Juice Fast Day 3

Most of you said I would never make it through one day, but I did. I am now most of the way through day three and I am feeling fine! Day one was interesting. The juices took a lot of getting used to, especially with my strong gag reflex I have towards vegetables or anything healthy. I had never used a juicer before either so I had to play around with that a little. The clean up kind of stinks, but since I'm juicing for five days straight I just rinsed everything out and left it in the sink for the next time.

I slept like a baby the first night. Day two I woke up feeling more energized than I have in a long time. I skipped my morning coffee and instead had a cup of hot green tea. Not wanting to waste all that extra energy, I headed off to the gym and did some light weights and 35 minutes of light cardio on the elliptical. I kept the level down and only picked up the pace for a few minutes, until my body started telling me to slow it back down. After the gym, the kids and I headed on base and stocked up on more fruits and veggies. Hannah, my 13yr old, wanted to try some smoothies out so she got stuff for those too. Dizziness hit me about halfway through the grocery store and I did feel like I had less energy for the rest of the day.

 Aside from a mild headache, which I'm guessing is from lack of caffeine, I felt pretty darned great. I even made the kids breakfast and took them through the McDonald's drive through AND later that night didn't even bat an eye when my cousin and houseguest plopped a couple pieces of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory into the fridge. Hunger did kick in around dinner time, but I was trying to choke down the beet juice that I still haven't mastered yet, and cook dinner for the kids. I somehow refrained from sticking my face in the bowl of pasta I made for the kids, glared at my beet juice, dumped it down the sink, and cheated and made a smoothie out of juiced fruits and the fruit pulp.

THAT WAS NOT CHEATING! (ahem, Kelly)

According to the fast, if the hunger pangs are persistent I am allowed to have a piece of fruit or a small salad. Instead I juiced fruits which I think is more along the lines of not eating food and only having juice and therefore I am my own personal hero and not a cheater.

Today marks day three and I did have a rough time sleeping last night, so I took a unisom and slept like a baby. I was a little groggy this morning, probably from my sleeping pill, but I got everything together and hit the gym this morning again. I did about 10 minutes of light weights, and then only made it 30 minutes on the elliptical before I started getting dizzy.

Hailey and I took a trip to the natural food store, and I got some actual raw cashews to use in my cashew milk instead of the ones I had from the normal grocery store that had salt in them. I'm hoping this helps the consistency of my cashew milk this evening and the flavor. I'm going to make a big batch to get me through these last couple of days. Hailey got a fresh organic apple and munched on it the whole way home, all the way telling me how yummy it was. Probably much better for her than her typical after gym "fruit snack" that comes in the form of Dora and Boots.

I have every confidence that I will make it through to day five. I even picked up some organic brown rice at the natural food store for my five days after my fast so that I can mix that with my veggies and ease back into real food.

Oh and since I promised...I made a video blog about it too. You can catch that on YouTube by clicking HERE.

The Juice Fast: Why? Well, Why Not?

I have decided to do a five day juice fast. You're all thinking I'm crazy, which is fine, because if you actually know me, you already know that I'm completely insane. So, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise to you. Now, this wasn't something that I randomly woke up and decided to do. No...I thought about it for at least a week first lol. I googled, I watched lots of youtube videos, I even checked out the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" on Netflix. While I don't believe I know everything about juicing, I do believe I researched enough to be able to make it through five days.

Of course a lot of you are going to be asking me why, actually a lot of you already have. Normally my answer to everything is a big fat "Why Not?". I just do what I want on a whim and I enjoy my whims. But I actually did put a bit of thought into this and here are my beginning answers to why:

1.) I like trying new things. Which should be apparent by my many random new things I try.

2.) I want to see if I can do it. Plain and simple, I like a challenge.

3.) Vegetables are practically non-existent in my diet, and I'd like to change my relationship with them.

4.) I'm hoping to get the kids more interested in vegetables.

What am I hoping to accomplish physically?

1.) I'd like to feel better overall.

2.) Some weight loss would be nice.

3.) Maybe I can beat the sinus cold I feel creeping up on me out of my system before it gets going.

I've never been a healthy eater. I grew up with the metabolism that my now 13 year old daughter has where I could eat absolutely anything in any quantity and not gain weight. Instead I was always accused of starving myself, when in fact I ate a lot, and mostly a lot of junk foods. Once I started popping out kids and getting older my metabolism of course slowed down and I continued to eat like I did before and that simply did not work out for me. Vegetables have never been a huge part of my diet, my husband hates them and believes that potatoes and corn are proper vegetables, the kids refuse to eat anything green ,and I am guilty of only really enjoying salads slathered in ranch dressing. It's time to TRY to switch things up.

I did enjoy the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" however, I am not fat. I am technically overweight, but not by very much thanks to some attempts at dieting and fitness this year. I'm not sick, although some of you may question my mental status from time to time, although I have been struggling with some depression, anxiety, and overall feelings of "I hate my life" this year. And while I am not nearly dead, I do realize that if I continue to have this type of relationship with food and alcohol that I will end up dead faster than I would like, and I'll go to my grave not looking quite as sexy as I'd like to.

So this is a bit of a drastic jolt to my system. I have heard that juice fasts can help to reduce your hunger going forward, and kind of reset your system and help you get into a good mindset to move forward and be more successful with your health and fitness goals. I may not make it the five days, especially after tasting my first juice this morning. But I'd like to, and if you want to cheer me on or offer me a prize if I make it...well that would be kind of nice.

(You can stop reading here, but I plan to go on for a while on this first initial blog)

What I plan to do for my five days:

I am going to use the recipes I found on WellPicked.com  for their five day juice fast. I ignored all the crap about weaning myself off of carbs, caffeine, sugar, etc five days prior to the fast. Mostly because I wanted to get started this weekend while the kids were on a long break from school.


My first juice, looks great in my Shrek cup. (yes that is one of the recalled toxic cups)

I'm going to try and stick to it for at least the first day, and adjust as needed. I've only had the first drink so far today, the Green Juice. I made half the recipe, omitting the parsley because I forgot to buy parsley, and the first sip was like...ok...this isn't too bad. I made it through 3/4 of the glass before I decided that I'd had enough. I made the mistake of taking my Women's One A Day vitamin which always makes me nauseous after I had my first juice so I'm not sure if it was the juice that made me want to barf, or the vitamin which always makes me want to barf...but I'm not feeling very great right now.

Exercise is typically not advised during a juice fast as it tends to drain your energy. I plan to just listen to my body and do whatever I can. This morning my son and I did try the demo for the Nike + Kinect on Xbox 360 and I think that ten minutes of activity was enough for right now.

Maybe I will video blog about it. I will try and do one at lunch time, mostly because I just like making videos and my teenage daughter (who is in a production class at school) thinks it will be fun. Let me know what kind of videos you might like to see and I'll try and do one for you. I should have done one this morning of me trying to make my first juice and not realizing the glass I chose was too tall, therefore blocking the juice flow and causing it to ooze out of the juicer in places I'm sure it wasn't supposed to be coming out of. I still created enough foul veggie juice for my first "meal" though.

Preparation:

I bought a juicer, I went with a fairly mid priced model. I'm not ready to dish out $300-400 on this, but I figured $90ish wasn't too bad. I went with Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer which I was able to get at Kohl's and use my bonus cash I had. It was the mid priced one there and while it did take a bit of rinsing to clean it out this morning, I found it very simple to use and clean.

We went to the Riverside Market yesterday and grabbed whatever fresh veggies and fruit we could find from the vendors there. It was really fun to take the kids out and sample some fresh produce, cheese, honey, jerkey, etc and just get out of the house and walk around. If juicing remains a part of our lives this may lead to many fun family trips. I got the rest of what I needed at the local grocery store, and may make a trip on base later this week to get stuff at better prices...if I stick to this :)

I did research. I didn't just wake up and decide on a whim I was going to do this. I am fully prepared (hopefully) for whatever may come from this, and I have been to the doctor recently and she said I am completely healthy and that this not only would be ok to try, but that she has done a few herself and that they really do make you feel better, also I'm ready for the physical discomforts which I've heard are not so much fun. Bring it on!

The physical discomfort concerns:

1.) You're not going to have any energy: Guess what? I barely have any energy as it is, and I've heard that after a few days you actually get more energy so we shall see. Thankfully I do not work at this time, aside from chasing three kids all day, and the gym is closed for the next two days so I won't be tempted to go anyway. I'm not sleeping well at night as it is, so something has to change.

2.) Enjoy your new relationship with the toilet: Do you know what doing nothing but eating crappy food and drinking too much alcohol does for your system? Yeah, I'm kind of used to having my stomach hate me. I've actually already been hanging out in the bathroom this morning a little more and it's more of a cleansing visit, than the typical crampy omg I want to die type I'm used to. Sorry if that was TMI, but I'm probably going to be talking about that a lot more.

I guess this is enough for now. I may blog more today, and definitely will have one video up in the next couple of hours. Feel free to leave suggestions, comments, cheers, jeers, or any other random stuff you can think of. Include your guess on how long I will make it and what you'll give me if I beat it...I'd love to prove you wrong.

The Mommy Gamers 11: You Down With O.P.P.?

I haven't been posting my new podcast here on my own personal blog and I'm not sure why. Shame on me, laziness I guess. I'll try from now on to post it here as well as everywhere else we're posting it and maybe lure a few of you lurkers into becoming listeners. Getting this podcast going has been a bit of a struggle. Our original crew fell apart rather quickly, but in the last couple months the show has gotten stronger and better than I'd ever anticipated. With each new show and each amazing weekly guest host we are learning and improving the content we put out. Anyone who has produced a podcast or even listened to one as it has started out knows that they grow over time and we hope to continue to put this show out and make it bigger and better each week.


 Marcia aka PandaJax and Desirai are joined this week by Nori Fox, a mother and grandmother, Microsoft MVP, Xbox Ambassador, part of the good game network, and gaming for others charity...is there anything she doesn't do?

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the ladies kick off the show with a prevention tip. The new Xbox Gamerscore Rewards Program is discussed, as well as Kinect TV, Mists of Pandaria (yes again), and Marcia brags about her new set of WOW Mega Blocks. TV & Movie chat this week includes some disappointment over the Once Upon a Time season premier and the new show Revolution, Breaking Dawn II tickets are already on sale (what's up with that?), and Desirai took one for the team and saw the movie Pitch Perfect.

 Alligator pool parties and diaper shortages kick off the news and hot topics section of the show. Health and Fitness topics include an update on Desirai's PCOS, and Marcia's vain attempts to lighten her Melasma marks that linger after having three children. Finally they wrap up the show with an "awful" contest where you could win a lovely set of the "nipple" buttons in the feature picture of Episode 10 on the new Mommy Gamers website!

 Remember that you can subscribe to The Mommy Gamers podcast for FREE on iTunes. Remember to follow them on Twitter, and Facebook too!


 

Florida Fall Begins! Kind of...

Floridians are funny creatures when it comes to the changing "seasons" and I use quotation marks with that because let's face it...we don't really have seasons here. It's either hot, insanely hot, or cool enough to warrant wearing pants and long sleeved shirts with our flip-flops. Still, when the temperatures dip below 70 degrees for the first time after summer we all go digging in our closets for our winter clothes.

I'm going to take a moment to brag on my awesome Mom skills. I just went to the closet and pulled out some bags of clothes I bought from Old Navy for the kids when they were clearancing out last years winter items. I got a bunch of shirts and pants for $1-$2 each in the next size up. They are now all hung up in the kids closets and I'm so glad I did that. Hopefully Hannah actually likes hers, but if not...too bad! I'm glad I didn't buy many tops for myself though, because I'm excited to announce that NONE OF THEM FIT! Luckily they're comfy tops, so they will make great sleep shirts. Totally great feeling though, pulling out those shirts and realizing I'm not an XL anymore.

Mild morning chill aside, I'm still not quite ready to give up on the kiddie pools and summer stuff. I figure we have at least a few more good pool weekends left, and maybe now that it's not a million degrees outside, a beach weekend finally. I'm definitely happy to see the cooler weather creeping in, and there's something about it that is motivational for me. Maybe Hailey and I can start taking walks again!

Anyhow, just as I predicted I totally cheated all weekend on my plans to eat properly. So now I only have myself to blame if I never get my hands on a copy of Mists of Pandaria, but let's be honest here...it's not like I actually have time to play it anyway. Not really much of a loss right now, but I do intend to go to the gym today if they will let me put Hailey in the gym day care. She is sounding a bit stuffed up and sniffly, but her nose isn't quite running yet. I think if I get out of the house this morning and get in there I should be ok. Although now that I stop and think of it, I feel like I might be starting to get sniffly too. I am so not in the mood for a change of weather sinus cold right now.

Ok, I got my daily blog in there. Now it's time to get to work, knock out my school stuff and get to finding awesome podcast topics for tonight's recording of The Mommy Gamers!

I'm a Cheater, So What?

You'd think I could have made it through at least a day, but nope. At this rate I may never get my hands on Mists of Pandaria. Friday started out great, I was motivated, I ate great for breakfast and lunch, even went to the gym and worked out for almost an hour. My fatal flaw was forgetting that I had a Thirty-One party that night.  Well, I remembered the party, I just didn't remember to not pig out on the amazing flatbread pizzas the hostess made and might have over indulged in the pinot grigio and martinis. For the record, wine and martinis combined make for an awful headache the next day. Never mix them!

Saturday I woke up with that all too familiar pounding head and wanted to retreat back into my bed and stay there for the rest of my life. Not really an option with a herd of children, so I begged my father to bring doughnuts when he came to visit for the day. I was proud of myself when I ignored the doughnuts and made some sausage and eggs. I mowed the front and back yard, so I figured that burnt like...a million calories?

 However, the day quickly downward spiraled from there. I vaguely recall tortilla chips and black bean salsa, some of the most beautiful t-bone steaks I've ever seen, loaded baked potato, and to finish the night off some spaghetti with sausage crumbles, onions, and mushrooms...and garlic bread.

I wish I'd never discovered these sausage crumbles.

I went to bed when the kids did, feeling like a bloated pig and forgetting to blog the entire day. So there goes that goal too. So, I'm a cheater...what is it about starting to want to eat well that makes you eat worse?

Today is Sunday and I've already cheated, chowing down on a breakfast pastry instead of grabbing one of the many healthy options in the house. We've got some family coming over for the day so I grabbed lunchmeats, chips, some awesome fresh baked sliced italian bread, and I'm about to toss some chili in the crock pot. Oh well, tomorrow is another day right?

Also, since we're gearing up for Halloween, if you want to be a Blood Elf this year you've still got time to pick up your ears lol.

No More Fat Panda

I don't think I was bold enough to post my starting weight for 2012. I will say that I was creeping uncomfortably close to the 190's and at 5'8 which is not in the "healthy weight range" at all. I got off to a pretty good start, hitting the gym, eating better, getting random exercise like Dance Central 2 and mowing the lawn instead of paying someone to do it, but I've definitely slacked off. My excuses of "oh the kids are here for the summer and they hate the gym" (you'll remember that from Episode 9 of my podcast) and "I'll wait until school starts and we get into a routine", or "I'm too depressed to go" are all lame excuses and it's time to get back on track.

So, how do I get motivated to go to get back in gear? First of all I'm trying to be pretty positive. I've lost TWENTY pounds this year which is fantastic! Sure, I wanted to have lost way more than that by now, but with what I've been juggling this year I'm just happy I can still say I lost anything. I used to use a system of goals and rewards, and that worked out pretty good. My rewards were things like new gym clothes, a heart rate monitor (which I never even use), etc. Those just won't fly anymore so I had to go more hard core.

I'm not letting myself buy the new Mists of Pandaria expansion for WOW until I get back on track.

Now, I know some of you are wondering why this is blog worthy. Well, I figure if I put it out there into the magical interwebs, at least a few of you that read this play WOW with me and will know if I cheated. So this is my strange way of holding myself accountable.

What is on track? I actually sat down with my weight loss journal and calculated how much I would have to lose to get to my goal by the end of the year, then I tacked on an extra five pounds of weight loss just because I was feeling bad ass that day. I'm kind of regretting that now, because had I not written that down, I wouldn't be so far off, but it's there in INK and there it shall remain. Basically I only needed to drop one pound a week from the time I started calculating. So right now, I'm only behind by 2 pounds...but Mists of Pandaria comes out in 4 days.

And just to push myself a little bit further, if I can actually post to this blog every day while I'm trying to reach this goal, I'm going to reward myself with the collector's edition!

Here's to hoping this works, and pushes me to reach my goals, if not I guess I'll be a sad panda...just not in the World of Warcraft.

Free Doughnuts for Pirates

Want to be the most amazing person in your office today? Stop by Krispy Kreme on your way into work in full pirate attire and land yourself the best booty of them all (no not my booty) an entire DOZEN warm sugary doughnuts for FREE*. You don't have to wave your sword around, mostly because weapons are not allowed in the stores (party poopers). Not brave enough to dress like a pirate? Well if you can muster up a pirate accent and belt out a couple "shiver me timbers" or "ARGs" you will get one delicious treat for your efforts.

Another fun activity today is the Pirate Generator at StupidStuff.org that not only gives you a great pirate name, but a story to go along with it. Stories range from lame to perverse and are all amusing. I almost hesitated to post mine on my facebook page, and if you're not following me on there I'll also share it here, keep in mind all of the good "cannonball" jokes have already been made:

Your Pirate name is Screaming Samantha - Arrrr, you were born to sail the high seas and fly the Jolly Roger. Unfortunately you don't have a ship, crew, cannons, or even a parrot, so you sit in the bathtub and wash your boobies over and over whilst screaming "Surrender or die, surrender or die!"

Enjoy pirate day in any way you see fit, but make sure to participate in some way!

For more pirate fun, make sure to visit the official Talk Like a Pirate Day Site.

*Fine Print: Offer good for one free doughnut per customer who wears an eye patch or talks like a pirate to a Krispy Kreme team member at a participating shop. One free dozen Original Glazed doughnuts per customer who wears a full pirate costume into a participating Krispy Kreme location. Redeemable on September 19, 2012 only at participating Krispy Kreme US locations.

Heart Walk Raffle Week Two!

I am on my second week of collecting money for the 2012 Heart Walk in Jacksonville, Florida on September 22nd.  As I mentioned in my last blog, I am hosting a raffle of $225 in Thirty-One products!  Raffle tickets are only $5 each and each raffle ticket gets you one entry into the drawing.  Once all of the raffle tickets are sold, the winner will be selected at random and notified and then you get to shop for $225 worth of WHATEVER you want from my Thirty-One site and I will cover the tax AND shipping!

I am trying to sell 100 raffle tickets, a steep number for sure, but this will help me reach my $300 fund raising goal for the Heart Walk.  This money goes to helping prevent heart diseases, something that is affecting many members of my family.  I am sad to report that my Grandmother has been added to this list as she found out last week that she is suffering from a pretty severe blockage that has been making her very dizzy and weak.  We are glad she has found out what is causing her to feel this way and hope there is a quick and easy way for her to be on her road to recovery.

If you'd like to purchase a raffle ticket you can do so by purchasing your ticket (or TICKETS) via paypal, just make sure you're using the "gift" option so that no fees are taken out.






You can also send me a check if you'd like, just email me for my address at Marciawebb31@gmail.com

I have sold FIVE raffle tickets so far, not a huge amount, but it's a start (Thanks Uncle Rich and Aunt Cindi!).   I will be running this raffle for a month, or up until all tickets are sold out.  Thanks so much for helping support me in the Heart Walk!  I am hoping this will be a fun way for you to donate, and get a shot at some awesome free bags at the same time.  FYI the new fall line of Thirty-One products is being released next month :)  Make sure you're following my Thirty-One Facebook Group to see new products, and get special offers that I only post to my friends and family.

Heart Walk Raffle Time!

On September 22nd, 2012 I will be participating in the Jacksonville, Fl First Coast Heart Walk. Last year my Father went through a series of really scary surgeries, including major open heart surgery. My grandfather has also suffered through multiple heart surgeries, so this is a cause near and dear to my own heart. This is something that runs in our family and may likely affect myself and my children so I will be walking and raising as much money as possible to support this cause.

The American Heart Association is the largest voluntary health organization working to prevent, treat and defeat heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. These diseases, the Nation's No.1 and No.4 killers, claim more than 813,804 American lives a year. Thanks to all our walkers, donors and volunteers who have accepted the challenge to help fight heart disease and stroke. We cannot achieve our mission without each one of you!

Instead of just saying "Hey, donate to me" I'm doing something a little more fun! Since I will be walking with the Thirty-One team for this walk I will be doing a Thirty-One raffle to raise my $300 goal!

The raffle instructions are in the picture and are pretty simple. $5 gets you a raffle ticket, you can buy as many as you'd like! Once all the slots are sold I will hold the raffle. The winner will get to select $225 in Thirty-One products (tax and shipping is on me!)

 If you aren't familiar with Thirty-One Gifts, I am a consultant for them and they have lots of great bags, organizational items, and fun things to show off your team spirit this fall as we move into football season. You can visit my Thirty-One page here and check out the catalog to see what you may be winning! You may purchase your raffle tickets easily by clicking on the donate button.  Make sure to send your payment as a GIFT!  This way all the money goes to the raffle and no fees are taken out.

If you do not want to participate in the raffle and simply want to make a donation to my heart walk fund raising efforts you may do so using this link I thank you all in advance for your support!

The reality of love may suck, but the movie does not.

Normally I do not like being tricked. However even after I realized that the movie The Reality of Love which Redbox had listed as a new release from 2012, was really just I Want to Marry Ryan Banks from 2004 with a new cover, I really didn't mind it so much. It was too enjoyable for me to care when it was made. I didn't realize it was older, although that kind of makes sense to me now, but while I was watching I just thought it was more of a low budget film, not a film that was 7 years old. The movie stars Jason Priestley someone I haven't even thought of since I used to think inappropriate thoughts about him when he was in Beverly Hills 90210. In this film he's an actor (Ryan Banks) that has gotten a bad rep for fooling around with the ladies. Hardly believable if you see him in this movie because he doesn't really look like anyone I'd want to hook up with. However, Bradley Cooper is also in the movie and he is always hunky. He acts as an agent for his egotistical friend. Eventually he has to help save his friends image and comes up with an idea for a Bachelor style show with an awful cheesy theme song for his friend titled "I Want to Marry Ryan Banks". I won't give away the movie. It is cheesy and predictable. You know what is going to happen as soon as the story starts unfolding. But that doesn't take away from the fact that this is a cute movie. I watched it with my kids and we got more than a few laughs out of it. The romance in the movie is the kind that makes you sit there and sigh, longing for that kind of fake love that you can only see in movies. It's absolutely worth the buck or two to rent it, and even worth keeping an extra night to watch again. I'd love to elaborate on why I love this movie, but I can't without spoiling it. I'll just say that just because everyone wants you to be with a certain person, doesn't mean you should deny yourself the true joy of being with someone who you truly love. That's what I learned from that. Stop doing what you feel you're supposed to do, and open yourself up to doing what is right and makes you happy. If you end up watching it I would love to hear what you think of it. So come back and leave me a comment.

New Podcast Kick Starting Off!

Win a Lollipop Chainsaw!

How would you like to win your very own foam chainsaw from the soon to be released awesome zombie slaying game Lollipop Chainsaw? You know you want it!! Well here is all you have to do to win this amazing piece of video game memorabilia:

Earn points into the random drawing by doing the following:

1.) Check out my video interview with Suda51, the Creative Director for Lollipop Chainsaw. You can find it on The Married Gamers site here You MUST leave me a comment.

Points Earned:
+1 - for random comments
+3 - for really amazing "you're the best" comments

2.) Post a link to EITHER the article or interview on your Twitter. Tweet me @Jaxboxchick to let me know you did it.

Points Earned: +5

3.) Tweet about this contest.

Points Earned: +5

4.) Check out my hands on article about Lollipop Chainsaw on The Married Gamers and leave me a comment.

Points Earned:
+1 - for random comments
+3 - for really amazing "OMG you're the bomb" comments

5.) Leave a comment here.

Points Earned: +1

Mostly I just need some love for my interview and article. You'll be helping me out and I'll be hooking you up with a pretty sweet prize. Winners will be selected shortly after everyone gets bored with this contest. Each point earned gets your name in the drawing, you have the potential to earn 17 points/entries into the contest by doing all the things listed above. If there is enough interest in the contest and 2nd and 3rd prize may be given out :) We will just have to see...

Fine Print:
Contest ends at midnight, Sunday April 22nd 2012.
Winner will be notified by Monday April 23rd 2012.
Prize will be mailed out no later than Monday April 30th 2012.
Entries will be accepted from ANYWHERE in the World.
The prize is foam and may get smooshed in the mail as I will try and cram it into the smallest box possible.

Flying Spaghetti Monster, with a side of hot dogs.

I love Facebook and all of my random friends. Today I saw a picture of a hot dog with spaghetti dangling out of it, and all I could think was...OMG what is that and how can I crate it?!?! Hailey LOVES hot dogs and pasta, and while I realize this isn't a healthy diet for a toddler, anyone who has a toddler knows that whatever you can get them to eat is a good thing!

The fact that I am on kid #3 and never realized this was out there makes me appreciate the internet even more. With all the information in the world that is out there it's impossible to learn everything in a lifetime. We all know this. The internet makes it easier for us to find things like this. Things that make you face palm your forehead and say, "Why didn't I think of that?"

The recipe for this is simple. Take a hot dog, cut it into evenly sized pieces. Then take your spaghetti (I used normal spaghetti, not thin, not angel hair), break it in half and stick it in the hot dogs in all kinds of funky shapes. Ethan did his in the shape of a body, head, arms, legs. Hannah did the end pieces and made them look like a squid. We seriously had fun with this project.

Before Shot:


Boil your spaghetti hot dog monstrosities for the cooking time it says for your pasta of choice. My older kids sampled them and said that the parts of pasta that were embedded into the hot dogs were still crunchy. They ate them anyway.

Hailey, who is 22 months was fixated on removing the pasta from her hot dogs.



She mostly just ate the pasta, and ignored the hot dogs.



Either way, it was a fun thing for the whole family and something I will definitely do again in the near future.

If you have other ideas for fun kid foods that I may not know about (other than ants on a log...) please share them!

My New Scentsy Warmer: Disco Zombie Approved

Ever have one of those days where you wake up and realize your house kind of...stinks? Instead of cleaning over the weekend I spent the whole time keeping the kids busy and doing tons of fun things. Friday night we had pizza and did some Dance Central 2, Saturday I made cinnamon rolls, eggs, and strawberries for breakfast and then we rushed off to Ethan's football game. After the game there was McDonald's, walks to the park, chicken wing night, etc. Then Sunday we spent the whole day in Gainesville at the Medieval Faire. So we were non stop busy.

Sometimes your house is going to get smelly. Maybe I shouldn't have tossed that "special" diaper Hailey made me directly into the kitchen trash. Perhaps the kitty litter hasn't been changed in too long, and sure the dog could use a bath. So I was really THRILLED when my Scentsy warmer arrived on Monday. Bye bye smelly house!

I've seen Scentsy stuff around for years now on tables being sold at various events. I know of a few of my friends that have sold them before too, but I always assumed they were too expensive. Near the holidays I was trying to think of creative gift ideas for my Mom and Sister and also liked the benefit of helping out a fellow Mommy from my pregnancy group with Hailey. So I checked them out and was surprised at how affordable they are.

I got the cutest most "Jen" warmer and I hope she is loving it, and another one for my Mom that I know she is using because it is always on the countertop in her kitchen.

But I had yet to purchase one for myself. My friend was trying to reach a sales goal for January and only needed like $40 to reach it, so I simply HAD to purchase one for myself right? :)

I ended up getting the adorable bandanna FULL SIZE warmer for only $24 (gotta love the clearance section), plus 3 packs of scented wax that smell AMAZING for only $13, and to get it to $40 I got a little scented car air freshener too.

Considering the lingering scents that were already in my house I thought that I needed two blocks of the scented waxy to really make the house smell fresh again. (I had cleaned and opened the windows earlier so most of the yuck was out) Those of you that have been to our house know that it is large and very open, so that all the rooms flow together. So I was amazed when the scent filled the house instantly and I had to turn the warmer off because it was almost TOO strong! Next time I'm just using one chunk of scented wax.

It's now Wednesday and we've fired up the warmer a few times and there is still stuff in there. I'm amazed at how long it lasts. I used to be in love with my little glade warmer, that has scented wax too that barely lasts for a couple hours. I spent WAY more money on scents and stuff for that and it never worked this well.

One of my favorite parts about the warmer is the light that it gives off. It reminded me of disco lights so that's how my Plants Vs. Zombies Disco Zombie ended up near it, dancing his little undead heart out. Also that now makes this blog gaming related. Ta-dah!

If you are interested in buying or just checking out Scentsy stuffs please click HERE. The link is for my "online party" and if you buy enough stuff I may get free yummy smelling things. Also, you help out my friend who has an adorable little girl she is raising.

I think they're having a great sale right now too, and the stuff I got is even cheaper...figures :) Check out the "Quiver" scent, it's amazing!

Healthy Recipes - Chicken Corn Crock Pot Chili

I started going to the gym at the end of January. We have since gotten in the habit of stopping at a restaurant on our way home because it's usually close to 6pm and I don't want to go home and cook and clean in order to prepare a meal. I have been making healthy choices and going online to my favorite restaurants like Panera Bread (YUM) and planning out what I can eat before I go so that I know how many calories I'm getting. Chick-Fil-A even has a meal calculator you can use, through this I learned that you can actually ask for no butter on your chicken sandwich, saving you 30 calories. I also learned that I do not like their diet lemonade very much. So when we went on Tuesday night I got a half diet/half regular lemonade along with my grilled chicken salad and my meal was 405 calories.

So for Thursday night's gym trip I planned on stopping at Chili's. We haven't been in a while and I LOVE their food. However, I wasn't sure if I could resist the temptation of my favorite treats there. We usually get their yummy Texas Cheese Fries (half order is 1035 calories) and their Crispy Chicken Tacos (1200 calories). After searching the rest of their nutritional info online I really didn't see anything that would work for me, and I knew I wasn't strong enough to resist the lure of cheesy fries dipped in ranch dressing.

Instead of going to Chili's I started searching online for a healthy crock pot recipe that I could fix and have waiting for us when we got home from the gym. The first recipe I found while searching "Healthy Crock Pot Recipes" was a Chicken and Corn Chili on www.recipe.com. The recipe is low-calorie and VERY low-fat as well. Double win!!

Here's what I put into my chili, I tried to buy things that were reduced sodium or no salt added. The College Inn brand broth actually had less sodium than a brand that had "reduced sodium" on the label. We also have a brand of salt that has less salt...lol.



I had some zucchini that needed to be used so I substituted that for the green pepper. That way I kept the green color in there.

My Recipe:
1 Medium Sweet Onion, chopped
1 Pound Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Breast Fillets (they were on sale cheaper than regular boobies, and have all the fat already trimmed off of them)
2 Cups College Inn, Light & Fat Free Chicken Broth
2 Cups of Zucchini, chopped (instead of 1 Green Pepper)
1 Jalapeno chili, seeded and chopped
1 3/4 Tsp Ground Cumin
1/2 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
3/4 Tsp Reduced Sodium Salt
1 can Petite Cut, no salt added, diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 can Reduced Sodium Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

Topped the soup off with a little Mexican shredded cheese and fat free sour cream

The original recipe called for 2 cans of the cannellini beans, which are white pinto beans. I did half and half black and white just to shake up the color a little bit.

The recipe was pretty darned easy to make. I just tossed in all the fresh chopped veggies, chicken, broth, 1/4 tsp of the cayenne and salt, and 1 1/2 tsp of the cumin and cranked it up to high. Because I used the thin chicken fillets, I was able to pull the chicken out after 2 hours and shred it and toss it back in there as opposed to waiting 4 hours with regular chicken boobies.

Along with the shredded chicken I tossed in all the other crap :) The original recipe calls for cornmeal, but I forgot all about that and didn't add it. I turned the crock pot down to Low and it was on that setting for about 3 1/2 more hours for a total cooking time of 5 1/2 hours. I think it's supposed to cook longer but it turned out great.

I used MyFitnessPal to create a recipe for this and set the servings quantity to 6 because I didn't know how much it would make. Based on 6 servings here are the nutritional facts for what I made:

Calories: 234
Total Fat: 1.9g
No saturated or trans fat
Cholesterol: 33.3 mg
Sodium: 990mg
Carbs: 31.9
Dietary Fiber: 8.5g
Sugars: 6.9g
Also has a good amount of protien, vitamin A and C, calcium ,and Iron.

Because I served mine on a yummy pile of Rotini Garden Pasta, which gives you some of your daily serving of veggies, we didn't use very much in a "serving". I only put 3/4 a cup of the chili in my bowl. Hailey had some (she LOVED IT), and Hannah went back for seconds. After all that we still had enough to fill a 7 cup Tupperware container completely full.

So I would go as far as to say that the recipe really makes more like 10 servings, especially since I added 2 full cups of zucchini. This greatly reduces the amount of calories and sodium per serving. So when you make your batch, just make sure to calculate everything properly. I still logged my serving as the one listed above, I figure if it is less calories that's a WIN for me because I was full after eating mine.

I did top it with a pinch of Mexican shredded cheese and a dollop of fat free sour cream. We added a little salt to taste because the recipe really doesn't have much salt in it. Other than that it was wonderful! I personally would have added more fire to the chili, but because I was feeding it to the kids I left it pretty mild. It still had a nice mild burn to it and although my picture doesn't do it justice, it was very colorful.

We served a Dole Southwestern Salad with it which was DELICIOUS!! Normally we'd have a hunk of bread covered in butter with our chili, but the salad was a healthier and much more yummy choice. Hannah couldn't stop raving about the salad! I'm definitely going back to get more while they are buy one get one free at Winn-Dixie.

If you have any low calorie crock pot recipes you have tried and love PLEASE share them with me. If I can make something like this that the kids will enjoy it will make gym nights much easier. I think we will still go once a week out to eat somewhere healthy, but since I'm trying to go to the gym every other day we definitely need to have more crock pot recipes on hand. Luckily since this made SO MUCH, I plan to whip out the shrinky wrap your food machine and freeze some servings for future dinners, we should be able to easily get 3 more meals out of that batch.

Weight Loss - Month 1 Summary and Progress

Like most people, I have started off many new years with the intention of losing weight. I have yet to ever stick to my goals and have any success whatsoever. This year IS my year, I started thinking about this a couple months before January and when the year started I sat down and spent a considerable amount of time creating a journal to help me track my goals.

In my journal I am tracking my "Ultimate Goal" which is to have lost 36 pounds by my Birthday on May 6th. Each month in my journal takes up just one single page. I do not obsess over my journal, instead it is there for me to log my weight once per week so that I can see if I am tracking for my goal, or if I need to push myself a little harder during the next week. I also have set a slightly higher goal for the month, one that will make me push myself just a little harder and if this goal is attained each month I get an extra reward.

For January my goals for fitness were simple: Exercise 3x a week.

My diet goals:
1.) Track ALL food intake using MyFitnessPal
2.) Reach my 1200 calorie goal each day
3.) Take a multivitamin each day

Weight loss needed to reach my "Ultimate Goal" : 8.48 pounds

Actual weight lost: 9.2 pounds

MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

My reward for reaching my goals and attaining the proper weight loss to reach my "Ultimate Goal" this month was a new pair of shoes and a workout outfit. If you remember my "Poo shoe" story from my first day going to the gym you know I already purchased my shoes, they're wonderful and comfortable and do not make my toes go numb like my other pair of shoes did...lol.

My "Pushing myself" goal was to lose 10 pounds, which I did not. I'm definitely not dissapointed in myself at all. During the month of January I battled the flu, the stress of my husband leaving to go back to Japan, the stress of being home alone with the kids, and the evil demon that is BROWNIES.

I have to also take into account the fact that I didn't get started on my month until January 5th, which did affect how much time I had to reach my goals this month.

But I lost 9 pounds. 9 pounds!!! I also have lost 2.5 inches off my waist, which is my most problematic area. I am hoping that I don't look 6 months pregnant when I relax my belly in the near future...lol. I burned over 6000 calories last month by walking with the kids, playing Dance Central 2, and during the last part of the month getting a gym membership and going every other day so far for a total of 5 trips.

I've added many new friends on MyFitnessPal, which is a FREE service for those of you who are trying to reach health and fitness goals. We are all cheering each other on, and the constant contact with my friend Kelly Brown is really helping us both out as we talk about our food, exercise, and our shame when we cheat :)

Also helping me out is my memo board I have at eye level when I sit down at my computer desk. This was the suggestion of another wonderful friend and I currently have notes with my weekly goal, and where I started the month at. My FAVORITE note on the board is the one that says where I will be at the end of the month if I reach my goal. Just seeing that number will motivate me each day.

At the end of February if I meet my goals I will be at a weight I have not seen since before I got pregnant with Hailey. I'll be able to retire my jeans, which are already getting loose, and pull out the brand new pairs of jeans and cute shirts I had purchased to wear to PAX Prime that year I came home thinking I had the PAX flu and ended up with an adorable new addition to the family instead.

If you are my friend on facebook you probably have noticed that I am posting a lot of stuff about diet, food, etc. I have quite a few friends that are also working towards fitness goals and I find that posting my frustrations, or fun new foods I find that work for me, and boasting about my success at the gym, really helps keep me motivated. So I hope that everyone understands that and isn't bothered by it too much.

Feel free to cheer me on and post some motivational comments on this blog. I really did work hard this month and I know that I'll have to work even harder this month to keep the momentum going. I'd love to hear your stories about your weight loss, past or present, any tips you have, favorite low calorie foods, snacks, drinks, fitness tips,ANYTHING you think will help.

If you don't feel comfortable posting your comments below (or don't know how to...lol) Email me at Jaxboxchick@gmail.com and your words will just be for me.

Thank you to everyone who is supporting me through this!

Push it Real Good!

I'm still going strong with the weekly Dance Central Challenges. The week 3 challenge has been posted and you can find all the details at The Married Gamers in Kelly's most recent blog. I will admit that I have yet to attempt the challenge. It seems pretty hard, if anyone else is out there reading this and wants to try it with me, I could really use some more cheerleaders or people doing it to motivate me. Kelly and I plan to attempt it tomorrow, but we'll see.

I did do amazing things today. I had everything ready to go get my gym membership this morning. Coffee pot was full when I woke up, clothes were laid out, Hailey's diaper bag was packed. The only thing I forgot to do was poop check my gym shoes. I had barely gotten out of the neighborhood when I smelled something not quite right. At first I tried to pass it off as manure, they are redoing all the flower beds in our neighborhood and I figured that was where the smell was coming from. After a while I realized the poo was coming from my shoe. There was NO WAY I was turning around and going back home.

So, I tossed the poo shoes into the back of the van, and stopped at Dick's Sporting Goods on the way to the gym. There's me with a baby on my hip, strolling into the store in socks. I got some new shoes that are WAY more comfortable than the old ones I've had for years and was on my way to the gym. Things were going well, Hailey strolled into the Kid Zone without a care in the world. I took my tour, and was getting ready to complete my paperwork when the crazy people in the Kid Zone at Lifestyle Family Fitness center decided it was time to vacuum. To make a long story short, Hailey didn't like that very much. I finished my paperwork while standing up and bouncing Hailey to calm her and didn't get my workout in.

No way was I quitting there. I waited for Hannah to get home from school, she was late...lollygagging around with her friends (which she is now on restriction for the rest of the week for) and we immediately hopped in the van and headed back out to the gym...again...for the second time in one day. Hailey was hesitant and apparently fussed the whole time, but her sister was there with her and she was fine. I got in a great workout and felt so amazing and proud of myself. We got sushi on the way home and I still had calories left for the day on MyFitnessPal. WOOHOO!

I was still on a rush from my workout after dinner so I fired up Dance Central 2 on the Kinect and did "Can't Get You Out of My Head" thirteen times and issued the challenge to Kelly Brown. Hannah stuck with me for three times on the song and then quit and told me I was crazy. Hey...I don't waste motivation, it comes so rarely for me.

I'm loving these Dance Central challenges and hope they keep them going past this month. If not, we will have to start getting creative with new challenges and maybe even incorporate some other games into the mix.

I was supposed to write today for The Married Gamers, but I used all my motivation working out so tomorrow I must, I must, I must. But right now I'm enjoying the glass of wine I earned today (and I'm still under my 1200 calories for the day)

I did play the Resident Evil: Revelations demo on Nintendo 3DS today, well partially...it freaked me out and I quit for fear of having bad dreams...lol. But I will get that done and write a little something about it this week...I promise...no really, I mean it this time...lol.

My neck, my back...

Yesterday I finally got started on the Dance Central challenge for week 2. If you want details on how you can participate in this challenge check out the article on The Married Gamers. Kelly Brown is the one who is writing about and participating in this challenge and we have been challenging each other and cheering each other on. This week we are supposed to dance the same song THIRTEEN times in a row! And while I don't completely blame Kelly Brown for the fact that my back is screaming at me today, I do like how gaming can help friends accomplish their fitness goals even if they are on opposite coasts. I see what you did there Dance Central, I'm so on to you!

I selected Cascada's Evacuate The Dance Floor for my torture yesterday. I figured since it was a one bar song on difficulty that it would be easy, so I did the challenge on the "hard" setting. What I did not anticipate was that that one evil move (can't remember the name) would have me sweating and dying. After the first song I immediately changed clothes. You really do need to wear comfortable workout-style clothing when doing this. You don't want to be hitching up your pants or trying to recover your bra strap while focusing on the moves. So I paused and tossed on some yoga pants, sports bra, and a shirt I didn't mind stinking up with sweat...and yes...I got sweaty.

My first playthrough was pathetic, only scoring 175K. However, by the 6th time I was getting the moves down a little better and found my score had gradually progressed to a mildly impressive 488K. Practice makes perfect right? It never went higher...lol. The score started dropping as I got exhausted. The "freestyle" breaks were spent catching my breath and dashing to chug water. The only thing that got me through was knowing that Kelly did her song 13 times in a row, and if she could do it then I could do it and I was NOT giving up. I gave it one final push on the 13th and last time and got 4 stars and 444K. Not great, but much better than my first attempt.

What throws me for a loop is the way they track how many calories you burn. I worked out for 25 minutes. I'm sweating and panting, and had to pop some aspirin last night because my back was so sore and they're telling me I only burned 125 calories?!?!? OH hellz no!

So I hopped on my iPad to the myfitnesspal app that I love and adore and have been using daily and did a search for general aerobics. 25 minutes is 221 calories on there and that sounded better to me so that's what I logged for my cardio for the day on my diary.

I will do my challenge again today. Kelly said the Lady GaGa song Marry The Night is a great arm work-out and that she was able to do it on Medium, so I'm going to try to one-up her and do it on hard.

I need some help picking my song for Friday though. I'll give you all three choices (in order of increasing difficulty) and let you guys pick, just leave it in the comments section:

Sandstorm - Darude

I Know You Want Me - Pitbull

Fire Burning - Sean Kingston

You have until noon tomorrow (Friday) to cast your vote!

And finally I want to add a little blurb about MyFitnessPal (yes again). I made some chili yesterday in the slow cooker and finally took advantage of the feature on MyFitnessPal that allows you to figure out your calories for a recipe you create. All I had to do was scan the things I used in my recipe. So using my iPhone, I scanned the lean ground beef, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, seasoning, etc and it gave me not only accurate calories to log per serving, but the proper nutritional value for my batch of chili. I found this super helpful and look forward to using this feature more in the future.

I still find the iPhone easier to use for scanning. I can never remember where my camera is on the back of my iPad...lol. But I still like the layout of the iPad a little better for other things. If any of you are using or want to start using the app make sure to add me "Jaxboxchick" and we can cheer each other on.

Coffee - What's your flavor?

One thing I know gamer's and writers can't live without is their caffeine. Some go for coffee and others chug those crazy energy drinks that I still believe will kill everyone one day. I'm sure there are the odd few out there that go without caffeine entirely. Heck, there are even strange people out there that don't eat meat! I can safely say that after not feeling well the last few days, and having gone without coffee, I am a caffeine-a-holic.

However, after all these years of chugging the stuff I have yet to find that perfect flavor. I'm trying to cut back on calories, so cutting out the delicious, sugary, wonderful flavored creamers was an obvious thing to cancel out completely. The sugar-free creamers taste like...well...sugar-free creamers. So I'm trying different flavored coffee's in the hopes that I can find something OTHER than French Vanilla that I like.

I found a few bags of Dunkin' Donuts Mocha Mint on the clearance rack at Target yesterday. $4.74 (plus 5% off for Target Red Card holders!) seemed like a great price for Dunkin' coffee, and the flavor sounded yummy so I gave it a spin this morning. It smelled wonderful in the bag, it tasted...eh...after brewing. I even added a little cream and sugar (yes I know that's counter productive) and it still didn't do it for me. It was low on flavor and had too much of a bite to it for my liking. Usually I LOVE their coffee, and adore their French Vanilla flavor, so I was surprised this one was so disappointing.

So, my question of the day to my gamers, writers, non-gamers, coffee lovers, vegetarians, and whomever else is reading this...what's your favorite flavor? And what's the worst flavor you've ever come across?

One of those days.

Today was one of "those" days. I can't say I had a bad day, nor can I say the day was great. It was just one of those days where you find yourself sighing a whole bunch. I can't properly summarize it in a dozen facebook posts, nor is it really interesting enough to blog about. However, this being my personal blog, I can post uninteresting things :) So hah!

I'll put the interesting stuff first though so you can get that and move on if you'd like. The Dance Central Challenge I've been doing with Kelly Brown from The Married Gamers is on week 2. For details about this week's challenge and info on last week's (if you missed it) click on the word here. This weeks challenge is to do the same song 13 times in a row and is appropriately titled the Unlucky Challenge.

I attempted to do last weeks challenge and I will openly admit that I only did it ONE time. We're supposed to be doing it three times a week. I'm a lazy bum and I'm not denying it.

I'm also behind on this week's challenge, but at least I have a good excuse. I got an icky stomach flu. Good for my weight loss goal for the week, but not so great for the Dance Central challenges. I tried to do the 13 songs tonight, but only made it through the song 6 times. Exhaustion and frustration at my oldest daughter made me throw up my hands and give up. I WILL try again tomorrow.

Hannah, who for the most part took care of me while I was sick has reverted back to her evil ways today in full form. For those that don't know her, she's a bit of a hypochondriac. I'm SURE there are things that are wrong sometimes, but she's SOOOO dramatic about them. She can't sleep, because she itches. So I'm trying to keep her rubbed down with lotion, because it's probably just dry skin.

Today she comes home and asks me to check her for lice. I almost die, because I've had enough of that for one lifetime. I do not find buggies, but I do find lots of poorly washed hair and tons of flakes. I've shown her enough times how to wash her hair and aside from doing it myself every night I'm not sure what else to do, but every day it's something...grrr.

Also, I'm really frustrated because I was sick. I had all these plans for a "me day" on Monday with my friends and that got cancelled. I really dislike being sick, and figured I should be done with it by today and back to normal, but my body had other plans. So hopefully if I get another good night's sleep, hopefully without the strange dreams about me being part of a Charlie's Angel's style group of crime-fighting women (that was weird last night) I'll be back on track tomorrow.

Monday was supposed to be my day to get a gym membership going too, something I've been putting off for months and talking about just as long. I'm ready to get rolling on my goals for this year, although being sick really did help me stay on track :) My goal for tomorrow is to at least try to get out of the house and do at least a mini-workout.

What else was I frustrated about? Oh yeah, Hailey is on day three of not napping until late at night and I think it's my fault though so I can't complain too much.

Anyhoooo, as I expected this was an entirely boring blog. But it gave me something to do, because going to bed at 8pm is entirely too early. Bug ya later, hope you're having a good one, and blah blah blah.

New Year Update - Part 2

Shocker of all shockers I'm actually posting more than once in a month!! As promised I'm continuing to update you all on all the new and fabulous things that are happening in my life this year. I'm cranking up the Lady Antebellum on my iPod and busting out my 2nd update for the year.

My most exciting news for the New Year is having been asked to write for The Married Gamers. When I left Sarcastic Gamer a few months ago I really thought my time in the gaming industry had come to an end. After nearly three years and over 100 episodes of doing the SGPink podcast my life had become too hectic to keep up with gaming and I was unable to feel like I had anything worthy to contribute. Once my classes ended in December and the holidays went away I was left feeling like something was missing.

I left Sarcastic Gamer, claiming I didn't feel like I belonged without a podcast, and that I didn't think I was a "writer". But the more I thought about it, the more I missed writing. I just didn't like having a "quota" to meet each week. Quota to me causes stress, the feeling that if I don't do what is expected of me that I'd be letting someone down. So I bowed out and found myself really missing writing little blurbs here and there about gaming stuff that interests me.

I participated as a host in an Xbox Live Community Playdate not too long ago with The Married Gamers and had a blast. Kelly (the wifey of The Married Gamers) and I met a few years ago at PAX Prime and have been talking on the phone on and off since then. She can be a bit long winded in her conversations, but I love talking to her and her excitement and energy for gaming always gives me a boost. For some odd reason every time I talk to her, Hailey poops too, which is odd...I'm not saying I dread her calls, but it's uncanny how that works. But I've gotten off the point of this blog....

Kelly had a great idea for a new podcast for her site that included me. Long story short, the podcast idea fell through, but she still wanted me on as a writer. To say I was insanely flattered is putting it VERY mildly. So once again, I had to stop and think...am I a writer? I wrote for SG because it was mandatory pretty much. I've never considered myself a writer, or an industry personality for that matter. Harley asking me to be on our podcast and being a part of SG was my very first experience with being a part of something like this. But somehow being asked to write and be part of a site outside of SG made me stop and think that maybe, just maybe I really do belong in the crazy world of gaming.

Most people only know me as "Jax". I created and overplayed that personality as any actress would playing a role. Jax was a personality for Sarcastic Gamer. Being new to all of this I might have overplayed her role a bit too much. So when I mentioned to my husband that I wanted to get back into the gaming stuff he kindly asked me to show them my other side, and to leave behind all the Jax craziness. Initially I was offended a bit, but he had a point. There is so much more to me than that personality I was milking too much for SG. I am a great mom, great wife, and gaming is a HUGE part of our family. So joining a site like The Married Gamers is the perfect fit for me. I look forward to working my experiences with my kids into my articles, taking them to events, and possibly even having them help me do some reviews.

I'm more than a "Drunken Gamer", and while I have no plans to change my blog name I do hope to show all of you the other side of me in 2012. There are people out there who hate me viciously, and sadly enough those people don't know me. I'd love to buy you a drink sometime and have a chat with you. The ones that do know that I'm really a pretty great and caring person. I don't claim to know everything in the world about gaming, but it is something I love and it is a very large part of my life and something I love sharing with my kids and my husband.

My first article on The Married Gamers went up today, it's not amazing, but it is a start and helped me shake the cobwebs off of my writing fingers :) You can check it out here. And pretty please if you do read it, leave a comment on the site. One thing that has always killed me is that no matter how many page views my articles get, if no one leaves a comment I don't feel like my article was ever read. Just the same as this blog. Just say hi, or something, because otherwise I feel like I've wasted my time. It's like someone writing a book, and everyone loving it but no one ever saying they did so they stop writing.

Someone please tell me you want to hear more from me...please?

New Year Update - Part 1

I have been sitting here for the last few minutes just staring at this screen, wondering how to summarize all the excitement and changes and ideas I have for 2012. I've come to the conclusion that if I were to attempt to do this all in one big blog update that it would be a million pages long and no one would read it. (Not that any of you actually read through all this crap anyway) So I am going to do this in "parts".

Since I haven't posted in over a month I'll just sum up the holidays for now and say they were great. Bill came home from Japan for a couple weeks, we had the family over for Christmas Eve and had quite the slumber party, waking up Christmas morning and enjoying it with Bill, the kids, my parents, my sis & hubbie, and my grandmother. Christmas should always be like that :)

I finished up my AA in teaching in December too. Because of all the stress and exhaustion and flat out almost losing my mind I am taking a couple semesters off. This is the first time that I can remember where I don't have work or school and can focus on myself and my family and I am LOVING IT!!!

So, my Part 1 update has to do with what I am planning to do with all of this "free" time. I say this in quotations because I do still have a toddler to chase, and a house and kids to take care of while hubbie is away in Japan. My main goal is to take advantage of this time and focus on my health and fitness, and the overall improvement of the way I feed myself and the kids. Moderation isn't a word I use very often, but I'm working on finding a good balance between the right foods and making the fun foods a special treat instead of an every day thing around here.

I'm actually starting to properly use an app I've had on my iPhone for quite some time now. It's myfitnesspal and it is a free app for iPhone, iPad, and online as well. It makes tracking your goals and the foods you eat incredibly simple. Now that I have an iPad 2 (thanks Bill!) I downloaded the app for it and it's my favorite! However using it with my iPhone is the best because you can use your iPhone a little easier to scan your foods. But I'm getting ahead of myself here...

With this app you can hop online and set your weight loss goal. Then using any of the versions you can easily track your foods during the day. There is even a scanner on your phone or iPad you can use so when I make a salad I can just scan the salad, my dressing, and whatever else I use, select the correct serving size, and it enters all the nutritional value for me. It keeps track of everything all day long and provides a summary so you can track your carbs, sodium, etc and see what you need more, or less of as you go through your day. The iPad app does everything the iPhone does and offers even MORE features like a pretty little pie chart that shows you how your nutrition is tracking for the day.

My absolute favorite thing is that you can add your friends and see how they're doing and cheer them on as they complete their diary each day, drop weight, or just give them a "good job!" when they burn off a ton of calories at the gym. Oh, and when you DO exercise those calories you burn off go back into your ticker for the day and can be used for even more snacking, or maybe even a glass of wine at the end of the night. I'll let you check out the rest for yourself, but for a free app it's amazing and definitely a valuable tool. If you use it or plan to add me as a friend: Jaxboxchick

Ok, now that I've got my food tracking I had to address the whole exercise thing. My original thought was that I would get a gym membership that provides child care. I'm still planning to do this later this month. I think it would give me a nice break each day from Hailey (especially since I have NO babysitter close by) and get us both out of the house. For now, we've been taking walks up to the big park in our neighborhood which is a good 2.25-2.75 mile walk depending on which way we go. I push Hailey in the stroller and the kids take their bikes or skates. We've also been doing some Dance Central battles in the house.

The other day I noticed a great post on The Married Gamers about a Dance Central Challenge that Kelly Brown is participating in. Check out the link for all the details. Basically Dance Central is busting out some fitness challenges every week. I came in a little late to the game this week, so in order to get my 3x in by Friday I started last night and need to do the challenge three days in a row. This week you're supposed to do 10 songs in a row by a certain choreographer.

I did this last night on EASY and almost died. My wonderful son hopped in for the last four songs to help encourage me and keep me going and we really had fun doing the challenge. My body is screaming at me today, but I plan to stick with it and try to do all the challenges this year. You can find these challenges each week at DanceCentral.com. Let me know if you're participating and we can cheer each other on.

I think this is good enough for now...lol. Look for more in the next couple weeks from me, I've got a lot more to say...as always...