We chose our wedding bands! and a healthy baking day!

I am sad that the weekend has to end because it was wonderfully relaxing and exciting. We are slowly ticking things off of our to-do list for the wedding and this weekend was no exception. When we first got engaged, I was looking for a place to get my ring sized because it was too big - I called 5 different places, getting discouraged because I kept hearing that my ring was going to have to be shipped out for 2 weeks or more and would cost me a pretty penny. Now as you can imagine, when you just get engaged, you do NOT want your ring off your finger for 2-4 weeks, that's what everyone wants to look at! So, I kept searching and found a local shop in Charlotte's NoDa district called CUSTOM. On a whim, I took it in and thought it was at least worth asking what they could do. Amazingly, they told me it would take 2 days and cost considerably less money and they did an amazing job! So, of course, we went back there as a first stop to find our wedding bands! Again I am amazed with this place - they had exactly what we were looking for in Dwayne's band and they are going to custom create mine for a VERY reasonable price. I seriously suggest that anyone in Charlotte, go and check this place out!

Dwayne signing the paperwork!

Earlier in the day we got some family exercise by taking the pup on a long walk at McApline park. I love that we are so close to such an awesome park facility. It's kind of hard to tell, who is walking who here?

Hero always gets really excited for the 1st 5 minutes of walks. He wants to sniff everything, meet everyone and he darts from side to side. Once he calms down, he walks much more nicely but unfortunately that is still the bit of training we need to hammer home with him. We walked about 2 miles and made some friends along the way. I am going to try and start morning walks with Hero to get us both some morning exercise, however, getting my butt out of bed at 615am is tricky : )

We ended up with one tired puppy!

Sunday I went to the Dowd YMCA, which is an absolutely stunning facility. They even have a swimsuit dryer in the locker rooms! No joke. I really enjoy working out in the YMCA facilities, they are always clean, full of friendly people and have more equipment and classes than a fitness enthusiast could dream of! I ran a 5k on the hill course because I have a 5k coming up in a few weeks, that's right folks - its the beginning of race season! A group of us are doing the color run!

When I got home, it was rainy and dreary and I thought, what a perfect day for baking! Dwayne was gone all day so I started looking up some recipes (thanks pinterest!) Everything (aside from the blondies they came from a box) is sweetened naturally with bananas or strawberries. MMM! I can a big slice for breakfast this morning and managed to hide some away so that it's not entirely gone by the time I get home. I have a hungry fiance! : )

Chocolate chip blondies, apple banana bread and strawberry muffins!

Hopefully, with today being another rainy, dreary day - I won't feel bad about spending a good hour or so at the gym. I don't know about you guys but I always feel bad going to the gym when it's super nice outside because I feel like I should be spending time outside but its just more conveniant to get to the gym. Do you ever feel that way?

Next on the wedding to-do list is to find an Officiant and a spot for the rehearsal dinner. Any suggestions? Let us know!!

My First Dress Fitting and My Thoughts on the Abercrombie CEO

Hello all,

This weekend was excellent because I got to relax but also because I had my first dress fitting! I have to admit that when I bought my wedding gown that it was hard to truly imagine what it would look like when it actually fit me. The dress is 2-3 sizes too big because it was a discontinued boutique style and so I bought it off the rack.

Obviously, I can't show a picture but this is a pretty good representation.

Saturday morning my friend and a I went back to the boutique to meet the women doing my alterations.These two women were certainly pros! I thought it would be some long, drawn out process of measurements and in reality, all I had to do was put the dress on and they pinned me into it. I got a really good look at what the dress will be like when its finished and even got to tell them exactly how low down my legs I wanted my "mermaid" style skirt to be. They also showed me something called a 5 point bussel? Acted like I was supposed to know what that was - I didn't so I just smiled!

It was also interesting because when I first put the dress back on, the first question I was asked was "So are you planning anything drastic before your wedding?" I was confused at the question but then I realized - she meant was I planning on changing my body drastically before the wedding. I said no and she started telling me stories about how she has had women come in telling her that they are going to lose 40-50 or 60 pounds before their wedding and somehow she is supposed to know how to alter their dress before they have actually done so. It is an interesting business - this wedding stuff. . The entire relationship I have had with my fiance, I have weighed the same thing and been a healthy person. Why before we make the biggest commitment to each other would I try to make myself look like a different person? Don't get me wrong, I will surely try to step up my workouts and work on my muscle tone but drastic weight loss? No.

It's killing me that I can't share pictures! Obviously, that would ruin the surprise. So, instead I will just share this.

I love ECards!

I will have the first round of alterations back at the end of July and I can't wait!

I have also had a few people ask me about my thoughts on the Abercrombie and Fitch CEO's latest snafu in the lime light. For those of you who don't know, he publicly said that he doesn't sell larger sized clothes in his store because he doesn't want fat people wearing them. His clothes are for the cool kids. An article about it is here.

Now, a lot of people have gotten outraged by this and are talking about petitions and boycotts and everything else. My opinion on this may surprise a few people, but honestly I am on his side.

Say whhhaaa?

Do I think that the way he said it could have been done better or think that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones? Absolutely, but everyone knows that Abercrombie and Fitch is for tall, skinny rich kids whose parents are wealthy and stupid enough to pay $50 for a tshirt that said A&F on the front.

I don't walk into stores like DressBarn or Babys R Us and get outraged because they don't have clothes in my size. I am NOT their demographic - maybe they are selling strictly to middle aged house wives or children. There are even stores out there that cater STRICTLY to larger people - when was the last time that you were outraged at a Mens Big and Tall store not selling clothes for my 5'1 frame? The beauty of our market is that we can have multiple stores that can dig out niches and this has been A&F's for a long time. I remember never going there when I was in high school because even their 'short' pants were 3 inches too long and when I was a size 6 at Old Navy, I was a 12 there. So, I chose not to shop there anymore because obviously, I wasn't who they were trying to sell to.

I think it's time that we stop being SO HYPERSENSITIVE about everything and spend more time getting outraged by the things that matter. Why aren't people as outraged about genetically modified foods and its backdoor legislation or even as outraged that the population of obese people has tripled in the past 20 years? Maybe, people should be more outraged about people not taking care of themselves and less outraged about those same peoples inability to buy jeans from 1 of 1,000 different retailers. Priorities people, priorities.

Skinny Girl Backlash and Yay! Learning

Hello all!

Happy day after Cinco de Mayo! Seis de Mayo! Last night, we got together with friends to have a homemade dinner and catch up on MadMen. We were two episodes behind! OH NO! Since yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, we decided to do a healthy(-ish) Mexican style dinner. So, we made a taco bar complete with chicken, steak, black beans and Spanish rice..MMM.. muy delicioso! My contribution was to try and make a healthier version of a South American dessert. I decided on churros only because we already had all of the ingredients in our house : ) It was the weekend, I had already gone to the store - don't judge me.  I found a healthier version that wasn't deep fried but instead baked and used cooking spray instead of butter on the outside to make the brown sugar and cinnamon stick.

3 eggs, 1.5 cups flour, 4 tbsp melted butter,  2tsp baking powder, 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Spray with cooking spray and roll in cinnamon and sugar.

The episode of MadMen hit home with an article that I read last week that I wanted to share with all of you. H&M recently released their bathing suit collection and decided that they were going to use regular sized or "plus-sized" (as they are called in the modeling world) women. The article discussed a new trend of using normal sized people and mannequins to model clothes! Is this the beginning of the actual backlash against the ridiculously skinny women in entertainment roles? MadMen tied in with the character Joan, played by Christina Hendricks, getting much more screen time lately as a strong partner in the advertising agency. Christina is known for being an advocate of her curves and the men don't seem to mind either!

Today is the 1st day of my online class at Vanderbilt about Nutrition and Healthy Eating. I am very excited to start this class and the 1st few videos were great giving some great information and basic statistics on health in the United States. The most interesting piece of information that I took from the 1st videos was that 90% of the American public, when surveyed, said that they were either healthy or very healthy. However, the statistics for diabetes, cancer, heart disease and obesity in the United States would say much differently. The perception of health isn't the same as actually being healthy. You can convince yourself through justification that a donut isn't THAT bad for you but at the end of the day, your body doesn't care, it will react and process it in the same way whether you convinced yourself or not. So that is an interesting little factoid isn't it? Perhaps some of the initial problem in the United States with our health problems are that most people don't believe that they are part of the problem!  Mind blown!

Comment below and give me your thoughts - Do you see any movement towards healthier shaped women in entertainment? Did you watch MadMen? How did you celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

Does Vanderbilt Have Chunky Cheerleaders?

Good morning all,

I am very excited today because I received my first email from Vanderbilt University about the course I am taking that starts on the 6th! Many of the Ivy league and larger universities in the US have started to offer free/non-credit classes online and I am taking "Nutrition, Health and Lifestyles: Issues and Insights" from Vanderbilt online! We got our first assignment for the class which is to track our energy intake and outflow for 3 days in a row. We are supposed to review portion sizes too! I was happy that this was the 1st assignment because its something I already do anyway with MyFitnessPal application on my phone - so easy! I am passing this class already! : )

I love that this class is being offered and at no cost because I have visited the topic before on this blog that it is SO HARD to be healthy if you aren't educated on what you should be doing. I think the worst part of the lack of nutritional education is that its not that the information is right in front of your face and you are choosing to not learn about it, its that there are companies that are purposefully misleading you to be uneducated. We have all heard of the horrors of Monsanto and their grip on the powers that be but that's a blog for another day. If you want to check out some of the free courses offered, visit this site. https://www.coursera.org/

So now, let's make the leap from College courses to college sports, and then another leap from sports to those that cheer for sports. Have you all heard of the CBS sports blogger that wrote about the "chunky NBA cheerleader"? The girl looks like this.

 

The blogger was fired for making the statement that she was "too chunky" to perform but I fear that the blogger wasn't fired for making a statement that has no merit or real purpose. Someones weight is NOT news. Instead, the blogger was fired to save face because of the backlash. I just want to know what kind of world it is when a beautiful, natural, active girl is told that she is too chunky to perform. Does anyone think that the guys watching that game gave a crap? The truth is that most men prefer women with shape and curve - it is the women that put the unnaturally skinny stereotype on women, not men.

Since I am getting married, I have noticed that I am bombarded with things telling me that I should be trying to "get in shape" for my wedding day. I should be attending "bridal bootcamp" classes, doing cleanses for my skin and water weight and whatnot. The wedding site The Knot even has a timeline for helping you plan your wedding and in the 9-12 months out category, there is a check box for "Start eating healthy and getting in shape for your wedding day." This perturbed me a little bit and this is why - You are ASSUMING that I am unhappy with my weight and health and that obviously, I couldn't possibly be happy on my wedding day without losing some pounds. Maybe this is me being hyper sensitive to this but all I can think is, my fiance didn't fall in love with a 110 pound girl, he fell in love with me as I am. So why on the biggest day of our lives together would I try to change myself and not look like the healthy girl he's dated for 4 years? Again, its a pressure that women put on themselves or other women to look flawless, its not something that the groom cares about.

 

 

These are the photos that we are shown to be a "beautiful bride" and this woman is awfully underweight. If I walked down the aisle like this, I would hope that my fiance would hand me a turkey burger at the end.

 

MMMMM...