Back in skinny jeans

Aquafina and Dasani is actually tap water with a fancy name

Next time you grab a bottle of Aquafina water, created by PepsiCo, the ingredient label will read "Public Water Source" aka tap water. Dasani made by Coca-Cola which is also made from tap water will start posting online information about their quality control.

Apparently there is a wave of campaigns going on to get more people to be okay with drinking tap water because corporations are controlling and profiting too much from of our water intake. If you think about it, if Pepsi and Coca-Cola are really just putting tap water in a pretty bottle, then why are we paying them money for something you can get in your own sink. The global bottled water market is apparently $100 billion. That is a ginormous amount of money for water, but both Pepsi and Coke claim that they don't make much profit from bottled water.

"Think Outside the Bottle" is challenging corporate control of water, and in major US cities:

"San Francisco's mayor banned city employees from using city funds to buy bottled water when tap water is available. Ann Arbor, Michigan passed a resolution banning commercially bottled water at city events and Salt Lake City, Utah asked department heads to eliminate bottled water."

I'm all for democratizing water but is tap water really healthy for us? Is "tap water is bad for you" just a myth or reality? I personally never drink from the tap, and always drink bottled "Spring" water. If you've been drinking Aquafina and Dasani for awhile now, you've simply been drinking from the tap. I kinda feel a cringe coming on.

[via Reuters via Yahoo News]

Low cal protein idea: Mango Chicken Saussage

Looking for new sources of protein? You must try these Trader Joes brand Mango Chicken Sausages. They contain no artificial ingredients, are 170 calories a sausage with 7g of fat, 17g of protein, and are absolutely yummy. If you like Chicken Apple sausages, you'll like this one. I was pleasantly surprised.

For dinner, I cut a sausage into bite size pieces and then lightly fried them in 1/4 tablespoon of Canola Oil. I know frying is not the most optimal way to eat meat because of the added fat, but I only used a little bit. Besides, I like the added crunchiness of the frying. I ate the sausage with some boiled spinach, and brown rice. The meal was absolutely dee-lish and under 350 calories.

Obesity is apparently contagious and other feebleness around the skinny-sphere

• Don't hang out too much with that obese friend of yours because you'll catch "it" and get fat too because obesity can spread like a virus according to a study done at Harvard Medical and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. When one person is obese in a social circle, others in that circle get fat too. It's like catching a virus they deducted. The study insinuates that "the way to avoid becoming fat is to avoid having fat friends." Oh for crying out loud! This is the kind of stuff they research at Harvard? [FitSugar]

• Did you know that you could have "Skinny Hair" too? Oh yeah. Paul Mitchell has a line of Smoothing shampoo, conditioner, and shiny stuff they call "Super Skinny." Even the hair on our head needs help getting skinny. [Paul Mitchell]
  

• That fast food that looks so pretty in the ads is never as pretty in real life. Ohhhh no no no! Take a gander at these pictures of fast foods in their ads and their real life counter parts like the Wendy's Southwest Taco Salad and the Arby's Beef and Cheddar. You really want to put this stuff in your body? [WVSR via Shrinking Natala "10 reasons why I'll never eat fast food again"]

• Carmen Electra shares with us the "10 sexy pieces every woman needs in her wardrobe." And of course, a pair of slimming jeans is on the list. [Canadian Living]

"Mad Men": ciggies, sex, and advertising all in a day's work

Any of you been watching AMC's Mad Men, a nickname coined in the 50's for "advertising executive?" Best yet, the ad guys made it up themselves, so you get an idea just how ego maniacal these dogs were.

In episode 2, "The Ladies Room", lead Mad Man Don Draper who I like to call Ad Ken because he looks like a Ken doll who has the perfect obedient and non-threatening 50's Barbie wife with a house in the burbs and 2 children. Of course Ad Ken is cheating on Barbie with the much more saucy and liberated Midge who "lives in the moment." What a great way to say, "I can screw whomever I want because today will be tomorrow in 24 hours, and tomorrow doesn't matter so ride me big Ad Ken on your lunch break."

And does everyone on that show have lunch cancer? People smoke in the office, during a GYN examination, before and after sex, and in the bathroom. You can't go 5 minutes without seeing a cancer stick in someone's mouth.

There is absolutely no political correctness in this show because it didn't exist back then, so don't be pissed off when you see all the racist and sexist talk and behavior. Women especially are treated like sex objects whose purpose is to serve men. Even the "liberated women" somehow come off as still man-needy, mad or not. Fresh from secretarial school, young assistant to Ad Ken, Peggy, is pissed off that every guy in the office gawks at her like she's some piece of ass. A copy writer gives her a tour of the office, buys her a Wonder bread sandwich from the lunch cart, and then sticks his tongue down her throat in his office as if it were on the "To Do" list. It's not even happy hour yet.

But before you start feeling for Peggy, dig this. People from whatever goody two shoes town Peggy is from have manners and don't behave like disgusting pigs at the mud crawl. So, I get your pain Peggy, but wait, in her first 2 weeks at work she's gotten herself on the pill, "How slutty!", had an affair with a co-worker 3 days before his wedding, "How could you slutty!", and made a pass at boss Ad Ken letting him know that she knows her place, "Office Ho slutty." Hmmm. Snow White is wearing some Fredrick's of Hollywood under that gown. Smell some hypocrisy, or is that just a whiff of damn if you do, damn if you don't. About to puke already? Me too. But it's like celebrity gossip. You know it's bad for you, but you just can't help yourself.

Martha Stewart brings style to Wired geeks

This made me do a Scooby-Doo. Martha Stewart is on the cover of Wired magazine with a Wii cake for their annual DYI issue. Martha is probably getting us warmed up for MarthaSpace, her MySpace of domesticity. But soon, we'll see Marthapedia, her homey version of Wikipedia.

Now when you say Do-it-yourself (DIY) to a bunch of techies usually that means creating web applications, coding your own blogs and websites, or building your own Franken-desktop. When Wired asked Martha what geeks could learn from her she said:

"They can learn to prioritize, and they can learn how to make things beautiful."

Baw-ha-ha-ha...If you've worked in Silicon Valley filled with a level of cynicism as long as I have, you'll understand the snarky laughter. Geeks and "make things beautiful" is like saying Fashion Models and "eat healthy." Both do very poor jobs at it. Harsh, but true.

But, Oh Martha! I do love your optimism. We so desperately need you to come to the Valley and teach these geeks how to sell to the Purchasing Officer of the Home: women!

[via Wired]

Quote on intent

Rob Schneider as Lindsay Lohan with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show

Okay, I can't help myself, but this is damn funny!

Weigh-in Wed: #8 Week Status

Setback city this week, but not to worry, it will happen. This week I gained .6 pounds but lost .75 inches which brings me an overall loss in 8 weeks of 10.6 pounds and 9 inches Yeah! Now on paper the weight gain may seem like a muscle gain, but I can reassure you that it is not.

To focus on the positive, I did still manage to drop some inches which I really don't know how, but I will not look a gift horse in the mouth, so  I will take it, and be grateful. I went to visit my parents on Monday and both of them asked me if I was losing weight. An acknowledgment coming from my dad was an especially big deal, so I was very excited.

I'm actually quite surprised that I only gained .6 pounds this week instead of 3 or 5 because this week I did a great deal of emotional over eating, and I only exercised 3 days instead of my normal 5 days. Oh Yea people, I got really off track this week which I will explain more in the emotions section.

My firm belief is that the #1 reason people fail to reach their weight goal or to keep off the weight they dropped is because of a failure to change emotional eating patterns. If you don't address or change the emotional reasons behind your weight gain, you will go back to being fat and/or even fatter than you were before. Counting calories and exercising is easy and manageable, but changing and looking into the emotional reasons as to why you over eat or sabotage your own weight loss success is a whole other boat. (more after the jump)

Lindsay Lohan in pretty (big) turmoil

Oh Lindsay! It's going from bad to worse. She's self destructing right before our eyes. It's heart-breaking because Lindsay Lohan really is a talented actress, and in obvious need of some serious tough love. I sure hope she can get that help before she turns into a "Where are they now?" story way before her time.

[via TMZ]