Gratitude

I'm feeling grateful for so many things, and need to make an effort to list them more often. But in no particular order, I am especially appreciative of and grateful for:

1. My incredible network of Twitter friends who are helping me to grow beyond my wildest dreams: @JoyceCherrier, @HipCop, @KatJaib, @ShellyKramer, @SusanLorelei, @mmangen, @CherryWoodburn, @FromTracie, @AmyOscar, @blogomomma, @SarahRobinson, and soooo many others.
2. My awesome circle of blog friends who have remained faithful, loyal, and true. You know who you are, you know who I am, yet you manage to love me anyway.Whoa! (This also applies to my non-blogger friends!)
3. Honest Tea, particularly the Pearfect White Tea. Also Lori's Lemon Tea.
4. Jazzercise, for allowing me to work out in a supportive, mirror-free atmosphere. Check out their 1-day sale HERE!
5. Jillian Michaels, despite her saying, "I want you to feel like you're gonna DIE!"
6. Candy. Because it helps keep my kids in line.
7. Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay. Because it helps get me out of line.
8. My friend Meg for not kicking me out of her birthday party Saturday night when I put a purple bowl in my shirt and pretended to be pregnant. My friend Anne for not disowning me after I slapped her ass while dancing. Meg's husband Justin for indulging me and adding the Wang Chung song to his iPod.
9. Our sweet babysitter Kiley who has the nerve to leave for college in California in 10 days, but has managed to put up with me and my neuroses, not to mention my children, for several years now.
10. Books. So many books, so little time. But lately, Jonathan Safran Foer's "Eating Animals," for opening my eyes to what's really going on behind the scenes in the food industry. Also "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett has likely been my favorite read so far this year.
11. My husband. I love him so much that we are getting remarried in October at The Sasone Wedding. He still puts up with me dotes on me after over 10 years together! I'm so lucky. He's such a trooper.
12. My children. Yes, they may be unruly, cantankerous little hags at times, but deep down they are loving, smart, and beautiful girls. Sometimes I do wonder if one of them not naming any names here was perhaps mixed up in the in-vitro lab, because her attitude is unlike anything I've ever witnessed or read about she can't possibly be mine.
13. My family---for loving me, encouraging me, humoring me, paying for my therapy and always being willing to talk through things and drug me when I become to difficult to deal with.

I shall end this list here before it becomes too boring although it's more than likely you stopped reading way back there on # 3.

What are YOU feeling grateful for besides me, of course?

Embrace Your Body Challenge with The Mommyologist

Mary The Mommyologist is once again getting us to think hard about how we view ourselves with this week's Embrace Your Body Challenge. If you go here, you can watch her vlog and hear what she likes about herself. It made me pretty nervous, but I let her thoughts marinate for a bit.

Ultimately I did my own vlog below about I like about me. It was difficult to do, as it's much more my speed to obsess over all the things I can't stand about myself. But the reality is that I have two young girls watching me every minute, so I need monitor myself and censor what I say out loud. I've got to start thinking more positively too, because they are perceptive and can sense a lot just by watching me as I get dressed and ready in front of a mirror.

So here it is---this was my first shot, out of breath & in the rough, right after failing miserably at a new Jillian Michaels dvd The Father Load bought. Still and all, I managed to find one positive thing. I am going to work hard to find others.

What do you like about yourself? Why not link up at Mary The Mommyologist's place with photos or a vlog and tell us?

Bringing Mom Sexy Back with The Mommyologist (No Leotard Required)

The Mommyologist has begun a startling new phenomenon in BlogLand---Bringing Mom Sexy Back. In her groundbreaking post on Monday, she broke up with her scale and kicked him to the curb (quite literally) in a one-of-a-kind vlog that will leave you empowered, inspired, and bent over with laughter. While I am not brave enough to hurtle my scale into a forest just yet, I am Bringing Mom Sexy Back with my Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred dvd.

Because my friend Ian over at The Daily Dose of Reality likes to say, "Pics or it never happened," I asked The Father Load to take some photos of my latest shredding experience. Please remember the camera adds ten twenty thirty pounds to remove any small children or elderly people from the room before viewing the pictures below. Like The Mommyologist, I haven't really noticed changes on my scale; however, I am feeling stronger, healthier, and more empowered. Mom Sexy is in da house. And for those of you who like to make fun of my Jazzercise habit (you know who you are!), please note that these are my Jazzercise clothes. There are no legwarmers. More importantly, there is no leotard. And that is not a sweatband, it is a HEADBAND to keep my hair out of my face.

(I'm thinking this is why my knees are killing me---this move is tough!)

(Monster likes to join me during my workouts--I just love dog breath in my face when I'm doing chest flies)

(Are we done yet? Oh, the basketball goal is the best place to hang up hula hoops in case you were wondering)

(Even The Father Load joined me and he is Bringing Dad Sexy Back!)

So here's the rub: unless you are sweating, panting, grunting, trembling, and feeling like you're gonna die, you're not really working out, you are not pushing yourself to your limit; therefore you are not Mom Sexy. When I'm giving it everything I've got, I am Bringing Mom Sexy Back. When I'm done---stinky and exhausted and ready to collapse on the couch-- I'm Bringing Mom Sexy Back. I've said farewell to those calories, all that stress, and any feelings of worthlessness motherhood has brought upon me that particular day. I feel good about myself, no matter what the scale said that morning.

But Bringing Mom Sexy Back isn't just about exercise; for me it's also about eating right. I posted last week about my wake-up call from Jessica Gottlieb. In addition to shopping more carefully at the grocery store, I finally forced myself to watch the movie Food, Inc. and I wish I'd done so sooner. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you put it in your Netflix queue or head to Blockbuster NOW. It is Mom Sexy to be knowledgeable about the food industry, what is on our plates, and where it's coming from. It is Mom Sexy to educate ourselves so that we and our families can be healthier and kinder to our planet and its species. It is Mom Sexy to explore other options, consider new avenues, and teach our kids about what we're learning along the way.

I am Mom Sexy....when I eat right (most of the time).

I am Mom Sexy....when I exercise regularly.

I am Mom Sexy....when I learn as much as I can every day.

I am Mom Sexy....when I read, listen, and open my mind and heart.

I am Mom Sexy....when I trust myself, love my body, and learn to like what I see in the mirror.

I am Mom Sexy....when I play tag and Duck, Duck, Goose with my kids.

I am Mom Sexy....when I curl up and read Pinkalicious to my kids for the hundredth time.

I am Mom Sexy....even in an worn t-shirt and Gap jeans.

I am Mom Sexy....even if my hair is dirty and I'm tired.

I am Mom Sexy....because it's a feeling that comes from within. It's an attitude I'm adopting. It's a life change. It's being the best mom, wife, friend, sister, daughter, etc. that I can be. It means working hard every day to better myself in so many ways.

But being Mom Sexy also means having patience with myself, not beating myself up if I am not perfect. Rome wasn't built in a day. It starts with one little thing---throwing a scale away, buying a Jillian Michaels dvd, or tossing out all the Twinkies and Ding Dongs. It morphs, stretches and reaches into so many other parts of your life. It's contagious!

How are you Bringing Mom Sexy Back?

Pouring My Heart Out (About Chicken Nuggets, Jazzercise, Earth Day, Big Macs, and Jillian Michaels)

Today I am Pouring My Heart out along with the awesome Shell over at Things I Can't Say. If you'd like to link up or play along, please go here. You don't have to agree with everything I say, but like Shell, I'll ask you to be respectful and refrain from commenting if you have nothing positive to say.

Because Earth Day is this week, I've had a lot weighing heavily on my mind. I believe Earth Day should be EVERY day, not just once a year. People need to wake up, take notice, and really begin making changes before it's too late. In my humble opinion, it's already too late, but perhaps if we hurry we can catch up.
More about that tomorrow, though....


Earth Day is not only about caring for our planet, but caring for ourselves---by going back to the Earth, to natural things put down that Frosty and Super Size Fries, please, and to the way nature intended it.


I have always leaned towards eating healthy/organic/natural, but my intensity waxes and wanes. I shopped at Whole Foods over the weekend for the first time in a few months. It was a lovely (albeit expensive) experience. But you know what? The food tastes better. It's fresher. I love being surrounded by shelves, stacks and displays of everything good for you. While we were in the produce section a bubbly employee knelt down and offered my girls freshly cut hunks of Granny Smith apples, which they greedily gobbled up. I frequently shop in the organic/all-natural sections of other grocery stores because Whole Foods is not close to my home. But it's a few extra miles I'm going to travel more often from now on. Because it matters.

My wake-up call was this post by Jessica Gottlieb. While mostly about social media and its impact, it was also about our diet, our health, and how little we're teaching our children about basic nutrition. Read her post and watch the short video clip from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Kids who don't recognize tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes? Appalling. Unreal. Ridiculous. We have only ourselves to blame when they squeal with delight at the sight of those hellish Golden Arches. The next time you turn into the drive-thru salivating over the idea of a Big Mac and fries, stop yourself and really think about what you are doing not only to yourself, but to your children. What examples are you setting?

Another wake-up call was this post by Dr. Joe, "Why You Should Drop The Soda Right Now." He cites staggering statistics about how much soda Americans are consuming compared with people in other countries. There are 12-14 teaspoons of sugar in every can of soda--revolting, no? Juice isn't much better. Unfortunately, diet soda isn't the solution with all of its artificial sweeteners. I quit drinking Diet Coke a long time ago and have never been better. I discovered the artificial sweeteners were giving me stomach pains.

I'm reading labels more closely. I don't want to buy stuff loaded with ingredients I can't pronounce. Yes, my kids will continue to eat chicken nuggets, but now I am buying the ones with all white meat, no artificial ingredients, no trans fats, etc.

I went through my fridge and pantry and tossed the undesirable things---things I'm too mortified to admit were hibernating in there. But it doesn't matter now because they're gone, and they won't be coming back.

You think your Yoplait yogurt is healthy? Think again---look at the label and see "high fructose corn syrup." Blech. Guess what? It's also in things like whole wheat BREAD. It's no wonder we've become so accustomed to liking sweet things. It's time for us to become responsible consumers, to read labels and take control, to think before we buy and before we take a bite.

Hmmm, what else? Let's turn off the tv, computer, video games, etc. and get up off our lazy bums. Let's get outside. Let's take our kids and our dogs for much-needed long walks. I just bought Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred dvd to do at home. It's $8.99, you don't need to sign your life away, leave your house, or buy a gym membership to get fit (read: no excuses!). All you need is a mat (or a towel) and a set of hand weights (or cans of soup). Think about the example you're setting for your kids when they see you're excited about exercise (even if you're pretending a little bit). Think about how good YOU will feel, and how much your body will benefit from it. Guess what else? The Father Load is doing The Shred with me because that is how incredible it is. And because he cares about his health and his body, too.

I have one life. I have one body. I am finally starting to treat it like a temple.

This is my chance, your chance, our chance for something better.

Do it now. Make a change.What are you waiting for? Get those leg warmers on!

(image courtesy of @RosevilleRockLn on Twitter)