Genesis Moments - A Writer's Journey

Fight the Frump Friday: Cersies and Tussy Mussies

Here on Fight the Frump Friday, I have to bring to you some awesome Southern hospitality items for sprucing up any event. Robin from Pensieve brought us "cersies" this last weekend in the form of bags of sourdough bread. Cersies are small gifts given to anyone to make an occasion more special and done in a special way that is thoughtful and Robin takes the cake in thoughtful (or should I say takes the bread). 

When I asked her, "Well, what about those things that are flowers wrapped in lace or doilies?" she knew exactly. "Those are Mussy Tussies." When I went to search online, I found Tussy Mussies and here is a way to create Victorian ones! There are also beautifully engraved silver flower bouquet holders under the same name for weddings which was pretty cool at the Wedding Depot. I so love the internet. So much information at my fingertips. Where does it end?

I wanted to post about my six year old niece who is a force to be reckoned with this week but time is short and I will have to tell you about her tomorrow and the half hour bathroom incident. Born a Charleston (said "Chaaaston") fashionista, she has stayed true to her upbringing this week and kept us in stitches with her clever wit, incredible intelligence and commitment to lipstick.

Okay, okay, quickly. My niece and my girls had to get ready for the first day of horseback riding camp on Monday. My girls come down with ponytails in, jeans on and boots ready to go. My mom went to go check on my niece who was still upstairs in the bathroom after half an hour. The little sprite was in her underwear with her hair brushed neatly into clips. She had pulled out my mom's powder and was applying it along with her lipstick. She continued to have multiple wardrobe changes through the day and had us all in fits of laughter with her antics. What a week. Watch out world.

See our cool CERSIES below (the warm sourdough bread went too fast to get a picture of it) and go check out Mrs. Fussypants Guide to Life for more Frump Fightin' tips. Today has some hilarious pictures of Dollywood as only Mrs. Fussy can do. Did I say that I met Karla from Looking Toward Heaven this last weekend? Karla is truly the epitome of Southern graciousness. I so loved meeting her. We had lunch with some other lovely ladies before the weekend got started (pictured here at Nesting Place) and then it was so busy I barely saw her until the very end.

Fight the Frump: The Lilly Intervention

This week has been quite the week but in the name of Fighting the Frump, I will focus on Thursday's shopping experience.

People need interventions for a variety of crises. Unfortunately, in my hour of need, I had no cell phone and no one with me to stop the sheer gluttony of the moment. What is a girl to do? I was at the annual warehouse sale for Lilly Pulitzer in the local convention center with my hands full.

Knowing I needed nothing and had plenty of other ways to spend my time and money, I still headed to the big event since it was only 10 minutes from my house and people drive MILES to this event. I couldn't pass up the chance to at least see what the fuss what was about.

As I pull into the large parking lot, I see people with BAGS and carts overflowing heading to their cars. I pick up my step. Is all the good stuff gone? Can't be. This is the first day and the thing is going for 4 days. Inside the line is down to a twenty minute wait to get in. Women and children in various stages of complete prepdom stand waiting, peering through the curtains to see brighter than bright racks of clothing and boxes of more bright and brighter. In case you are unfamiliar with Lilly-ware, two-thirds of their items would qualify for the Preppy Handbook (anybody remember that little jewel?). Many items are bright pinks and greens and blues and almost require sunglasses worn inside.

So, I waited my turn. I stepped into the large room. Women were taking off their shirts to try on clothes right at the rack. Weary children sat by large piles while moms shopped for more. I am thinking that there must be some incredible deals here. I begin to meander. Knowing I can't really shop for my children without them with me anymore, I take a cursory glance through the children's section. I have experienced buying some Lilly through E-bay and my children not touching the bright stuff despite my pleading and pitiful resort to "but its a Lilly". Shows me, huh?

So, then I go shopping for me. I see a pretty white with sewn-in patterned shirt and a simple short navy shirt. I bypass all the incredibly bright items that I personally never see anyone wearing around here in public but seemed to appeal to the masses surrounding me who seemed to be grabbing almost one of everything.

Finally, with a tidy handful, I decide to actually look at the price tags. One small blue solid dress for my daughter with a cute golf shirt look was $80 on sale. My shirt was the same price and on it went. I stood there looking around. I was holding a couple of hundred in clothes and my bag wasn't even heavy. I knew in my heart that if I spent this money, my daughter would have no birthday party on Monday and I would have some 'splainin' to do.

Now, if you are a shopaholic like me, it is really hard to go somewhere where people are buying stuff left and right and walk out empty handed. I had no cell-phone to call a friend, so I prayed and then I lied.

"Miss, do you work here? I have a pile over there and don't need these items. Can you put them back for me?"

"Oh, yes, those are precious!"

No, lady, my kids, my husband. Those are precious not this stuff.

I hightailed it out of there faster than my solid flats took me in, without buying a thing.

So, what does a person do in such emotional distress? Yeah, straight to the outlet malls. Actually, it was the next day and I HAD to make a return. Now, there, I found some truly great bargains on still very nice clothes. I was able to escape with one pink top from Eddie Bauer for $8! Now, that's shopping to be proud of.

Well, tonight is the big Philly Blogger's Meetup and I have my outfit ready and hanging up! Yeah!! Can't wait to meet all you lovely ladies. I wish I had more time this week to read your blogs but the down internet crimped my style! Sorry.

The rest of you, have an awesome weekend. There is lots to do and summer is here. We have four more days of school and I am milking every free moment!

For those of you who wanted to know, I thoroughly enjoyed being a nurse in Tuesday's experience behind the scenes of an independent feature film. If it get mass-produced, I'll tell you more then. People are extras for many different reasons and you have lots of down-time to learn all of them. The most fascinating part is how each person on the crew knows his or her skill and brings that piece of know-how together to make it all work from the sound guy to the lighting man to the person holding the boom mike. Truly fascinating and I got to meet some semi-famous people. Some I had heard bits and pieces of and others not at all but you don't admit that! The blank stare usually gives you away but you smile and try to look semi-intelligent.

And then there was the political reception I went to on Wednesday night. Same thing, a little acting, a little smoozing and a lot of trying to look like you know what you are talking about. At least I didn't have to wear scrubs to that one.

Have a good weekend everyone! Go check out Fussy's Hose No's.

Fashion Discernment: Mommy Field Trip Disasters

While Fussy's adorable new baby can be seen at her site Mrs. Fussypants Guide to Life, check out Karla's Looking Towards Heaven for this week's Fight the Frump Mr. Linky.

Previously I was able to bring to you what not to wear on your feet on a field trip after wearing flip flops to a kid's activity museum. I can now bring to you from my own personal experience what not to wear on your hips (i.e. pants) after going to the zoo with my younger daughter's class yesterday. I am working my way up the body and I am sure will soon have a shirt experience to share because WHY? I have no fashion discernment. Some people seem naturally born with the genius, while others have honed it into a talent. I have neither and thus am one of THOSE people who need all the help I can get.

What is fashion discernment? The World Book dictionary calls fashion "the current custom in dress, manners or speech." Discernment means "keenness in seeing and understanding; good judgement, shrewdness." I would therefore conclude that putting the two words together means that one has the good judgement to wear the current custom in dress when given the opportunity to show oneself in public. I do not believe I own this judgement and will tell you why. You be the judge.

Yesterday, I knew I needed tennis shoes for a day at the zoo. Okay, done. Next, jeans seemed like a good possiblity for durability and sturdiness through the day. And indeed, many women were wearing jeans that day. Only one problem, I have just lost 24 pounds since the Fall and nothing fits without being baggy after like 10 minutes of stretching out the post-dryer shrinkage. SO, I decide to pull out a pair of capris that YES were still in my closet after a couple of years. Now, all my tan capris were on the ironing board and would have been suitable as well but that would mean walking downstairs to get dressed.

THEREFORE the only choice in my mind was to put on these fun, flowered capris that went out of style at least 2 years ago but they were springy. And, this is where the lack of discernment comes in. BECAUSE, I knew something was wrong when I entered the classroom and several adult eyes went straight to my pants.  So, I started looking around, sizing up my peers. I am in the North so pretty much all wearables for the tush are solid - jean solid, black solid, white solid, tan solid, everything solid. Then, I started looking around once we got the zoo. In the entire zoo for the entire day, I saw one other woman with paisley pink long shorts and one woman with bright orange pants but they were the exception, along with me and my lack of FASHION DISCERNMENT. I was beginning to feel I should make myself at home in the bird cages and stay there.

Now, you know that in a zoo full of kids and wild animals, no one is looking at me, except me - in the bathroom, in the glass at the polarbear cage, in the glass at the mammal house, in the glass at the reptile house. There is a lot of glass in zoos these days.

An even bigger, literally bigger issue was that these capris had elastic in them which meant that like my oversized jeans,by the end of the day, they also had stretched to unflattering proportions and thus left me promising myself to never let them see the light of the day again.

When you are faced with these fashion discernment revelations or you are struggling with your closet, I have the following tips for you from my own experience:

1) Once you have grown out of something, big or small, by the time you are going to wear it again, it will probably be out of style so GET RID OF IT.

2) If something you own could potentially get someone else in hot fashion water, throw it away - especially if it is stretched out or stained beyond repair.

3) If something that doesn't fit you is still in some degree of fashion, donate it.

4) When in the North, wear solids for Pete's Sake (at least on the bottom). Save your Fancy Pants for the cruise in the Bahamas.

5) When you want to blend in with the crowd, use some fashion discernment and if you are still struggling to understand what that means, ask for help - the best solution when you sense you are in over your head. Chic Critique will answer all your questions with their teams of mommy experts!

Have a wonderful weekend! I am off to buy jeans that fit - that hopefully aren't too low or too high or too blue or too faded or too . . . . just too!

Check out this post for my sister's Team in Training Philly Marathon Info!

Fight the Frump Friday - Superglue cure

Yesterday, I fought the frump by cleaning my house before my first ever cooking demonstration (a must-read since it was so much fun).

BUT, in my piles, I found a couple of quick TO-DO's and so I decided to take a minute out of a hectic cleaning schedule to, hmm, lets say . . . superglue a colorful stone back in a barrett that had fallen out. It was one of my favorite barrettes (even though the haircut I received the day before would eliminate its use for months to come) and I thought this minute was as good as any to glue it back in - a day when I would need my hands to demonstrate food in a public forum.

So, I get out my super glue and have the pieces assembled, only to realize quickly that the tiny superglue bottle I had retrieved was already open and now the two middle fingers of my right hand were stuck together with the stone in the middle and nothing was on the barrett. Could be a lovely look -- NOT.  I am thinking Noooooo - any day but today. I can not end up in the hospital today. Tomorrow maybe. . . not today. So, listen close people in case you are EVER faced with this dilemna:

ACETONE (fingernail polish remover) removes superglue.

And yesterday, it was my godsend! In fact, now that I am thinking about it, I just got the new bottle last week since I was out of remover. If I had been as low on remover as I was just last week, I wouldn't have had enough to get the superglue off. (And if I hadn't been so panicked I would have taken a picture for you).

I have no news for you this week - probably good - I get too cynical about it anyway.

Have a great weekend! But first go to Fussypants's to find out who is going to be hosting Fight the Frump Friday after she delivers her new baby!

Fight the Frump: Critique or Criticism

And, she curled up in my lap and cried and cried. My nine-year old had a rough day and I didn't know it until around bedtime. Coming home from school, she busied herself with friends and then the TV, avoiding me apparently, though I was too busy to notice until late in the day.

The recess cheerleading coach (read "bossy kid who started her own playground squad and is now telling everyone else what to do or they are OUT") had Laura doing 25 pushups because she couldn't hold up her part of the pyramid they were attempting.

"I wasn't concentrating that day." wailed my little pumpkin. "And, then she makes me hold a split for 20 seconds." Wow, this kid is going to be leader and go-getter but right now she's just a playground bully.

Stepping back a minute, I thought -- this kid is just doing what her gymnastics coach does to her when he or she sees a problem. The girl saw that Laura couldn't hold up the pyramid and therefore prescribed push-ups to strengthen her arms. Maybe this kid will be a doctor. She cleverly saw a problem and set about fixing it. Now, because she is not a coach and has no medical training at the ripe age of 10, I'm not too happy about this little situation but I have to give the kid some credit. SO, I told my daughter that I would 1) call the teacher if it got worse, 2) she could tell the kid NO (easier said than done), or 3) she could do the few pushups that actually would help her arms in her own gymnastics and get stronger for the team. It's not like it was a hundred or anything. She would have to own that decision but I would be there whatever she decided. This is definitely a situation to watch.

On that note, when you are making a concerted effort to fight the frump, there are three categories of people who surround you:

1)    People who help (fitness trainers, makeup artist, hair stylists, etc)
2)    People who think they are helping (well intentioned people that speak before being spoken to or "specialists" who think one answer fits all)
3)    And people who are no help at all (those who just are way off base in their advice OR tempt you down the wrong path altogether).

When you go asking for help whether at the makeup counter or the Y fitness team, you might get the help you need and then you might not.

When I went to the mall, I came out looking a little like this: Tammy Faye (God rest her soul)

I had to hurry to the aid of a loving Mary Kay rep to tone down my look and accent my best features with makeup rather than create a mask of goop.

Then there's the time I went to the Y and had a fitness trainer work with me and the woman was very helpful and gave me numerous tips. BUT, when I went on my own, a very nice and helpful gentlemen gave me a tip to keep my knees from getting extra stress to which a cynical remark formed in my head which fortunately did not reflect in my "Thank you" comment back or my smile. I had to squelch a serious "Who rang your bell, Twinkletoes?"

What is it about unsolicited comments? It is hard enough to take the asked-for advice without arguing and complaining but when people make comments without us asking them, it is really hard to receive them with grace. I was truly grateful for the man's tip and YET, that cynical attitude just creeps in there in nasty little way sometimes.

For example, I want to be the best cooking demonstrator I can be. Do you think I took my husband critique of my mock performance well? I don't think so. Now, I was told that trying it out on friends and family is harder than in parties and shows since your loved ones are less careful in their "critiques" BUT . . . . And, he says not to argue if I want advice. What if I AM right? I'm just supposed to sit there and not defend my technique? Alright, moving on.

I guess the most important thing in receiving critiques is to not look at them as criticisms but to take what you need from it and learn and throw out the rest with the leftovers. Sometimes you might be throwing out the whole bag of rotten chicken. Other times, you might be just cutting off the fat to get to the meat. And then there are those stellar times when you can just take it out the package, throw it on the grill and bask in the smell. (Sorry - can you tell I am hungry? - not for criticism so throw me a sweet comment today and I'll send one back!)

OHHHH, I can't let a chance to give news from the news today. It would have been from the treadmill today but I have a sick kid so I turned around in the Y parking lot and decided to come home. THIS IS NEWS FROM THE REAL NEWSPAPER! Shock of all shocks. I read the news instead of watching it. On that note, who saw CSI last night?!  Did you see the Mythbusters guys in the background giving thumbs up to Grissom? How fun was that?

News from the News: PA is going to solve its tax problems with slot machines, locals are hocking jewelry to pay for gas and everyone agrees Hillary is a tough person (and other hard hitting news like that rather than the actual issues they are talking about.). Lord, take me home!

Have an awesome beautiful weekend. I am going away where there is no computer, no running water and the bubbling brook by our window lulls to me sleep (when it doesn't make me pee which sends me up the hill in the middle of the night to the public restrooms) but you will certainly hear more about cabin life as the summer comes so I won't go into that now. God Bless.

Now go check out Fussypants for more Fight the Frump Friday posts!

 

 

Fume the Fat

Yesterday started off okay. I woke up. Woke the kids up. One daughter had no clean uniform shirts so we had to do a quick handwash and stick it in the dryer. This shirt issue plus a few more made getting out of the house a minor olympic feat. Needless to say, I was spent from a busy week and just wanted a good half an hour on the elliptical at the Y just to renew and energize.

Now, you must know that I don't care if I have a lick of makeup on to go in the Y. Everyone is working out and grungy. BUT, ask me to go into the grocery store before or afterward and my eye starts twitching. I just can't do it. I need to go back home, shower, shampoo, dry, curl, apply at least the 5 minute makeup face and then I am ready to face the public. Now the Y people are perfectly good people but somehow I feel amid the pain and suffering we share that they of anyone could care less whether I wear makeup or not. Just so we are on the right track, you must know going into SCHOOL without makeup and my hair fixed is even more of a travesty to my fragile ego than the grocery store.

Well, this being the case, my daughter left her lunch at home and we figured it out on the way to school. If you consider my routine of dropping off the girls at school and going straight to the Y, then you will realize that to go back home at this point means to be tardy which means walking the girls into the front desk in my pre-Y face - sans makeup with hair pulled up. Sorry, ain't going to happen. So as we proceed through the "How could you?" lecture, I came to the mature mom decision that the grocery story couldn't be as bad as the FRONT DESK at school, so I ran in, head down, all the way back to the Lunchable aisle and in the most un-good-mom way basically rewarded my daughter with a coveted lunchable even if she did wreck my routine and force me to face my greatest fears of being seen undone by the grocery store clerks who honestly just looked happy to get my money and really didn't look at me at all. They were the smart ones. Looking up might have turned them into stone. But, I'm being a little hard on myself.

So, my daughters got of the car at school - barely in time - and yelled back, "Mom, you had better not be cranky when we get home." Like they had nothing to do with it. It surely had nothing with me, the fact that I was totally PMSing, worn out mentally and physically from a totally insane week, and just wanting to be alone from the world.

And so I arrived at the Y, mad at myself for yelling at the girls, mad at myself for not getting here all week, mad for spending money on lunchables, just plain mad. When you are in this state, there is nothing better than to plug in the earphones that access the 6 news channels, drown out the real world and just begin to step with arms swinging. Burn, baby, burn. It felt so good. Once you get used to a good workout, there is nothing like it and you really do miss the exercise when you can't get to it. The day proceeded much better as I went to meet a friend at Target, finally invested in THE black T-shirt, a standard element of the Suburban Mom's uniform and headed back home for a well-deserved nap.

Ahh, the joys of being at home. There is nothing like sleep to iron out the frump eye-bag wrinkles.

Sorry - I have no news from the Y today. I wasn't listening very hard. But, I am sitting here trying to think if I retained anything at all. Hmmm. ..  nope. Wait! hmmm. . nope. Wait! I think there was something about a plastic surgeon who wrote a book called My Pretty Mommy to help kids deal with their mom's plastic surgery. The artist made him look like a big hunk. The world has gone nuts, I tell ya.

So, go fight the frump and check out more entries at Fussypants!

Love ya body, love it, love it, love it.

Love your body and it will love you. Hate your body and it will never be right no matter what size or shape you are. This week for me was about getting back on track, exercising and eating much, much better than last week. I decided to love my body and do something about making it even more lovable and less flumpy frumpy.

But, here's how the week started with my mind and my body at war with each other.

Body: "It's Monday, you really should go to the YMCA and get on that awesome new elliptical stepper."

Mind: First stop light, right turn signal to go home goes on.

Body: "Nope go to the Y."

Mind: Second stop light, turn signal comes on.

Body: "Nope, never mind the stuff you need to do at home. Get to the Y."

Mind: Third stop light, turn signal comes on.

Body: "No, No, keep driving."

Mind: Sitting in the parking lot. "I really should go on home."

Body: No, I want to love my body not hate it so I must go in. I won't get a workout if I don't go in.

Thirty-five minutes later I have worked up a sweat, done my cardio for the day and now, YES I can go home and it felt so totally great getting it done at the beginning of the day and moving on to all that waited! I managed to take off two more pounds this week! Yeah!!!! So, what are you waiting for - get the frump moving. Show your body you love it. Watch what you put in it and watch it whittle away with exercise. (I can't believe this is me of all people - sounding like some exercise guru. You must know this was not me in January. YES, things can change, people. You can do it. It is all in what you want and how bad you want it.)

And, so this week's news is from the treadmill AMT elliptical, watching my favorite six news channels hanging from the Y ceiling. I am sharing with you what I learned:

1) You are only somebody if you've been interviewed by James Lipton from Bravo, who is known for staying away from cheesy gossipy topics and hitting the hardcore stuff that really matters. You didn't know what you were missing, did ya?

2) Martha Stewart says "Buy green and crispy." And, she was paired with Meredith the day I saw her. Matt must have been out on assignment. Speaking of which, next Tuesday, Laura Bush is playing host on one of the channels - a first for a first lady! Go Laura. Go Laura. Sorry I can't tell you which -- you'll just have to keep flippin'.

3) Perfume can go bad within a week if you put it in your window sill. Keep it in a cool, dark place and it will last up to 100 years, says authors of none other than a book called Perfume, only I couldn't find the exact book in my internet search. Sorry.

4) The Top 6-word motto for the US is: "Our Worst Critics Prefer to Stay" as reported by Freakonomics writer Stephen J. Dubner. Here, here!

5) The new nicknames for the presidential candidates have risen to new heights from McBush for McCain and OBillary for Hillary and Obama put together. I wish I had the picture of their faces morphed together. Totally scary. Ohh - Here it is --Totally messes with your mind.

And if you haven't got enough Fight the Frump, go back to my Wednesday post on how to have whiter teeth with baking soda and peroxide or my Tuesday post on the CamiLeon heel that can change from 1" to 3" on the same shoe! You really aren't paying attention now that I put this picture up, are you? Yeah, it is definitely freaky.

Now, if you can tear yourself away, I know you will want to check out all the other wonderful posters over at Fussy's Fight the Frump Friday for tons more good ideas.

The Frumps have it: Lessons from the Egyptians.

"I fought the frumps and the frumps won" (or was that "I fought the law and the law won?")

This week has been an exercise DISASTER. Not enough time. Not enough energy. Not enough care factor. If you want to look good and feel good, you have to CARE. It was not happening this week. So, I am struggling for a topic but I will share a tip that I have told SOMEONE I will write into an longer post someday for a fashion review website, but not now.

Being a short cutter and inherently lazy person, I love ways to make life easy. I recently started wearing foundation and powder and other goop and stuff from bottles and jars and pencils points, resembling something off an Egyptian crypt or hopefully not. When I go out at night, I apply another layer for that extra pizazz (or was it for aging saggy bag eye concealment? not sure - must be the brain fog kicking in).

When I get home and am getting ready for bed, I run to the bathroom yelling "ohh, ohhh, get this stuff off my face. My poor pores are suffocating." Okay, it is not quite that bad but its close.

So, what do I do that is easy breezy, no fuss or muss? I pull out FACE WIPES I found at Sephora, the make-up store at the mall. I am in love with face wipes. They take everything from foundation to mascara off with one wipe. Not only that but they also have numerous vitamins included in the wipes that leave your face feeling refreshed and renewed. Love them, love them, love them. Did I say I love them yet? For a mere $10, you get almost a month's worth of easy facial cleansing. I do use Dove lotion afterward and the Sephora woman suggested additional deep cleaning but I don't and my skin doesn't have problems. BUT, I don't use heavy make-up every day either and I didn't want to tell HER that.

Oh and I can not forget my weekly news from the treadmill couch floor by the laundry pile or basically anywhere I am and see something interesting to share. BUT, I have to preface this by saying that at the Y, I have 6 NEWS channels to pick between. At home by the laundry pile, I expand my options to history, shopping channels and much, much more. So, yesterday, I was flipping channels only to learn that:

1) if I really want the perfect example of combining art, engineering and ego, I go no farther than one Ramses the Great.

2) And, flipping on to the next channel, if I want to sculpt my body into a modern day icon and look as good as the Egyptians (even though you wonder if their artists fudged a little), all I need is a power juicer like everyone in Hollywood is using, the mineral foundations just like everyone in Hollywood is using and wear the Spanx girdles JUST LIKE EVERYONE wore to the Oscars IN HOLLYWOOD. Can't these shopping channels get more original? I would rather hear that I could be JUST LIKE RAMSES or actually his idolized wife Nefertari (which means Beautiful Companion) and get a temple named after me simply for looking good.

3) Finally, if someone like Ramses tried to exist today, he had better not set up a ranch in West Texas since Ramses had over 101 children by the age of 21. He wouldn't be looked upon too highly, that lover boy.

4) Ohhh, and can't forget the inspirational channel. Joyce Meyer says, "THROW OUT THE EXCUSE BAG." Guess I had better get back to the gym . . .but the kids are out of school . .  . but it hurts . . . but . . .but . . but. . . . NO! -- Throw it out and get that butt moving in the right direction.

Well, that's all for today so go check out Fussy's Fight the Frump Friday and see if anyone else has more poignant tales to tell.

Speaking of which, check out Pensieve's Haiku poetry linkie and my own spring haiku entry!

Fighting the Frump Friday in lovely April

For a Fight the Frump Friday inspiration: Don't be a slouch. Get off the couch. Get walking and moving. From the couch no treadmill no really, couch, I learned this week that YES, aspartame is not bad for you. Diet Coke lovers rejoice! There it was on the news right after eating all the rice you want and other "myth" busters about food.

I wasn't sure if I should be cynical about what I was seeing but it really seemed that ever major hurting industry had just paid this woman to give every dieter in the country the permission to throw away everything they had learned (which changes annually anyway) and do whatever they wanted. I am sooo confused. I'll stick to my baby spinach leaves, cheese, nuts, dark chocolate and red wine. Oh don't forget to throw in fish and meat and the occasional colon cleanse to wash it all out. Works for me.

On that note. Nahhh, I won't go there this week but I get daily SPAM for colon cleanse products which I have never bought and don't plan to. I would post what I see in the e-mails but I might get kicked off some blogroll somewhere for doing it. They are positively gross. Has anyone out there tried the nasty stuff?

On a different note, I do want to remind everyone about a topic that somehow keeps getting farther and farther down in my posts. I writing feature stories for Story of My Life which stores memories in permanent storage for people who have an great story to tell but aren't bloggers, etc. and need the encouragement to write it out and save it for generations . Since Story of My Life is launching the story part this year, they need feature stories. You can go on and sign up and add stories and chapters anytime but if you know someone with a story that needs help writing it and would really inspire others, I would love to talk to you!!

Okay, back to healthy living and eating for fighting the frump. Okay, coffee. I have been a week now without Splenda in my coffee and I have to say that I am proud to be getting used to it. It hasn't stopped me from finishing off a bag of Easter candy in one fell swoop but the determination to get healthy has allowed me to drop TWO, count them TWO pounds this week. I am now where I was two weeks ago before Spring Break. It is such a roller coaster when you are a self-admitted compulsive sugaraholic!

Today I am getting my last free wellness session at the YMCA and we are focusing on FREE WEIGHTS. That works - free session, free weights. Last of my free sessions. Last of my ability to raise my arms above my head (since I'll be so sore). I want to learn about using weights in the right way so I can do them at home to WHITTLE the weight!!

Go have an awesomely beautiful day. Tuck in, tuck up. Trim the nosehairs. Pluck the eyebrows. Take on the world!

Nadda Latta to Say - news from the treadmill

I got nothing. Nothing with nadda latta to say today. Sooo,. . . . on that note, I will say that everyone tells you artificial sweeteners are bad. They tell you the chemicals are terrible in your body. They'll ruin you, give you cancer, keep your sweet tooth alive.

Does that stop me? No o o o  o.

So, what actually brought me to my knees yesterday, that keep me from adding Splenda to my coffee this morning and actually jumpstarted the no-Splenda resolve was the following. Well, I wish I had taken a picture because visuals are very motivating.

I walk into my house after a trip to the city and there in the middle of my kitchen floor is my bag of powdered baking Splenda, torn apart and ruined. My dog didn't even like it enough to finish it off and she has a worse sweet tooth then me. After screaming at my dog and reaching down to clean up my precious artificial chemical powder, I noticed gluey glumps of white substance where the Splenda had mixed with the dog's saliva and now was forming glue-like mounds on my floor that were hard to clean up.

EWWWWW. . . . ...  .

People, I am cured for at least a day. That gunk is probably what is sitting in my gut right now from days and years of Splenda consumption sticking everything else to the intestinal walls.

Okay, quick here and I have to get the kiddies to school but this week's news from the treadmill (and in case you haven't read already, I get on the treadmill at the YMCA and have 6 attention grabbing channels to switch between for 1/2 hour. By the end, my mind and body are racing and I have lots to share.)

1. Martha Stewart, the cooking maven, is totally crushing on Matt Lauer. She made sure he knew he was getting the "big" egg. She saved the "large one" for him that ended up having twin yolks inside much to his feigned surprise. How did she know? She "candled" it to find out. Give me a break. Stick to your own cooking show, Martha, and stop flirting with Matt.

2. Chelsea Clinton got hammered by the media this week and I will honestly admit I am not a fan of the Clintons but if I have to hear one more word about her non-answer, I am going to scream. Taxes, Economy, Global Issues, anyone? anyone?

3. The good Dr. Gupta tells me this week that premature babies have a lot more struggles in life with academics, etc. So now I get to blame my mom? Dude, get a life. I did just fine. Sorry, just feeling a little edgy today. Must be the lack of sweetener in my coffee.

4. Finally, and I am sure you are sighing relief about now, there are inexpensive facial sunscreen products out there just as good as the expensive ones and if I didn't have the brain fog I learned about last week I could actually tell you some of them. I guess you will have to go in search of them on your own and let me know.

Now, go check out the other awesome Fight the Frump Entries at Fussypants!