’s a bacteriologist and they leave  the city to  travel to the site of a cholera outbreak in the  countryside of China. Needless to say, they aren’t on good terms in their marriage  when they begin their journey…
2. Bram Stoker’s Dracula – This is an older movie, with Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder. It’s probably the most romantic story of Dracula that I’ve ever seen, and it also stars Keauna Reeves and Anthony Hopkins. Highly recommend if you like not only romance but also the Dracula theme.
3. Made in Heaven – Also an older movie, with Kelly McGillis and Timothy Hutton. It’s  about a couple who meet and fall in love in heaven. They both come back to Earth to live new lives and have 30 years or so to find each other again, otherwise they will be lost to each other forever. It’s really good, one of my favs.
4. The Notebook – Ok, so who hasn’t seen this already, right? Well, maybe you haven’t! You’ve been so busy with your life, the kids, the house, the holidays (yeah, they’re over now 😉 ), that you haven’t taken time to relax and unwind. This movie has all of the romance that you just might be looking for and then some.
5. Gone with the Wind – If you are ready to hunker down for several hours and watch one of the most romantic epics of all time, Gone With The Wind is for you. If you’ve never seen this before I don’t know where you’ve been living lol, but it’s possible you haven’t heard of it. It’s about the old South at the start of the Civil War, and the love story of a couple who meander in and out of each other’s lives until they do come together….well, you’ve got to watch it to find out the rest. Seriously, this is a classic film, and I recommend you watch it in one sitting (I think it’s about 4 hours long).
6. P.S. I Love You – This is a sad/romantic movie, depending on how you look at it. I really like it (it takes place in  New York and Ireland)  but it is sad because the love of her life, her husband, dies. It’s truly a story of love though, you’ll understand when you see it.

3. Sexy Lingerie Anyone? Ok, ok, just stick with me here. I know that I’ve never suggested this to you before,  but you know what…isn’t one of the reasons that you want to lose weight and get fit is so that  you’ll look good naked? I mean really, don’t you want that?! 🙂

So here’s a couple of places you can check out to see about getting some sexy lingerie for yourself, or pick out what you want and have your  guy get it for ya.

If you’re in the process of your weight loss and fitness journey then check out this full-figured Valentines lingerie. If you have been thinking that you must wait until you’re at your goal weight before you buy yourself or receive some beautiful lingerie for  a gift then you’re thinking backwards – you’ve gotta live your life now and enjoy the process of getting to your goal – make it fun for yourself and enjoy your weight loss journey!

And if you’re already into the smaller sizes, here’s another option for ya, although just a little more risque – some  sexy Valentines lingerie in smaller sizes. After all, once  you get to your weight loss and fitness goal, you do want to stay there, right? So why not keep yourself motivated and enjoy how you look in your fit, strong, healthy body? Sounds like a plan to me!  

So there’s some ideas for you that you still have time to either  ask for, get  for another, or get  for yourself. Oh yes, and if you aren’t celebrating Valentine’s Day with a special someone this year, I encourage you to take care of yourself and make it fun for yourself  without the food. If you focus on how bad you feel because you’re alone and then run to the frig in an attempt to make yourself feel better, are you really going to feel better in the end??

Instead of doing that get yourself your own non-food Valentines gift and focus on all of the good things you have in your life. Get grateful for everything that is working for you and make Valentines Day a fun day for yourself.

And if you even try to get down in the dumps, then start my 31 days of Loving Yourself Thin and give yourself a dose of self-love and self-respect on Valentines Day while you enjoy your movie or other non-chocolate Valentines gift to yourself.