Friday, 10 July 2009

  • Healthy Rainbow Foods for Kids

    USDA Food Pyramid

    Nutritionists and the USDA Food Pyramid all provide nutritional guidelines that suggest that offering a variety of nourishing foods to your children will help insure that they eat a healthy diet.

    In fact, they state that by choosing foods from the range of colors found in the rainbow you can generally obtain most of the necessary vitamins and minerals recommended for a healthy diet.

    “Rainbow” colored foods are easily found in the fruits and vegetables that are available in our grocery stores throughout the year. When you offer your kids an abundance of healthy food choices like those in the “food rainbow,” while limiting their access to less nutritious pre-packaged “snack” goodies, you can feel reassured they are eating wholesome foods.

    Great rainbow foods include:

    • Bananas
    • Summer squash
    • Strawberries
    • Oranges
    • Carrots
    • Sweet potatoes

  • Size 10? “Chubbies”

    My husband sent me this the other day… It shows how drastically things have changed over the generations.

    These are retro ads, you can find them here at RetroComedy.







    First things first - Lane Bryant sold clothes to girls and teens? Drastic change of pace it’s taken. Not to mention I like how the ad says Everything is priced the same as “regular” priced clothes, Lane Bryant is NOT competitively priced anymore. Express and Limited are the “regular” stores that I would at some points compare their clothing to ....

Tuesday, 07 July 2009

  • Mio Wear Review

    I recently came across a website called Miowear - which specializes in plus size active wear, yoga, workout and general exercise clothing.  When you’re a plus size, you can agree that it’s HARD to find good, quality exercise wear with some general style left in it :)

    I was lucky enough to sample the Perfect Capri.  They are made of  86% Supplex® Nylon / 14% Lycra.  I’ve worn them for 2 weeks so far working out. I washed them and have worn them walking in, doing yard work, riding my bike - I’ve put them to the test.

    plus-size-capri-miowearcom

    How do they rank? 9 out of 10 if I had to scale them <IMG height=15 src=" class="wp-smiley">

    Benefits:
    Comfortable, very moving and accommodating to your activities
    Durable - they didn’t get all out of shape when I worn them twice without wearing them, which as you know, most workout wear does…
    Washed great - didn’t fall apart or have strings hanging after a few washes.

    My only ‘con‘ to the pants?

    Read the rest @thin:dependence!

Monday, 06 July 2009

  • “Can I compliment you?” Sure!

    I have a dear friend who said this to me the other day in a late night conversation. We were talking about the most random topics, and my friend said, can I compliment you, while possibly slighting (mutual friend).  I said sure, because of course we both know that we care for our  friend, so it wasn’t like it would be a dis and even if she was there in the conversation, it wouldn’t have been uncomfortable.  And my friend said - I think you look better than her, I mean she’s pretty, but there’s something about you.  My friend proceeded to say that I come off more stylish and concerned about my appearance than our friend.  This caught me off guard.  I wasn’t expecting it and just kind of sat there.

    I don’t think I’m pretty, I like to think I try (most of the time) to look well put together, but I certainly wouldn't call myself stylish or trendy.  In fact, I pretty much go as far from trendy as possible because in plus size, it’s hard to go trendy without looking like you’re in denial that you’re a plus size.

    So two days before this conversation, I was with another friend and he said to me, ‘you don’t have self-esteem issues, do you?’ and I laughed, I thought he was kidding. He wasn’t, and said he never got the impression that I just didn’t care, and was happy with who I was.  I suppose after coveringup the self-esteem issues for so long, has made me a master at it.

    So now - (yes, there’s always a point), I’ve wondered, exactly where do I stand, when it comes to how I feel about myself or how I feel about the way I look.

    If you look in my closet, you’d see split personalities.  On the one side I have clothes that scream “this lady could care less, because my grandma wouldn’t even wear that”, and then the other side softly whispers, “I’m trying, bear with me”.  Straight forward you would look at my shoes and think to yourself, “what was she thinking? these are old lady shoes”. And on your way out you’d pass my makeup and think, “Ok, she’s compensating for the old lady shoes” (hello - I sell mary kay, so I have QUITE a collection, it looks like I try!) and then you’d see my jewelery and see how I attempt to tie everything together.  For some reason, I’m torn as to where I belong.  I’m not a trendy, gotta have it type of gal.  I am however concerned with keeping up my appearance for work, because the students notice everything, and for myself.  Does that stop me from going to Target in sweatpants? Absolutely not.  And it never fails that I’ll run into at least one student while I’m there.  What can I say, it happens.

    But I do try with my clothes and appearance, at least a little.

    So why am I still fat? Being fat isn’t part of looking well groomed or well-taken care of. Good question, and I wish I had an answer. I have the desire to lose the weight, but my motivation isn’t there. . . Maybe I have gotten comfortable. Maybe I’m lazy. Maybe I’m crazy. Maybe I’m a mix of everything.

    I’m not mentally comfortable saying I accept myself, but I think my actions have said it for me.  Does allowing myself to be overweight mean I’ve accepted it, even if I’m mentally screaming NO NO NO?

    This is something I struggle with regularly, so I wanted to take a second to see if it hit home with anyone else out there? Do you find yourself over analyzing compliments?

Friday, 03 July 2009

  • Giveaway and Final Review: Fit in Your Jeans By Friday

    I never thought you could see results in just five days. While the results weren’t as dramatic as an episode of the Biggest Loser, the results were quite pleasing. If you remember my initial impressions of the DVD, you’ll see that I was a bit skeptical. I’m quite the believer now! Kim did a great job motivating while looking fabulous of course (does the girl sweat?!?!). She’s got some major self-confidence to get up there and do this video. So, Kim, thanks for the great work out!

    I tried all of the DVD’s and let me tell you, I am sore in places that I’ve never been sore before. These workouts focus on the hips and tummy, which seems to be the problem spot on most women. I for one, am built pear-shaped and I’ve never had a fitness DVD that focused on where I needed it the most!

    So, I’ll cut to the chase, because I know it’s what you want to see the most. Drumroll please…


    From the front -Tummy looks tighter



    From the back


     
    From the behind - AWESOME. It looks lifted and a bit tighter.


    So, ladies, if you need to perk up your behinds, this is the workout for you! I couldn’t be happier with the results and how quickly I saw them! But, now’s you’re chance to either hop on over and buy them yourself, or enter win the DVDs because we’re giving away the set of three!

    And now for our giveaway! Remember - this is for ALL THREE DVD’s!
    Contest open to US residents only. Entries open until July 7, 2009 11:59 PM EST. Winner will be chosen at random (random.org) on Wednesday, July 8th and will have 48 hours to get back to us to claim their prize.

    To Enter - Go to our main blog for details!