The Bright Side Project, Even Brighter

You have to love a friend with connections; Tristan always has the latest and greatest stuff. Except, since I’m her friend, I rarely get the stuff! Instead, she gives it away on her blog, and unless it’s something I really, really want, I feel weird vying with other people for her goodies. So, my loss is the internet’s gain because she is, again, having an ENTIRE MONTH OF GIVEAWAYS!

March kicks off the second round of The Bright Side Project, an idea Tristan hatched to make people happy, all while bringing attention to emerging artists and designers, which, as a publicist, is her true passion and what she is really, really good at. This month the giveaways are all accessories: hats, purses, jewelry, and any other finishing touch to a smashing outfit you can think of. Comment (and answer the featured artist’s question) to win on the first two days HERE and HERE.

Tristan has put her heart and soul into this project, and she is thinking BIG. She wants to be able to give away furniture, vacations, and other big ticket items. But, you know the rules. Big companies won’t bite unless the bait is big. This means she needs a lot of people participating, and a lot of people telling other people to participate so when a certain company selling cruises takes a gander at the site, all the old men in pinstriped suits can understand the concept.

Poor little old men in pin striped suits. Let’s show them how women shop in the 21st century, shall we?

Diet Talk

I’ve heard more than once that I am crazy to write about my latest Weight Watchers experience for everyone to see. At some point I may gain weight, will I write about it then? Yes. Part of what has me so enthused for the program this time around, and a large part of my success the last two weeks, are all the nice comments and emails I have been getting. Today, Lilie, the owner and designer behind A Planet 4 Creation, emailed me a list of tips that helped her lose 25 pounds. They were so good, I asked Lilie if I could share them. She happily obliged.

Watch your portions. Sometimes when you restrict a certain food item from your diet, it’s all you think about. Eventually you break down and eat way too much of whatever it is you wanted to avoid! A better idea is to allow yourself anything you like, within reason, and in much smaller portions.

Get up and move. Start slow, try to do it daily and increase the amount each day. Try to build muscle through weights. With more muscle, you will burn calories in your sleep!

Don’t cut your calories too much. I tried to keep my intake at 1200 calories and it was too little. It’s much easier to reduce your calories by a reasonable amount and make up the rest by burning calories with exercise.

Reward yourself for good work. I plan to get some new beads [for the shop] once I exercise for a full 2 weeks.

Mark your progress. I put stickers on my calendar when I exercise for the day. I use to have a bar graph that I would fill in red as I got closer to my goal weight. I kept a notebook and wrote down everything I ate.

Exercise does not require fancy equipment. I just put on runners and dance in the kitchen. Do stomach exercise during commercial breaks on tv.

Cheat on your diet. I would hit plateaus where I did everything right but the scale didn’t move. I would then go off my diet (McDonald’s for dinner, etc.) and I would lose again. [This has happened to me so many times! –ed]

Don’t measure success by weight alone. Measure your waist. Try on clothes that were tight on you and see if there is a difference. Sometimes the numbers on the scale don’t go down because you are building muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat.

Read labels. It’s surprising how many servings they put into one package! You think you’re doing well and then realize that the package was 4 servings.

Small steps. Don’t try to do everything at once. If you want to quit sodas and increase exercise, pick one and work on it slowly until it becomes an afterthought. Then work on developing another healthy habit.

Thanks, Lilie! It’s always nice to hear what works for other people, just like me, who are trying to lose weight and manage a busy schedule.

Please email me at jules [at] pancakesandfrenchfries [dot] com if you have a great diet/exercise tip, recipe, or product you want to share! If someone hasn’t already suggested it, I will post it on the blog, give you the credit, and link back to your site or blog.

Don’t worry and think your tip is too small—Lilie suggested I eat cottage cheese for a high protein breakfast, and would you believe I never even considered it until she mentioned it to me? Such an obvious and simple idea, and I completely overlooked it!

Baby Hippo Love | Week 2 Weigh In

I didn’t expect my weight loss to go as well as it did last week, but it still stung to lose less than 2 pounds. Still, I am very pleased with the results and received my 5 pound star today. I was only slightly mortified at the round of applause. Here is my review of week 2.

  • I stayed within my points all week, but did not use up my “extra” points. I’m going to make an effort to do that this week, because an informal poll taken at the center today showed that people who eat the maximum amount of points each week lose the most weight both weekly and over time.
  • Conversely, those who leave points behind lose weight slowly and, in some weeks, gain a few ounces.
  • I ran out of the Weight Watchers breakfast sandwiches I like so much, and I used that as motivation to develop something similar that I can make at home in less than 2 minutes. This was a mistake. I should have bought more sandwiches and played with the recipe at my leisure. I stayed on plan all week, but I believe removing my high protein breakfast from my routine did me a disservice.
  • Today I bought a grip of Weight Watchers breakfast sandwiches.
  • My water intake is poor, and I bought some Crystal Light packages to flavor my water. I’m also developing some ALL NATURAL low calorie/low point flavored waters.
  • I’m retaining a lot of water, so I am trying to cut down on salt, too. My low water intake isn’t helping me flush out all the sodium I’m now ingesting. Last night my ankles looked corrugated from the ribbing in my socks.
  • I hate that I am relying so much on processed foods right now, but this is only temporary until I have the time to find low point natural food alternatives.
  • I went on a walk with the Mister, the boys, and the dogs this week and had a great time.

Overall, I consider this week a success. I’m hoping the changes I am making to my meal plan this week (more water, less salt) will reflect in the numbers for next week.

Thrifty Thursday

Salvation Army

The Mister and I decided to leave our cave and take advantage of his extended vacation by making a quick trip to the thrift store. To be honest, this was my first trip that did not involve the procurement of horribly out of fashion clothing for a themed dress up day in school. The Mister, as we all know, is in and out of these places all the time. That is the only way I can explain why the stench of shattered dreams and lost hope didn’t slap him six ways from Sunday when we walked in the front door. The assault on my senses was especially bad walking through the appliance section. If every object has a story, then the refrigerator Mikey opened when I wasn’t paying attention all but gasped nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.

I also have a terrible eye, or at least one that ignores things without spotlights, soft music, and Madison Avenue marketing plans. I walked by every single piece of awesome furniture the Mister later found like a suburban prospector. It’s like his eyes are set with mid century cross hairs, and mine? I don’t know. Maybe Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Certainly something food related, because everything I found interesting was in the housewares section.

Corningware

If this sweet Corningware casserole dish still had it’s lid, I would have snapped her right up, The floral pattern reminded my of my friend, Nicole.

Aqua Cups and Bowls

These aqua numbers immediately reminded me of my other friend, Tristan, except for the fact that OH MY WORD I know this is the Salvation Army but could the original owners taken the trouble to give the dishes a quick rinse before they tossed them in the donate pile? Is that scrambled egg on the third cup from the top? Disgusting. It’s called a kitchen sink, and it’s not just for flicking your cigarettes.

Cerutil Mustard Taco Platter

The compartments in this dinner platter appealed to my rigid, uncompromising side. It is also a very happy yellow color, which personifies me perfectly. I’m anal retentive and chipper. There’s a difference.

Popcorn Bowl

If Dairy Queen is my dessert, popcorn is my dinner. This is actually one of a set of four, and they are cute, except they are not, really. They’re kind of ugly and the font looks like olives, and I can’t eat popcorn when I feel like I should be eating something stuffed with a pimento. Also, sized as they are to hold no more than 1 cup of popcorn, they are, shall we say, a waste of my time.

Birdhouse

The only person who lucked out on this trip was Mikey, who was thrilled to discover a birdhouse ready for him to paint. He has been obsessed with the idea of building and painting a birdhouse for at least a month, and because Mikey doesn’t just decide to do something willy-nilly, he already had the design concept fleshed out. His birdhouse was going to have bright colors, mainly red and green, and lots of polka-dots. All birds LOVE polka-dots (duh,) so a birdhouse without polka-dots really isn’t a birdhouse at all. Maybe a birdrental, but not a birdhouse. We didn’t have the heart to tell him his birdhouse was actually a tissue dispenser, so we are currently sketching out blueprints for the birdhouse remodel. We might also just buy a real birdhouse.

Birdhouse

Things I Hope to Never Forget | Hummingbird Nests

Hummingbird Nests

Hummingbird Nests


Hummingbird Nests

I have a zoom lens, but I didn’t use it. To be honest, as pretty as they are, birds up close kind of scare the crap out me with their beady eyes and creepy, taloned feet.

Lawyerly Stuff

I have a theory that a respectable number of people who read my blog work in the legal profession, either as attorneys, paralegals, legal secretaries, or similar. Am I correct? If so, what do you do and how do you like your job? If you don’t feel comfortable commenting, please feel free to email me.

I’ve been working around the clock on my practice. My main focus has been finding mcles hours (mandatory continuing legal education), of which I need 25. The reason I haven’t committed to any courses already is because I’m still deciding what to take. I’ve talked to my friends, and everyone has their own opinion.

OPINION 1: Take courses in the area of law in which you hope to practice.

This means I have to decide on a specific area. Simple enough, you would think, but it hasn’t been easy. I initially considered a practice in Intellectual Property law (trademarks, copyrights, licensing, etc.). But, because I’ve been away from the law for a while, I would prefer to work with a mentor. No one I know practices this type of law, so this idea, for now, is on hold.

For obvious reasons, I’ve also been considering Bankruptcy law. {Hello, economy!} This, by the way, was one of the hardest classes I have ever taken in my life. It was impossibly theoretical and abstract, at least as taught by my professor. Canned briefs might have helped me (they’re like cliff notes) but I was stubborn and refused to buy any. I hear the practice is easier than the study, and I do have a friend who will partner up with me in this area and she is actively looking for a mentor for the more difficult cases.

In an ideal, dream world I would be an independent research attorney. Basically, it’s a court position, but in a private practice setting you research various points of law and, if needed, draft the necessary motions, petitions, briefs, etc. I love research. I mean, love it. For me, finding the answer to a question (or issue) is the same rush of adrenalin other people get when shopping or designing or jumping out of an airplane. My friends have been great over the years, and when an issue arises that they don’t feel like tackling, they send it over to me. This, however, is how most firms use paralegals. No one wants to pay an attorney (even at much lower rates) when they can send it to a paralegal, or so I’ve been told.

OPTION 2: Take whatever is cheapest and be done with it.

I have some friends who want me to take a 25 hours mcle bundle for $199 and call it a day. But what on earth do I want with classes on criminal and real estate law? Nothing, that’s what.

CONCLUSION

Here I sit, counting points and mcle hours trying to determine my future. No pressure. No pressure at all.

Low Point Foods That Helped: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Dessert

In order to eat as clean as I like and still stay within my point value, I’m going to need to rework my recipes and do research on low fat cooking. While I am normally opposed to artifical flavors and colors, preservatives, and ingredients I can’t pronouce, I decided to let all that go until I am comfortable with the program. I thought I would share some of the foods that helped me stay on plan last week. And, so that I don’t waste the Mister’s severance on foods that suck, I’m hoping you will chime in with your own favorite diet foods.

Weight Watchers Canadian Bacon English Muffin Sandwich

I never eat breakfast. In fact, I rarely eat before 1pm. But studies show that for me to have any chance of losing weight with lasting success, I need to feed my metabolism by feeding myself. This sandwich is actually very tasty. Not nearly the revolting mass I thought it would be, and at FOUR points, it’s plan friendly. But, it’s also loaded with sodium, so a homemade version is on my list of recipes to build.

Thai Style Chicken and Rice Noodles

There are some days where I lose track of time and don’t realize I am hungry until I am ravenous. Those are the days when I get fast food for lunch, and to avoid that, I bought a few frozen foods entrees to eat when I’m too hungry to cook or make smart food choices. The first time I ate this was on one such day, and I thought it was DELICIOUS. I was so, SO happy with the product. Today I had it again, and I didn’t love it as much. Extreme hunger is key in enjoying most of this food, I suppose. Oh, and if you are Thai, or married to someone Thai, or enjoy eating Thai food, you would be wise to keep things in perspective. This is frozen diet food, after all. FIVE points.

Newman’s Own Balsamic Natural Salad Mist

I love salads and most of our dinners include a salad either as a side or the main meal. The problem is that with my penchant for homemade dressings, nuts, seeds, cheese, and dried fruit, I’m sure my salads have more calories than a greasy cheeseburger. I bought this for the spritzer bottle. I really didn’t expect to like it! It’s not fantastic, but it’s really not bad, and it’s definitely better than most bottled dressings. One servings is 10 flavor packed spritzes, which is almost enough to dress a salad. For ZERO points, I’ll take it.

Skinny Cow Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwich

The Mister bought me these to replace my Dairy Queen habit. The first time I tried these, it was day one of my diet and I had Dairy Queen the night before. I thought they tasted mediocre, at best. I think what tasted weird to me was the peanut butter ice cream. I’ve had skinny cows in the past in vanilla and chocolate flavors and always thought they were tasty. These swirled numbers were a different story–but only temporarily. Now that a week has gone by without any Dairy Queen, I think they taste great. One sandwich is THREE points.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert: these are the food items that helped me stay on plan in a pinch. What about you? Any favorite products that help you stay on your diet?

Next Page »