I haven't been drinking as much water like I should, but I'm drinking more than what I was. I have been switching over to juice instead of soda. I don't drink as much of it now that I don't keep any in the house. I'm inclined to keep it that way, because I'm starting to hate these soda cans that have piled up that we collect for recycling.

We finally got payed, and I did some grocery shopping. I'm not eating at work now (thank god). I also have my 360 and play halo, so I play halo instead of eat when I get bored. Combine that with walking everywhere (because James has the car for work, I'm stuck walking), I've actually lost 3 pounds from seemingly doing nothing.

When I grocery shopped, I got some of these Morning Star faux chicken patties. I have to say they kick Boca in the butt. It's actually kinda hard to tell they aren't real chicken. With Boca you can tell because it can be stringy at times. I still like the spicy chicken Boca has but the grocery store never seems to have them in stock. I'm also not willling to pay an extra $1.50 for a soy chicken patty. The only reason I'd stick with Boca. I'm not vegitarian or anything, I just like to eat a broad range of foods. I also purchased some cage free brown chicken eggs to James' delight. We'll see if they taste any better. I bet he's already wanting to eat them.

James' is working two jobs right now. He absolutely loves his first job, and then likes his second one because he isn't in a cubical and likes to move around. I worry that he's going to over work himself. I think he's starting to get skinny. I guess I'd better start packing lunches for him to make sure he's eating something at work. He has a tendency to get fixated on programming projects, and quits eating. I made sure to sock up on his favorites this time around. Silly husband. I'd work more, but I have school and access to one shared car.

Tip #6 The simple exercise some people miss out on every morning.

This is something this many people don't think about. When you get up in the morning, do you roll out of bed or sit up and get out of bed?

If you roll out of bed, you might be missing out on some abs training.

I never noticed this until after I started dating my husband. If I was laying down, he'd offer his hand to help me up. Or if I was sitting down on the floor he'd do the same. After relying on him to do this for me so long, I realized it was very difficult to sit up in bed on my own anymore. I actually started rolling out of bed.

Usually when I don't exercise for a long time, if I pick it back up again, sit ups are relatively easy for me. But after I dated my husband, and went back to exercising, they were extremely hard to do.
I eventually quit using his hand to help me sit up. And now that I haven't been to karate for a while, I still have okay abs. Because I actually sit up on my own whenever I'm in a lying down position.

Seems like a simple concept, but it's often over looked.

Recently I headed down to my local CVS originally in search of makeup primer. Alas, they only had one. It was Revlon's Beyond Natural smoothing primer. It came in a small squarish tube , with .85 oz. in it. The stuff resembles a clear gel and ran about $12. It was a bit pricey for me, but I have some bad acne scaring, so anything that will make my makeup look better is a plus. I had to try some.

All in all I can say it was not bad. In fact I had some very nice results. It when on very light, a gave my skin a silky texture, and wasn't greasy at all.

Apparently the silicon formula coats over your skin filling in any pitted areas, and also prevent makeup from getting into your pores. I don't wear much makeup, but after deep cleaning of my pores with a honey mask, and then using this stuff before I use make up, I can say I was impressed. Especially since the only makeup that looks decent on me is oil based makeup. Even the water based and mineral stuff looks bad and chalky on me because I have uneven texture most people don't have at my age. This stuff prevents the oil in my makeup from disrupting my skin.

After my initial use, I combined this with a trick I learned a few days ago. I used a brush for my oil based mouse foundation over my primer. The results were stellar. Usually you can tell I put on makeup, so this forces me to use very little, to the point I get no coverage. This Leaves me the wonder what's the point in wearing makeup? I was left with very smooth appearing skin with a nice glow. Something I couldn't achieve before. I guess the french know what they are talking about after all.

I have also heard that you can use Monostat's silicon based chaffing lotion and get the same effect as a makeup primer, and for a much lower price. I'll review that once this stuff runs out. Which it will very quickly I might add cause I like it too much.

It's not over yet. CVS just so happened to have a buy one get one sale. I usually hate trying new shades of lipstick or gloss because I can't never get my color right, or everything is too sheer, and it doesn't show up because I'm fair skinned. Revlon has a Beyond Natural cream Lipgloss. I'm usually not a fan of gloss, or stick. But I tried it because it has the word cream in it. Mmmm cream. I have lips that tend ot be very chapped. So thinking my problem could be that I need a more substaintsial gloss to get me through this winter, I jumped on it. Let's say I was pleasantly surprised.

The lipgloss comes in a small streamlined tube, weighting roughly .46 oz. It cost roughly $7 without the discount.
All the colors are Natural, hence the name Beyond Natural. I purchased rosey. If I had saw the color name first I probably woudl have adverted from it thinking it would make me look like a little old lady. But being smart, I looked in the mirror for a shade that most closely matched my own.
Becareful about putting this tube in your pocket though. It WILL slide out. I actually lost my first tube within the first day and lamented about it for a week until I got paid. I never was a lipgloss/stick girl. But this had definitly made me into a convert. The gloss has a subtle shimmer to it, suitable for someone of any age. It's literally like they took your real color and enhanced it a little.

I decided to get creative after seeing how well it worked on my lips, so I used some on my cheeks as a blush and it worked out well. It gave me a natural flushed look, unlike the powders; though it did seem a little greasy. I wasn't too worried because I had my makeup primer.

Tip #5   Eat until you're 5/8th's full.

This doesn't mean starve yourself, but some of us seem to think FULL is... well, frankly stuffed to our fullest capacity. We are not little car tanks, that simply spew out excess food if we are given too much. Unlike a metal car tank, our stomachs can expand way beyond what is needed to sustain us in such a food abundant world. This is where some people's definition of FULL doesn't work, cause there's usually room for MORE. Then weight gain will chase you down.
It really doesn't matter if your definition of full is stuffed or not, if you eat 3/8's less than you normally do now, you'll probably lose the weight anyway.

Okay, I've know I haven't gained any weight recently.

- But I know there's plenty of users out there who want to lose weight. The simple adage of eat right, and exercise regularly doesn't seem to cut it for them.

I'm not about quick change temporary diets, I'm about life habits. But when you think about changing your diet for life, you get this dreaded sense of 'blah', because the routine will get boring or whatever.
And maybe I can add a hint of some extra information everyone else might not know to make this less dull.

The point of this blog, really, is to provide some jump start tips, and possibly making the transition more exciting or enjoyable. Note I said 'enjoyable', not 'less painful'.

So there your have it, Tip NUMERO UNO: Change of mindset. Think of this as fun. Not pain. It will get better.

I don't really feel like getting into a deep discussion about this, though I was tempted. I'll save that for another rant.

Okay, I don't think It's fair that I just give you 1 tip on the first posting. So I 'll post a few general ones too.

#2 Reduce your sugar and fat intake. It is the enemy. Don't count solely on the food labels to save you.

Simple task right? NOT. Let's get  clearer picture here. You drink a can of a soda a day. You think this is using sugar sparingly. You're not drinking more that one can a day. Guess what? You're only supposed to have one once a week. How about Gummy worms? Nope. Once a week. The same for any candy really. I just ruined your life didn't I?

Greasy chips and french fires? Yeah, those are on the list too.
It gets worse. When the FDA did tests to find out how much fat a person should consume, they used mice to metabolize it in the experiments. There is a possibility that humans metabolize fat differently than mice and get even MORE fat stored caloric content from fat they eat.

How is this possible? You'd think it was common knowledge that calories that comes in would equal the same amount of weight gain relative to a creatures size.

However, there exists metabolism disorders where a person produces very little glucose (sugar) from the food they eat, and puts on most of their calories as fat. They in turn has less glucose to do everyday task, so they get tired more quickly. Then it forms a vicious cycle of gain gain.

The mouse's heart beat is much faster than ours. It has a much higher metabolism (I think it's funny how things with super high metabolisms seem to not live as long. And here we aspire to become hypermetabolic marathon runners.) Creatures with high metabolisms need a lot of sugar to run their bodies. Meaning their metaboism is geared towards making making fat into sugar if sugar is in low supply. How did they run these experiments? Did they feed them only fat for a short time? Did they give them a regular diet with a controled amount of fat?

You can see how this can become a problem when we use mice to compare how much fat a person should consume a day.

#3 How would you like to eat your push up? Tough Love.

Push ups are one of the best single exercises a person can do for themselves. It works the arms, chest, shoulders, back, and abdominals. A good over all work out.

A little fact one might not know. Women have on average 1/3 less muscle than men, and most of the loss is in the upper body..
No wonder chin ups and push ups are so hard!

But here's the benefit that no one tells you about: When you gain upper body muscle, your body produces more testosterone. What does this mean? You can lose weight more efficiently. This might be the secret that men have been hiding in plain view all this time. This is probably why the gym equipment industry almost never show women on upper body equipment, and always picture them on ellipticals. Cause we're obviously hamsters. I mean, come on, all we eat is salad, and poop nice, round, scentless turds. If you haven't found out this is a joke. Shame on you. It's really because they don't want us to lose weight, and purchase their product, then get another product when that doesn't work.

Now, how should you perform these push ups? Start with bent knee form and work your way form there right?
Question, how are you working from bent knee position to a real push up position? I'm not aware of transitional positions between those two. I just find this plain retarded.

Sure, you'll work more of your upper chest this way, but you're much LESS likely to actually transition to a 'real' push up. Which is what you want, by the way. If you don't want to transition to a real push up, what was the point of doing the push ups again? I think we missed the point, and it wants to reschedule an appointment.

A better approach is to do your push ups at an incline. Like on a counter top or a sturdy table in a real pushup position. And work your way down to lower objects when you're ready. By the time you get to the floor, your abs will be strong enough to support you when you do the real thing, unlike the knees bent method.

Once you got that mastered, you can this prop your feet on higher things instead, until you're doing jail house push ups, and maybe get that tattoo of a tear on your cheek you've secretly always wanted.

#4 The KISS Method.

KISS stands for Keep it Simple Stupid. Now I feel kinda stupid for just typing that.

On a serious note. Starting off with a new complicated program is probably not the best way to go. Start off in stages, a good tip is start a new good habit every week.

Infomercial systems generally don't work because they require a complete transformation of your life style. Are you likely to keep up with it? How about a year or two down the road? That's about when your exs, potato chips and milk shake start calling, and asking about a getting back together.
Are you really over this relationship? Probably not if you distracting yourself from the real problem with this new diet as your muse.
Work on diffusing one bad habit at a time, and for good. Then you'll be more likely to succeed.

Okay that sums it up for now. I'll hopefully have some new, and interesting tips of varying length sometime in the near future.