Back in skinny jeans

TomKitten and Sudennly Baby are here

The stork was real busy in Hollywood today. This morning Grier Hammond Henchy was born to Brooke Shields and her hubby Chris Henchy. Then this afternoon Suri Cruise was born to couch jumping Tom Cruise, and his captured captivating love, Katie Holmes. Suri means "Princess". Funny thing with April and royalty, I was named after Princess Stephanie of Monaco, and my b-day is tomorrow. The folks loved Grace Kelly.

I think karma was having a good time today. Isn't it ironic that the two celebs who were duking it out months ago about post partum had their new babies on the EXACT SAME day. That just cannot be a coincidence in my book.

Since Hollywood is such an unforgiving place, I give it about 2 weeks before we start seeing these headlines, "Who will get back into her skinny jeans first, Brooke or Katie? You decide."

McDonald's CEO is Skinnier

The CEO of McDonald's is not a McDonald. No in fact, it's even better, his name is Joel Skinner, which might as well be Skinnier to me. We'll call him CEO Skinnier of McDonald's. How hilarious is that?

So, CEO Skinnier is busting out a bitch block to an upper cut, and has been busy getting all the franchises and health fanatics ready for the upcoming release of a new book called "Chew on This" brought to you by Eric Schlosser, the same author who wrote Fast Food Nation (FFN). That's right, yet another fright book to scare your tummies into submission. Consequently, there will also be a movie coming out soon based on the FFN book. If you saw the movie Supersize me and was freaked out but not entirely freaked out to completely stop eating fast food, then I can't wait to see what kind of fright fest FFN the movie will show us. Chew on This (COT) is geared more towards teens to educate them on what they are really putting into their bodies, and how these food corporations actually go about making those nuggets, shakes, and patties.

My bet, the COT book will be attacked for its "inaccurate portrayal" of the fast food industry, and quickly we'll be seeing the dancing hot dogs, the Colonel, The King, The Hut, and the Chalupa all doing their "Hey teens, we have tasty and healthy choices" tap dance. CEO Skinnier is the head of a company that's already been traumatized like a puppy who's been hit with the newspaper too much, so he's coming out full barrels now, telling the world that "it's important to ramp this up now".

So kiddies, with your Happy Meal, Mom can now replace those fries with a side of Apples. Yew!!! How ridiculous is that to couple a genetic beef mutated a severally processed hamburger with Apples. That's like trying to couple Paris Hilton with Prince William. You can't make fake food more real by matching it up with substance. Putting a dress on a pile of doo-doo to make it prettier won't change the fact that at the end of the day, it is still crap. But hey, that's why CEO Skinnier gets paid the big bucks. Wake up and smell the trans fat.

Update: I don't know 100% that McDonald's beef is genetically modified. I was pontificating, and not paying attention to exact details. Sorry. So, it's changed. Some Mickey D's burgers are made with 100% beef. Some are made with just a "beef patty" which I do know means that those versions are not 100% beef. Can't say you're 100% when you're not.

Fat chick, Hot guy

Some might say that a fat chick with a hot guy is like a unicorn, a mythical thing. Let’s look at TV. There are plenty of shows of fat guys with hot chicks like King of Queens, According to Jim, and Still Standing. In cartoons, we had Fred and Wilma Flinstone. But, where do we see the fat wife with the hunky husband. Rosanne was a big woman, but her husband was still bigger than her.

On the show Rescue Me, they did do a storyline where one of the steamy, but not too intelligent, firemen starts dating a fat girl his mom sets him up with. At first, he is repulsed by her, but then he ends up in the sack with her because hey it’s easy sex. She turns out though to be “the best” sex he has ever had, and soon he becomes obsessed. In an ironic twist, she dumps him because she finds someone else who treats her with respect, and is not inclined to hide her from his friends. She may have been easy, but this cookie isn’t going to put up very long with someone who doesn’t treat her well, even if he could pose in a calendar. It was cool to see the “fat ugly” girl kick the jerk to the curb. He can’t believe it, and in the end he says, “But, I’m a hot fireman!” 

I had a co-worker, Edward, who was a really hot guy with a fat girlfriend. When I first met Edward’s girlfriend, I was shocked. I mean guys who look like Brad Pitt typically date girls who look like they could get guys that look like Brad Pitt. Edward told me that people are initially shocked the first time they meet Susan. The two of them had been together for 5 years because she makes him laugh, she stands by him, and he can’t think of anyone else he’d rather spend his time with. I mean it was really beautiful, and for real. When you get to know Susan, you’d want to marry her too, and you don’t see the extra pounds any more.

On TV, I wonder though, would viewers be interested in seeing a relationship between a fat chick with a hot guy? If they focused on the story instead if the weight issue, would we still be interested? If the story was like Edward and Susan, I think it just might work.

Fat Wars: Book IV "I wanna elope"

A skinny time ago in a suburb far, far away….

It is a state of slimming mayhem. Defiant dieters, striking from an outpost disguised as a Curves franchise, have claimed their first triumph over the evil Beauty Supremacy. During the Battle, Defiant spies snatch secret plans to the Supremacy’s consummate weapon, the Self Esteem Destroyer, ad campaigns loaded with the power to distort the body image of legions of women, young and old. Pursued by the Supremacy’s brain washing provocateurs to lose weight before her wedding, Penelope Price speeds home in her low emittance hybrid, keeper of the heisted plans that can save desperate dieters and rebuild confidence in the suburbs…

insert dramatic symphony music

75% Not happy with themselves

Oprah is doing a poll on her site asking: Are you happy with yourself? Out of almost 14,000 people who have taken it, 75% are NOT happy with themselves. There is no breakdown on male vs. female or age, but since it's Oprah.com, I'm going to presume that it is primarily women over 30 who took the poll. They go on to ask other questions, and I found it very interesting to see where other people were at. Some of the questions included:

• In what area do you feel you've failed the most?
• When you look in the mirror everyday, how do you feel?
• I feel worthy and good enough?

75% is a really high number. That means only 1 in 4 people in this group is happy with themselves. Can that many people in Oprah's audience be that unhappy with themselves? Maybe that's why her audience level stays so high because we keep coming back to find ways to up our delight with our lives. If we scaled the results of this poll to everyone in the United States, do you think the ratio would be higher, lower, or about the same? Personally, I think the ratio would be lower, but definitely over 50% (Not Happy with themselves). I say this because in my humble opinion, we Americans are never satisfied with ourselves. I mean just look at how much money is spent on "happy" pills like Prozac, Effexor, Wellbutrin, Zoloft, and on and on. I would be really interested to see what the ratios would be if you broke it up men vs. women, and then by age group.

I know for me, that my level of overall happiness with myself has risen as I've gotten older. In my 20's, I just hated everything about myself. I would look in the mirror and cringe. I would beat myself up for not being enough, and I thought I wasn't that smart because I didn't go to a top flight college and go on to get a Masters degree. I've always enjoyed the School of Life far more than academic schools. Over time, I proved to myself that I am smarter, kinder, and more attractive (inside and out) than I thought I was. Although everything is not perfect in my life, overall I am much happier. I did a great deal of work internally over the last 4 years after learning the hard way that a beautiful outside cannot make you happier. It can open more opportunities for you, but not make you happier and fulfilled.

Take Oprah's quiz, and see where you fall in the ranks.

Getting rich and skinny: outside vs. inside

I mentioned about 2 weeks ago that I went to the Learning Annex Wealth Expo in SF with Matt, my parents, and my BFF. We saw Suze Orman, Tony Robbins, and Rich Dad/Poor Dad author Robert Kioyaski with his wife Kim who also spoke about her new book Rich Woman. As a sweet surprise, Mattie bought me the Rich Woman book. I've been reading it, and so far it's been very educational. I'm learning that I like many women don't really take the reigns when it comes to our financial Independence and education. In the past, I've learned a painful lesson that when you do not drive your financial life, it will drive you, and more times into the ground.

I've had a taste of real big money, and then lost it all basically because of my ignorance and fear around "big" money. I learned through that experience that I had a slew of "poor" thoughts and beliefs around money which I needed to change in order to be rich again. And when I say rich, I mean financially rich and spiritually/emotionally rich at the same time. Tony Robbins also refers to this as feeling achievement and fulfillment at the same time. As an example, you can be loaded with cash but feel emotionally/spiritually poor. From what I have seen in the rich people around me, those who attach LESS of their happiness and self esteem to the amount of money in their bank account seem to make even more money. They have balanced lives and are solid in who they are. Because they are only doing things they love, and only hanging around people they care about, they emanate more passion and vibrance. This of course is a natural success magnet. You attract what you put out.

I found that when you are in the space of being financially rich yet in poverty spiritually/emotionally, more money can actually make you feel worse and more broke. An example is Christina Onassis, she was the richest woman in the world when she was alive yet died at 37 of pulmonary edema related to drug abuse and constant weight fluctuations. This woman gave getting back into skinny jeans a whole different spin. She was married and divorced 4 times, and her last husband who she had a daughter with cheated on her. She had more money than the GNP of most countries, and yet she was never happy or spiritually rich. Don't get me wrong, it's much nicer to be sad and depressed when you're loaded because at least you can still live a fabulous lifestyle. I'm just saying that it can become a deeper empty feeling, and more depressing because you're expectation is that you should feel wonderful all the time when you have lots of money. This is the exact same thing when it comes to achieving the dream of being back in skinny jeans. Just because you can dust the cobwebs off those skinny jeans of yours in the closet, and get back in them (and breathe), does not mean that your life will be as fabulous as you imagined it. It could even be worse.

My point in all of this is that outer success no matter if it's money, thinness, fame or success can never make up for the poverty we feel inside. To achieve real happiness, you need to work on the inside as much as the outside. For me, I've spent the last four years really focused on making my internal garden, so to speak, a lush and comfy place to hang out. As soon as I get my financial running shoes back in the race, I know that it will be a much more joyful experience than before.

Revisiting some "bad" foods

In every diet plan, there are the "bad" foods. Depending on the trend, and there is always a diet food fad of the moment, some poor food is targeted as the nemesis to our excess weight elimination plans. (Note: We are starting the practice of positive language and eliminating negatives since the universe does not act on negatives like weight "loss") Common bad guys include fat, carbs, sodium, meat, or dairy. Bad food! Bad! Fear! More fear! If you eat any one of these foods, your body will cling on to the fat you have or worse make more of it. Like somehow adding one of these particular foods to your menu will make the fat instantly expand like water on sea monkeys.

One of the things I notice about these so called bad foods is that they all originate from nature. Mother Nature helped create wheat, fat, salt, and dairy. Putting aside pesticides, genetic engineering, and pollution, how can something grown in the ground be so bad? Now eating anything in excess is not good for anyone, but these foods only really become "bad" when evil processors get their hands on them to mass produce. Processing is really a result of large corporations trying to make much larger profits. Organic foods are more expensive because it takes more work to get them ready for market. All the processing makes food cheaper and less calories/fat/salt but not more healthy. Really. Isn't it a possibility that all the rising health issues especially obesity are contributed to the processed foods we consume? Did you see Supersize Me?

After all that refining, something that started out from the ground is now only a sliver of what it used to be. Why is it in the typical "Diet" the primary bad food isn't everything artificial or anything made in a lab? When you read the ingredients list on the food labels, do you know what those ingredients are? Do you really know what you are putting into your body, or are you just blindly trusting that if it is on a store shelf then it has to be okay or else the stores would be sued. Remember the whole mess with the drug Vioxx?

I'm no medical professional, but in my logical mind, it makes sense to me that the more natural things you eat, the more you will be healthy and thinner. Again, everything in balance in moderation, but shouldn't it be more important to focus on the quality of the food you eat instead of how many calories or grams of fat it has. Remember all those diet foods have replaced the real sugar and fat with "unnatural" things produced in a lab. When I say unnatural, I mean "not coming from or made by nature." Our bodies are made from nature, so I'm thinking the body would perform better and be in a healthier state filled and fueled with like items.

So take a moment and really think about what you eat and put into your body, and how that would affect your state of health and wellness.

source

"I'm on a menu"

  We all know that language is very important to our psyche. The words we commonly say are what our subconscious hears and acts upons. The universe does not understand negatives, it simply doesn't hear the "no" or "non" . For example, if you say no carbs, it only hears, "carbs". You say lose weight, it only hears "weight". So, to get things in action to what you truly want to achieve it's good to look at your vocabulary and focus on positives.

Personally, I have always gagged on the word "diet." As I mentioned before, what I hear is "die it". It puts me in the space that I am in some process that is killing me in some way. For me, diets are the death of pleasure and freedom to eat what I want. I'm one of those who wants something even more when I am told I cannot, or when I am put on restrictions. I most likely won't go and do the thing I'm not supposed to. I just like to know that I could if I wanted. Silly girl, I am.

On the importance of vocabulary, Matt started working with this trainer a while back who not only helped him with his muscles but with his "menu." The trainer hates the word diet as well, so he uses the word menu instead. He tells his clients therefore, that he is going to put them on a menu. That is so cool. "I am on a menu" sounds way more fun and free then "I am on a diet." The word menu makes you feel like you have choices and a sense of creativity. You decide what goes on your menu, and menus can always change. There is a sense of openness and joviality associated with menus. I dig the menu usage.

So, try it yourself. Instead of saying you're on a diet. Tell your friends and family that you are on a menu. I bet they'll think it's cool too.

Props to Larabar

I just wanted to take a moment and give some mucho props to the makers of Larabar and their new creation Maya. They have just given their website a fabolicious makeover, and added a blog. Back in Skinny Jeans has the honor of being listed in their blogroll. That is so cool! Check it out. Their new place is fun, and the food pictures are incredible.

To start off, these people are not paying me. They did send me a box of Larabars a while back, and I was in 7th heaven because I was already a huge fan. When I love a product or service, I have no problem telling everyone to go experience it for themselves, and I only recommend things that I use myself.  Matt also loves the bars as much as I do.

I discovered Larabars at Whole Foods when I decided to go on this organic kick, and stop eating anything with artificial ingredients. I was particularly wanting to cut out foods with Maltodextrin because I had discovered that that ingredient was not agreeing with me. At the time, I was training for a marathon and weight training, so I was eating lots of food bars. I love food bars but most of them had Maltodextrin in them. But then, I found the Larabar. There's nothing but fresh goodness in them, and every ingredient is something found in nature and not something concocted by a bunch of lab coats. Oh, and most importantly, they taste good. No rawhide, cardboard taste here. My current favorite is the Cocoa Mole.

If you haven't tried a Larabar yet, go now! You go now! If you love Larabars and are creative and love to write songs, poems, or essays, they are having a contest on their blog write now to win a box of bars. How cool is that ;-)