Most marvelous Monday, my 25th birthday (+ giveaway)!

Happy Monday! Today is the most MARVELOUS Monday yet. 


Today, I am 25! I've been in my "early 20s" up till now, or so I say. Now I'm in my mid-twenties... for the next 4 years, right? :)

I didn't want to dissect my life thoroughly, but here's a quick snippet:

• I've gone through a few chapters in my life already. I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing right now but that's okay. 
• I'm content with how my career or at least work is coming and while my personal life is stagnant, I'm focused on working on myself. 
• In the last year, I moved back home after living on my own across the country for 6 years! I changed a lot and in the past 2 years, I've hit a low point and survived. 
• The biggest thing I've learned is that I did it once, I can do it again. I left a bad situation when I was 18 and made my life much better in college. When I struggled after college, I moved back and have started making some friends. 
• Little happens overnight. I'm working on life.
• I miss having tons of "friends." I wasn't really that social in college actually. It was only after college and one or two years that I was crazy social.

Now for the accomplishments! By 25, I have my college degree and teaching credential, I've had some cool jobs, I've gone to a ton of crazy parties, went on amazing adventures, lived on my own successfully, met interesting people in college (miss you guys!), and now I know what I want out of life.

25 15 at 25

1. Do a mud run/obstacle course run.
2. Attend a blog conference.
3. Go camping.
4. Read 15 books. Good ones.
5. Pass my CTEL exam.
6. Apply for 5 teaching positions!
7. Volunteer for something at the school. Gotta get my foot in the door!
8. Travel to one of my to-visit cities.
9. Video blog once a week.
10. Get my own url and redesign my blog.
11. Do yoga twice per week.
12. Try pole fitness.
13. Make friends through a Meetup group!
14. Try CrossFit.
15. Go wine tasting.

I need more! Any ideas? A lot of these are on my Live List (see tabs above), but many of those on my Live List are just unattainable this coming year.

Now for a MARVELOUS birthday giveaway! 

For my health and sweet tooth, I've been eating chocolate every night! My obsession with dark chocolate began last week in Austin. We stayed with a girl who stashed a bag of dark chocolate chips in her freezer. A few chips after dinner was perfect of me and I've stopped craving baked goods! Who would've thought! The chips only get up to around 70% cacao content but bars can be more intense.

The Whole Foods chocolate/candy aisle is hefty. I passed by the Vosges with all their crazy flavors and went straight for the basics: dark chocolate.

The rules: 100%<x<84%. I hope you got that equation.

I headed to a few stores for their great selection and spent quite a bit of money... yet my collection is not complete. Godiva 85%+ could not be found on my trip. :/ Still, these 12 bars will carry you through a few months.

1. Dagoba Organic Chocolate Eclipse Bar (87% Cacao)
Mother's Market $2.79

2. Endangered Species All Natural Extreme Dark Chocolate with 88% Cocoa
Mother's Market $2.79

3. Sweet Riot riotBar 85%
Mother's Market $3.49

4. Green & Black's Organic Dark 85%
Mother's Market $3.69

5. Divine 85% Dark Chocolate 
Mother's Market $3.19

6. Trader Joe's The Dark Chocolate Lover's Chocolate Bar 85% Cacao
Trader Joe's $1.49

7. Alter Eco Dark Blackout 85% Cocoa
Mother's Market $3.89

8. Valrhona Le Noir Extra Amer 85% Cocoa
Trader Joe's $2.99

9. World Market Dark Chocolate 99% Cacao
World Market $1.99

10. Theo Audubon 91% Cacao
Mother's Market $4.29

11. Ghirardelli Intense Dark 86% Cacao Midnight Reverie 
Target $2.33

12. Lindt Excellence 90% Cocoa Bar
World Market $2.79

I can't eat all this chocolate. Okay, maybe I can (slowly), but I'm just a hoarder. I would rather someone with better taste buds test these. This is where you come in!

To enter, all you need to do is tell me what's your favorite chocolate bar, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, and/or flavored. Specify the brand so I can check it out.

For an extra entry, tweet the following or some variation:

"Julie Goes Healthy's Birthday Giveaway: 12 bars of dark chocolate @MsLuong http://bit.ly/N3fZ6x"

I'll pick the winner on Friday, July 13th.

Do you eat dark chocolate or some sort of sweet treat every night?