Save the planet! It’s the only one with chocolate.

It’s also the only one where you can design your own chocolate bar. Check out chocri, which uses only organic, fair trade chocolate from Belgium, and let your imagination run wild. Whether you’re a beautiful bride looking for a personalized gift to give everyone at the wedding or a spa director looking to create a unique dark chocolate masterpiece for your relaxation room… this site is a sweet resource.

From the ministry of obscure and unnecessary holidays, happy National Chocolate Mint Day!

To reflect upon the day, here are the three best pairings of chocolate and mint, in no particular order. Enjoy one of these (or all three!) today, in solemn observance.

1. Peppermint patties. Classic does not mean boring in this fine interpretation of flavors. Light mint cream enrobed in dark chocolate is always tasty and never cloying in the way that other candy bars can be.
2. Chocolate mint plants. Yes, you read that right–there is a variety of the mint plant that has been cultivated to taste exactly like a Thin Mint cookie. You can use it anywhere you might use regular mint: in tea, desserts, as a garnish for soups, and more. Or you can gobble it by the handful if you’re a sad weirdo.
3. Chocolate mint spa treatments. Indulge in a topical application of chocolatey mint goodness. Try the chocolate mint manicure and pedicure at Deva Spa in New York, or the Chocolate Mint Decadence Wrap at Naya Fresh in LA.

The Queen of Candyland... or Glut?

As if this time of year isn’t tempting enough… I decided to invite dozens of bags of candy and chocolate into my home for the purpose of designing a Halloween costume entirely out of sweets. The candy bra inspired the ensemble – it was a birthday gift from a friend last year that I simply HAD to incorporate into a costume. And voila!

From head (a 2,280-calorie cotton candy headpiece) to toe (896-calorie candy button legwarmers) I fully embraced my sweet side… and my sweet tooth. I was seriously kidding myself to think I could maintain any level of self-control while taping, stringing, melding and wearing my sugary masterpiece. After calculating, I estimate the consumption of no fewer than 4000 calories throughout the process. Yikes!

When Halloween was over I promptly cut my way out of the dress and – after a few last goodbye bites – discarded my diet’s biggest enemy thinking: why couldn’t I have gotten a broccoli bra?

This is clearly an extreme case, but the subject of self-control is one that so many of us deal with each and every day. Does your ability to resist temptation change with the season? Your emotions? The people you’re with? I’m constantly trying to crack the code! Do you have any self-control tricks – or solace – to share with me and the rest of us?

And one last question… was it worth it?