Operation Tubetop

As I have mentioned before, I have tried a lot of different diets, eating plans, starvation, etc. I can work out til the cows (me) come home but the real key to weight loss is food. Here are the diets I have tried in the past: Atkins: I had great success low carbing but to be honest, I'm kind of done with this eating plan. I think it has a lot of value and is still a great diet but I always would get to a point where I would like seriously cut my own husband for a bagel. Slimfast: This one ain't bad if you have about 5 pounds to lose. The shakes are ok priced and the idea is that you have one for breakfast, one for lunch and then a low calorie dinner. It's doable for a week or two and then the idea of consuming another shake drives me to homicidal thoughts. Dukan: I lasted a day. Lots of small meals throughout the day: This one is good but my small meals ended up being big meals and then I was eating about 7 large meals a day and well, that ain't good. Even th...

This morning I painted the bathroom and toilet doors and the frame of the door in our living room. The paint store suggested sanding first and I laughed and I laughed. I have a sander from when I decided to repaint an old 1970's Ikea glossy blue dining room table. I had blue snot for days. Since then, I have avoided sanding. So I just went straight to work and the doors are all streaky but actually, it looks kind of neat. Kind of weathered and beachy and oh God, I hope the Husband doesn't kill me tonight when he gets home. Probably should shave my legs and put on a low cut top. My next big project involves redecorating the toilet. We currently have ugly brown tile on the walls and ugly brown tile on the floor. But I am not going to paint it. Oh no no no. No more painting. Instead, I am going to add stuff. I am on the hunt for old wooden frames which I will paint white and add some interesting flower collages onto canvas and hang them all around the toilet. The colours will be...

Two days ago I finally removed my nail shellac. Bye. I loved you. It lasted over 3 weeks without chipping but it had really grown out so it was time to say goodbye. I briefly considered calling it the "ombre" look but I can only take ombre so far. To remove shellac you need the following: 10 cotton balls Nail polish remover 10 small sheets of aluminuiminin foil Orange stick (I don't know why it is called an orange stick but it's a stick with one pointy side and one kind of flat side. I guess you could use a wooden kebab skewer as well.) Nail buffer Soak the cotton balls in nail polish remover. Enjoy the high. Place cotton ball on nail and then wrap a piece of foil around the nail. Wait about 15 minutes. Remove the cotton ball. The shellac polish should look flaky. Gently (or not, in my case) scrape the polish off. When finished, buff yo' nails, yo! I am now totally obsessed with shellac polish. I need to buy some stat because regular polish is now like a...

Been a busy few days. This morning I dropped the Kid off, did some Zumba and then worked on reorganizing the kitchen. It looks a lot better and I threw out about 4 big garbage bags of crap. This time off is a great opportunity to tackle big projects I have been putting off forevah! My other big task this week is to paint the doors in the apartment. They be brown, they be ugly, they be painted white! Tomorrow I will pick up a bucket of paint and then Thursday will be painting day! I cannot wait to get started and well, to actually finish because the process actually sucks. On Friday we had yet another appointment at the ear doctor for the Kid. Attempt number 2 at a hearing test. Yeah, that didn't happen. After the failed test attempt, we met with the doctor and once again his ears had fluid. I swear, the doctor made it sound like our fault. I wanted to say "Well, geez, I guess we shouldn't have let him go pearl diving yesterday. Our bad." ugh. So we have yet another ...

I Zumba Wii'd twice today. In the morning, after dropping the Kid off at daycare, I did a medium length class. At lunch I met a couple of friends for bagels, which was a lot of fun, and then I headed home and did a full length Zumba Wii class. I've realised, after talking to my sister, Zumba is the perfect exercise for me right now. I love hitting the cross trainer at the gym (45 minutes of uninterrupted reading) but I don't love waking up at 5:30 every morning now that I am off work. So I have decided to go to the gym twice a week and then mostly focus on getting a lot of Zumba in. The perfect thing about Zumba is that I sweat buckets but I'm not in pain and not terribly out of breath after. The songs seem to be perfectly timed so you don't keel over and die half way through (the songs have another issue, but I'll get to that in a minute). When looking for an exercise you can commit to, look for something that is fun. Last summer I did the Jillian Michaels work...

I can't think of anything worse than flying with a hyperactive two year old... Besides maybe ebola. On Sunday we were all packed and ready to go. The taxi picked us up at 9 and bless the driver's heart, he was super awesome and patient as the Husband and I wrestled the Kid and tried to put the car seat in. Snapped in and some tears later, we were off and the Kid was babbling happily in the back. We got to the airport and the Kid did not want to transition from car seat to stroller so he held my hand and we entered the terminal. He luckily was pretty overwhelmed by all the people and probably a little ticked he wasn't getting any attention from the masses. Note to parents: Nobody thinks your kid is cute at the airport. Nobody. Flying within Europe is unbelievably civilized so the Husband was able to drop off our baggage without the Kid and me which meant more walking and whining from the Kid. The great thing about the Vienna ariport is that they have a seperate security pl...

It's good to be home! It was a super fast trip and unfortunately I got super sick half way through and the Kid got a cold as well. But it was great to see the family and to see my sister and her kids. The Kid was a bundle of energy and stay tuned for my post about flying with a two year old. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll double up on birth control. Due to stress I ate a lot of crap the last few days and despite being sick, I need to get back to some healthy healthy eating. My sister is looking amazing and she says it is all down to Zumba. She is an instructor and is super svelte now. She says that by constantly teaching, she is able to eat what she wants (to a point). Well, I'm sold. More Zumba Wii for me, wee!  Tonight I am making crockpot fajitas and here is the recipe: 2 chicken breasts 2 tablespoons fajita seasoning 1 sliced onion 1 sliced red pepper Veggie broth about 1 cup 1 cup fat free joghurt  1/2 cup corn It will cook for a fe...